Chuck 4x18 "...vs. the A-Team"

For the first twenty minutes of this episode, I was preeeetty bored, much like Sarah. But things picked up around the halfway mark, delightfully so. Thank goodness, because I really couldn't take those two fakeouts in the opening scenes. I can smell a fakeout coming from a mile away, and while they may have been clues to later scenes, still. I am desensitized. It comes from too much TV, I'm sure.
So what was causing Chuck and Sarah to be so bored they had to keep themselves entertained with board games? It was all thanks to Casey's new secret team, which Chuck and Sarah finally found out about when they stumbled upon the gigantic hallway that they had apparently been blind to before. They decide they've got to find out what Casey is up to, and follow him on his next mission. There, they discover that he's got two new team members in Rick and Vicky, formerly both known as Greta.

Now that there are two teams taking up residence in Castle, Chuck and Sarah are left wondering whether they are the A team or the B team. There is little doubt about their status when they are sent across the world to retrieve Jana, someone very important to a dude called The Turk (reminds me of Sarah Connor Chronicles, as does some of the 'danger' music on this show), who has information on some other guy named something like Dragan. But it turns out this Jana is not a person but, rather, a dog. Yeah, they're the B team.

Not content to be left to the sidelines, Chuck and Sarah decide they've got to get into the secret backstage area, and MacGuyver Casey's handprint. Once inside, they find out that their whole operation has been made possible thanks to Papa Bartowski's old laptop, which I entirely forgot about until they brought it up in the "previously" segment. Chuck wants to take it, because his dad would not have wanted it used in this manner, but the other team finds them, and they do some kung fu fighting. That's when they discover that Rick and Vicky aren't just good agents - they're new intersects! The director of their team, Bentley, takes back the laptop and sends Chuck and Sarah packing.

But, when the mission to capture the Dragan dude comes up, they realize that he's carrying a bomb, and it will be more than a three person job. Thus, Chuck and Sarah get to come along. And it's a good thing, too. Because once Dragan gets off the plane and they kill all of his other people, they realize the bomb he's carrying is a suitcase nuclear bomb aka very bad news. Dragan takes off with the detonator, and Sarah and Vicky go after him. Sarah corners him, and finds out that the detonator is linked up to his vitals. Thus, if he dies, the bomb gets turned on. Vicky, however, comes guns a'blazing and kills him, setting the clock ticking on the bomb. Uh oh.

Rick thinks their best option is to take the bomb and fly as far away as they can before it goes off. It'd still kill some people, but not as many. Chuck, however, is sure he can find a way to defuse the bomb before it goes off, despite the Intersect initially not knowing how. He's able to use information from the intersect about another part of the bomb to infer that if it comes into contact with salt water, it'll be turned off. Some sort of fail safe. But they're in the middle of the city! Where will they find salt water? Why, it just so happens that Casey gave Chuck an apple juice box earlier - and it has sodium! A nuclear bomb defused by apple juice! Who would've thunk?

Seeing that Team Bartowski is really the A team in this joint, Beckman puts Chuck in charge of anything intersect-related going forward. And that also means that Rick and Vicky get de-intersected, which they are both relieved to do. The original recipe team is back together again, or are they? Bentley seems to have more plans for Casey up her sleeve in relation to the secrets of the laptop.

Ellie has been going stir crazy being a stay at home mom with baby Clara. She wants to delve back into her dad's laptop to occupy her mind, but Devon gave the laptop to Chuck (and we all know where it went). They deflect her by saying that they turned it into the Buy More and blame Jeff and Lester for losing it, but by the end of the episode, Bentley gives the laptop to Ellie, in hopes that with her Bartowski mind, she can crack its secrets. I'm really not sure what other secrets are on that thing, but who knows.

Standout song:
Tricky - Murder Weapon

Quotes:

"Morgan Grimes, you are a badass. ... Oh no, I peed a little." - Morgan

"All we gotta do is get through four inches of solid steel." - Chuck
"Or we could cut off Casey's hand." - Sarah
"...Let's keep that as our backup plan, shall we?" - Chuck

"Clever girl." - Morgan (awesome Jurassic Park reference)

"These have a camera inside of them that scan for any bioresidue." - Sarah
"Ugh. Sounds like a CBS show." - Chuck

"I wonder if they have that fancy Greek yogurt in their kitchen." - Chuck

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