Chuck 4x24 "...vs. the Cliffhanger"

My friends, I apologize for the tardiness of this recap. I spent most of last night sick to my stomach and generally feeling terrible. Joy!

But, back to Chuck. You can say one thing for this show - they know how to end a season with a game changer! Before I get to that, though, in case you didn't know, Chuck has been renewed for a fifth and final season. It will likely be 13 episodes, and will now be airing at 8pm on Fridays, if the new NBC schedule sticks through the summer. Sometimes they change things up, but I bet it will stay on Fridays. Which will now mean the two shows I still recap will be on the same night! Dang it!

Okay, back to this finale episode. As you may recall, at the end of last week's episode, Sarah was struck down by the Norseman device. We pick right up with the gang hurrying her to the hospital. Somehow they are able to keep her from dying for a while by sticking her in an ice bath. I'm not sure why she didn't die instantly like the other dude did last week, but whatever. Ellie tells Chuck she doesn't have much time - something like 12 hours - so they have to find an antidote to this poison before then.

The one person who will know the antidote, however, aside from Vivian, is locked up in maximum security, and it would take weeks before they would get permission to visit him. The him being Volkoff, of course. Chuck is on a mission, however, so he and Casey break into the prison. Only, they're too late, Volkoff has been moved. Because the CIA had been expecting something like this from them. They've put a new man on the case, a dude named Clyde Decker that would be happy to get rid of the whole team if they continue to be insubordinate.

Well, as we all know, Chuck will not rest until Sarah is safe, so they have to come up with a new plan - they've got to catch the truck that's moving Volkoff before it gets to wherever it's going. The only way to get there fast enough is to use a heretofore never mentioned motorcycle called the Nighthawk that's apparently been hiding away in Castle this entire time. Right. Chuck mounts up and takes off. There's some fairly terrible green screen work behind him as he drives, but oh well. He manages to catch up to the truck and break in, only to find that Clyde has just taken the Intersect out of Volkoff's brain - leaving him the bumbling scientist Hartley Winterbottom.

Chuck takes him anyway, even though he doesn't remember any of his life as Volkoff. It turns out, though, that the Norseman was a device that he was working on back before he got Intersect-ed, so he just might know a cure. Something called Irridium-5. He makes up a batch for Sarah, and while it does appear to slow down the poison stuff somewhat, it's not a cure. They surmise that Volkoff was probably working on another version, Irridium-6, and that Vivian probably has it. They've got to get to Russia!

Only, by continuing on with this plan, Chuck is basically saying a big F-you to the CIA, and they're not content to let this happen. Before he and Hartley can leave, Decker manages to de-Intersect Chuck. But he's not going to give up, duh. He and Hartley head off to Russia and straight for Volkoff Industries. Though Hartley chickens out at meeting his daughter Vivian, Chuck steps up to the plate and offers up himself in order to save Sarah. Things aren't looking so good for him when Hartley shows up, just in the nick of time. They manage to convince Vivian that this isn't the life she's meant for, and that there's still time to do the right thing. Back to Burbank!

Chuck gives Sarah the cure, and as we find out after a commercial break - it works. We come back to them in the midst of their wedding, sharing heartfelt vows. If things had ended here, it would've been possible to end the series, but of course then what in the world would the cliffhanger bit of the title mean?

It means this - as Chuck and Sarah are driving off to their honeymoon, they discover an envelope in their limo. It's a gift from the former Volkoffs, now Winterbottoms. I knew part of the gift was going to be them now owning the Buy More, but what I didn't realize was that it really meant was they were gifted with the entire Volkoff fortune - some $877 million, or as Chuck likes to call it, a cool billion. Whoa. They decide they're going to set up their own independent spy organization with the money since they're not longer part of the CIA. And here's the second twist - Morgan finds a box of Chuck's belongings that Beckman left behind, and sees a pair of sunglasses. Uh oh, I know the whole audience knows what these are, but of course Morgan apparently hasn't a clue, and puts them on. He gets the Intersect! Will Chuck also re-Intersect himself? Or do the glasses only work once?

And, finally, a bit before that, Chuck has a conversation with Decker, wherein Decker basically tells him there's been some kind of nefarious plan going on this entire time, with the Ring, Folcrum, Shaw, Volkoff, etc. leading to... something. Where? We'll find out next season.

Choice Songs:

Conscience Killer - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
I'm a Pilot - Fanfarlo

Quotes:

"That guy might think he's a hardass, but I'm the Intersect." - Chuck

"Your real name is Hartley Winterbottom." - Decker
"Nobody names a person that." - Volkoff

"Russians. So many Russians." - Casey

"Guys. I know kung fu." - Morgan

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x23 "...vs. the Last Details"

It's almost wedding time for Chuck and Sarah, and that means there must be some twists and turns a-coming, right? Right. Everything seems all well and good for the pair until a couple of days before their rehearsal dinner when they find out that Mama Bartowski has been captured by Vivian Volkoff. See, she was trying to steal the Norseman device and got caught. What's the Norseman device, again? It's this weapon that will kill someone using a DNA sample.
The team mounts up to go to Mama B's rescue in Colombia. They manage to reach her, but she informs them that Vivian is about to sell the Norseman and they need to get the weapon before she can. But the Norseman has already been moved, so the best they can do right now is get Mama B out of there, which they do after an encounter with Vivian and Riley.

They make it all the way back home only to hear from Beckman that they have heard that Vivian is planning on selling the Norseman to the highest bidder at a secret meeting in Moscow. Luckily for them, they happened to detain one of the dudes who was supposed to go to the meeting, and he looks just like Morgan, so Morgan gets to step in and pretend to be the guy, who will buy the Norseman. Easy peasy lemon squeezey, right? Of course not.

In Moscow, the plan is going well at first, until Vivian and Riley show up with the weapon and use it to kill all of the bad dudes who were there to try to buy it. Morgan has to fake being dead until they leave, and gets an awesome assist from Casey on the neighboring rooftop. He kills like six people in the room solely using these camera glasses Morgan was wearing as a reference, as the curtains were down. That's pretty amazing.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Chuck are going after Vivian, who still has the Norseman. They manage to stop her, and Chuck is able to tell her the truth about her dad - that he is actually a good guy, and therefore she is too. But Riley also manages to tell Vivian that the person responsible for turning Volkoff into the man he is today was one Stephen Bartowski, which of course doesn't sit so well with her. But she escapes to points unknown for now.

Back on the home front, Ellie has worked hard to make sure everything is perfect for the rehearsal dinner. Everything except for what was supposed to be Chuck's gift to Sarah - a romantic video showcasing their relationship. They tried to have Lester put it together, but of course he did something insane. But, it turns out that Jeff actually has some skill in making this kind of video, and it actually works out.

But all cannot be sunshine and roses, as we well know. As happier times are being displayed on the video, Chuck gets a call from Vivian, threatening to kill those closest to him since she has lost everything in her life. Chuck is convinced the person she's going to go after is his mom, but instead it's Sarah whose head starts hurting and nose starts bleeding, a classic sign of the Norseman device's deployment. Uh oh!

Kind of a meh episode for me, but I did love all of the Star Wars references. My favorite was probably when Chuck was getting Morgan psyched up to be the bad guy and started humming the evil Empire theme. Ha. Great.

Song Choices:

You Are a Tourist - Death Cab For Cutie
The First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes

Quotes:

"Why would you say that? Do you not watch movies?" - Chuck
"I finally watched Mannequin." - Sarah
"Oh? Yeah? Did you like it?" - Chuck

"We have voyeur. We have candid. We have nip slips. Of Chuck." - Jeff

"Move it along, Chewy." - Chuck
"Chewy? Why are you calling him Chewy? He didn't even eat anything off that disgusting platter." - Sarah

"I'll be right there. As soon as I get this guy's pants off. ... Oh shut up." - Casey

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x22 "...vs. Agent X"

I don't know about the rest of you, but by the end of the episode, I was practically yelling at my TV to get on with it already, because I had so totally figured out who Agent X was by the time of the big "reveal." I mean, duh. No, I didn't know who it was at the beginning of the episode, but as soon as Ellie revealed that Agent X had been someone who received an entirely new identity, I immediately said, spoiler alert, "Volkoff." Duh.
But that's getting way ahead of the game. At the beginning of the episode, Chuck and Sarah were treated to their separate bachelor and bachelorette parties. Unfortunately, while Chuck and the other guys thought Awesome was taking them to Las Vegas, he was instead actually taking them to Las Vecas, some kind of hiking/camping area. Is this a real place? Anyway, while they were enjoying the outdoors, Sarah was getting treated to some lap dances back at home in Burbank. The problem was, she had received a message from Beckman that Papa Bartowski's computer location had been compromised, and some nasty people were coming after it. So Sarah had to spill the beans to Ellie that she knew about the computer.

Only Ellie didn't have the computer, because, as was so obviously planted you'd have to be a dummy to miss it, Devon accidentally took the wrong bag that had the computer in it, so the bad guys are actually showing up to Chuck's party. But thanks to Casey, the are able to defeat the bad guys, but not before the computer gets stabbed. And just who are these bad guys, you are curious to know? They've been sent by Vivian Volkoff to find the computer, so they can track down Agent X and... I don't know, kill him or something? I'm not sure of their plan exactly, to be honest.

Back in Burbank, Chuck decides he's got to finally come clean with Ellie that he's still a spy and that he knows about the computer and whatnot. He even tells her about the Intersect, or rather, shows her how the Intersect works. She takes it all in relative ease, really. But while Chuck tells her that he thinks that he himself is Agent X, Ellie informs them that would not be possible unless he was implanted with it before he was born. Because the real Agent X got the Intersect in 1980. They're able to pull up a little bit of information on him - his name was Hartley - and this picture of a house. Chuck flashes on the house, which happens to be in Somerset, England.

And by this time it's so bloody obvious that Agent X is Volkoff, this last bit felt really superfluous. But whatever. Chuck, Sarah and Casey head off to Somerset to visit the house, and come upon an old lady, who we soon come to find out is Agent X's mother. She also knew Papa Bartowski, who was trying to track down Agent X to fix him, presumably. Before she can give them more information on him, though, the bad dudes show up. They have a bit of a fight, grab Hartley's spy will from the basement, and blow that popsicle stand. Literally. They blew the house up.

Back in Burbank, they gather to open up the spy will. And we soon come to see that Agent X, aka Hartley Winterbottom, is none other than one Alexei Volkoff. The CIA created this massive cover up because they were the ones who created a seriously evil arms dealer guy. Casey tells the gang that they can't take this any further, because the CIA won't want this dirty laundry out in the open. While Casey locks away the will, though, Chuck and Ellie have a heart to heart, wherein she basically tells him that she thinks that their dad would've wanted them to try to help Volkoff/Hartley get back his true identity.

In a little subplot, Big Mike, Lester and Jeff were so upset that they didn't get to go to the real Las Vegas on their trip that they decide they're going to go on a road trip of their own... to Reno. Of course, they were dummies and let Jeff drive, so they ended up in Renaux, British Columbia. All was not lost, however, as it turned out that Renaux had its own gambling. Que sera sera.

Song choice:

Really the only song featured tonight (that I noticed) was Kesha's Blow... which is sort of a disgrace, but also somehow catchy. Damn it all.

Quote (sorry, only wrote down one this week):

"I'm making it rain! Canadian style. Which is technically making it snow." - Lester

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x21 "...vs. the Wedding Planner"

I must confess, I have felt that this season of Chuck has been sort of lackluster. Not that it's been bad, but I haven't felt particularly compelled to watch each week. But! I actually really enjoyed this episode. It featured the return of Gary Cole as Sarah's dad, and also had some pretty hilarious hijinks. I always enjoy when the episodes bring on the funny.
As Chuck and Sarah's wedding grows ever closer, this week we saw them working with a wedding planner to finalize the details. A wedding planner that costs over $26,000! Holy crap, is that how much weddings cost?! That is ridic! Anyway, it turns out that this wedding planner, one Daphne Peralta, was actually a conwoman who took their money and ran. They try to track her down using their CIA skillz, but she's just too good. Not wanting to let her get away with it, Sarah decides to track down the one person who can help her figure out how to out-con a con. Her dad.

Jack suggests she get the CIA's help by faking something on Daphne, and gets Chuck to join in, pretending to flash on Daphne as having a connection to some evil guys. Things get a little out of control, though, when Chuck happens to say she has a connection to some particularly evil dudes, and the General puts together a whole team to take her out. Luckily, that doesn't happen, but Chuck and Sarah do get berated, and put on suspension. Even though Chuck has a real flash on some people in one of Daphne's other client's weddings.

When the General forbids them to do any spy work for a while, though, they decide they have to take things into their own hands. Because apparently there are these Klug brothers who carry around something called a Zephyr that is super important and whatnot. Let's face it, I care hardly at all about any of the actual spy work they do on this show. In any event, with Jack's help, they are able to set up a fake wedding and, after some shenanigans, of course, are able to take down the Klug brothers and their father, who was the one really in possession of the zephyr thingamajig. Job well done. Pats on the back. All is right in the spy world.

The episode also featured quite a few flashbacks to when Sarah was young, learning the ropes of the con from her dad. They had some father-daughter issues to work out. Like the fact that he never stayed around, and always left without saying goodbye. But though he might not have been the best father in the world, he does have good intentions, as he proves when he leaves her a bunch of money he has been saving over the years for her. She can have her fancy wedding after all. Aww.

In other father-daughter relationships, Alex wants Casey to finally come clean with her mom, Kathleen, that he is still alive. They've even arranged to have her come by the Buy More. Casey, however, does not want to have to lie to her and make her think he just works retail, and kiboshes the plan. But Kathleen spots him in there anyway, and later follows him to the fake wedding and confronts him. She thinks he just left her and now works some dead end job, but in the end she finds out the truth, that he's government agent keeping the world safe. Is this the last we'll see of her, or will they rekindle a little somethin' somethin'?

Only three episodes left of this season, and a possible fifth season is still up in the air. With the season finale called "Chuck versus the Cliffhanger," I'm not sure how fans will feel if it doesn't get renewed!

Song Choice:

Alexander Ebert - Million Years

Quotes:

"Oh, one of the Kardashian girls just got her GED.... allegedly." - Chuck

"Hey, cop face. Glad you could join us!" - Jack

"Spy high five." - Morgan

"Once you know all the cons you can never be a sucker." - Sarah

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x20 "...vs. the Family Volkoff"

The word of tonight's episode was, by far, "cool." I think it was said maybe twenty times, no? Anyway! How has everyone been during this TV hiatus that's been going on? Good? Good. Let's get right down to business.
The main story of the evening had to do with this secret Volkoff weapon called The Norseman. The team caught wind of this weapon after setting up a meeting with Vivian, who had previously gone rogue. She gave part of the weapon to them as a sort of peace offering, but in order for them to figure out just what it was, they had to bring in the big kahuna - Alexei Volkoff himself. He informed them of the nature of said evil weapon - some kind of DNA tracking killing machine - and that it was missing a couple extra components, for which the team would need his help.

First stop on the zip a dee do da teleportation train was Somalia, where a pirate by the name of Ellyas had one of the components. They try sending in Chuck to get the stuff, but Volkoff has to make an appearance himself to get it. Oh, and did I mention that throughout the episode, Volkoff is claiming to be changed man - that he has seen the error of his ways, and wants to set things right with the people he has wronged? No? Okay, consider it mentioned.

Sooo they get the secret component thing, and then find out the next bit is some kind of super rare something or other that Volkoff has hidden in some sort of cave in the Swiss Alps. No problem when they've got their zip a dee do da teleportation machine! They can travel the world in a jiff! The team heads into the base and, yada yada, are about to get the last thing, when Vivian shows up. We're led to believe that she and her dad have been working together all along, but I totally saw it was a double twist brewing. She just wanted to get the thing for herself, so she can have all the power and do whatever. She claims that she wants to turn around the family business into something legit, but when you're going through such shady means to do so, it doesn't seem quite right.


Meanwhile, Ellie has been working more and more on her dad's computer, uncovering stuff about the Intersect, and this mysterious Agent X. Mama Bartowski, upon hearing of such things, promptly begins stealing files and handing them over to Beckman. Though she wants to stop Ellie from researching further, Beckman orders her to let it continue, as Ellie's uncovering Intersect knowledge that they don't even know. Mama B goes to Chuck about it, and Chuck decides that he's got to come clean about the Intersect in his own head, but decides not to when Ellie straight up lies to him about what she's been doing on the computer. Guys, you need to work together. Seriously. Especially when it turns out that Vivian wants to put back together The Norseman in order to find this mysterious Agent X. I kind of feel like Agent X is Ellie herself, but does anyone have other theories?

And in other subplot land, it's almost time for Alex's graduation. She wants to set up a secret meeting with Casey on the day of, since he can't be there, since her mom doesn't know he's still alive. Though he seems okay with this at first, after a comment by Sarah, he realizes that she's being pulled between two parents, which isn't fair for her. So either he doesn't go, or she tells her mom the truth, and he does go.

Finally, in the last subplot, we have Sarah giving Chuck a prenup to sign, completely out of the blue. Though normally this would be prime material for Chuck to agonize over and talk to death, he instead follows the advice of Casey and Morgan and plays it "cool." In the end, Sarah decides to tear up the prenup herself. It turns out she had it made because she has some money saved away in case her dad gets in trouble again, or some other family stuff and whatnot. I'm not sure why she feels the need to keep that stuff hidden from Chuck, pretty much nothing can sway his feelings for her.

Aaaand that's all, folks!

Song choice of the night:

Kingstonlogic 2.0 - Waterhouse

Quotes:

"Eddard, you don't let your kids keep a direwolf, that's a terrible idea." - Chuck (ha! Game of Thrones reference for the win!)

"It's true. I cut in front of William in the cafeteria line. I admit, I have entitlement issues." - Volkoff

"Do you have Uno?" - Chuck - and they do!

"As my grandmother used to say, play your cards close to the vest. And wear a coat over the vest, otherwise you look like a jerk." - Volkoff

"Target's on the move, hot mama." - Devon
"Copy that, six pack." - Ellie

"Yeah, can't trust a Limey with good teeth." - Casey

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x19 "...vs. the Muuurder"

=Perhaps the new term for jumping the shark should be bombing the pig. Yeesh, that was sooo cheesy. Ultra extreme cheese, I can't take it. I also knew when they were hearing scuffling in those gigantic air ducts that it would be the pig. Duh. Also? If you don't want people being able to sneak around your air ducts, don't have air ducts that could fit two people next to each other. Just saying.
The pig thing was all part of the Buy More subplot this week, which revisited the long held rivalry between Buy More and Large Mart. Jeff and Lester stole the Large Mart pig, Kevin Bacon, so Large Mart retaliated by stealing Big Mike, who was dressed up in a heretofore never seen BM giant box outfit. Henceforth BM was used in a myriad number of cheeky ways without actually saying the words bowel movement. In the end, Big Mike escapes, but the Large Martians set fire to the BM anyway. Blah blah. Moving along.

Apparently this week I'm going over subplots first, so let's get straight into the other one - the case of Ellie and her dad's laptop. She's been going to town working on it after Bentley gave it to her last week, and has discovered that Papa B was trying to figure out a way for the brain to know something without having to learn it - aka, what the Intersect does. So wait, does she not know about the Intersect part of Chuck's spy life? I'm so lost as to what she knows and doesn't at this point. Devon and Chuck are concerned about her delving into all of this, and Chuck wants Devon to replace the hard drive so she can't work on it anymore. But when Devon sees how much it means to her, he tells Chuck that he's done it, even though he hasn't. But what was most interesting about this entire episode, to me, was how it ended - with the computer, turning on, scanning the room with Ellie asleep, recognizing her face, and booting up files on Agent X. Whaaaa? They sure do know how to have a cliffhanger on this show, I will say that.

But okay, what was the main plot about? After the other Intersects failed to be as good as Chuck, Beckman puts him in charge of the Intersect team, specifically to look for a new candidate. They bring in four potentials - Lewis, Jody (I think? I believe they only said her name once the entire episode), Damian, and Brody. After some testing of the subjects, Chuck is ready to choose Brody, who is virtually a carbon copy of himself. Alas, it is not meant to be. Brody gets stabbed. Dead. One of the people in Castle is a murderer!

They lock down the joint to figure out who it is. Damian ends up getting partially blown up by a bomb, which leads to further suspicions and searches and whatnot. After another bomb goes off, and Lewis suddenly goes missing, they assume it must be him. And that immediately crosses him off the likely bomber list. It's never who you think it is halfway through the episode. They split up to try to find him, only to find him dead. Which doesn't deserve a dun dun dun, because for serious - obvious. Fake outs are much too easy for me to spot anymore. Sigh.

Everyone gathers back together and starts bickering, but Chuck has figured out that the one behind it all along was actually.... Damian! He killed Brody, then bombed himself to displace the blame, etc. etc. He's got one last bomb as well, and this time Chuck doesn't have enough time to disarm the thing before it goes off. Bentley grabs it and heads for the Intersect room, the only bomb-proof room in the place. She's about to sacrifice herself, but Chuck works it out so she doesn't have to, and they all live to fight another day, the Intersect room blown to bits. Chuck's the only Intersect for now.

But who was Damian working for, you wonder? It turns out that he was working for Vivian Volkoff, who wants to get back at Chuck for putting away her father. She turned to the dark side much too easily for a person who barely saw her father at all, am I right?

Quotes:

"I haven't felt anything for years." - Jeff

"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, you can eat it." - Jeff
"He lives by a strange philosophy of karma and diet, and combines the two. But it works for him." - Lester

"Just the ladies. Figures." - Casey

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

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

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x17 "...vs. the First Bank of Evil"

I'm not sure about everyone else, but this episode wasn't that exciting for me. I give it a solid shoulder shrug. That would be a fun ratings system. Disgusted head shake, shoulder shrug, fist pump. Tangent alert!
This week we got to see just what was waiting for Vivian in her father's secret lair after getting the tease last week. So what was waiting? A plastic/glass/clear substance that had a number on it. What else was waiting? Volkoff's lawyer, in the form of Ray Wise aka Riley. Riley tells Vivian that her dad has set it all up for her to take over the family biz, but she doesn't want none o' that. She tries to politely decline, but when Riley becomes something other than polite, she goes ninja on his ass and escapes.

Vivian heads straight over to her friends in Castle and gives them the lowdown. Chuck, thanks to senor intersect-o, knows that the mystery card she has actually is a card for the Bank of Macau. Real country? Incidentally, yes. I looked it up. Beckman mandates that they must use Vivian as an asset to get into Volkoff's bank account and freeze the funds. So it's teleport to Macau time! Honestly, they must have perfected teleportation with the amount of bopping over back and forth between other countries they do all the time.

Chuck tries to pose as her bodyguard and go in with her to the vault area, but DUH, they don't let anyone but account holders back there, and I'm not sure why they're surprised by this fact. That is a general bank fact, is it not? Get it together, people, get it together. Chuck then spies his way through an emergency stairwell up to the vault level, and happens to see ever so conveniently into a secret room where there are a bunch of, apparently stolen, servers from the Chinese military. This bank is up to something shady! No time for them to figure out what to do about that now, though, because Chuck is spotted and Vivian has to get him out of a spot of trouble so they can be on their way.

After Beckman finds out about the servers, she wants to use Vivian again to get in there and plant some kind of digital tracker so they can see what info is being processed on those babies, because I guess the bank is doing deals with terrorists and such, black market style. Chuck makes a deal with Vivian that if she helps them again, they'll get her a visit with her dad. Because what was in the deposit box at the bank? Just some photos and clippings about her. She wants to know just what the deal is.

Yada yada, they go back, cause a scene while Vivian uploads the tracker. Riley just so happens to also be there, and tells Vivian to give him a call when the CIA renegs on their deal for her to meet with her dad, which unfortunately is exactly what they do when they get back. And what does she do? She goes to meet Riley. Way to mess that up, CIA.

Meanwhile, in subplot land, Sarah is feeling overwhelmed by all of the wedding decisions that have to be made. Roses? Orchids? She has not a clue. Chuck advises her to pick one thing to get excited about, and move from there. She chooses the dress, and from there it snowballs. Suddenly it's lilies and private islands and otherwise impossibly expensive things. They've created a monster, indeed.

Morgan, on the other hand, is having trouble finding a new place to live. He tries to post an ad on craigslist looking for a roommate, but Lester and Jeff sabotage those plans. He ends up staying at the Buy More, and inadvertently stumbles into the whole secret mission thing Casey has going on. We don't find out what any of that is about, but Morgan leverages his knowledge into a place to stay at Casey's. That should be interesting, living with the father of your girlfriend! Not awkward at all!

Quotes:

"I am growing mentally, and emotionally. Physically. Not so much physically, but some people are saying that I'm acting taller." - Morgan

"I have no idea what you're doing right now." - Jeff

"What's going on there, caselogic?" - Morgan

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x16 "...vs. the Masquerade"

Pardon me if this recap might be slightly off tonight, but I just managed to poke myself in the eye, and it's feeling a bit funky. Eye poking? Not so great. How did I do it, you ask? I don't even know. I am a mystery even unto myself. Moving on!
The main event on Chuck tonight revolved around a girl named Vivian. You see, this dude named Boris was after her, because he believed her to have a key of some kind, that would give him access to Volkoff's lair, or something. The CIA picks up on this, and sends in the team to find Vivian and protect her from Boris et al. They manage to get her out, and soon discover that she's not so much connected to Volkoff (I seriously almost just wrote Voldemort! Ha!) in a job-related way as she's more actually related. As in, his daughter. Dun dun dun! They cart her back to Castle for some debriefing, and find out she knew nothing about what Volkoff actually did, since she barely ever saw him, and was mostly just off in boarding schools or learning other random skills.

Now, though, she wants to help the team take down Boris and his dudes, rather than just sit back and let other people keep taking care of her. They jet back to England, apparently, because they can just fly anywhere and everywhere at the drop of a hat and also in 2 seconds. They first set up Sarah as a decoy Vivian riding her horse, but she gets taken down by some of Boris' men. Casey saves Sarah before some other guys kill her, while Vivian and Chuck get on their own horse to, I guess, go help. Though Casey doesn't actually need any help in killing all of the guys. Vivian and Chuck get separated, and she ends up face to face with Boris. He tries to get her to give him the key, but she doesn't know what he's talking about. And by this time I think most of us will have figured out that this special key is the necklace she always wears, which she seems to cotton on to at this point too. Boris threatens her again, and she ends up shooting him.

With Boris behind her, Vivian takes off on her own to figure out what she wants to do with her life, and secretly goes off to Volkoff's old lair. She finds the lock that the key fits, and it opens some mysterious door with a bright light. Uh oh, is she going to follow in her father's footsteps? Does that deserve another dun dun dun? Dun dun dun!

Meanwhile, Morgan is starting to feel like the third wheel in the living situation he has going on with Chuck and Sarah, mostly thanks to some nudging from Casey. This prompts him to decide to move out, despite both Chuck and Sarah telling him he doesn't need to. In the end, however, he does go through with it.

Amid all the action, Casey is propositioned by someone named Jane something or other, to have his own team rather than be the backup for every Chuck and Sarah mission. He says he's not going to leave Burbank, but she shows him that he doesn't have to. Whatever mysterious team she wants him to head has some equally mysterious red hallway and door within Castle. Guesses?

And for a bit of levity in this episode, we got to see how Ellie and Devon have been dealing with being new parents. It turns out that Clara is a bit of crier, and they have hardly been able to get any sleep. And what do they find that eventually gets her to fall asleep? Music by the one and only Jeffster! It does, however, eventually let them get up the courage to start putting her in her nursery rather than in their room with them, since the Jeffster was just too much for their minds to handle. I kind of loved seeing the two of them harried, since they always seem to be the most put together people on the show.

This episode felt like a transitioner to the next big chapter. Will Vivian go to the dark side, or will she turn her father's evil empire into a force for good? Is this secretly the next chapter in Star Wars? I guess we'll have to keep tuning in to find out. Hyuck hyuck.

Song choice of the night:

No Time for Dreams by Last Days of April

Quotes:

"It's just a bunch of socialites wearing masks." - Sarah
"Yeah, it could be that. Or it's a sex-crazed orgy party, where they don't want you to see their faces or know their secrets." - Chuck
"No, no, I've been to those kinds of parties, and it doesn't look anything like this." - Sarah

"Wake up Grimes, you're living with an engaged couple. It's like you're their kid." - Casey

"Ellie Bartowski-Woodcomb." - Lester
"Hilary Rodham-Clinton. ... Oh, are we not playing that game?" - Jeff

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x15 "...vs. the CAT Squad"

With their engagement party looming ever so close on the horizon, Chuck wants to make sure that Sarah has some of her own friends there, and not just his. To do that, he gets in contact with the CAT Squad (Clandestine Attack Team) that Sarah used to run with - Catrina, Zondra and Amy. Catrina we've met before, but Zondra and Amy are new additions, with new baggage. Sarah previously found a bug in Zondra's boot, and thought she was a mole ruining various missions tracking down The Gentle Hand (oh yes, you read that right). Zondra, of course, denies it all, and since she was the first person to be accused, you know it's not going to be her. Just saying.

The leader of The Gentle Hand in question is one Augusto Gaez. After someone tries to blow up Sarah's car, they figure out that Gaez was behind it, and must get the CAT Squad back together to try to capture him one more time, this time with Casey and Chuck along for the ride. Literally, they get to wait in the van. They manage to catch Gaez after a couple foul ups, but Chuck accidentally ruins the moment when Gaez was going to confess who the girl was that was actually his spy. Whoopsie. Also, they appear to jet down to Rio lickety split, as all travel seems to take place in mere minutes on television.

Back in Castle, it soon becomes clear just which of the cats is the real mole. That would be Amy, the ever so perky one. She drugs Casey and knocks out the other cats while freeing Gaez. They don't make it out of the Buy More, however, because Chuck happens to be there. They capture them, all is well. Goody goody.

In the more emotional storylines, Sarah was getting annoyed with Chuck about him always trying to fix everything by bringing in the girls and such. Eventually she figures out that it was a good thing, though, after she is able to reconnect with Zondra and Catrina since the truth is finally out about Amy. They agree to be bridesmaids at the wedding, with Ellie filling in the spot of Maid of Honor.

Morgan was also having issues with his relationship with Alex this week with Catrina back in town. Catrina was doing everything in her power to be seductive and get in between the two of them, and for a while there it was working. In the end, though, Morgan is able to convince Alex that he only has eyes for her, when he admits to being in love with her. Aww.

And in a blink and you'll miss it moment, Casey opened up a little to Chuck about almost going to see his former love, and Alex's mom, Kathleen. It looks like perhaps that won't be so cut and dry as it appeared last week?

Quotes:

"What's going on, is it close encounters? Is this really happening?" - Morgan

"John, she desires my physical person." - Morgan
"And I'm hunting unicorns." - Casey

"Going somewhere, pussy?" - Sarah

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x14 "...vs. the Seduction Impossible"

If anyone was actually doubting whether Sarah said yes to Chuck's proposal in the final scene of last week's episode, you can rest easy. Though I also question your sanity, because duh. Of course, now that everyone knows about the engagement, they all are throwing in their two cents about everything - dates, colors, etc. - so much so to freak Sarah the heck out. She tells Chuck she wants to elope rather than have the big fancy to do. And it takes him the whole freakin' episode to figure out that it's not because of his family, but because of her family, that she doesn't want a big wedding. Hello!

Love wasn't just in the air for Chuck and Sarah, though. John Larroquette was back as Roan Montgomery, the suave spy with the seduction school, and he apparently had a secret romantic history with one General Beckman that has been going on for quite a long time. And round about twenty years ago, they promised to each other that if they were still alive in two decades, they'd settle down together. But instead, he ends up in a spot of trouble over in Morocco, and Beckman sends in the team to get him out. It's all some nonsense about a mint to make counterfeit for the new $100 bill, a mission Roan was never authorized to go on in the first place, because he was afraid to confront Beckman. In the end, the pair decide that neither of them are the settling down type, though they will still enjoy their dalliances.

In yet more relationship news, Morgan is set to meet Alex's mom for the first time, and he wants Casey to tell her mom, Kathleen, that he's actually alive. Casey says he'll think about it, but then Morgan finds out that Alex doesn't actually want her mom to know after all, because she's finally got a life of her own. Casey looks like he's going to tell her anyway, but then he sees her happy with someone else, and decides against it.

And in the tiniest of subplots, Mama B was doing her best to be a great grandma to new baby Clara. But Ellie could see that she was missing the spy life, and gave her the go ahead to get back to it. And apparently Ellie still doesn't know that Chuck has been spying again? That's what she seemed to say, but I honestly don't remember one way or the other what the deal is there.

Oh, and there was fighting and guns and Casey almost cut off his arm when he got trapped in a wall. You know, the norm.

My two favorite moments of the episode: Sarah's attempted, and nearly successful, seduction of Chuck, mostly because he was going to try to do the same thing to her. And the other, of course, was when General Beckman fired that rocket launcher at Fatima when she was threatening Roan. Ah, badass Beckman.

Quotes:

"I'm actually sweating. The last time I sweat, there was gunfire involved." - Sarah

"Chuck, if you get us caught because you sneeze, we are officially the worst spies ever." - Sarah
"I know, bad three Stooges, I get it, and I won't, but man it is dusty." - Chuck

"Well maybe we should change, then!" - Chuck
"Fine. Fine!" - Sarah
"I'm not saying I want to change... I want you to stay in... always, always... whatever you're wearing right now..." - Chuck

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x13 "...vs. the Push Mix"

Anyone know what that electronic song at the beginning of the episode and when Morgan was going through the lasers was? I really liked it, but could not decipher the lyrics enough to look it up! Something about a joy ride?? Help! As another music selection, the one from the end of the episode was Young Blood by The Naked and Famous.

Okay! Now that I've got that out of the way. You know, I was concerned that there was going to be some big twist ending to this episode after everything ended so well for everyone, that I was actually more surprised that everything ended like it did. When I saw that floor sweeper, I thought to myself, "Oh no. Evil dude." But I was wrong! They just did a cool cut away so we didn't actually hear Chuck propose to Sarah, just saw them in the background, which was a great choice, in my opinion. We've already heard them say everything they need to say to each other, so it wasn't really necessary to hear the actual words this time around.

I just jumped straight to the end there, didn't I? Terribly sorry to spoil the ending, but would you hate me if I didn't do a really in depth episode recap? I'm going to attempt to make it quick. I feel like I say that every time, and then go longer than intended, but whatevs. Basically, at the top of the hour, Chuck decides he's had enough of Volkoff ruining his family, and is going to take matters into his own hands to take him down and get Sarah and Mama B back. This leads him and Morgan to the ship named Contessa, where Volkoff, Sarah and Mama B are currently on, and also happens to house Hydra, the super secret special network of bad guys the CIA has been trying to track down for years.

Things seem to go pretty well for a while, until they don't. Volkoff shows up to stop the party, and Chuck, Sarah and Morgan are forced to leave, Mama B staying behind with a gun to Volkoff's head to ensure their safe passage out. Earlier on, Volkoff had received a message from Orion, and confronts Mama B about supposedly being in contact with him, even though he's supposed to be dead. The latest contact asked for Mama B to meet Orion at a cabin, so Volkoff decides he's going to go himself to face him.

Only, of course, it's Chuck who was posing as Orion to draw out Volkoff and get him to say the special passcode to get the Hydra thing to transfer over to the CIA computer network that his dad set up so many years ago. It was all his plan from the start for it go down like this, and it worked like a damn charm. Way to go, Chuck. Way to use the old noodle. Sarah and Mama B are free!

Meanwhile, Devon has been freaking out thanks to Ellie going into labor. Luckily, Casey wakes up to knock some sense into him so that he doesn't leave Ellie alone. But she wouldn't have been alone anyway, because the whole gang shows up just in time for little Clara Woodcomb to enter the world. Lester and Jeff tried to put their own spin on the event by doing a cover of "Push It" over the intercom system, but thankfully were hauled away by security.

And, of course, while all of that was going on, Chuck finally proposed to Sarah. And she said yes. D'aw.

Where do things go from here now that Volkoff has been captured? Who will be the next big bad that everyone is suddenly, magically connected to, even though we've never heard of them once before? Hopefully we'll get a break from a huge central bad guy for a while. I don't know about you, but I could use a break from it!

Quotes:

"He has no respect for the unborn." - Jeff

"I'm like a seal. A seal that does yoga. Yoga seal!" - Morgan

"But you're not due yet! What is baby Clara thinking?" - Devon

"Ew, pregnant women." - Lester
"Oooh, pregnant women." - Jeff

"Cover song by cover song, we're shaping the youth of America!" - Lester
"I'm not allowed to do that anymore." - Jeff

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x12 "...vs. the Gobbler"

Do you know what I discovered in tonight's episode? I've been spelling Volkoff wrong this whole time. Here I was, spelling it Volkhoff, and no one corrected me! Oh well.
In tonight's episode we got to see Sarah go over to the dark side. Or, you know, pretend to go over to the dark side. After completing various nefarious missions on the side that we just heard tell of through the boys back at home, Volkoff finally decided to invite her into his lair. And he presents her with a mission: she must break out Yuri the Gobbler from prison. Why's he called the Gobbler? Because he apparently eats people, though we saw very little evidence of that aside from one dude missing a few fingers.

In order to break Yuri out of the prison (which was located in a very-sunny-for-January Portland, Oregon), she needed help from the good guys. Their mission? To get Chuck into the prison as a new prisoner while Casey and Morgan disguise themselves as guards. This all goes off way too easily, incidentally, but whatever. Once inside, Chuck locates Yuri and is tasked with bringing this massive man down. He only just manages to get him unconscious before Sarah arrives to break them all out. I'm a little confused why Volkoff wouldn't have let her use some of his men for the mission. Whatever, I guess I'm not supposed to question it.

Once she brings Yuri back to Volkoff, hoping that would mean she's been let into the inner circle, Volkoff just shoots Yuri in the head. And then what does he do? He scoops his EYE out! Gross! It turns out it wasn't a real eye, but rather some kind of tech device that held all of Hydra, his super secret network infrastructure that connects all of his bad guys together or something. He then proceeds to smash the eyeball, because he's apparently downloaded the info somewhere else. Mama B, though, manages to hide away a piece of the eye to give back to Chuck, so he can Mr. Wizard something out of it.

Volkoff's real mission for Sarah comes next: she is tasked with killing one John Casey. She gets him to meet her at this tall building in LA, and they proceed to fight it up, while trying to figure out how to make it look like he's dead without really being dead. Chuck, meanwhile, grows more and more anxious, because he wants to know what's going on, so he heads over there to find out. By the time Chuck gets there, Sarah and Casey have worked out a plan - she'll push him out the window onto a scaffolding some 40 feet below. He's sure he'll survive. She ends up having to do this in front of not only Volkoff and Mama B, but also Chuck, who of course shows up just in time to witness it. The only problem? The scaffolding breaks, and Casey goes plummeting all the way to the ground below, unconscious.

Volkoff knocks out Chuck and he takes the ladies away with him to points unknown. Later, Chuck tries to get in contact with Sarah via their super secret special secure line, but she, taking advice from Mama B, decides to get some distance, as that's the only way she'll be able to get the job done.

Casey, meanwhile, is in the hospital, hooked up to some very scary looking tubes and monitors. This is very upsetting to everyone, but particularly to his daughter Alex, who Morgan just realized he's fallen in love with earlier in the episode.

In the upbeat side plot of the night, Ellie was having problems getting Devon to agree on a name for their impending baby girl. She goes to Chuck for help, saying she's found the perfect name - Grunka. Chuck and Devon both agree this is a terrible name, so recruit the Buy Morians to dissuade her from using it. In the end, they decide on the name Clara. And Ellie reveals that she was never serious about the Grunka name anyway. I don't even know if that's at all close to how you spell Grunka. Groenke? It is Swedish, after all.

Next week it looks like everything comes to a head with Volkoff, which seems a little early in the season, but sure.

Music selection of the night:

Silvia by Miike Snow (looooove this song, I've loved it for a while)

Quotes:

"Grunka isn't what you name your beautiful baby girl, it's what you name... these people." - Devon

"Wow. Sarah, you look... evocative." - Morgan

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Chuck 4x11 "...vs. the Balcony"

It's funny, for a good 2/3 of this episode, I was thinking to myself that I've kind of become complacent about Chuck. That's not to say the show isn't good or anything, just maybe that I've gotten a little too used to how the episodes are set up. I will say, however, that they are pretty good at coming up with those end of episode twists. I knew some kind of twist would be coming for this one, but I wasn't quite sure what it would be.

There were two main missions in this episode. The regular ole mission was to recover this nanochip that had all of the European CIA black sites listed on it from a Chateau in Loire Valley, France before this French dude named Pierre (naturally) could get it. The sub mission of the hour, however, was to get Chuck to propose to Sarah. He tried to do it at this fancy Italian restaurant at the beginning of the show, but upon hearing of her parents' disastrous similar proposal, put it on the backburner.  Lucky for him, they got a shiny new mission in France, right?

Chuck, Sarah and Casey head out to France and get going on both missions. There is some shenanigans involving a wine bottle. You see, the nanochip was inserted into a wine bottle, so they had to track down the bottle it was in, but of course that bottle was used for some big party going on, and a French dude did not want to give up his glass, which the nanochip was in. Yada yada, Chuck successfully retrieves the chip, has to fight some bad guys, and very nearly proposes to Sarah before they head back stateside.

I say very nearly, because he never actually did successfully go through with the proposal. Because that would be too easy. It would also be too easy for him to do it at some point in the very long flights they would've had to take back and forth from France but, you know, details. Guys always think it needs to be some big fancy thing, when it really doesn't.

Anyway. Back in Castle, Beckman informs them that Chuck and Sarah will be going back to France to pretend to be rogue agents turning over the chip to Pierre. Beckman makes sure to tell Sarah that she has to be the one to do the drop, in the most obvious set up for some kind of later twist ever.

Morgan tries to psych up Chuck to really propose this time when they're back in France, only Sarah overhears them. She has a secret conversation with Morgan, and is on board to make sure the whole thing goes well. Once they're over there, the mission appears to go off with nary a hitch (apart from Chuck having to beat up Pierre and one of his henchmen), and just when he's about to propose... lights! Agents! Sarah is being arrested for treason!

Back at Castle, we find out that it was all a set up to get Sarah to look like a turncoat, so she could go into Volkoff's business and take it down from the inside, therefore releasing Chuck's mom from Volkoff's grasp. Chuck is understandably upset by this news, but Sarah is determined, and heads off to do her duty, sans-proposal. Bum bum bum!

At the Buy More this week, marriage was also on Lester's mind, as his parents decided to take matters into their own hands and try to arrange a marriage for him. The girl in question happens to be beautiful (you know she's going to be beautiful when they do a slow-mo shot of her boot or heel-clad feet entering the store). Lester, of course, screws it up, a couple of times. First he tries to be too traditional, then he goes full on Jeffster and serenades her in the store, ostensibly freaking her out a little too much.

One last thing - is there some kind of bad guy handbook that instructs them in that specific look? You know the one. They have their head tilted down, and look up at everything through their eyelashes, their lips pursed, sometimes with a mischievous grin playing on them. I swear, every bad guy does that exact same look.

Quotes:

"Not every criminal works for Alexei Volkoff, Chuck." - General Beckman (this made me laugh out loud because I have repeatedly been saying that everyone they've been running into lately has been magically connected to Volkoff!)

"Why is everyone obsessed with marriage?! ... I don't wanna talk about it." - Lester

"Forget about the balcony, Bartowski. All you need is the girl." - Casey

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Chuck 4x10 "...vs. the Leftovers"

If any of you were wondering, like me, how long the show would continue before Chuck got the Intersect back - wonder no further! Whoops, did I just give away the ending of the episode? Ah well. I don't think anyone was surprised to find that the laptop Papa B left for Ellie had an Intersect on it for Chuck. What is interesting about it is that he seemed to have the foresight that both of them would need to use it in some way before it worked out. What exactly did Ellie have to do with the brain scans? It must be something to make the Intersect work better for Chuck, I guess? Perhaps that will be addressed in the future, but I would not be surprised if it wasn't.

Anyway! Apart from that, this episode brought back Mama B and Volkhoff. It seems Volkhoff has finally found out that Chuck survived their last encounter, and is having his Frosty send some goons to take him out. Of course, she's doing all kinds of double dealing, and kills the would be assassins before they can kill Chuck. The team brings her in to Castle to try to get information out of her, but soon enough, Volkhoff is taking over the Buy More, starting with Jeff and Lester, who one of his agents knocks out.

After some back and forth, they get themselves into a standoff situation, Chuck and crew have agreed to hand over Mama B back to Volkhoff, who claims he will let them go without incident once he has his love back. Yep, he's in love with her, which was supposed to be shocking, but was sort of obvious to me. Whatever! Anyway, the standoff situation forces Mama B to out herself as Chuck's mother. And, with an ill-timed call from Ellie, Volkhoff finds out that she has two kids.

Rather than lose his head about it, Volkhoff instead insists he is great with kids and invites himself over for the Bartowski leftover dinner. It's awkward city at the dinner, as you might expect. Chuck has to secretly tell Devon what's going on and gets him to get Ellie out of there with a fake call from the hospital. After they've left, Volkhoff threatens to kill Sarah, only Mama B steps in and says that she could never love a man who would hurt her son in any way. They head off together, for now. Her motives are still tricksy, but at least she does love her kids.

Meanwhile, Morgan has been trying to devise a way to save Jeff and Lester, and also Casey, who was captured back at the Buy More during the whole standoff situation. He thinks he's devised a brilliant plan by taping a gun to his back, but of course he tapes it into a position where he can't reach it. Though if he can't reach it to get it off, then how did he tape it to get it on, hmmmmmm? It doesn't matter anyway, because Volkhoff has ordered his minions to let them all go.

And, as I already mentioned, Devon gives Chuck Papa B's old laptop, and Chuck uses it to get back the Intersect. He knows kung fu. Again.

You know what part I enjoyed the most in this episode, though? When Casey called Chuck's mom Mama B! That's what everyone online has been calling her forever. Love it. Also hilarious - how Morgan signed he and Chuck up for a training class that turned out to be strip kick or something like that. And Chuck was able to use the one move he learned in class to kick a guy.

Oh, and Chuck himself, Mr. Zachary Levi, directed this episode. Nice!

Quotes:

"Come with me if you want to live." - Mama B

"Keep talking, Commie. It's party time." - Casey

"Give me Frost, or I'll kill you all, starting with the fat man and the Indian." - Volkhoff

"Devon, I know you're the world's worst liar, but right now, I need you to be Awesome." - Chuck

"Guys, I know kung fu. Again." - Chuck

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

...Set: Chuck 4x09 "...vs. Phase Three"

After last week's cliffhanger, things really got kicked up a notch this week. Is it me, or has it been a while since we got to see Sarah really let loose and kick some serious ass? Because boy was she doing a lot of that tonight!

In case you don't remember, last week we ended with Chuck getting captured by the Belgian, who wants to get the Intersect. The only problem is, Chuck doesn't currently have access to said Intersect, so they are having to resort to some mind-bending methods in Chuck's subconscious to try to get him to flash. But it's not really working, because Chuck always figures out that he's dreaming every time someone in his mind starts pushing him to flash.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Casey have been searching everywhere for Chuck, but have been coming up empty. She is ready to have a breakdown (though she was apparently still able to style her hair rather well) until Morgan comes by with some intel on a Thai official dude who has connections to the Belgian. Sarah and Casey kidnap said Thai dude, from the Thai embassy, no less, and try to get the information from him. Sarah is ready to go to some extreme methods, but Casey and Morgan derail her briefly to take a rest. During that rest, Morgan accidentally reveals to Sarah Chuck's master proposal plan, which only sets her back on fire to find him.

She finally gets the info that Chuck is being held in Thailand and heads out on her own, locking Casey in one of Castle's cells so he can't come with her. Of course, Morgan breaks him out and they follow her giant, blonde she-male reign of terror across Thailand to find her doing some serious fighting with a dude to get the information on where Chuck is being held. She, of course, beats the guy, and they go after Chuck.

Only, by the time they get there, it might be too late. Because Chuck has been resistant to the methods so far, the doctor guy has said the only way they might be able to get to the Intersect is by going forward with Phase Three, which is to wipe out everything in Chuck's brain except for the Intersect. Sarah and crew arrive just as this is about to finish, and Sarah is the only one who can reach through to Chuck and get him to mentally get himself out of it, by telling him about the proposal plan and how she loves him with or without the intersect. I'm really not sure how that worked, or how her getting him out of there at that moment somehow restored all the rest of his identity at the same time. Not that I particularly wanted some kind of Intersect robot Chuck, but it seemed kind of easy and convenient at that point.

Anyway, they get Chuck out of there and come back home, where Beckman tells Chuck that despite him not having the intersect, he is still worth keeping around as a spy.

Meanwhile, Ellie has found the mysterious computer that was hiding in the back of her dad's car that she got a couple episodes ago. They can't figure out how to get it working, so while she is at work, Devon calls in Lester and Jeff to get it up and running. It takes them all day, but they finally get it to turn on. Only now there's just a page with "Knock Knock" asking for a password. Luckily, Ellie knows the password, because it was something she and her dad had when she was little ("I'm here" instead of "who's there"). All we see is some flashing lights on their faces and an "oh my god" before the show ends! Damn it! I thought it was going to be like an intersect reboot for Chuck. I suppose it still could be, but who knows. The preview for next week did not hint at what it was at all. Sigh.

Quotes:

"Who's got a screw loose?" - Lester
"That has two meanings." - Jeff

"Anyone else wanna be my boyfriend?" - Sarah

"People have been talking much about the giant blonde she-male." - Thai dude

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...Set: Chuck 4x08 "...vs. the Fear of Death"

After the events of the previous episode, Chuck has been left Intersect-less. But never fear, it's not gone, it's just suppressed! General Beckman brings in some of the top dudes to try to figure out what is blocking the intersect in Chuck's head, but after a whole month of getting nowhere, they decide to bring in someone else to try to get the job done. Someone a little unorthodox. That someone is Agent Rye, who decides that the way to get the intersect to work is not by slapping electrodes on Chuck's head and showing him pictures of kitties, but rather triggering responses physically. More specifically, by putting fear in him.

As general methods of fear don't seem to work because Chuck always expects Sarah or Casey to save him, Rye suggests he and Chuck go on a mission together, just the two of them, despite Sarah's protestations. This leads them to Switzerland and some fake huge diamonds that contain special microdots/chips/something of information embedded in them. Chuck and Rye get themselves into a couple hairy situations, but even as Chuck is faced with possible death by freezing, he still can't fully flash.

Back in Burbank, the rest of the crew have discovered that the information contained in the diamonds are about various agents, so they really need to get the rest of the diamonds that, for some reason, Chuck and Rye apparently left in the vault? The Belgian dude who was trying to move the diamonds, however, has figured out that someone is on to them, and is getting ready to leave. The only way to stop him is to intercept on a gondola, where Chuck will be forced to flash in the face of imminent possible death. He's ready to give it a go, but Sarah is not so sure about it, which plays right into what Rye has figured out - Sarah is the one who is somehow blocking Chuck from unleashing his inner intersect. So, despite Sarah being on her way as backup, Rye and Chuck decide to take on the Belgian and his goonies on their own.

But, things don't go so well. Because, it turns out, the Belgian knows that Chuck has the intersect, and all of this was some kind of ruse to get him rather than anything really to do with the diamonds. There is much fighting on the gondola until Chuck ends up dangling out the side, hanging on for dear life. Rye refuses to pull him up, sure the intersect will kick in, but then he ends up getting shot by the Belgian, and falls to his death in the Swiss mountains below. The Alps? Sure.

The Belgian captures Chuck, who still has not managed to flash. I honestly did not expect them to leave it a cliffhanger like they did, but hey! They did! Beckman tells Sarah to lay off while they do their thing searching for Chuck, but we all know that's not going to happen. And so do Casey and Morgan, who join her in the end to go looking for him.

Meanwhile, we had a little comic side story involving Lester and Jeff, and the new Greta (this week played by Summer Glau). They are determined to figure out what her deal is, as she seems to disappear into thin air. She would like to take care of the situation (aka take them out) before they figure out what's really going on. In the end, Casey intervenes right before she probably would kill them, which was something to do with his side story about feeling useless while the intersect was out of commission. It really didn't have a lot to do with the main storyline, but it was amusing nonetheless.

Next week it looks like we get to see a whole lot o' the ass whooping by Sarah as she searches the globe for her man.

Quotes:

"My life would be a never-ending Cialis commercial if I had her." - Jeff

"I wake up every morning with my trigger finger twitching. It's itchy. Literally, it itches." - Casey

"Listen to me, that new Greta just disappeared into thin air!" - Lester
"I've seen her do that before. I thought that it was just in my head." - Jeff
"No." - Lester
"She also has a tail." - Jeff

"...better known as The Belgian." - Rye
"Well, I bet I know how he likes his waffles." - Chuck
"Belgian! Yes! Yes! I love your humor, so disarming." - Rye

"What kind of a spy am I? I can't even be scared properly." - Chuck

"We won't be stopped, and we can't be stopped and we won't be stopped!" - Lester

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...Set: Chuck 4x07 "...vs. the First Fight"

I don't know about everyone else, but I think this episode was by far the best one of the season (so far). The ending twist was awesome, though I started to wonder if something like that was going to happen part of the way through the episode. Still liked it!
I'm feeling a little burnt out on recapping lately, so I'm going to keep this one brief. This episode was all about figuring out whether Mama B was telling the truth about being one of the good guys. She claims that while she did go rogue from the CIA 20 years ago, it was because Volkoff had figured out that she was CIA, so she did it to keep the mission going. She then says she hooked up with the British MI6, and that her handler is coming in to town, who could thus prove her story. Chuck gets this intel from her on the downlow, so he goes to meet this MI6 dude, Tuttle (played awesomely by former 007 Timothy Dalton).

Things go terribly wrong at this meet (least of which was Morgan completely botching his part of the plan), and Chuck and Tuttle get abducted by Volkoff's crew. They manage to escape the plane they're on and get back to Los Angeles to go retrieve a special disk that will clear Mama B's name.

While they are having their adventures, Mama B says she'll help Sarah, Casey and Morgan find Chuck if they let her see Ellie. They eventually agree to this plan, and she and Ellie have a rather heartfelt reunion where they talk about this old 1968 Mustang that Papa B had back in the day. This discussion is rather convenient because Ellie had been wondering whether Papa B had left her any of their secret newspaper classified clues after he had died, but hadn't been able to figure it out. One such classified was for a 1968 Mustang with blue leather seats. Might that be the very one they used to own?

After this meeting, Mama B takes Sarah and the gang over to the same bank that Chuck and Tuttle are at retrieving the disk. Only while they are there, Volkoff's people show up to crash the party. Sarah and Chuck must break out their super spy moves, but Tuttle ends up getting shot. They leave him there for Casey and Morgan to retrieve (but - gasp - he's gone once the guys get there!) while they go off to read the disk, which is some super special disk that can only be read by this old computer Papa B kept in his super secret lair, which we also conveniently saw at the beginning of the episode.

This all turns out to be a big ole ruse, though, because once they get down to the secret lair, and Chuck and Sarah are waiting for the disk to read in the computer, it becomes quite clear that Mama B has ulterior motives. She sneaks off into the stacks and picks up some device that looks suspiciously like a PSP, and pushes it into Chuck's face. It does some kind of Intersect flashy stuff, and Chuck has barely time to register something has happened before Tuttle shows up. Only, he's not Tuttle at all! He's... Volkoff!

Volkoff and Mama B tie up Sarah and Chuck, and things are looking rather dire. All signs seem to indicate that Mama B really is a bad guy, but we do find out a couple of things. 1 - she never told Volkoff she had kids, even though she did tell him about her husband. And 2 - she gives Sarah a razor blade to cut herself and Chuck free before the place they've rigged with explosives blows up. So what are her true motivations? Hard to say. She and Volkoff take off into the night while Sarah and Chuck barely escape the exploding lair. Chuck also realizes that whatever his mom did with that PSP flashy thing appears to have turned off the Intersect.

Meanwhile, Ellie and Devon have gone to find the Mustang. Papa B has left her a note, and as they drive off, we see that there is some kind of device blinking under the seat. An Intersect device of some kind, perhaps? I bet so! And... I'm spent. Next week is a break, and then it's back to the Chuck action on Nov. 15.

Quotes:

"What are you looking at?" - Volkoff lady played by Ana Gasteyer
"Not that scar. Or that scar. Neither one of those scars. Or your mole..." - Chuck

"Oh cool, a tiny weapons stand off!" - Tuttle

"You might as well have just posted about our fight on Friendster!" - Sarah
"Friendster? Honey, people stopped using Friendster five years ago." - Chuck

"This is exhausting!" - Sarah
"Yeah, tell me about it, how do you fight these big guys all the time?" - Chuck

Song choice:

James Vincent McMorrow - We Don't Eat

(I really liked the song where Chuck was fighting on the plane, but I won't know what it was until this site is updated tomorrow!)

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...Set: Chuck 4x06 "...vs. the Aisle of Terror"

Man feet! Otters! Old people! Black licorice! Public showers! Interspecies relations! Babies in costume! Those images are apparently what send crazy people (like Jeff) over the edge, and sent me laughing. Did I miss any? I think those are all of them. I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but I loved the randomness of that, and how Jeff's crazy demented head full of hay-like hair ended up being Chuck's saving grace.

But what did Chuck need saving from? That requires us to back up to the top of the hour, during which Chuck received a phone call from his missing Mama Mary (you like my alliteration there?), who wanted to meet with him, alone, in Griffith Park, at a creepy children's playground. Riiiight. That instills confidence, Lady Frost. Chuck was smart, though, and had Sarah accompany him as back up, which led to a tense standoff between Sarah and Mama B that Chuck was forced to get into the middle of. So what is Mama B's story? She wants to hand over this deadly terror gas stuff called Atroxium that this Dr. Wheelwright dude has made, and has come to Chuck to facilitate said hand over as his alter ego Charles Carmichael.

And that brings us to the main dilemma of the evening - whether to trust this suddenly reappearing ghost from Chuck's past or not. She claims that she went so undercover back in the day, doing something called Project Isis, that she was expunged from CIA records, and therefore could not contact her family again, and that the only reason she's doing it now is to make them safe again. Chuck wants to believe her, but the other spies are more skeptical. The episode teeters back and forth with trying to make us believe her or not believe her, as her actions prove rather devious sometimes, caring others.

Case in point: she shoots Chuck at the meet to pass over the atroxium, but she then later claims that she had to do it because Volkoff was watching the meet and she had to make it look like Charles Carmichael was taken out for good. Okay. Chuck then tries to get her to agree to meet up with Ellie before she disappears back into the spy ether again, and while at first she seems rather reluctant to do so, in the end she agrees. BUT! This is only after Casey has done a little digging of his own to discover that, according to CIA records, Mama B went totally off the reservation, aka rogue, and that she really is bad. He and Sarah assemble a team to capture her right before she was going to see Ellie. Dun dun dun! But oh, Chuck does tell Ellie that the reason she couldn't show up is because she's a spy. I guess I forgot she never knew that, so it wasn't that big of a reveal moment for me.

Meanwhile, back in the poison plot, the nefarious Dr. Wheelwright works it so that Chuck gets doused with this special neurotoxin that makes people see their worst fears manifest. Since it also happens to be Halloween-time at the Buy More, this is particularly bad for Chuck, who confesses he already doesn't much like scary things. He ends up getting the better of the good doctor, however, when he uses the aisle of terror that Jeff and Lester previously set up with screens that show images that are supposed to make the most insane minds lose it. Because it turns out, it does actually work on truly crazy people! This is the thing I was talking about at the beginning, if you didn't already figure that out. Duh. Chuck and Sarah manage to get him to tell them where the anti-toxin is, and Chuck is put back to his right mind.

And in side-plot-ville, Devon's mom has come to town to help with the baby stuff. This side story was mostly used as a way to contrast Ellie's mother-in-law with her real mom, and didn't have a lot of meaty story material otherwise.

Next episode it looks like we are going to find out more about maybe misbehaving Mary and whether she's good, bad or otherwise.

Quotes:

"It's gonna be scary! Good scary, though, like pumpkins and ghosts. Not bad scary, like war and bears." - Morgan

"You are not a rhyming monkey, you are a manager." - Big Mike

"So sorry I'm late." - Morgan
"You weren't here already?" - Casey
"Ha ha, nice. I love our little give and take. Classic Ross and Rachel." - Morgan

"I know a morgue that gives good discounts on unclaimed merchandise. Maybe we could sprinkle some cold dead ones in here." - Jeff

"We gotta tap into a place that is so scary, so demented, that it'll change Halloween as we know it. We gotta tap... into your head." - Lester
"Okay." - Jeff
"Yeah, you gotta start using conditioner. Your hair feels like hay." - Lester

"Nothing I won't do for $30 and a sandwich. Or just a sandwich." - Jeff

"This is exactly why I don't see scary movies, and I stick mainly to the PG13 region!" - Chuck (I feel ya, Chuck!)

"Is it a baby, or is it a snail?!" - Jeff, then later, Dr. Wheelwright

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