CHUCK: ‘Chuck Versus Phase Three”

Hey Sarah Walker, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tonight? Have some wine, do our nails, and maybe kick a little ass?  You in? Yeah? Oh I knew I could count on you, you Giant Blond She-Male.

In case you didn’t know, Sarah Walker is not a woman you want to mess with. Especially not when her boyfriend has been kidnapped and is being held captive by a Thorn Birdian Belgian. “Chuck Versus Phase Three” put Sarah in the driver’s seat in an episode devoted to showing us what a complete bad ass she is. Tracking Chuck to Thailand and rescuing him before his brain was obliterated proved that finding love hasn’t weakened Sarah as a spy, it’s in fact made her stronger.  Faced with the real possibility of losing Chuck, Sarah dug deep to find the strength she needed to stay focused on getting her man back. She may have broken a few dozen international security rules and violated a treaty or two, but she did as Patsy Cline told her. Sarah Walker stood by her man.

Zachary Levi, who usually carries the heaviest load in the ensemble show, got a little bit of a breather this week as Yvonne took center stage.  Yvonne Strahovski was sexier than ever tonight, all without a wind machine. Not only was this her most physically demanding role to date, but the most emotionally demanding as well.  While some might favor the scene where she was reunited with Chuck as the most heartfelt, I thought Sarah’s real pain resonated the most as she sat alone in the bedroom she shared with Chuck.

While I knew that Chuck wasn’t in real danger of dying (again, he is the titular character) I was more than a bit worried that the writers were not going to be able to resist the urge to give Chuck some kind of amnesia.  Given that the successful implementation of ‘Phase Three’ meant that Chuck’s life and his memories would be forever destroyed, I was very concerned that Chuck would wake up and not know who Sarah was.  Thanks writers for avoiding that pitfall. That would have been a rough one to come back from. Although, given how quickly ‘Phase Three’ was supposed to work, I found it a bit odd that Chuck wasn’t more affected.  He said he was a bit hazy, but for the most part he walked away from all that torture and mind-frakking relatively unscathed. Given the two scenarios, I’m glad with how it turned out.

The Intersect is still gone. Even under the most dire of circumstances, Chuck wasn’t able to break through the mind barrier keeping him from access the Intersect.  I have to wonder if the Belgian was going in the wrong direction. Based on his hallucinations, it seemed that Chuck got further and further from the Intersect the more pressure he was feeling. I don’t think the Intersect is gone for good. I think Chuck will get it back in the most dramatic of fashion. But until then, Chuck is back to learning how to be a spy without his super cool computer brain. All are in agreement that Chuck is worthwhile to the CIA even without the Intersect.

And in case he was questioning her feelings, Chuck now knows, once and for all, that Sarah’s love for him has nothing to do with the Intersect or him being a spy. She loves him for him (and who wouldn’t…come on now). Chuck also knows that despite doubts raised in “Chuck versus the Cubic Z/the Suitcase” Sarah wants to marry him. She told him flat out. Now all that’s left is planning the perfect marriage proposal. Chuck’s original plan, complete with a DeLorean, would have been just about perfect….if Morgan hadn’t spoiled it. Something tells me that when it comes time to asking the woman he loves to be his wife, Chuck Bartowski will forgo the gadgets and skip over pop culture memory lane and go with pure romance. I can’t wait!

But before we get talking about bridesmaids and bouquets, there’s the matter of Ellie’s new laptop to discuss. What’s up with that machine? What did she see upon entering the password?  I don’t know about you but I was freaking out when the bright light began emanating from that screen. At first I thought Ellie was going to be exposed to a version of The Intersect, and I was not going to be pleased. But it seems that she saw something else entirely on that computer. Just what, I’m not sure. Hopefully we’ll find out in the next episode.  Any guesses (no spoilers, just honest guesses)?

This episode of CHUCK really worked on every level for me. In fact, I think it deserves another viewing.  Yvonne Strahovski and her stunt double deserve at least that much given then work that went into this episode. I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of inspired to kick a little ass.

But first…a few more thoughts on tonight’s episode of CHUCK.

• Want to talk true love? How amazing is Captain Awesome? The things he must have seen. The things he had to do.  Oh the horror of it all. I have to say that I really liked seeing all the Buy Morons out of the store and in a different setting. The storyline itself could have worked inside the Buy More, but this approach gave it a bit more energy.

• Tell me I’m not the only one that thought the snake was going to play a bigger role in Sarah’s fight.  I’m convinced something got left on the edit room floor.

• Loving how well Morgan is adapting to spy life.  I dare say he has a bit more natural instinct than Chuck did when he first joined the team.

• The Toyota Sienna product integration was just nauseating. Make it stop. There has to be a better way to do that. I beg you!

Hoping that you guys loved “Chuck vs. Phase Three” as much as I did. If not, I really don’t want to hear from you (I’m kidding…kind of!)