CHUCK: ‘Chuck vs. the Push Mix’

It’s hard to believe, but at the time of the construction of tonight’s “Chuck vs. the Push Mix,” the cast, crew and creative team behind CHUCK didn’t know if the show would live beyond this episode. After being picked up initially for only 13 episodes this season, tonight’s hour had the difficult task of being a season finale, a series finale, or as it turned out (thankfully) to be, a mid-season episode that will help set in motion the second half of the fourth season of CHUCK. That’s an awful lot to ask of 42 minutes of TV. But if there was anyone to do it, it was Team CHUCK.

Thankfully (or not, depending how you look at it), this isn’t the first time Chris Fedak, Josh Schwartz and team has dealt with this dilemma. In fact, having to wrap up their show mid-season only to have another shot at life is just kind of how they do things over at CHUCK. It’s not ideal, but the alternative is unbearable, so I’m going to go with being thankful and leave it at that.

It’s been about a half hour since the show ended and I’m still catching my breath. Talk about an action-packed episode. Let’s see…Chuck Bartowski and his BFF Morgan Grimes, successfully executed their plan to take down Volkoff Industries – something the United States government tried unsuccessfully to do for twenty years. Mary Bartowski returned to her family. Awesome was decidedly unawesome until he became awesome again. Ellie gave birth to baby Clara. Chuck and Sarah got engaged. Jeffster managed to forever scar the unborn. Alex bought Casey a bonzai. Um, what? What’s that you say? Oh that…yeah, CHUCK AND SARAH GOT ENGAGED!

In a rather sweet and unassuming moment, Chuck looked into the eyes of the woman he loves, got down on one knee, pulled out that stunning diamond and proposed. OK, well we can assume he did. The janitor and his floor waxing prevented the audience from hearing the moment, but we all know she said ‘Yes’.

You’re going to have to give me a few days to get over the disappointment of not being privy to hearing Chuck’s actual proposal. We already heard his prep speech in “Chuck vs. the Balcony,” so we have a sense of how it all went down, but this trend of being shut out of some of the biggest moments of my favorite TV couples lives is really bumming me out. (OK, this is me still bitter over not hearing Jim & Pam’s vows or their baby announcement.) Not being able to hear the engagement didn’t really take away from the moment at all, I was still unbelievably thrilled, but selfishly I need a few minutes to be bummed.

As exciting as the engagement and the arrival of Clara both were, what most thrilled me about this episode was the choice not to kill off Alexei Volkoff. Guest star Timothy Dalton has been spectacular as the notorious criminal mastermind with the rather soft heart. I don’t know what role Volkoff will play over the rest of the season, but here’s to hoping the writers find a way to bring him back. I hate to think this is the last we’ve seen of such a dynamic character.

There are still eleven episodes remaining in season four of CHUCK. That begs the question…where do we go from here? Will another big bad be introduced? Without a pickup from NBC for season 5, will the creative team once again have to find a way to wrap up the stories of these beloved characters while leaving that glimmer of hope that their tales will continue on? Just how many Subway sandwiches will we have to eat this summer? So many questions, and so little time (no seriously, I need to go back and watch this entire episode again before I go to bed, and that leaves little time). Thankfully, CHUCK fans happen to be the best in the biz, so I have no doubt that that you’ll have plenty to share about this fantastic episode.

But before I turn things over to you, a few more thoughts on tonight’s episode as I curse the writers for making Chuck Bartowski decide to wear clothes under his wetsuit. Too far? Yeah? Good.

• How cool was it that Chuck was able to bring down Volkoff without the help of the Intersect?  Too many episodes this season were focused on how Chuck would fare as a spy without the Intersect. And in this episode, which could have been the series finale, Chuck was able to use his abilities as a world class spy to get the job done.  He didn’t need the super computer in his brain. But we’ve known he was capable all along…right, Irene Demova?

• She might not have had the meatiest of storylines, but I’m glad to see that the writers remembered that Alex exists. I know that they’ve had to fit a lot of story into these first 13 episodes, but I think they need to make more room for Casey’s daughter/Morgan’s girlfriend. The two men in her life risk their lives on a daily basis…there is more story to be told there.

• Speaking of Casey, here’s to hoping he is a bit better served in the latter half of this season.  I think this season of CHUCK has been a little too light on The Casey.  Now that Chuck and Sarah’s relationship woes have hopefully passed, let’s get the team really back together.  Casey has taken too much of the back seat role thus far this season and he’s too important to the make-up of the series to play second fiddle to Chuck and Sarah love life.  And while they are at it, I’m hoping the writers learn to figure out the right emotional balance to Casey.  Yes, meeting Alex has softened him, but I swear if Casey starts wedding dress shopping with Sarah I’m going go all Kung Fu on the writers asses.  Let Casey emotionally grow from his relationship with his daughter, but don’t erase the essence of the irritable but lovable John Casey.

• Jeffster still makes me smile.  Yes, they are one or two performances away from being overkill, but tonight it worked.  I laughed my ass off and I saw the punchline coming a mile away.  But who cares, it was still funny.

• Dear Mom and Dad McPartlin. You did good! A big thanks from me to you.

• I know it’s a long shot, but I’m still hoping that Ellie will somehow get involved in the spy world. I don’t want to her to be on missions with a baby bjorn tied to her, but her father made sure she was able to get into that computer to see those brain scans.  Really hoping that’s not a storyline that the writers’ completely forget about.  It’s been four seasons and I’m still waiting for them to give Ellie a solid storyline.

• Did I mentioned Sarah and Chuck are engaged?!

Time to turn it over to you. What did YOU think of tonight’s episode?