Chuck Versus the Curse

Being a spy can be torture. Who wants a martini?

Photo Credit: Byron Cohen/NBC

The Buy Morons got the week off as Devon and Ellie got unwittingly involved in the spy game again in last night’s episode. We could all see that pretending to be spies whilst out on a date using Chuck’s OpenTable account would end up causing trouble.

Both thinking that each other set up ‘Operation Eagle’, they stumbled into what turned out to be a bluff for us fans. Being transported to a safe location on the orders of Beckman, they assumed, as we initially did, that it was the bad guys who had captured them. I have to say I quite liked the ‘tuck and roll’ exit from the car as it slowed down. Obviously the doors we saw locking when they got in weren’t childproof!

Team Awesome did pretty well for themselves. Despite not being real spies, they certainly worked well as a spy team. I mentioned on Twitter that Ellie is both a Bartowski and Mrs Awesome, and both aspects certainly showed in this episode.

In fact, there were a couple of other pairings that worked well together; Casey and Beckman for one, and the other non-spy couple Morgan and Alex.

It was nice to see General Beckman out of the office and involved with Team Bartowski again. Like she said, “It was a bit like old times, wasn’t it?”

It was also nice to have Ellie not playing second fiddle to Sarah in the glamour stakes, even giving her the sexy ‘getting ready’ montage. Since they’ve had Sarah Lancaster in either scrubs or plain looking clothes for a lot of the series, it’s good when someone decides to put her in a slinky dress, such as in ‘Versus the Coup d’Etat’ and remind us how hot she actually is.

This whole episode was very much a showcase of the strong females, Ellie, Sarah, Alex and General Beckman. Each of them was responsible for the success of the respective missions.

Meanwhile, the guys were not being quite so clever. Chuck went back to his old self; having his feelings for his family get in the way of making the right decision, Morgan was ready to attempt something overly complicated and, whilst Awesome came up with some good ideas, he ultimately got into deeper trouble.

I liked the B-plot in this, with Morgan having to complete a mission for Casey and retrieve Chuck’s P.A.N.T.S. It was a good excuse to have him working with Alex and they certainly worked well together.

Do we think that Morgan and Alex will have a reconciliation before the end of the series? I think so; all of the signs are there, just look at her face when she opens his box of personal artifacts.

I note that Morgan said that he and Chuck went through an acronym phase when they were younger. When they were younger? Come on, Morgan is still in that phase, you just have to look at T.I.T.S. (yes, I know! :D)

My one problem with the close of the episode is that the whole storyline with the government hunting Team B was wrapped up in an incredibly easy way. Sure, from the look on Robin Cunnings’ face, she would rather give up everything than get a taste of her own medicine, but it was very much a quick fix.

I understand that there are time constraints, given the fast approaching end of the series, but it just felt a little too neat.

We had Casey being broken out of prison at the end of the last episode, and it seems we've got another happening at the end of this one. Because of the spoilers that we’ve seen, we know that Shaw must be prisoner 1647. So it seems that releasing the Omen virus was just part of the plan in order to facilitate his escape. Essentially, the whole episode was about getting to that part.

Next time: Chuck Versus the Santa Suit

Chuck and Sarah learn who is trying to destroy Carmichael Industries; Ellie's Christmas plans come undone; a computer virus threatens to ruin Christmas at Buy More. Stan Lee guest stars.

Here’s the trailer, take a look:

From his comment to Shaw, it seems like Chuck might be getting the Intersect back! Exciting stuff ahead :)