By Buzz Byrne

This is the episode of CHUCK I have been waiting for. If done right, the show is about to make the jump from “promising” to “excellent.” A life and death climax where our heroes fail, the promise of love is crushed, bad guys get shot…dead even! And a sinister thread is revealed. So much for playing safe with the 8 PM timeslot. It’s about time.

A shipping container is being smuggled into the States through Finland. One of the bad guys doing the deed instructs the movers to be careful…the thing is alive. We see the ominous item in the container with an LED display, presumably counting down seventy three hours.

At the BuyMore, Agent Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) tries to convince Chuck (Zachary Levi) that their fake breakup of their fake relationship isn’t a good idea. My man Chuck stays strong and lays down the law that they are over so he can pursue the lovely sandwich maker Lou (Rachel Bilson). The CIA is not at all pleased that the affair is over. As a matter of fact, they are down right suspicious of Lou. This is why the CIA is bad. They have no sense of romance or mystery. Agents Sarah and Casey (Adam Baldwin) are to find out all they can about the new girl.


The new girl that Chuck is steaming up the windows of the Nerd Herd-Mobile with. Lou invites Chuck “in,” and makes him a sandwich. What a woman. In the shop, Chuck has an Intersect flash moment when he sees a flyer for a club party. The name on the flyer, Stavros Demitrios, is what triggered the flash. He also happens to be Lou’s crazy ex-boyfriend. So Sarah and Casey make Chuck go to the club and meet him. Lou isn’t psyched about Chuck meeting the crazy ex but she goes along with it. She’s a bit more upset when at the club Chuck is more interested in talking to Stavros than her and she is even more put off when Sarah pops in to give “backup.” Lou splits and Chuck manages to get some intel on the container coming in.

Morgan (Joshua Gomez), feeling jilted out of Chuck’s life seeks comfort in the arms of coworker Anna (Julia Ling). She wants nothing to do with him however. Things never quite go right for Morgan.

Chuck tries to apologize to Lou but she makes him wait through her lunchtime rush before she entertains his bold mea culpa. Her grizzled co-workers melt before she finally relents and it is quite funny. Lines of the night in fact.

The mall is abuzz with Morgan’s major strikeout with Anna. Word is the Sbarro guys created a new pizza in his honor: no sauce, no toppings, just lots of cheese and it’s called “The Loser.” Ouch. That’s nothing. In sixth grade, Diane Arlinsky pretended to like me so I would make a fool of myself in front of her friends, and well…this isn’t about me.

It seems Lou might be involved in Stavros’ smuggling operation. The agents and Chuck pounce, only to find that he is bringing in Portuguese soppresetta, not biological weapons. At least for her. Stavros and his father Yari do have the ominous shipping container. They capture Chuck and Sarah and attempt to torture them to find out who they are and why they want the container. Chuck buys some time with an Intersect flash and Casey shows up to waste a few of the kidnappers. And they actually die. Like, shot in the head and chest and everything.

As Casey corners Yari, the father is killed by a hidden gunman who radios his superiors and says, “We have a problem. The package has been intercepted. We need to clean things up.”

Chuck and Sarah find the container but can’t figure out how to disarm the thing as the final seconds tick down. Thinking they are going to die, Sarah goes for the hot and heavy last kiss, revealing her true feelings for Chuck. The package doesn’t blow and they live and Sarah is embarrassed.


Chuck and Lou make a sad split of their relationship. I like Sarah, of course, but it was nice having Rachel Bilson around, throwing down with the mad deli meats.

Chuck makes the call to ask out Sarah as she and Casey are at the opening of what is not a bomb but a cryogenic chamber. The person in the chamber, alive, with a bullet hole in his chest?

Bryce Larkin.

It. Is. About. Damn. Time.