By Buzz Byrne

This week the writers get their due. As the strike looms large for the coming year, tonight on CHUCK we got a glimpse of what we will be missing. Would a scab writer think to start a Christmas episode with Nelly’s “Pimp Juice” as the soundtrack? The replacement shows, like AMERICAN GLADIATORS will have witty dialogue like, “Arrg!” instead of Morgan proclaiming giant prawns to be as big as “Baby kittens!” Will CLASH OF THE CHOIRS have a decent mid-season story arc close that satisfies the romance questions and excites danger for the coming episodes? No. Tonight’s CHUCK certainly did though, and unfortunately it is such a young show it may not survive the strike. So pay the writers! This whole “new media” trend is going nowhere anyway.

Agent Sarah (Yvonne Strzechowski) did not run off with Bryce Larson- like I told you she wouldn’t, but she also isn’t excited about dealing with Chuck (Zachary Levi) right now either. But as Chuck is doing an off site install of Buy More products on a fancy yacht, the Intersect kicks in and he stumbles onto a counterfeiting ring run through Taiwan by a Billionaire named Lon Kirk. Duty calls and the team assembles to infiltrate. Casey (Adam Baldwin) goes to the party as a roulette dealer while Sarah and Chuck are a couple, Chuck using his “Sonny Crockett cum Sonny Burnett” like moniker of Charles Charmichael. Chuck meets and faces off with Kirk at the wheel. Kirk plays red to “remind me of all the suffering in the world.” Chuck plays black, “For Wesley Snipes…PASENGER 57? Not a great movie but still…” Charles Charmichael looses a hundred grand on one spin. Thanks Wesley.


The team does spot Rashan Chen, the Taiwanese attaché who is part of the ring. He is arguing with Kirk. Sarah makes a move and gets all of Kirk’s attention.

Meanwhile, Morgan (Joshua Gomez) has been spying on Anna (Julia Ling) and discovers her parents are in town. He insists on a meeting. Chuck tells him to be himself, while the coworkers urge him to be like any of the other six billion people on the planet. At the meeting, over lunch, Anna’s dad asks Morgan where he sees himself in five years. Channeling one of the other six billion people he answers by explaining where he doesn’t want to be: “Prison, house arrest, doing lots of chopping or deep knee bends…naked.” And during this meltdown, he happens to spy Sarah getting close to Kirk. This is all tremendously convenient but forgivable. Chuck is tipped off to this by Morgan and he springs into action. But Casey has it covered. Chuck does have an Intersect flash on some crates and urges Casey to board the boat. The flash turns out to be wrong and Casey and Sarah get benched because they are compromised now.

As the team melts away Chuck and Sarah finally try to talk, about the kiss, about Bryce, about them. But it just goes wrong. Chuck questions Sarah’s feelings for him and Sarah calls the whole thing a mistake she isn’t going to make again.

Morgan is still trying to impress Anna’s folks and joins them on a cruise for diplomats…on Rashan Chen’s boat that happens to be stocked with the same crates that Chuck had flashed on earlier. The crates are full of the counterfeit print blocks and Kirk is planning on blowing up the boat and all evidence of the ring. The team defies orders, saves the boat but has to sacrifice Casey’s beloved 1985 Crown Vic LTD in the process.

The episode ends at the Buy More holiday party where Anna and Morgan get it back together and Chuck and Sarah find an easy comfort with each other. They promise to try being friends, despite Modern English playing “I melt with you” in the background. He is gaining some confidence and she sees him for the hero he is and not simply for his goofiness.


But then Casey gets a call from his superior at the NSA. The Beta version of the Intersect is almost up and running. When it is, it will be time for Casey to terminate Chuck, does he understand his orders?

“Yes.”

Let’s hope we get to see it, some time soon.