The biggest part of me wants to just randomly throw characters on the screen right now in an expression of excitement.

That, however, would not be the most responsible or professional thing to do, so I’m going to instead review the penultimate, best, most awesome, unbelievable episode of Chuck ever – Chuck Versus the Ring.

There may be some pretty huge spoilers implied, so read at your own risk.

“Thank you for saving my life at least once a week.”

Maybe Chuck didn’t save our lives every week by invading our living rooms with amazing television, but I feel like this quote pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?

For the last two seasons now we’ve watched the old Chuck.  We’ve watched a premise not unlike the ‘Get Smart’ universe, with a bumbling spy, a shadowy anti-spy organization, and a hot agent 99.

But now we get the new Chuck.  The improved Chuck.  The OMG I can’t believe I just saw that Chuck.  Wow.  I know it’s just touchy feely descriptions, but this episode of Chuck was spectacular.

I didn’t think they could make better episodes than what we’ve seen, but this episode has taken the show to a whole new level.

“You look like a real bridesmaid.”

The one level of disappointment that this episode brings, of course, is the Charah dynamic once again being interrupted about a billion times.  It seems Sarah is never going to be able to express her feelings to Chuck.

If Chuck could read Sarah’s face like we could, he’d know she’s crazy about him.  He needs to take a little Yvonne Strahovski 101 so he can get the message.

With the stuff at the end now, what kind of Chuck are we going to get?  Will he be as lovable to Sarah in the future?  Will he be as lovable to anyone, for that matter?

I don’t know, but Sarah really has rotten luck when trying to get it all out.  Now if Chuck can just figure out how to shut the hell up maybe he’ll get somewhere.

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Yay!  It’s time for some hardcore Charah action while Sarah & Chuck are on the run from a very unhappy John Casey.

I can’t really imagine a better setup for a good time, so let’s just get to the review of Episode 2.21 – Chuck Versus the Colonel.

“Your country thanks you, Colonel Casey.”

I don’t usually start with Casey, but tonight he deserves it.  After Chuck betrayed Casey a few too many times, I was really having a hard time imagining Chuck not taking a bullet to the brain.

But Adam Baldwin is a masterful actor and brought Casey’s cold shoulder paired with his deeply buried warm heart in full force.  His quips are always to die for, but tonight we got closer to Casey than we have in 2 seasons of Chuck.

If it were any other script or any other actor, I think I would balk at the speed with which Colonel Casey forgave his charges and joined their cause.  But I bought it, and I loved it.

Three cheers to Adam Baldwin.  In an episode full of Charah, he stole the show.

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The weeks are ticking by as we get closer and closer the Chuck season finale.  Hopefully, it’s not a series finale!

I’ll take my intro this week to remind everyone to write your letter to NBC — Chuck has to come back or I will be lost and roaming this world with no purpose.

But for tonight I have a purpose; for tonight we focus on first kills.  Time for my  review of Episode 2.20 – Chuck Versus the First Kill.

“It’s time to try our latest flavor – Obama Guava.”

This is a fitting quote to this episode because First Kill was a completely different flavor of Chuck.  I don’t know what they were smoking when they scored this episode, but the music placement was atrocious.

It was also sadly another episode with not nearly enough Yvonne Strahovski for my taste, but at least she got one of her coolest gun fights to date near the end.

I’ll talk more about the pacing and music near the end of the review, but let’s get to the content of the episode.

“Here they are — Mr and Mrs. Bartowski!”

So here comes Jill again.  She wasn’t nearly as hateable this time around, but she certainly wasn’t likeable either.  I feel like the writers felt like they need to ‘finish’ the Jill storyline and worked her into a plot she didn’t need to be part of.

I have nothing against Jordana Brewster, but does she always talk as if her jaw is broken?  Maybe there was a bad accident on the set of Fast and Furious or something, but she barely moved her teeth the entire episode.

She provided a pretty convenient plot device to get Chuck defiant, but the chemistry that the two had in the earlier episodes was completely lost this time around.

I guess that’s to be expected, but at least she redeemed herself and created a reason for Beckman to get mad.

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If we were talking about my dream job, I’m pretty sure running a website about Yvonne Strahovski for a living would fill that void.

Unfortunately nobody’s paying me, but I’ll just continue to love Yvonne in my free time and give you my humble review of Episode 2.19 – Chuck Versus the Dream Job.

(don’t read this review if you don’t want to be spoiled; some pretty big spoilers were unavoidable)

“I’m sorta freakin’ out here.”

I’ve been banking on the fact that Sarah actually recognized Papa B and I was immediately proven to be wrong.  I guess Yvonne’s look was because Chuck’s dad was a crazy old man.

I really liked the opening sequences with Chuck’s dad.  Scott Bakula did a really good job of playing the unkempt, eccentric dad.  I couldn’t quite imagine it before the episode but now I’m sold.

“You said you were going to make pancakes!”

Man Ellie’s had a rough couple of days.  I’ve never even been particularly drawn to her character but the poor chick has just been run over by everyone in her life lately.

I’m really starting to feel for Ellie and I’m glad at least the Devon situation is resolved.  It was all a bit contrived to begin with, really.

And then to have daddy abandon her again?  Ouch.

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They say Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and I’m expecting we’ll see a seriously scorned Sarah as she fights to get her job back (and Chuck).

I certainly wouldn’t want to be on Sarah’s bad side; nor Yvonne Strahovski’s for that matter.

It’s time to review Episode 2.18 – Chuck Versus the  Broken Heart.

“Time to flush out your system, dude!”

Wow.  This episode was painful.  And grand at the same time.  I don’t think I’ve hated a character as much as Agent Forrest ever.

I thought I hated Jill, but no.  Jill is a frickin’ nun compared to Forrest.  I know Casey was making googly eyes at her all episode, but Casey can do so much better than that chick.

I can’t believe Sarah settled for a shoulder bump!  Forrest deserved a Chuck Norris-style roundhouse to the face.  And she didn’t even back off at the end when Sarah basically saved her career!

This, of course, is not intended as an offense against Tricia Helfer.  The fact that I hate her so much is surely indicative of fine acting.

“Ooooh!  Astronomy snap!”

I really like when the Buy More plots are closely tied into the spy plots.  It makes the whole Chuck world much more seamless and reminds us that you can’t be a super secret spy without that making trouble on the homefront.

I was sad to see no Big Mike, relieved to see no Emmett, and pleasantly surprised at the way they managed to bring all of the worlds together.

It’s a little bit odd to get Casey in the mix because he’s thus far been removed, but he meshed pretty well and the scene at the beginning with the gun was classic.

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