Everybody Talks: Chuck and Sarah Face Torture and Beefcake on "Chuck"

And that's the problem with "dating" a super-hot super-spy: that she'll cross paths with a super-hot super-spy of her own.

That's just what happened on last night's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Beefcake"), in which Chuck's potentially-the-one-cover-girlfriend Sarah came face to face with her male equivalent: undercover MI6 agent Cole Barker (Jonathan Cake) posing as a Fulcrum agent. He's everything that Chuck isn't: dashing, prone to firing handguns to take down a helicopter (seriously), and as seductive as one 007.

Last night's episode, written by Matthew Miller and Scott Rosenbaum (who previously teamed up to write Season One's "Chuck Versus the Imported Hard Salami"), picked up some of the threads established in "Chuck Versus the Suburbs," including Chuck's testing by Fulcrum (under the guise of Charles Carmichael), the death of Brad White, and the sense of distance between Chuck and Sarah after posing as a married couple and getting a glimpse at a future most likely denied to them.

I was really glad to see a small sense of serialization creeping back into the season's narrative and this week's installment followed up on the surprising twist that Fulcrum is developing their own Intersect with a sense of tension and drama. Just as the team tries to get a hold of the belt buckle stolen by Cole Barker from the CIA dump site, Cole himself is trying to decode the data contained on the microchip by posing as a Fulcrum operative. Everyone however has other plans: Sarah sets out to seduce Cole (and winds up getting hot and bothered herself), Fulcrum tries to retrieve the data themselves, and everyone ends up on the roof at the receiving end of some helicopter-mounted machine guns. Just another day, really.

I wasn't totally in love with the Buy More plot this week, which had Jeff and Lester take over Morgan's responsibility to find a new "green shirt" hire... only to turn it into an opportunity to oogle some hot women on a casting couch. (Jeff in an open robe? Just not cool, guys.) While the plots sort of came together with Fulcrum tracking the GPS device in the chip right to the Buy More, it didn't have the same feeling of cohesion that previous episodes have managed to find between the spy plots and the Buy More plots. Still, it was a fun opportunity to see what would happen if Jeffster was left in charge of the store.

I'm glad that the writers are continuing to shake things up a little between Chuck and Sarah but wish that the latest ploy to split them up had been something more internal rather than external (Cole). It's clear that Sarah does have feelings for her asset but knows that they can't be together in "real life." Still, the news that Fulcrum knows that Chuck is the Intersect (even after crazy Fulcrum agent dosed herself with ricin rather than be interrogated by the CIA) means that the duo--on the outs somewhat in public--will have to step things up... by moving in together. Just wait until Morgan finds out about that little twist, given that Chuck had just agreed to move in with him.

Still, despite the seeming escalation in their cover relationship, it must hurt Chuck to see that Sarah is blatantly attracted to Cole Barker, who represents everything that Chuck isn't. And while Cole and Sarah's banter in the bar was just pretext to getting his belt buckle, Chuck definitely took Sarah's words about not liking nice guys to heart. And it's got to hurt to see (or rather hear) your would-be girlfriend seducing another man in the name of national intelligence.

Even worse: watching them kiss on a monitor in the Orange Orange... for real this time. Yes, Cole says he'll keep quiet about Chuck's identity as the Intersect but given his kidnapping at the hands of Fulcrum, their paths will definitely be crossing again. And something tells me that next time Sarah's heart won't escape unscathed.

However, while I thought that Jonathan Cake was, well, awesome as Cole Barker, the romance plot feels a little recycled. Didn't we already see Sarah fall for another kick-ass superspy who seemed like an enemy but was later unmasked as a daring undercover operative? A certain someone named Bryce Larkin? While the similarities between the two storylines are definitely there, I am willing to overlook the repetitiveness because "Chuck Versus the Beefcake" was a fun outing that had things going boom, our spies getting busy, and Casey being... Casey.

What worked for me? Big Mike's amorous sounds being likened to a wounded sea lion; Morgan admitting that he won Anna over by serving himself "a la mode" (and Ellie and Awesome's reaction); Chuck's line about being "curious if I'll be home in time for Charlie Rose"; Sarah's knife skills; Big Mike's discussion of, er, plumbing problems at Morgan's mom's place; Lester's exclamation of "casting couch" when stumbling on the idea to hire a Buy More babe; Morgan surprising Ellie and Awesome with ice-cold martinis, a bubble bath, and a roast... and undoing all of that by walking around the house in the buff; Alexis slugging Casey with the faux baby (and later injecting herself with ricin); Chuck forcing himself to black out during the pre-torture; Chuck watching Sarah and Cole kiss on the monitor; Casey's "impressive" line about Cole, er, physique.

Best line of the evening: "Great. Most annoying romance of my life is over." -Casey

What did you think of this week's episode? Were you happy to see the Chuck and Sarah relationship go in a different direction? Will Chuck and Sarah actually move in together? And will Chuck's life ever really get back on track? Discuss.

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Lethal Weapon"), the team investigates a man named "Perseus" who is said to be behind Fulcrum's plans to build their own Intersect; Chuck and Agent Cole Barker are forced to stay in a safety bunker but when Casey and Sarah's mission takes a dangerous turn, they are forced to get involved; Morgan tries to convince Anna that moving in with him would be a bad idea.