Not Walking Away: Chuck Faces A Lethal Weapon (and Adulthood) on "Chuck"

I'm going to be really quite distraught if NBC cancels Chuck, one of the highlights of my television-viewing week.

Last night's fantastic installment of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Lethal Weapon"), written by Zev Borow and Matthew Lau, proved just why Chuck is unlike anything else on television right now, offering a delicious combination of spy thrills, comedic banter, romantic tension, and workplace humor.

I wasn't thrilled by last week's episode ("Chuck Versus the Beefcake"), which introduced the character of devilish MI6 operative Cole Barker (Jonathan Cake) but I have to say that last night's episode used Cole much more effectively and painted him as more of a convincing badass spy (able to undergo hours of torture and get shot TWICE in a single episode) rather than just a cheesy pickup artist. Here, I quite liked Cake and thought he did a fantastic job of fleshing out Cole's character and giving him some depth. The way he sincerely cared for Chuck ("You okay there, buddy?" may be one of my favorite lines this week) and his genuine romantic feelings for Sarah Walker were a nice counterpoint to his take-charge spy mode.

And while many naysayers were upset about the way that Cole forced a wedge between Sarah and Chuck, his presence in the story actually had the opposite effect: it forced Sarah to come to terms with her feelings for Chuck (and her inability to walk away from him and accept Cole's offer) and it propelled Chuck to finally come clean about his own feelings for his handler. The scene at the fountain in which Chuck told Sarah that he loved her and that he was going to get the Intersect out of his head and have the life he wants with the woman he loves was beautifully understated and subtly written. It showed us a Chuck who could see his full potential, who was in touch with what he wanted out of life, and who wasn't afraid to tell the woman he loves that he, well, loves her. It's a momentous step for Chuck to make, one that demonstrates a newfound maturity that we haven't really seen heaps of to date, especially when contrasted with his behavior at the episode's beginning, which finds him (with the blanket pulled all the way up to his chin) in bed with Sarah.

Chuck's story dovetailed nicely with Morgan's own storyline this week as he sought to convince Anna not to move in with him by showing her his many, many quirks (I loved the Morgantuptial document, with its provisos about string cheese, Goethe, eggs, and a cymbal-banging monkey)... only to discover that she loves him so much that she accepts his quirks and loves him for them. Leading Morgan to decide to move in with Anna after all. It was a nice parallel to Chuck's story and points towards both of them finally coming into adulthood.

That adulthood would likely include Chuck's much beloved Tron poster, given to Chuck by his missing father when he was twelve. For Ellie and Sarah, it's this single item that symbolize Chuck's own state of arrested development and the one item that Ellie wants Chuck to get rid of when he moves in with Sarah.

Of course, in a brilliant twist that I didn't see coming, it's that very Tron poster that points to Chuck's own future, rather than his past. Concealed on the back of the framed piece is the culmination of Chuck's own investigation into the Intersect: an org chart depicting the relationships between Fulcrum, the CIA, the NSA, the Intersect, and the enigmatic Orion, the man responsible for the creation of the Intersect whom Chuck believes may be able to remove the images from his head once and for all.

As for who this mysterious "Orion" is, I have my theories. I don't want to spoil anything, but I definitely think that one of the (ahem) high-profile guest stars in the works for Chuck might have something to do with the identity of Orion. As for Chuck, all I'll say is that he should be careful what he wishes for: the Intersect is what brought him together with Sarah Walker and it's why she's still in his life. Remove that element and there could be no reason why Sarah would stay in Los Angeles. For once, the government would surely assign her elsewhere. And asking Sarah to choose between her duty to her country and her heart would be a very tough position to place her in. Would she walk away? Or would she choose to have a "normal" future with Chuck as a "normal" girl?

What else did I love? Seeing Chuck attempt to use a gun (even if he did end up shooting Howard Busgang himself) and his ankle injury in the window; Chuck tailing of Busgang even in a full leg cast (with both of them limping); Operation Repulsion and Wii Tennis (though not Jeff with his shirt off: shudder); Gouda vs. provolone; Cole's return to the Castle and the perimeter breach and later taking a bullet for Sarah; Chuck "sweeping the leg" and taking down Fulcrum agent Duncan; the use of Perseus and Orion as codenames for the scientists behind the creation of the Intersect; Cole calling Chuck "special" (and Casey laughing about it); Cole telling Chuck never to take no for an answer; Morgan's conversation with Chuck about Anna.

All in all, a fantastic mythology-advancing episode that introduced the next storyline for Chuck and the Intersect, forced Chuck to come to terms with his feelings for Sarah and his own future, and offered some nice thrills and tension throughout.

In two weeks on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Predator"), Chuck has to decide who to trust when he's contacted by the mysterious creator of the Intersect, who may be able to erase the images from his mind; a feud breaks out between the Burbank Buy More and the more prestigious Beverly Hills branch.