This week's Chuck proved three things: That Kristin Kreuk isn't as bad an actress as she was on Smallville, that Chuck's apparently got the intersect thing under control, and that everyone at the BuyMore have astonishingly short memories. Spoilers!
Let's just get the Morgan Gets No Respect subplot out the way: Didn't we do this last week?!? Like, almost exactly? I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I thought the point of last week's Fight Club riff was that it ended with Morgan breaking Lester, and therefore the entire rebellion, and earning respect as an assistant manager. So why did this week's episode seem as if none of that had happened? Don't get me wrong; Casey's solution of brainwashing Lester was both amusing and kind of creepy, but still, we dealt with this last week. Going back and redoing it so soon was just weird.
Weirder, in fact, than Kristin Kreuk's Hannah... who seems so too sweet to be true that she's got to be a spy for someone. I really hope she's not, though; despite my dislike for Lana Lang in Smallville, I really warmed to Kreuk here despite her probable Undercover Evil Agentness, and kind of like the idea of Chuck falling for someone who's (a) not Sarah, (b) not a spy and (c) might stick around for a bit, unlike the last time Chuck fell for a special guest star non-spy in a multiple episode arc. As someone who understands that Chuck and Sarah will inevitably end up together eventually, I'm still pulling for that eventually to be a long way away: Let Chuck and Hannah have some time together, and let Sarah fall for Shaw even if it means bypassing that whole "I may be responsible for my wife's death" thing. Let's see things get shaken up a bit, at least temporarily.
Talking of shaking things up: Chuck completing his first solo mission! Admittedly, not entirely solo - and what a stroke of coincidence/comedic ridiculousness that the base happens to have remote plane controls hidden under a panel like that! - but more or less. I'm so happy that someone in the show realized that Chuck was more than ready for this after two seasons of saving Sarah and Casey's asses that I'm not even dwelling on the fact that Chuck seems to have magically got that whole "intersect flashing on purpose" thing down surprisingly quickly. Well, not dwelling too much; I still won't be too surprised if it goes back to being unreliable next week when fauxtension is needed before a commercial break. But: Sword fighting (Complete with slap)! Nunchucking (Albeit pointlessly because of the slapstick going on behind!)! This is what I want to see more of: It doesn't change the core of the show - that Chuck is emotionally unready to make the sacrifices/choices required of a spy - but does mean that he won't need to get rescued by other people so often. More, please.
Overall, then, a weird episode: For all the forward motion of the Chuck plot, the BuyMore plot seemed out of place and a rerun from last week. Maybe everyone was distracted by the Eiffel Tower. But what did all of you think?