By DeAnn Welker
There was a lot of pressure on this episode -- in my head at least -- as the last season premiere of a fantastic cult show like Chuck. So I'm not going to focus on how underwhelming it was until the last eight or so minutes. I'll give it another chance when I rewatch for the weecap.
Here's what happened: Team Bartowski has successfully morphed into a private spy company called Carmichael Industries when this season picks up. Well, a private spy company, yes. Successful? Not so much. They've blown through almost all of Volkoff's fortune buying private jets and other super expensive supplies. Casey goes to far as to suggest they get in touch with Agent Redhead and see about going back to the government. Chuck reminds him about Decker, though, so they can't do that. Instead, they take on a client. He's out to get $20 million back from Bale (Craig Kilborn), a real sleazeball. They take the job, infiltrate their way into a party Bale throws himself and into his computer vault. Just as they're accessing his funds, though, Decker pops up on the screen in Chuck's van and tells him he's now freezing all of Bale's accounts, thankyouverymuch. Turns out he does even more than that, tracing the accounts back to the fake donation they made to get into the party and freezing their last $42 million.
But before they get the bad news about their money, Chuck breaks into the party and saves Casey, Sarah, and Morgan (the new Intersect, as you'll recall). He gives an impassioned plea to them to leave him to die, but he doesn't mean it. He just wants them back in the van, where's he's videoed a plan for them to save him. They do it -- complete with him jumping out a window onto a van (ouch!). The point this all proved is that Chuck matters with or without the Intersect. And with or without Volkoff's millions (though it's pretty disappointing we didn't even get to see them with the riches for more than an episode). With their money gone, the gang has to now run the Buy More so that it turns a profit. Then they'll use that money to spy until they get the spying business turning its own profit. When did this show become about accounting and financial planning, anyway?
The episode almost ends with Chuck and Sarah hugging after she tells him his role now is as their leader. But then we zoom out and realize someone's monitoring them. Cut to a darkened CIA boardroom (so we can't see anyone's face except Decker's), where Decker's introducing a bunch of suits gathered around a table to the importance of Chuck. He's crucial, folks. That's why, Decker says, he must fail. Even if the rest of the episode was a bit of a snooze, that cliffhanger ending -- along with the extended preview of what's to come this season -- left me ready for more.