Chuck vs. The Suburbs
First, BIG MIKE DATING MORGAN'S MAMA. OMG, SHOW, THIS RIGHT HERE IS WHY I LOVE THE BUY MORE. The crack, it always fulfils.
Now Chuck and Sarah. OH, BABIES, WHY CAN'T YOU JUST MAKE OUT AT ALL THOSE MOMENTS WHEN YOU *CLEARLY* WANT TO! Make me happy, please! I love that how Chuck is straddling the line versus Wanting A Normal Life and Wanting To Be An Agent. He likes his life, he loves his friends and family, but god, you can tell he's not even trying half the time. Bored out his mind, but being agent is all about decit and hiding who you are, and he's not used that. He doesn't want to be used to that. And Sarah already is.
The whole bit of them being completely *bored* with having to do Valentine's Day, hoping for a mission, to then get a mission that lets them play at Being A Normal Couple (which, btw, complete flash back to that Alias episode in I think s4?) and there they realise that as much as they kinda want, because they DO like each other, they DO want to be with each other BUT Normal is not them. It *can't* be them. Not at this point in time.
And you know, they get that, and they don't like that it's A Fact, but it is and they're still completely into each other regardless and GOD, Chuck, Sarah you two are making my heart break with your adorableness and your whole Want But Can't/Won't/Shouldn't.
"Me and Sarah can't be anything more than we are right now and you know what, I'm okay with it." -- OH, CHUCK. Imho I think more he's going to *deal* with it, more than he's *okay* with it, but hey, I'm a shipper, so you know: I have the goggles on. Though I will say, the writers have to shoving this issue into every episode because as much as I love Chuck and Sarah, I don't need them to emo out in every episode.
The reason I like them as much as I do because they clearly care about each other, they're smart, they're capable, they want this thing between them to work out, but right now they're realising it's not going *be easy*. But. I swear writers, they don't need the emo. Like I like to say, Chuck doesn't DO drama(dramadrama). We don't need to be reminded every single second that Chuck and Sarah are completely into each other, but can't do anything about it because of Circumstances. They've had this talk already I think 3 times this season, I think we get it, plus I like it best when it's Show Don't Tell. (Not that the show is exactly all about being subtle, but there's a difference b/w the crack fun and shoving UST drama at us.)
Mission wise, the episode really had me. Again, I saw the evil!hood coming from the beginning because I have five seasons of Alias under my belt, but kudos to Chuck for giving it a go and mostly succeeding. Chuck is definitely a lighter version of the spy world so the Dark factors are not heavy, but when they choose to do their version of Dark, they pull it off, I think. Again, here showed Chuck demonstrating that he DOES have all the capabilities to be a stellar agent. He played Fulcrum and not for the first time, then did THAT to them. There was head and ear clutching to protect Sarah from the evil!Intersect and OMG, Zach and Yvonne know how to do 'I want to a kiss you but we can't for x reason, namely we need to extend the UST' eyes for almost every moment they lock eyes, and thank you, thank you, thank you!
The reveal that not everybody can handle the Intersect is a nice plot development, btw. Casey breaking his thumb to get out of the cuffs was badass as usual and great consider how Chuck got out his handcuffs and the difference between their method.
But this bugged me: the bit when Sarah went to answer the door, saw that it was just a neighbour so she tucks her gun into her waist band. Fine, that's okay, but then after a chat invites the neighbour in and turns her back to lead the woman inside WITH her gun still visible! Oh, Sarah. TSK TSK. You could have at least tucked the gun under the shirt. (Nevermind that the Neighbour ended up being a bad guy, but she didn't *know* that at the time. I hate say thing, but Fail, Sarah, Fail.)
Last by not least (never least!) ELLIE BARTOWSKI, ILY AND YOU SHIPPER GLEE. Ellie really is the canon C/S shipper fangirl, she *wants* Chuck/Sarah to happen, she's totally making shipper flags during her breaks at the hospital and GO ELLIE. Her little clap was the cutest thing ever, and not just because I do it too. All the time. But unlike us, she's not aware of all the factors that make C/S not as easy as she thinks it is. Which, I know it will probably be long time before she does, but I STILL WANT IT.
You know this wasn't supposed to be this long, THIS IS WHAT CHUCK DOES TO ME. /DORKAGE (randomly: Where was Awesome!?)