TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. The Bullet Train”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON / Contributing Writer

Posted: January 24th, 2012 / 10:20 AM

Yvonne Strahovski, Zachary Levi and Adam Baldwin in CHUCK - Season 5 - "Vs. The Bullet Train" | ©2012 NBC/Byron Cohen

Stars: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Adam Baldwin, Vik Sahay, Scott Krinsky, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Ryan McPartlin, Sarah Lancaster
Writer: Nicholas Wooton
Director: Buzz Feitshan IV
Network: NBC, Friday nights, 8 p.m.
Original Telecast: January 20, 2012

“Chuck vs. the Bullet Train” is obviously paying an homage to all kinds of thriller train movies, with just about every train cliche except smashing through a station. And with all the back and forth, it looks like everything is coming together for one whopper of a finale next week on CHUCK, not to mention full circle.

Bad guy Nicholas Quinn (Angus Macfadyen) thinks he’s got Chuck (Zachary Levi) tied up, well, shackled up on a bullet train in Japan, with Casey (Adam Baldwin) and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) dead. Except we know Sarah’s got the Intersect now, only it’s the buggy version and it’s messing her up even faster than it did Morgan (Joshua Grimes). Turns out those coffins on the train do have Casey and Sarah in them, only they’re very much alive and ready to go rescue Chuck.

Back home, not only are Jeff (Scott Krinsky) and Lester (Vic Sahay) still trying to figure out what’s going on in the basement of the Buy More, Ellie (Sharah Lancaster) and Devon (Ryan McPartlin) have Morgan all wired up with Alex (Mekenna Melvin) – Casey’s daughter and Morgan’s girlfriend – in tow. Ellie needs to try and figure out how to keep the bad Intersect from messing Sarah up completely.

At first, it looks like Chuck, Sarah and Casey get the drop on Quinn. The only problem now will be to download the software to suppress the Intersect before Sarah’s brain turns to mush. Except that Quinn isn’t down. He’s got two hench people pushing flu shots at the Buy More, and just when Alex goes up to the store to get some snacks for Morgan, she gets kidnapped, with Quinn in Japan calling the shots. We’ll just kind of overlook that the way he was hanging onto the train is physically impossible.

Ah, but Jeff and Lester are not only ready to stop the bad guys, Casey caves and calls them for help, confessing all. The result is one of the better Chuck moments, Lester armored up a la Rambo to “O, Canada” in the background. Jeff and Lester get Alex and Morgan rescued, but, but, but Quinn gets Sarah leaving us ready for the big finale with one heck of a cliffhanger.

This is one of those episodes that CHUCK does so very well, paying homage to films and TV shows while advancing its plot. The vision of Chuck and Sarah and the house with the white picket fence has been pushed at us so frequently in these past few episodes, that we have to wonder if that’s really where we’re going to end. Even if it is, it’s the ride that’s the fun part and who knows exactly how Chuck and Sarah are going to get there, or, as this episode suggests, they might be starting all over from the beginning once again.

UPDATE: TV Review of CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. Sarah”

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