Chuck. It’s perhaps one of my favorite shows to tune in to. It skillfully meshes comedy, action and drama into a wonderful hour of television. I can think of only a handful of times in the shows 4 seasons where an episode was weak. This past Monday’s episode was not one of the weaker ones.

Opening on the heels of the previous episode, Chuck (played by Zachary Levi) has lost the Intersect, the computer in his brain, and all the powers it gave him. No kung fu. No bomb disarming. Nothing. Amazingly, Chuck doesn’t even get a slap on the wrist for letting his fugitive mother use him. That seems like an odd way for a spy agency to act, but hey. Its just television.

Moving on to light hearted humor; the CIA, to see if they can fix him, experiments on Chuck. The experiments are pretty ambiguous, made all the more clear by Chuck asking, “What was the point of the water? Just wondering.”

When none of that seems to work, we are introduced to Agent Jim Rye, played by Rob Riggles. He’s an expert at psychology and what not and allegedly can help Chuck…by constantly attacking him in hopes of scaring him into using the Intersect. I was wary when we first meet Agent Rye. I’m not a big fan of Mr. Riggles at the best of times, but his character really grew on me. Rye had this balance of goofy and coolness that this does a great job of capturing in their guest characters. And he seemed to have all the best lines! When asking Sarah to show him some fighting moves he remarks; “Well executed. And you smell delightfully of grapefruit.” What a character.

Speaking of Sarah, played by Yvonne Strahovski, HOLY COW. She always looks so darn hot! Nothing’s better than Sarah in her underwear, am I right?

Moving on, Chuck and Rye go off to Switzerland on a mission so dangerous, it just HAS to scare Chuck into using the Intersect. Right? Some good moments happened in Switzerland. Even without the Intersect, Chuck is smart and clever enough to be a spy on his own and it shows in this episode. I really hope that they explore this more. I would really love it if they somehow upgraded the Intersect to just be a part of Chuck. No more flashes. He just KNOWS how to do things. Or just get rid of it altogether. Chuck just needs proper training. He and Rye embark on a risky path to capture a bad guy known as the Belgian!

Over at the Buy More, Jeff and Lester (Scott Krinsky and Vik Sahay respectively) have caught on that there always seems to be a new person named Greta. This week, Greta is played the crazy sexy Summer Glau. Wowza. Jeff and Lester are great. They’re so weird themselves that of course they would notice the weirdness or cycling through different Gretas. This led to an always-welcome Subway product placement (Subway saved the show from being canceled. They’re just showing them some love), and a surprisingly aggressive/creepy reaction from Greta. That girl has issues.

On the more dramatic side of things, Casey revealed he actually thinks of his spy team as his friends. Awe. The big guy does have a heart after all. And Sarah displayed a serious lack of faith in Chuck, going so far as to say he is not a spy so long as he doesn’t have access to the intersect. Harsh words.

The episode ended with a cliffhanger, which was surprising since it felt like it was going to be a one off. But that’s what I love! Being surprised! And now I can hardly wait to see what’s going to happen in the next episode!