Welcome back to TV or Not TV where I’m once again blown away by my good buddy Chuck .

Last night’s episode of Chuck was by far one of the best of the entire run of the series and a great near-payoff for this season. After last night I find it hard to believe that there is still one more episode left to see with the season finale (Monday, 4/27 @ 8 PM) since there were so many things that were finally handed to the viewers.

The first payoff happened as this episode started with Chuck and Sarah hiding from the government in trying to rescue Chuck ‘s dad (guest star Scott Bakula) from the clutches of FULCRUM and evil software guru Ted Roark (guest star Chevy Chase). After finding nothing but an abandoned drive-in at the location Chuck flashed on, the pair retire to a motel to collect their thoughts. Yes, a motel room. One bed. Yes folks, that’s right. Sarah and Chuck finally give in to all that sexual tension that has been building up. Too bad Morgan slipped an IOU for a condomn in the place of Chuck ‘s wallet protection (as well as Casey tracking the two down) and put the breaks on the mood.

The second great payoff comes when someone else finally gets to learn that Chuck is an operative for the CIA. Who is this lucky person? Turns out it’s Captain Awesome himself, giving us one of the best lines ever on the show (“I need you to be awesome. Can you do that for me? Can you be… awesome?”). It was really nice to have someone else finally learn that Chuck has been doing a lot to save his country and understand all of the conflict this surely brings him internally. It’s bad that it was Ellie’s fiance, since really they shouldn’t be keeping any secrets from one another as husband and wife, and I have to wonder if this will lead to conflict in the season finale. However it turns out Awesome was awesome in settling his fiance’s nerves as it seemed that neither her dad nor her brother would be ther for the rehearsel dinner.

The third payoff comes in the eventual rescue of Chuck ‘s dad. When Casey learns that an air strike team has been assembled to dispatch the FULCRUM drive-in instead of being able to keep his promise to rescue Steve Bartowski, Casey rushes to help his two fugitive team mates. The rescue doesn’t go as planned and all are captured in the same room the newly built Intersect is being run. Chuck ‘s dad tells Chuck too watch the screen since he “made it for him” and POW! Chuck is now Intersect free! The air strike force shows up just in time to give them cover for an escape and everyone gets away.

The last payoff we were given was the culmination of the Buy More power struggle saga. Emmett is now the manager of the store and he applies pressure to Morgan to become his assistant manager (which he refers to as Ass Man). Morgan originally caves in and does his evil bidding, but girlfriend Anna finally gets him to realize what is important and in a shocking move Morgan gets up his nerve, quits the Buy More and whisks Anna away to fulfill his dream of moving to Hawaii to become a chef at Benihana. Everyone even gives him a slow clap build up sendoff.

Of course it wasn’t all champagne and roses at the end as we learn that Roark has survived the air strike and is now on his way to crash the wedding.

NEXT WEEK AND THE FUTURE OF CHUCK

As mentioned above, the season finale of Chuck is next week. Roark is going to try to crash the party and an Intersect free Chuck has to face off against him. I have no idea what else will happen next week. I’m dying to see what will happen next week, especially since SOMETHING has to happen next week to perpetuate the premise of the show. Chuck was pivotal to the operation because he was the Intersect with all kinds of info trapped in his head. How can the show continue without this? What diabolical plan do they have to move things forward?

The other real question is will they actually move forward? The Hollywood Reporter set the Internet ablaze on Monday with a Save Chuck fire after they described the show as “on the bubble” which means that even though it’s fate isn’t decided it hasnt’ been saved yet from cancellation. Bloggers, journalists and fan sites are all sending out their appeals this week to make sure that we all do our part in saving the show. There’s good reason to save the show as well since, according to television producer Josh Schwartz in a New York Times Article, “If…. that is the last episode of the show to ever air, it will be one of the least satisfying finales of all time. Chris Fedak, the guy who created the show, said people will set their living rooms on fire.” We can’t have a ton of domestic arson, can we?

If you want to know how to try to do your part to save the show Chuck than the best strategy is the one outlined on the fan site ChuckTV.net with their watch/buy/share campaign. Watch the show live, get you and everyone you know to watch everthing Chuck related on NBC.com (the show, mashup videos, everything). If you really want to flex your power and have your voice heard in the digital age then traffic and hits are probably the sure fire way to tip the scales folks.

I can’t wait to see the season finale of Chuck and I’ll hope you’ll be there with me.

– Will Wilkins is neither an Asset nor the Intersect.

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