Chuck Review: Chuck Versus The Kitties Galore!

This week’s episode of Chuck was a little more fun than last week’s. There was just the right amount of drama, sex appeal and humor to keep a new Chuck fan like myself tuned in.

In an attempt to be the thoughtful boyfriend that he is, Chuck (Zachary Levi) tries to help Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) reconnect with some old work buddies in time for the couple’s engagement party. Bring in the C.A.T. Squad (or just the Cats for short), a team of four lovely ladies of which Sarah was once a member. They may look like professional eye candy but these kittens have some major claws! Chuck hasn’t quite caught on to the fact that sometimes the surprises he plans for Sarah, although seemingly harmless, aren’t always the best ideas. Sarah still has a bit of bad blood with her former teammate, Zondra, who’s been accused in the past of playing for the enemy’s team (but was later cleared by the CIA). Not to mention, a whole lot of awkwardness proceeds after C.A.T. member Carina, Morgan’s old flame, can’t seem to keep her kitty paws off him.

After an extreme girl’s night out, the Cats finally get out of Sarah’s hair and go on their way, until a slight mishap on the street occurs- the Porsche that Carina is about to take off in explodes in a fiery mess. Carina was fine but it’s always so sad to see a beautiful car destroyed! Anyhoo, a piece of the bomb did lodge itself into Carina’s leg and, after closer examination, Chuck has a brief flash from the sight and is able to name Augusto Gaez (Lou Diamond Phillips), the Cats’ number one adversary. Gaez was the one Zondra was accused of aiding in the past so immediately Sarah wonders how he tracked the team to her home.

Now the real mission begins. General Beckman has the Cats, with the behind the scenes help of Chuck and Casey, travel to Rio to retrieve Gaez at one of his famous parties. In the meantime, the injured Carina is stationed in the Castle as intelligence for the team and with poor Morgan assigned to babysit and tend to her every needy need. Apparently this girl loves a challenge, to the point of ridiculous annoyance, and Morgan can’t seem to escape her claws. In classic Chuck style, rather than have the awkward “new girlfriend, meet my old girlfriend” conversation, Morgan makes excuses for canceling plans with Alex. And Alex is no dummy. If I were Morgan, I wouldn’t be playing around with anyone related to Casey. Just saying.

As it turns out, after the Cats track Gaez, he once again has anticipated their move and captures them. Casey and a very clumsy Chuck manage to get the girls out of trouble luckily and take Gaez back to the United States. With Gaez in custody, there is still a lot of tension between Zondra and Sarah and what better way to clear the tension than with a good old fashioned throw down! I can’t blame Sarah, I kind of wanted to beat Zondra up myself. All the while, Casey enlists the help of the third C.A.T. member, Amy, to interrogate Gaez. Well, cute, bubbly (and actually really funny!) Amy, the least suspecting of the bunch, soon reveals herself to be the mole that Sarah suspected existed all of this time. Amy springs Gaez from the interrogation room and the two try to escape the Buy More store. While the rest of the C.A.T. crew reunite with apologies underground, Chuck redeems himself by thwarting the evil duo with some nifty MacGyver (maybe more like MacGruber) style ninja stars made of broken DVDs and some handy flashing sequences that render Chuck into a legitimate fighter. But even that’s not enough as the Cats make their way up to actually save the day. Mission accomplished- almost.

There are a few minor issues to take care of and, by the end, we’re left with a sweet little engagement party where Sarah asks Ellie to be her maid of honor. Morgan patches things up with a reluctant Alex as well, using those three little magic words as a weapon (the “I love you” in case you weren’t completely getting that). All in all, it was good to see a satisfying conclusion and nice to see a sweet moment between Sarah and her future sister-in-law. Now if we can only see what crazy antics Sarah’s family can bring to the table- if we ever get to meet them!

For another opinion on this episode, check out Mallory Elis’ review here.

Season 4, Episode 15: Chuck Versus The Cat Squad (original air date February 14, 2011)

Catch Chuck on Mondays at 8/7 central on NBC

Images courtesy of Adam Rose/NBC