Chuck 5x05: Chuck Vs. the Hack Off

Original Air Date: 9 December 2011

Storyline: Chuck and Sarah make a deal with Decker to infiltrate an unusual cult to find the designer of a computer virus, in exchange for Casey's freedom. Lester and Jeff's relationship is complicated by a new employee at the Buy More.Trivia: Morgan's line, "Prisoner transfer from CB eleven section three eight", is a nod to Luke Skywalker's "Prisoner transfer from Block 1138" in Star Wars: A New Hope. 

Casey's "I am the law" could be a hat tip to Judge Dredd's famous "I never broke the law, I AM THE LAW!" with the new Dredd movie due in 2012.

Best Quote:

Morgan: Hey. How you holding up, man? I didn't think it would be this hard without Lester around.
Jeffrey: I'm starting to forget him. I can't even picture what Lester looks like anymore.
Morgan: Close your eyes. Imagine David Beckham. Lester's a shorter, feminine version of his wife.
Jeffrey: Right. I can see him now.

Review: It took five episodes into this last season for Chuck to actually deliver something worth of its crazy fans. "Chuck vs. the Hack Off" had almost everything I want from this show: action, some good comedy and some emotional scenes as well. There was a lot going on up until the unexpected ending - or was it unexpected? Shouldn't Chuck and Sarah have known that Decker had an alternate plan? They've been in the business long enough to smell deceit and somehow they still don't see trouble coming. It just seems like they're not the spies they think they are.

This episode gave us another side of Chuck's nerdiness, one that hasn't been revealed in the four previous seasons. Am I mistaken when I say we've never been told about his hacking skills? We knew he was good with computers, but not that good that he used to be called The Piranha. I hate these plot holes, no matter how much the show's unusual run can explain them. Nevertheless, he was fun to watch with his Chardonnay, headphones and dorky chuckles.
Despite this minor failure, the hour was an enjoyable one and the guest stars contributed to this, Danni Pudi especially - as Jeff and Morgan's solution to bring Lester down to earth and show him he is not irreplaceable, not by a long shot. To be fair, Morgan and Jeff were the source of the comedy this week, with Lester being a close third. And I'm immensely glad that the bearded one's action scenes were nonexistent - and no, I don't count breaking Casey out of prison an action scene.
But speaking of action, we've had a pretty big deal of that in "Chuck vs. the Hack Off". With Verbanski replacing Casey on the mission to retrieve the virus, the said action was sexier than ever. I will never understand why female spies are always in heels - and thin ones, even - but at least Sarah and Gertrude made a very hot couple.
Gertrude was the source of the emotional scenes as well. I'm getting bored of Chuck and Sarah at times and it was great seeing them take a break from the sweetness and let Gertie and Casey take their place for once. At least these two are responsible for hotter scenes, like the one where Verbanski dressed as a prison guard to make a conjugal visit to her man. Cause her man he is, since she confessed - unexpectedly I might add - that she's in love with big John and has no idea how to deal with this. Awww...
What's going to happen next? Chuck & co are on the run from virtually every authority in the world after "stealing" a very dangerous computer virus and after Verbanski blew Decker out into little pieces. I didn't see that coming, I might say, but I didn't particularly like Decker as a villain, so I won't miss him much. I'm waiting to see though if anyone else will take his place or we'll just have the good guys running away from the other good guys. Oh well, still a couple of episodes to go before the big finale, so we'll see.
Chuck 5x04: Chuck vs. the Business Trip Back to Season 5