Chuck season 4 episode 23 review: Chuck Versus The Last Details

This review may contain spoilers.

4.23 Chuck Versus The Last Details

Penultimate episodes are often rather good, sometimes promising a finale that the show can’t possibly deliver.

This one was a little ‘lite’ for me, as it didn’t really build any tension until the final scene, but they managed to work some solid humour around the forthcoming nuptials, and the change in family dynamic that it will signify. The power play between Sarah and Mary was possibly the least engaging part of this story, although it was necessary to bring Vivian back into the story, so it wasn’t all bad news.

No good Chuck episode is complete without some less than subtle references. This week there’s some lovely Star Wars ones, along with a great T2 nod when we catch a glimpse of the imprisoned Mary Bartowski (Linda Hamilton) doing pull-ups. Actually, we see the back of a woman who looks like Linda Hamilton doing them, which was good enough for me.

But the comedy highlight was undoubtedly Morgan’s attempt at becoming Italian to go on his first solo mission. “It’s me! Mario” was the line that floored me, along with some of the other insanity Joshua Gomez comes out with. He then topped that gag by humming  Vader’s theme as a means to get into the bay guy mentality, and then picks up a mobile phone, and with the real ones listening, he orders an imaginary minion to “Kill the puppy”, because he’s sick of feeding it!

Gomez does most of the comedic heavy lifting this week, and delivers some inspired moments of hilarity.

Jeffster and Big Mike are also rather good this week, when they’re called on to create a romantic video montage from secret footage they’ve taken of Sarah. It turns out that Lester’s collected some 1,250 hours of ‘Sarah-related footage’, and has a very odd line in gold outfits that have a red foil heart covering the groin area. This subplot has a fantastic twist at the end, when we discover that Jeff has a very creative side when it comes to video montages, the complete opposite of Lester.

If I’m honest, the cliffhanger ending was a little lame, on the basis that I couldn’t, in my wildest imagination, believe they’d kill Sarah off, especially when the show just got a fifth season from NBC. I suspect that Alexei will turn up to rein Vivian in and become his previous persona in the process. Timothy Dalton hasn’t disappointed yet as Volkoff, so I’m really looking forward to that.

The season finale could possibly be the most expensive Chuck episode yet, purely on the number of cast members, on the basis that I can’t imagine they wouldn’t invite all the Woodcombs, Jeffster will be in attendance and all the other potential family members (Sarah’s father?). I just hope they don’t blow the budget for next season before it’s even started.

There’s something gloriously silly and wholesome about Chuck that makes me smile, and I’m glad they get to come back again and unleash their unique craziness, yet again.

Read our review of episode 22, Chuck Versus Agent X, here.