Chuck 3.07 "vs the Mask"

[emeraldstag]

It wasn't until htbthomas tweeted that I realized this would be the last episode of Chuck for a few weeks thanks to the Winter Olympics.  It's tough to have this taste of S3 Chuck (just about a month) and then for it to be shelved right when it seemed to be getting momentum and all the characters are in an interesting place.

• Shaw.  While I've liked the character up to this episode, and I think Brandon Routh is a much greater actor than Superman Returns made him seem, I just don't like the hard push they've made for Shaw & Sarah to come together. Now, I knew that would be the case ahead of time, to mix things up between Chuck & Sarah, but the way they've introduced Shaw it just doesn't make sense.  A few episodes ago he was putting his wedding ring on and we learned about him falling in love with a fellow spy.  And now he's flirting with Sarah in a way that makes it feel like he's felt that way for awhile.  Felt rushed to me.  Maybe in 5-10 episodes, but with not a full season and Shaw probably not being around the entire season I can see why they pushed it.  Doesn't mean I have to like it.
• Hannah.  I love Kristin Kreuk, and I try to support her with watching whatever she makes (Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li) so it just made me laugh when I saw Chuck bail on Hannah, just like Clark used to bail on Lana all the time and then the secrecy, bad excuses that came with that.  I hope the producers didn't cast her for Hannah because they knew she had experience being the love interest of a character that had to leave her in the lurch often.  It's clear the Sarah aspect of Chuck's life does get in the way for his personal life, but I really don't see a way around that without Hanna or any other love interest knowing the truth so I don't know how many more times they can have Chuck date normal girl (S1 Lou).  And then throw in the Morgan angle, and it really makes me wish Anna was still around.

I've stayed pretty spoiler free concerning the season once it started so I don't know how long Shaw and Hannah will be around when Chuck comes back in March, but I know that Chuck!punch is coming and I don't know if I want to know what happens to make Chuck go that far because right now he seems to admire Shaw for who he is and what he's done.  Clearly the Ring knows of Shaw and wants him dead, but that seems to go for every spy that isn't bad (I miss Bryce but I am watching White Collar!). Also the idea of the team being Chuck's training wheels and that they'll have to come off someday, I don't know how they can stop that from happening without really having Chuck fail at something.  It's good to know that after the fun diversion of the Olympics, there is still a whole lot of Chuck S3 waiting for us on the other side.