This week on “Chuck” entitled, “Chuck vs. the Curse”, Sarah and Awesome have a date night that turns into a spy mission, Chuck is worried about the “Bartowski Curse”, Alex and Morgan are trying to retrieve Chuck’s P.A.N.T.S and rogue CIA agent Robin Cunnings is searching for Chuck and “The Omen“.

I’m glad Ellie and Awesome was feature more in this week’s episode. Sarah Lancaster and Ryan McPartlin are so terrific together that I hope they continue to use them more in future episodes. In this episode, I enjoyed watching them create a little spy game where they used “Martini” as their safe word, but the game turns out to be a real and dangerous spy mission. I laughed in the scene where they tried to save Chuck by cutting off the power, but they didn’t count on the backup generator. It just tells you that Ellie and Awesome might look the part of being spies but still don’t have the know-how.
I was surprised and didn’t like them wrapping up the Chuck and his team going “off the grid” storyline by having their records clean in just one episode. I would’ve preferred to see multiple episodes of Team Bartowski running from the CIA and looking for the individual(s) and/or organization that are trying to destroy Team Bartowski and their loved ones with Beckman as their “secret” contact.

I got tired of hearing Chuck continuingly used the “Bartowski Curse” as the reason that the team went “off the grid” and Ellie and Awesome were captured by Cunnings. In addition, I didn’t liked Chuck using “Bartowski Curse” as an excuse to go to Cunnings’ location all by himself without Sarah and Casey‘s help to give up the Omen. Speaking of which, I couldn’t believe Chuck gave up the Omen without thinking of the ramifications that the virus will have on the main network. I know his emotions got the best of him because his family was endanger but after years of spying, I thought Chuck would’ve come up with a plan that will save Ellie and Awesome while not giving up the Omen to Cunnings and her “evil” higher-ups.
While I thought “P.A.N.T.S” (Priceless Artifacts Never to Share) was somewhat tacky and an excuse to bring them together, it was still nice to see Morgan and Alex together again since they broke up. Mekenna Melvin was terrific in this episode especially in her scenes where Alex was pointing a shotgun at Morgan’s head and her fake crying to 911 to get one of the CIA agents out of the way so that Morgan can retrieve Chuck’s P.A.N.T.S out of Chuck’s apartment. It was a sweet moment at the end where Morgan gave Alex his P.A.N.T.S that inside the box was a picture of him and Alex. I’m rooting for them to reconcile and be together again when the series ends and it looks like they are heading that way.
This week’s guest star was Rebecca Romijn. I thought her performance as rogue CIA agent Robin Cunnings was solid at best. Romijn wasn’t as convincing as a villain that I hoped she would’ve been in this episode. I thought her “about to” torture Chuck with “The Toy” was cheesy, not villainous. Maybe it was because the torturing happen off-screen but in Cunning’s final scene at Castle, I couldn’t believe this “supposedly” tough villain couldn’t take it from being torture and gave up all of her secrets to Beckman and Casey that clears Team Bartowski. However, Romijn had her moments like Cunnings telling Morgan that you lived with your girlfriend’s father (Cunning referring to Alex), but her moment with Chuck was an important one for the rest of the series where she tells Chuck that he has pissed off a lot of powerful people. This is troublesome because in prior seasons, Chuck with the Intersect and his team have stopped a high number of his past enemies and their evil schemes that has caused problems for their bosses that now want to see Chuck and his loved ones dead. It makes you think how can Chuck and Sarah survive and even get out of the spy game with past enemies and their bosses continuing to go after them.
The best part of the episode was the ending where the Omen took over the main network and cut to the scene of a prison’s door that was locked electronically, but thanks to Omen the door is unlock leaving the question of who was in the cell that was coming out. A good guess is a certain past rival of Chuck’s that was seen in next week’s promo.

Overall, I thought “Chuck vs. the Curse” was solid but nowhere near the level to last week’s outstanding episode, “Chuck vs. the Hack Off”. The episode had some great moments like Ellie and Awesome, Morgan and Alex, Cunnings telling Chuck that he has angrier a lot of powerful people, and the final scene. However, I can’t rank this episode any higher than a “3” because mainly for how they used Chuck this week. I felt Chuck wasn’t smart with his decisions like going by himself to Cunning’s location to give up the Omen for his sister and brother-in-law’s lives that didn’t go well and look doom for Chuck until Sarah and Casey showed up to save them all, which Chuck should’ve allowed them to help him in the beginning. It doesn’t make sense that in the past, Chuck has begged Sarah to let him help her, but this week, Chuck wouldn’t allow Sarah to help him. I expect that with Morgan, but not with Chuck, who is a lot smarter than he was in this episode.