Kidnapping and a DNA weapon on the move will ruin anyone’s day off and put getting ready for a wedding rehearsal dinner out of the question and into the hands of others.

Though Morgan would rather go on the mission with Casey, Chuck and Sarah, he’s in charge of getting a romantic video made for Chuck to give as a surprise for Sarah. When Morgan turns out to be necessary to the mission, the video duties fall to Jeff and Lester.

Could more go wrong? Of course it could and tension between Sarah and Mary Bartowski is thrown into the mix to make it all go even more wrong. This is an element that has been hinted at only slightly in previous episodes but is full-blown in this one. Fortunately for the audience, this plot element is dealt with concisely and we do not have to look forward to more hours in which Sarah and Mary are in opposition to each other. That’s an overdone trope we don’t want from “Chuck.”

As is often the case, the comedic elements are provided by Jeff and Lester. There are no big laughs in this episode but there is tension breaking humor which gives us that “Chuckness” we love in this show.

As we’ve come to expect, Ray Wise and Linda Hamilton do a great job in their guest starring roles. They make us want to know more about their characters. We hope we’ll get that chance in future episodes.

Points of Interest

1. There does seem to be a bit of time strangeness in this episode. We are told that the rehearsal dinner is the next day and in the span of what must be only 36 hours, our heroes travel to Columbia, have an adventure there and then travel to Moscow to have another adventure and make it home for the dinner.

2. We learn something new about Jeff. We have liked him for his humor but we get to see that he has romance in his nature and that makes him even more likable.

3. Instead of waiting till the next episode which is the season finale, there is a big cliffhanger in this one and yet we see that it’s resolved in the season finale from the previews for the next episode.

What Worked

The overall tone of romance in this episode is what really makes it work. We see Sarah and Chuck becoming a family unit by standing together in opposition to Mary. Ellie and Awesome are making things magical for the rehearsal dinner. Jeff shows his romantic side with the Chuck and Sarah video and even Casey shows he understands the seriousness of the relationship between Morgan and Alex and that’s romantic too. The spy stuff is fun but when you get down to it, this episode is all about the romance.

What Didn’t Work

The thing that nags at you about this episode is the goofy time factor. People do things they just couldn’t get done in the amount of time given. “Chuck” is not a serious show but this is the kind of thing that will draw attention away from what the writers really want to be the focus.

“Chuck Versus the Last Details” was written by Henry Alonso Myers and Kristin Newman and directed by Peter Lauer.

“Chuck” airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. on NBC.