Although season 3 of Chuck began with something of a return to the status quo, with Chuck (Zachary Levi) still superpowered up with the intersect (although a more powerful one), Chuck and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) back to will they/won’t they status, and Chuck and Casey (Adam Baldwin) cheerfully reemployed at the Buy More, everything has changed.

Before the Olympic-imposed break, the driving force of the show switched from Chuck wanting to get the intersect out of his head to Chuck wanting to be the best spy he could be. He had his chance to go back and be a real boy, but instead, he chose to be a hero, and to keep all those he loves safe. But he forgot, or refused to see, that that decision meant creating a great divide between himself and those he loved, between his former life and the one he leads now.

It is no surprise that when the show resumed, we continued along that same theme. Who is Chuck now? And, more importantly, is it really worth it for him to sacrifice all those things that he holds dear to protect them?

In episode 8, Chuck vs The Fake Name, Chuck gets to be badass again. He takes on the persona of a trained assassin to learn the intended target, and in doing so is forced to pull out one of Casey’s teeth, beat up Sarah and Shaw (Brandon Routh), and listen as Sarah confesses her true name, Sam, to Shaw, though she had never told it to him.

Until now, Sarah has been the one to notice the changes in Chuck. She hates who he is becoming, hates seeing who he really is disappear within the facade of a trained spy, and hates that it is her fault. She helped bring him into this world, and more and more, she wants out of it. But now Chuck has realized that he is changing too. But, unlike Sarah, he does not hate it. He hates what it makes him do – lie to Ellie (Sarah Lancaster), break up with Hannah (Kristin Kreuk), pull Casey’s teeth – but he is slowly embracing those choices.

The question is, what will happen next? With Sarah and Chuck changing position on their views of spyhood, where will that leave them? And it cannot be forgotten that while Sarah is clearly changing in some ways, in others, she is just the same. While she stated in this past episode more than once that she did not want to repeat her old pattern of getting involved with the men she works with, obviously she is at it again. Admitting you have a problem is great, but does not accomplish much if you go for it anyways.

Let me know what you think, and if you want more specific recaps of episodes, check out my blog, Insights of a TV Addict.

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