Red Test: Chuck, Sarah, and Casey Find Themselves at a Crossroads on "Chuck"

"It's America, Chuck. Everyone has a choice." - John Casey

If there's one single theme for this season of NBC's Chuck it would be appear to be identity. How do we define ourselves? How do we let others define us? Does it matter whether Chuck is a spy, an asset, or a civilian? If you take John Casey out of the espionage world, is he still Casey? And are we more defined by the actions we take or those that we don't?

This week's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Final Exam"), written by Zev Borow and directed by Robert Duncan McNeil, brought these issues to the forefront of the series, posing several questions about the way in which our three central spies see themselves in reference to the rest of the world and the way in which they view each other.

As Chuck prepares to take his final mission, the one thing that stands in his way is a final test, the last hurdle in his path to becoming a full-blown spy. But if he's willing and able to take that leap, it might very well destroy any chance he has with Sarah and forever remove any last vestige of his innocence. What happens when your heart's desires are at cross-purposes? Is there any way to win? Or are you doomed to fail no matter what you do?

So what did I think of this week's episode? Let's dive in.

I thought Zev Borow did a fantastic job with this week's episode, though I will say that the Subway product placement was extremely heavy-handed this week, bordering on the almost obscene as Big Mike not only chomped down on a Subway sandwich while his tailor measured him for a new suit but an entire scene was shot inside an actual Subway and Casey had to literally "break freshly baked bread" with Jeff and Lester (and take a bite of Jeff's "tuna-roni" concoction). Granted, Chuck couldn't have come back without the support of sponsor Subway and I appreciate everything that Subway has done in keeping this series on the air, but I wish that there was a way to tone down these moments without making them quite so blatant.

It took me out of what was otherwise a solid episode that featured some real shifts in the dynamics between the characters, but that's a minor quibble in an otherwise stellar installment. Several of the characters were forced to make decisions that would have long-standing implications within the confines of the narrative. Would Chuck follow orders and kill CIA mole Hunter Perry (guest star Kyle Bornheimer)? Could Sarah ever look at him the same way again if he passed his red test? Could Casey put aside his "John Crazy" persona and adjust to being an everyday civilian?

It's Chuck's decision which dovetails nicely with those made by both Sarah and Casey. Following the near-dismantling of the team last week (after Casey's treasonous actions), Chuck receives word that, if he passes his final exam, the team will in fact be finished. He will be stationed in Rome and given a cover as a billionaire industrialist (though how Chuck could quite pull off such an elaborate cover would remain to be seen), while Sarah and Shaw will be based in Washington D.C., where they will focus on counter-Ring operations.

While Sarah says that it looks like Chuck got everything he's always wanted, that's far from the truth. Yes, he stands on the precipice of becoming a "real" spy, one with a badge and a gun, it's not all that he's wanted. While he's become something bigger than his job at the Buy More, he wants it all: the spy job, the glamorous/dangerous thrill, and the girl. It's the latter that's presenting a problem.

I loved how Chuck brought along a stakeout kit, complete with Hall & Oates' "Private Eyes" on the iPod and the famous sizzling shrimp, both of which played prominently in Chuck and Sarah's very first stakeout. There's a nice sense of finality here, as though this could easily be their final mission together and both Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski play it brilliantly, evoking a solemn nostalgia and a sweet camaraderie that nearly culminates in a kiss between the two. (Until Shaw chimes in, that is.)

Would they be different people if Chuck had made a different decision in Prague and chosen Sarah over the job? Possibly but it's also in Chuck's nature to choose professional duty and selflessness over personal desire and selfishness. He also wrongfully believes that he's not worthy of Sarah's love because he's ordinary rather than extraordinary, which coldn't be further from the truth.

What has attracted Sarah to Chuck has been his innate innocence: the fact that he abhors violence, doesn't want to carry a gun, and prefers to solve his problems by thinking rather shooting his way out of them. Chuck believes that if he passes his test, they can be together because they'll both be equals. But that's a problem for Sarah, given that she's fallen for Chuck's sweet naivete and his inability to kill someone in cold blood.

If he goes complete his final exam--his "red test"--then Sarah believes he won't be the same person that he once was. She doesn't want him to be able to kill, especially because she has carried around the guilt of her own red test all of these years, a formative experience that shaped Sarah immensely and likely caused her to conceal a lot of her own emotion and bury it deep inside. Even as she shot her target, she wanted to be sure that the woman was reaching for a weapon and that she hadn't murdered her without justifiable cause. But it's a mystery that will forever plague her.

I had a feeling when Chuck gave Casey a gun from Castle as a thank-you present that this gift would have to come back into it somehow... and, sure enough, it did. I wondered if Chuck would be able to kill Perry if it came down to it, whether he would be able to pull the trigger if his or Sarah's lives were in jeopardy and whether Chuck would be pushed to action. (I also wondered for a split-second whether the entire mission--from Ivan Drago (ha!) to Perry murdering Anatoli to the train station fight--was all a set-up designed to see if Chuck would be willing to kill.)

Casey has seemingly always wanted Chuck to man up, to step into the role of spy and accept the full responsibilities of that job. Yet when it came to Chuck making the final step into that arena--into killing for his job and country--Casey fulfilled that part of the mission for Chuck, felling Perry with a bullet just as he reached for the gun on his ankle and preserving Chuck's innocence.

As Casey says later, given that he's a civilian, no one can know what he did for Chuck as it was murder, not a government-sanctioned assassination. But that presents complications for Chuck and Sarah's relationship. She can't be with him if she believes he pulled that trigger and he can't tell her that he didn't. While Casey meant to help both of them, he may have just created an even bigger obstacle to their reconciliation.

Special praise has to go to Strahovski, who once again managed to convey a real depth of emotion with little more than a look, a tilt of her head, or a teary eye. She's proven to be quite adept at choreographing a great deal of nuance with the smallest of movements and this episode was no exemption. The sadness as she looks back at Chuck at Union Station spoke volumes as did the painful recollection of her red test as she tells Shaw that it was the worst day of her life.

What else did I love about this week's episode? The use of Ivan Drago (a shout-out to Dolph Lundgren's character in Rocky IV); Chuck's stakeout kit (complete with bottle of champagne, glasses, and Chinese food); the callbacks to the gang's first joint stakeout; the knife fight in the Union Station restroom; Chuck's horror when he believes he killed Perry; Casey smashing Jeff and Lester's heads together; and the best line of the evening: "I am a naked spy!"

All in all, I'm extremely intrigued to see just where the writers take this storyline. This was the last episode I had seen in advance so I'm just as much in the dark as everyone else is right now. It definitely seems as though the team is splintering in more ways than one and their entire close-knit unit has been fractured, possibly beyond repair.

But I am curious to know: what did you think of this week's episode? What do you think will happen to Chuck, Sarah, and Casey? Is Chuck and Sarah's relationship beyond damaged at this point? Will Chuck come clean about what Casey did for him? Can he get on that plane for Rome? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the American Hero"), Chuck has his pick of the best CIA agents for an undercover operation, but he has only one girl in mind for the job: Sarah. Meanwhile, Casey, Morgan, and Awesome join forced to help Chuck win Sarah back.