Professional, spycraft, and personal get more mixed up for Chuck (Zachary Levi) this week as he tangles with a Chinese agent, and has his first stakeout in this episode written by Scott Rosenbaum.

Chuck Versus the Sizzling Shrimp first aired on 22 October, 2007, and sees lots of humour and trouble arising as the stakeout meshes with a family occasion.

Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and Chuck have a tradition of celebrating their own kind of Mother’s Day since they have issues with their mother (the day is to commemorate the day she left them), and Morgan (Joshua Gomez) wants to make sure that he, Chuck and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) have a night together.

All of this comes to a head when Chuck flashes on a waitress at a Chinese restaurant, she’s a foreign agent who has never stepped on to American soil. Mei-Ling (Gwendoline Yeo) is in town because her brother has been snatched from the Chinese consulate, and she’s going to rescue him.

Chuck, Sarah and Casey (Adam Baldwin) get enmeshed in events which have lots of nods to Big Trouble in Little China – it’s set in LA’s Chinatown (which also gets a nod), Mei-Ling is the name of one of the main characters, and James Hong (also seen in Chinatown) appears in this episode, and Big Trouble as a character with the same name, Lo Pan (both times in a wheelchair).

All of this causes lots of problems between him and Sarah, not to mention that Morgan is this close to be fired…

I honestly forgot how much I loved this show, and how involved with it I get. The action beats are great, the pop culture references are laugh out loud funny, and the emotional beats get me every time.

Versus the Sandworm was written by Phil Klemmer and it first aired on 29 October, 2007.

Chuck interviews for the Assistant Manager position at the Buy More, but also flashes on a man wanted by the government, Laszlo (Jonathan Sadowski), but Chuck learns that he used to work for the government that wants him caught, and simply wanted to have a new life for himself.

This throws some serious doubts into Chuck’s mind about his handlers, because Laszlo, character-wise, isn’t quite so different from Chuck, he’s kind of like Q. But Sarah learns he may be a little unstable, and is actually intent on making a bomb to wreak some havoc on those he believes wronged him.

There’s also a Halloween party, which is where the Dune sandworm comes in. There’s also a Firefly reference, a War Games reference and nods to the James Bond films, especially Goldfinger and A View To A Kill, there’s even an ejection seat. And man, I love the scenes between Morgan and Awesome (Ryan McPartlin).

And in the end, Chuck is forced between doing the interview, or stopping Laszlo. It definitely adds something to the character arcs and dilemmas they go through, and the choices that are made.

More spying, laugh, and pop culture references next week with more of Chuck!