Matthew Miller gives us our first Chuck (Zachary Levi) episode this week, Chuck Versus the DeLorean, which originally aired on 8 December, 2008.

Sarah’s (Yvonne Strahovski) con artist father, Jack Burton (Gary Cole) – another Big Trouble in Little China reference – rolls into town, in the midst of a long con on a sheik (Anthony Azizi). Unfortunately the sheik may have terrorist ties so the Team has to help run the game to its conclusion. But can Sarah trust her own father?

Meanwhile at the BuyMore, Anna (Julia Ling) thinks she and Morgan (Joshua Gomez) are ready for the next step, and Awesome (Ryan McPartlin) fronts him a loan, but Morgan puts it towards a broken down DeLorean because of his love of Back to the Future.

Watching the team pull a con with the agency backing, and Sarah’s dad is a lot of fun, and of course, the DeLorean gets pulled into it. And when Chuck pulls out his Colonel Klink accent, it’s hard not to laugh aloud.

But when the sheik grabs Jack, the team has to go out and rescue him, and Sarah goes all Sarah Connor on the baddies.

Great episode, and it gives Sarah some new layers, and a difficult relationship with her father, who obviously loves her, and she him, but he can’t change who he is. She also gives him enough lead time at the end of the episode to elude the police that are coming for him, virtually guaranteeing he shall return at some point later in the series.

Chuck Versus Santa Claus was written by Scott Rosenbaum, and serves as a Christmas episode, but it can’t be a geeky Christmas episode without Die Hard references, including the appearance of Reginald VelJohnson as Sgt. Al Powell.

The episode first debuted on 15 December, 2008, and sees our beloved characters taken hostage in the BuyMore when Ned (Jed Rees) crashes his car into the store. Outside Mauser (Micheal Rooker) is the cop assigned to the case, but Chuck, Sarah, and Casey (Adam Baldwin) – who loses a toe in this episode –  are on the inside, and working to figure out what is going on.

In a delightful reveal, we learn that Al is Big Mike’s (Mark Christopher Lawrence) cousin.

There’s a nice tender moment when Chuck gives Sarah her present, and tells her what it is and its history. I love the fact that they care so much for one another, and have to pretend they don’t while pretending they do for their cover.

But not everything is as it appears when Chuck flashes on a Fulcrum agent… and Sarah makes a tough decision to protect Chuck and lies to him about it.

More episodes next week as Chuck continues to learn his spycraft, and figure out his personal and professional life.