Chuck Versus the Cliffhanger
The episode was directed by Robert Duncan McNeill and written by series co-creator Chris Fedak, along with Nicholas Wootton.
In the pilot episode of the series, Stephen's son Chuck (Zachary Levi) receives the database and accidentally uploads it to his brain.
By the fourth season, Chuck is a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and is engaged to one of his handlers, Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski).
To keep secret Volkoff's true identity, the CIA sends its "toughest" agent, Clyde Decker (Richard Burgi), to stop Chuck.
Chuck, his mother Mary (Linda Hamilton), and ally John Casey (Adam Baldwin) set out to find an antidote to the Norseman's effects, but when Chuck breaks into the prison holding Alexei, he discovers that elite agent Clyde Decker (Richard Burgi) has anticipated his move and relocated Alexei.
To protect Alexei's true identity and conceal the government's botched experiment, Decker revokes Chuck's clearance to CIA facilities.
Two weeks later, Chuck returns from his honeymoon to a deserted Castle, where he learns from Decker that he has been manipulated his entire spy career, leading to him receiving the Intersect and facing Fulcrum, the Ring, Daniel Shaw, and Volkoff.
[11] Fedak stated that cliffhangers tell "more story", citing The Empire Strikes Back and Batman Begins as examples.
HitFix Senior Editor Alan Sepinwall has called the episode a "tying together of everything the character [Chuck] and the show have been about", including the use of a recurring spy strategy, "The Magnet", to fool Decker.
[2] Fedak stated in an interview on the day of the episode's airing that "Chuck Versus the Cliffhanger" marks a major transition in the series.
Morgan will be portrayed by Joshua Gomez much like Chuck was by Zachary Levi in the early seasons of the series: as a newcomer to the spy world due to the presence of the Intersect in his brain.
During Chuck and Sarah's wedding, Morgan, acting as the minister, claims to be ordained by the Intergalactic Federation of Planets, a reference to Star Trek.
When Clyde Decker video conferences with Chuck at the end of the episode, he says, "I guess this is the start of a new chapter, eh, boy?"
In contrast, Sepinwall wrote that he felt no empathy for Volkoff's daughter, as "Lauren Cohan has never managed to make a cohesive and interesting character out of a bunch of jarring personality shifts".
"[16] Gibson agreed with Sepinwall on Timothy Dalton's range of acting skills, praising Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski as well.
Gibson wrote that Levi deserved an Emmy nomination for a scene in which Chuck surrenders himself to Vivian to plead for the antidote to save Sarah's life.
Gibson also praised Levi and Strahovski's performance in Chuck and Sarah's "practice wedding": "These two have always had such great chemistry, you could swear they're actually in love and not just actors pretending.
Watching Chuck and a reformed Hartley Winterbottom talk for 10 minutes in the main hallway of Volkoff Industries without anyone noticing who they were?
Brittany Frederick of Starpulse.com wrote, "It wasn't the whiz-bang finale I was expecting after all the hype, but it was one that was true to what the show stands for, and that's good enough for me.
"[9] Like Sepinwall and Gibson, Frederick praised the performance by Levi and Dalton, writing, "Chuck's heartbreak and desperation were incredibly poignant throughout the bulk of the episode."
"[9] Frederick wrote, "While I'm not blown away by this finale, I still am satisfied with it, because it represents the values we've come to expect from Chuck: the ideas of hope, family, and sticking together in the face of the most adverse of circumstances.
With Sarah's life in danger, Chuck and all his friends and family proved they would risk everything to save her, and it made for a very compelling, involving hour.
