'Chuck' Searches for Orion

When the General stated that there is a secret war going on between the NSA/CIA and Fulcrum, I couldn't help but to have some flashes of my own: to Get Smart and the war between Chaos and Control. This of course, got me thinking about all of the parallels between Get Smart and Chuck. Chuck Bartowski, himself, is a modern-day Maxwell Smart and Sarah could certainly pass for Agent 99. OK, so there's no shoe to talk into, but there is a secret underground lair beneath the Orange Orange and this episode had a computer that you could talk into and it would talk back (sort of). And we can't forget all of Chuck's bloopers on the job that have almost cost him the mission over and over again ala Maxwell Smart. Of course, Chuck is playing off of many spy classics (James Bond, Get Smart, Charlie's Angels -- just to name a few), but this is why I enjoy it so much.

Is anyone else kinda miffed that we didn't get to learn Orion's true identity? I'm still holding out for a surprise ending where Orion wasn't in that helicopter, whereby, he's still alive and he and Chuck can still have that face-to-face meeting at long last. Yeah, I know. Highly unlikely, but a TV fan can dream, right? In any event, the secret to getting the Intersect out of Chuck's head did not blow up in that helicopter with Orion. Thankfully, the allusive spy planned ahead and left some clues under Chuck's pillow. There's only one little hitch: Chuck can't share them with anyone -- not even Sarah. And this is after she got all upset when he didn't trust her enough to tell her about his private search for Orion. It's never an easy road, I'm afraid. Then again, where would the fun be in that?

And speaking of fun, how clever was that Beverly Hills "Buy More" sign? It read:

Beverly Hills

BUY MORE

Because you can

Obviously, it's supposed to be read as: Beverly Hills, buy more because you can! Too funny.

If you missed this week's episode ("Chuck Versus the Predator"), you can watch it for free at Hulu.com.