So let’s break it down – if you haven’t seen the episode yet, you probably should stop reading here.

Once we get past the, “I know Kung Fu,” flashback we get to move six months into the future where Chuck is failing his spy 101 crash course. As the general tells Chuck he’s done, and he begs, “you don’t know what I said no to,” we know exactly what this episode is going to be. What those “three words” we’ll hear so much about in the second hour are, and hopefully where this season is headed. Need proof this is the same Chuck from season one? Four minutes in and his pants have already fallen off.

Intersect 2.0 is everything we’d hoped it would be. It turns Chuck into the badass spy we’ve been hoping to see since episode one, and at the same time it works in the only possible way it could for Chuck. Knowing Kung Fu is great, but, like most things in Chuck’s life, the flashes seem to be sparked by his emotions. Which is why we catch on pretty quickly that anytime Sarah is threatened, the Intersect turns on.

It’s nice to finally see Sarah take some initiative in the relationship and tell Chuck how she really feels. If there’s one thing that bothers me about this show, and it really is just one thing, it’s the Chuck and Sarah relationship. While I think tonight’s episode will be extremely telling in regards to how they’re dealt with, I have found myself growing a little frustrated with the “will they, won’t they” dynamic. It’s clear that they both really like each other, and at the end of these two hours we see that they even love each other, but they need to either put them together or put some real obstacles in front of them. Schwartz and the team should look to shows like Big Bang Theory to see that sometimes the show works better when the sexual tension has been… relieved? The actors are great, but they also have something a lot of shows don’t – chemistry. Chemistry that will continue to hold up in future episodes, even if they are together.

One of the major concerns of this season was the Subway tie in. After the show was saved by, among other things, a push by fans to buy as many $5 footlongs as possible, it was nice to not see any Subway in the show. The Orange Orange still exists, despite speculation that Sarah’s cover job would be as a sandwhich artist.

The return to the Buy More was done in typical Chuck fashion. Even if that’s not where he wants to be, so much of the show’s comedy comes from the store, that to lose it would be detrimental to the show as a whole. That character death everyone’s been talking about, by the way? As much as I heart about it, it was still pretty shocking (and just a little bit satisfying) to see. I guess between that, cutting Julia Ling, and moving Awesome and Ellie to a different apartment (thus, unfortunately, cutting their screen time I’m sure), this is how the show cut the budget to stay on air.

By the time the episode moved into it’s second episode, it was time to officially jump into a more traditional Chuck episode. With a great spy A story, and a hilarious B story the centers around Morgan and mirrors Chuck’s story in a cleverly crafted way. Proving that the bromance is, indeed, still intact. The ending, by the way, was a great summary of the show. This is a show built on wish fulfillment, and while we’ve spent almost two hours seeing Chuck pay the consequences of getting his wish fulfilled, Morgan finally gets exactly what he’s wanted for since season one.

Hour one, Chuck vs the Pink Slip, was written by Chris Fedak and Matt Miller. Hour two, Chuck vs the Three Words, was written by Ali Adler and Scott Rosenbaum. While initially written as two separate episodes, they work well on their own and as separate entities, pushing forward plot and characters, and living up to what promises to be a spectacular third season.

At the end of the two hours, you’re definitely left wanting more. Which is exactly the point. Chuck returns tonight to it’s regular time slot – Monday’s at 8/7c on NBC.