Sarah Walker (Yvonne Stahovski) and her mom (Cheryl Ladd) on "Chuck vs the Baby"

It saddens me that I was late with this review — and even more so that I didn’t watch the episode when it aired yesterday. Perhaps I’m wrong about this but… was this not the best episode of Chuck in a really long time? It felt and even looked like the good, ol’ Chuck we all fell in love with. Yes, even looked. Have you noticed the show has looked so blue for the past two years? Maybe I’m just neurotic in that way. (Or perhaps the flashbacks allowed for that old made up Sarah that enamored me with her in the first place.)

I haven’t read reviews of this episode (I never do before I do my own so that I’m clear of all other thoughts) but I’d be surprised if someone said anything differently.

Sure, perhaps it may have seemed a bit contrived in some way or another and perhaps babies would go deaf if guns were shot within six inches of their ears I don’t know, but the episode was just incredibly entertaining. It was, honestly, so well executed that I did not care. And this marks the second episode in a row where the action/fighting sequences were absolutely on point. More so, Laura LeFranc and Rafe Judkins, who wrote this episode (by the way, they absolutely mastered every single character in this episode) and are usually better with the romantic episodes, blended everything so perfectly.

In fact, the scene where Sarah reunites with her mom made my sister say, “How do they do that? It was just so action-y and now I’m about to cry.” Exactly. That’s the Chuck we all fell in love with. Sarah kicking ass! People dropping left and right! Heart racing. Don’t even get me started on another family dinner! Or the “Sarah + Chuck” carving (even though it sounds better with Chuck’s name first)! Heart warmed. It was perfect.

I should stop before this basically becomes a love letter for “Chuck vs the Baby.” But there’s absolutely nothing I didn’t like about this episode, and there are about a million things I loved. So much so, it’s clouding my ability to actually review it. But I’m going to try a quick review…

It’s always fun to get a Sarah flashback because there’s so many layers to her character that it’s nice to see how she’s transformed. We’ve been getting hints about that in the past episodes, but this one definitely brought it to the forefront. We’ve seen this already to a point where it could almost become tedious, but just as the past couple of episodes, this one maintained its own identity. In just five years, Sarah has gone from merciless killer to someone who now does not want to rejoin the CIA, who is willing to settle down at this point. And it was beautiful to see Yvonne travel back in time to her season one character.

Now, the baby. It raises a lot of questions about how exactly Chuck was the one that “changed” Sarah and it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, like, what happens now — questions that will remain unanswered. But I think it fit nicely with transitioning Sarah (and Chuck) into becoming a family unit at some point in a way that was less contrived than, say, Sarah always having been a mom.

Will Sarah’s not wanting to rejoin the CIA change the fabric of the show in some way? Perhaps. Maybe Chuck and Sarah will continue being freelance vigilantes of some sort. Who knows? Was it weird that Bryce wasn’t mentioned at all? That we still don’t know Sarah’s last name? Yes. The point is that I don’t care. There are only five hours of Chuck left and all I really want to do is spend time with these people before time’s up. And so getting rid of missions for mission’s sake seems natural to me both narratively and for Sarah as a person.

The B-plot, even though I have yet to mention it, was perfect too. Regardless of how lame the Alex and Morgan split up was, the B-plot had the right amount of comedy and tying into the A-plot that the Buy More used to execute (which now can’t). Ellie and Awesome especially have been hilarious with their spy role play (that never seems to end up actually happening for them). More so, their backstory was also very poignant — and they were just saying what happened.

Thank you Chuck team for “Chuck vs the Baby.” Thank you. I said it was basically a love letter, and it truly is. I mean we even got nerd Chuck for a couple of seconds; that almost never happens anymore. What an amazingly superlative episode.

And now only five episodes left. My heart breaks watching that episode count go down. Next Friday, don’t come too soon.