Upon their return to Castle, Chuck and Sarah debrief Vivian.  Is there any chance that anything in the box reveals the location of Volkoff's riches?  No, Vivian replies, there is only stuff about her.  Sarah gets call; it's from Ellie, so she steps out of the room.  Vivian rues that the CIA will never allow her the chance to talk to her father, who, as evidenced by the contents of the box, truly loved her.  Chuck, however, is the CIA.  Perhaps he can arrange something. 

Sarah talks to Ellie, who has had a wedding epiphany.  A bride doesn't build a wedding around the cake or the flowers.  A wedding is built around the dress.  Now, Ellie knows Sarah isn't a girlie-girl, but Sarah cuts her off.  Dress shopping seems like it could be fun!  She is trying to ease into the wedding excitement so she is going to do some research right now.  Sarah goes to Castle's costume computer and calls up a dress.  Sarah tries it on, but it isn't right.  She tries on an ugly one, and then two worse than the last.  She wearily tries on a fourth and is arrested in the mirror.  "Oh my God!  It's perfect!" she exclaims.  She looks toward the computer and sees a hologram of her in the dress and Chuck in his tux.  This is the moment of which Ellie spoke.  "We're getting married!" Sarah tearily and excitedly shouts.  At that moment, Casey enters.  "Petty dress," he sincerely grumbles.  Sarah's going to need a new one though, because the four bullet holes in the back are evidence that this one had been on a mission.

Upstairs in the Buy More, Morgan catches Jeff and Lester on their way out of the store.  He knows what they did to his apartment listing.  Well, perhaps he should have granted them their vacation.  Morgan explains that he still needs a room for the night, thanks to the guys' hijinks, so can he stay with them?  It's too late, the vacancy has been filled by the renaissance fair king.  The king is going to score them some major "ren tang."

General Beckman tells Chuck and Sarah that the CIA has discovered that the bank is laundering money for criminals around the world.  They need Vivian to go back into the bank and plant a bug in the servers Chuck found.  Chuck explains that Vivian wants nothing to do with her father, so she will be reluctant to go back.  But, if the CIA can arrange for Vivian to have a meeting with Volkoff, Chuck thinks he can persuade her.  Beckman agrees to Chuck's request.  She then tells Chuck and Sarah that they will need to create a diversion to allow Vivian to plan the bug.  Well, what kind of diversion does the General have in mind?  "You two are going to rob a bank," she explains.  This plan elicits quite wide smiles from the two spies.

With no other place to stay, Morgan unpacks a sleeping back in the store's home theater room.  As he tries to sleep, he hears the sound of approaching people.  Pretending to be asleep, Morgan sees two workers entering Castle through the home theater room, talking about installing a TS-347 super computer.  Morgan follows them into Castle to Zone 6, the special, and secret, NCS wing of Castle being constructed.  Peeking around a corner, Morgan sees Casey supervising the construction.  Morgan tries to make his way down the hallway, but is stopped by the clenching hand of Colonel John Casey.  What is Morgan doing there?  Morgan explains that he needs a place to crash, so he was upstairs in the store, but since he doesn't have his contacts in, he didn't see anything.  Trying to keep up the (terrible and unconvincing) ruse, he staggers out.

Macau. Vivian enters the bank and has the manager take her up to the vault.  In a van outside, Sarah prepares for the mission by donning some sunglasses.  She turns to Chuck, only to find him with a stocking on his face.  He saw them in Sarah's bag, and figured they would be wearing them on their heads because they are bank robbers.  "I packed them in case we have time to go out later," Sarah explains.  "Take those off.  You'll rip them," she says with a smile.  They kiss, and Chuck announces, "Let's go rob a bank."

In a scene very reminiscent of Neo and Trinity entering the building where Morpheus is being held in The Matrix, Chuck sets off the metal detector before he and Sarah start taking out the guards with a mix of gunfire (into the air by Sarah), tranquilizer darts (by Chuck) and some great gymnastic moves (natural for Sarah, Intersect-aided for Chuck).   Vivian is told to wait in the vault by her escort who runs off to see what the commotion is about.  Now alone, Vivian installs the computer virus into the servers.  Chuck jumps onto the bank counter and demands all the cash in the bank.  Meanwhile, upstairs, Riley appears as Vivian leaves the vault.  He tells her that she is being played by the CIA.  Her father is not a super-villain.  When Vivian protests, Riley asks her if one of them seemed to know her.  Did he say he knew what she was going through?  Was it the man in this picture?  He displays a picture of Chuck.  "This is Agent Charles Carmichael, and he arrested your father."

Down in the bank lobby, Chuck asks Sarah if she is having fun.  "Yeah, a little," she replies with a devilish smile.  She tells him that she tried on a dress and it felt like magic.  She follows that statement by shouting, "Keep down or I will blow you're freaking head off!" to one of the bank patrons.  Upstairs, Vivian tells Riley that her father was a criminal.  Riley replies that Volkoff loves her, and left her everything, so how bad could he be?  Chuck said she will have a chance to meet with Volkoff, but Riley says the CIA is lying.  They will never let her see her father.  When she does want to meet him, she can contact Riley via the information on his business card.  Riley then gives her back the necklace she left in Volkoff's office.  Vivian goes back downstairs where Chuck and Sarah take her "hostage" and run out the door.  With Vivian contemplating Riley's words in the back of the van, Chuck and Sarah burn the stolen (and criminal) money.  Chuck tells Vivian that she did great, but notices something is wrong.  Is everything alright, he asks. Yeah, everything is good, she says, but it is clear Riley got into her head.

Back at Castle, General Beckman informs them that Vivian successfully tapped the bank's servers, leading them to criminals all over world.  Chuck asks the General about Vivian's meeting with Volkoff.  Beckman says they can't do it; it's too risky.  Chuck protests, but Beckman ends the dispute by informing Chuck, "You told the asset what she needed to hear."  Does Chuck want Sarah's help to tell Vivian?  No, Vivian trusted him, so he'll do it alone.  Chuck gives Vivian the bad news, that the CIA is going back on its word.  She replies that she thought Chuck was the CIA.  He is, and he will get her in touch with her father, but it may just take a little longer than they planned.  Vivian thanks him for being honest, but it is clear she is reconsidering Riley's offer.

Sarah and Ellie enter the Echo Park apartment courtyard with Sarah loaded down with shopping bags.  When Ellie was talking about flowers, she never mentioned lilies.  Sarah needs lilies!  A hundred dozen!  Oh, and there was this incredible patisserie in Paris, so maybe they can make the wedding cake and Sarah can have it flown in.  Ellie, clearly surprised by Sarah's wedding enthusiasm turaround, asks if maybe 1200 flowers and an imported cake might just be a little too much.  Maybe, Sarah replies, but it will make Chuck really happy!  Sarah will go look into a private pilot for the cake, and disappears into her apartment.  Chuck overhears the end of the conversation.  "What was that?!?" he asks his sister.  "I think I created a monster," she replies.  Doesn't all that sound a bit pricy, Chuck wonders.  He still only works at the Buy More.  "Well, you'll have to pick up some extra shifts," Ellie responds, "or rob a bank."

Morgan finds Casey in the store and asks him what was going on in Castle.  Casey rebuffs his inquiries until Morgan mentions the TS-347 being installed.  Is Morgan leveraging Casey to stay with him?  "Is it working?" Morgan asks.  Casey reluctantly tells Morgan that he can stay with him at Casey's apartment as long as he doesn't tell Chuck about Zone Six.  Morgan promises to not say a word.  He better not, because if he doesn't keep his mouth shut, Casey knows where Morgan lives.

Chuck tries calling Vivian to again apologize about the Volkoff meeting, but she ignores the call.  He leaves a message for her.  She stares out a car window, and when she sits back in her seat, Riley is revealed.  "I'm ready to know the truth about my father."

Commentary

OK, now we're picking up some steam!  I loved this episode in so many ways.  First off, it seemed like the show had money in the budget for the first time in a long time.  Granted, the sets were pretty basic (that vault hallway looked pretty familiar), and the bank was clearly repurposed from the bank shootout where Chuck, Sarah, Mary and Volkoff (when he was still posing as an MI:6 agent) came under fire, but the holograms, the new Castle Costume Computer, and the number of extras and gun play in the robbery scene gave the show a nice gleam that has been absent.  There were no poor green screens here, that's for sure.

Second, I loved the banter going between Chuck and Sarah on their missions.  The two characters (and the two actors, no doubt) really seemed to enjoy the chance to play "bad guys" during the robbery.  When the dialogue about the wedding dress was layered in, it made the scene, and the episode, just jump off the screen.  Similarly, the earlier discussion about Sarah's lack of wedding preparation enthusiasm while Chuck was trying to make his way to the vault provided some nice beats for the actors to play.  It was all great work. 

Part of what makes this work is the fact that the missions are sometimes not all that exciting, so to pepper them with Chuck and Sarah's personal issues always makes those scenes more entertaining.  More than that though, the wedding discussions really work because of the role reversal the two characters are playing within these conversations.  Stereotypically, men want no part of wedding preparations, while women are overly enthusiastic.  It has always been the case that Chuck has been the more emotional "female" part of their relationship, and Sarah the more reserved, stoic "male" part of the couple.  So, it is natural for them to take up the roles they do in the wedding preparations.  Further, this construction makes it all the more effective when Sarah finally has her wedding "moment" when she tries on the dress, and funnier when she goes gaga over the flowers, cake, etc. 

I do hope that Sarah doesn't completely swing over to the other side of the stereotype and lose her somewhat disinterested, somewhat gruff approach to the wedding.  Having one scene where she's a typical "girlie-girl" is one thing, because it is funny and refreshing to see Yvonne Strahovski play that side of Sarah, but she is still Sarah Walker, international spy.  I'm sure the writers know this, and with the looming stories about her parents lurking in the not-too-distant future, I'm not all that concerned.

I will admit to a bit of concern about the general lack of Casey in this episode.  As I mentioned last week, the show always works best when Chuck, Sarah and Casey work together for long stretches.  So, the potential that Zone 6 and the NCS could pull Casey away from the team for too long worries me.  With Morgan discovering Zone 6, however, some of my concern is allayed.  There is now a possibility that Morgan will partner with Casey on his NCS missions, which could lead to any number of hilarious situations.  We're just going to have to wait and see, but I do hope there is still plenty of interaction between the original Team Bartowski members.

Alright, that's what I have for "Chuck vs the First Bank of Evil."  What did you think of the episode?  Do you like Sarah as a typical bride?  How do you enjoy the "Chuck is creating his next enemy" story developing for Vivian?  Can you not wait to see Morgan and Casey as roommates?  Well, you're going to have to wait a bit longer than normal.  Chuck is not on next week as The Event is returning with a two hour midseason premiere (uh.......yay?).  Our favorite accidental spy will return March 14th.  For another take on this week's episode, be sure to check out Emma's review.  I'll be back in two weeks with another recap.  Until then, I'm off to not complain that the wildlife makes too much noise.

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