It was a small moment in the season premiere of “Chuck,” but because of what it represented, it was one of our favorites: Early in the episode, Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) is preparing for her latest mission when Chuck (Zachary Levi) enters and asks, “Honey, is this the gun you were looking for?”
In the world of “Chuck,” that passes for domestic tranquility — and Strahovski, along with a lot of fans, is glad that Sarah and Chuck can be a (relatively) normal couple after three seasons of inching toward it.
“It’s great to finally be doing that,” Strahovski tells Zap2it. “I feel like the fans sort of had a sigh of relief, because it’s what they’ve been wanting for a long time. I know when we had the love triangle [last season], it didn’t really go down well with the fans.” She pauses to chuckle at the amount of understatement in that last sentence, then adds, “They just wanted Chuck and Sarah to get together.”
The relationship won’t necessarily all be smooth sailing, though. Our conversation also touched on the hurdles Chuck and Sarah might face this season, working with two key guest stars this season and the return of Nicole Richie as Sarah’s high-school enemy, Heather Chandler.
Zap2it: The worry when couples finally get together on shows is that they’ll become boring, but the nature of “Chuck” seems to make that less of an issue.
Yvonne Strahovski: Definitely. It’s not really a recipe that equals boring, because we’re always doing those exciting things and going on missions. And I love now that Morgan [Joshua Gomez] is sort of in the spy world as well, because it’s so much fun to watch him come along for those missions. I think it adds a whole comic element to the show.
Aside from the occasional scene in the Buy More, had you worked much with Josh previously?
No, I hadn’t had a lot of time with him at all, so it’s good to finally be interacting with him. We get to do a lot more this season. It’s got that I’m sort of — I feel like now that Chuck and Sarah have become a couple, the vibe has changed a little bit for my character. I’m more part of the comic stuff in a way. I was always the serious anchor of the show pretty much [in the past], but now that we’re a couple and I’m more involved with Chuck and his world … I get to play a little bit more. Like the whole sexting thing in [the premiere] — that was fun.
But there will still be some challenges for Chuck and Sarah, right?
Of course. There’s all sorts of couples drama that most average couples go through on a daily basis. So I think we’re going to see Chuck and Sarah explore that, they’ll have their first fight as a couple. And we all know that Linda Hamilton is playing Chuck’s mom, so there’s some potential fun in there with my future in-law [laughs].
Is Chuck’s mom a person of interest for the CIA, or are you just helping Chuck look for her on the sly?
I can’t really tell you too much, except that Chuck wants to try and see if he can find out more about what happened to her or what her story is, because obviously it’s not the same story he grew up hearing of her leaving. So there is some exploration there, for sure.
How has it been so far working with her and with Timothy Dalton?
It’s absolutely delightful and refreshing; it’s so nice to have them on set. They’re both so sweet. Timothy Dalton is like a giant kid, he’s so much fun. Linda is great to have on set as well, and I think they’re really loving it. I know especially Linda, she’s having a blast, and it shows. We’re having a lot of fun with them around.
What was re-encountering your nemesis Nicole Richie like? (Richie guests in the Oct. 4 episode, along with Steve Austin and Stacy Keibler.)
It was great. I love Nicole — she’s a lot of fun as well. We get to have another fight scene, and she’s even more of a badass than she was last time. I know she was doing some kickboxing between the last time she was on the show and now. She did really well — she’s really great in those fight scenes.
Your first fight was really good. Does this one top it?
There are a couple other elements in this one that you’ll see.
Finally, what can we expect to see in this week’s episode?
We have Karolina Kurkova, the supermodel, coming to join us. Without giving too much away, you can expect some juicy action, maybe a cool fight scene. It’s so hard to tell you guys what’s coming up. Everything I say is going to give something else away. All I can say is Karolina’s on the show and it’s really fun.
“Chuck” airs at 8 p.m. ET Monday on NBC.
Zap2it, 2010.