Did’ja see what I did there? What with the “Bakula” and the ‘Quantum Leap’ reference? I’m clever like that sometimes. And it’s all in service of this week’s episode of ‘Chuck’, in which Scott Bakula returns as Chuck and Ellie’s father, the absent-minded computer genius who invented the Intersect.

The main plot of ‘Chuck vs. The Living Dead’ ties back to last week’s storyline about a Ring operative posing as CIA to recruit Ellie. The plan is to lure her father out of hiding, a mission she successfully accomplishes. But she can’t tell him what’s going on, so she pretends that nothing’s wrong and she just wants to see him. Chuck also doesn’t want his father to know that he’s still working for the CIA or that he has the Intersect 2.0 in his head. Dad is smart enough to figure out Chuck’s secrets pretty quickly, and reveals that he’s working on a fix for that brain melting problem that’s been giving Chuck bad dreams.

Those freaky dreams continue, and lead Chuck to believe that Shaw didn’t die after falling off the bridge. That would be the “Living Dead” part of the title. Morgan totally freaks out in hilarious fashion when he hears this.

Meanwhile, Casey’s been tailing Ellie at Chuck’s behest. Her strange behavior and sneaking around (to meet her alleged “handler”) has him convinced that she’s cheating on Awesome. This ends up in a confrontation where she whacks him over the head with a frying pan and runs off to the safety of the fake CIA office. Uh oh.

Then, a bunch of Ring baddies attempt to kidnap Papa Bartowski, until Chuck takes them out in a sweet Intersect-enabled kung-fu fight scene.

In other developments, Jeffster is breaking up! Jeff attempts to go it alone in a solo career, but decidedly can’t hack it without his “ster.” The results are not pretty. Big Mike saves the day here by stepping in as the band’s new manager. This is a job he feels qualified for, owing to his former musical career. You remember Earth, Wind and Fire, don’t you? Well, it used to be Earth, Wind, Fire and Rain. Totally groovy, man. You might even say that he was a Shining Star.

Events leave Chuck certain that Shaw is coming back for revenge. The episode ends with a person we assume is Shaw getting loaded up with a brand new Intersect. But we only ever see the back of his head, which is weird considering that Brandon Routh was all over the dream sequences last week. Something is up with this. Either it’s going to turn out to not be Shaw, or he’s somehow been hideously disfigured since we last saw his pretty face and they’re waiting to reveal that next week. I’m betting that it’s not really Shaw, and maybe even that the real Shaw will switch back to the side of good. In either case, I like the idea of an uber-villain with an evil Intersect. Things are shaping up for a very interesting season finale.

Nerdtastic fan service of the week: The Buy More carries OPPO Blu-ray players (which aren’t actually sold in brick & mortar stores). The show’s production designers like to stock the store with little easter eggs like this. I also like that Chuck uses the same Harmony 880 remote that I have at home.