While this past Friday’s episode of ‘Chuck’ is an improvement over the previous week’s erratic episode, the series still has a frustrating habit of putting the brakes on an interesting storyline just when it seems to get going.

‘Chuck vs. the Curse’ picks up after the death of Decker. Verbanski is on the run and presumably won’t be seen again. Now broken out of prison, Casey has rejoined the team but is a fugitive from justice.

Before he died, Decker framed Chuck for stealing the Omen computer virus and being a techno-terrorist. A ruthless CIA agent named Robin Cunnings (the still-stunning Rebecca Romijn) has been assigned to hunt him down and retrieve the Omen at all costs. Team Bartowski goes on the lam. Chuck starts to obsess that his family is cursed. The Bartowskis all seem doomed to abandon their loved ones for a life on the run.

Meanwhile, Ellie and Awesome make a date night away from baby Clara. At a restaurant, they decide to role play a little fantasy about being spies like Chuck and Sarah. Coincidentally, Cunnings’ people mistake the two of them for being Sarah and Chuck. Hijinks ensue, and the couple winds up kidnapped by Cunnings, who wants Chuck to exchange the Omen virus for their safety. Believing that Sarah and Casey won’t allow him to turn over the real computer virus, Chuck tries to mount a rescue on his own. That doesn’t go well. Casey and Sarah have to rescue all of them, but not before Cunnings unleashes the virus.

In custody, Cunnings admits to being part of an evil conspiracy, but claims that she doesn’t know who’s in charge of it. This plot point is played up like a big mystery, even though the network ads have already revealed that Brandon Routh will return to the show in the next episode. I assume that he’s the Big Bad.

General Beckman pardons the entire team and says that she’ll expunge Casey’s criminal record. (Does she really have the power to do this?) Thus, just like that, the fugitives-on-the-run storyline is already wrapped up. This is all so disappointingly tidy.

In a last-second twist, the Omen virus appears to shut down the internet all around the world. I don’t feel like this is really all that grave a threat, and I’m sure it will likewise be resolved by the next episode.

It’s nice to see Awesome and Ellie given a more prominent role, but overall this episode merely rates a “decent” on the quality scale.