 The episode received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote that "as Chuck began laying out his plan to be freelance spies, and as Morgan took out the Intersect sunglasses General Beckman had so thoughtfully hidden in Chuck's going-away box, all I could feel was gratitude: I'm so glad NBC ordered one more season, because that is a show I want to see!" Sepinwall praised Timothy Dalton's ability to deliver both a comic and serious performance, writing that, while on other series Volkoff's back-story "would be an incredibly dark, tragic storyline", Dalton acted well enough that his emotions were not overwhelming. Sepinwall continued that the storyline "would have sucked every last bit of joy out of the episode" if the character had been portrayed by another Chuck actor. In contrast, Sepinwall wrote that he felt no empathy for Volkoff's daughter, as "Lauren Cohan has never managed to make a cohesive and interesting character out of a bunch of jarring personality shifts". Brody Gibson of Boom Tron wrote, "The writers of Chuck sure know how to pull together a great finale. I was floored." Gibson agreed with Sepinwall on Timothy Dalton's range of acting skills, praising Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski as well. Gibson wrote that Levi deserved an Emmy nomination for a scene in which Chuck surrenders himself to Vivian to plead for the antidote to save Sarah's life. Gibson also praised Levi and Strahovski's performance in Chuck and Sarah's "practice wedding": "These two have always had such great chemistry, you could swear they're actually in love and not just actors pretending."
