Is it me? Is it because I can’t bear the thought that this is the second to last new episode ever that my full enjoyment of it was negatively impacted? Or is it because it pushed Ned and Chuck aside to focus on the secondary characters, and I just love Ned and Chuck too much?

Cuz it seemed to me that this episode was lacking in certain particulars that I cannot quite put my finger on. It’s not that I don’t adore Olive and (as I noted last week) suddenly find David Arquette irresistible. It’s not that Emerson Cod isn’t a hoot, and his complicated love life a hoot and a half.

There was clever stuff here. All the dam puns. The Mennonite lawyers who cannot tell a lie -- and their client, a joke company called Fits & Giggles (I really love that). Sweet talk while staking out a villain from the trunk of her car.

I dunno, though. It seems like there should have been something more here. I kept expecting a clever twist on the the idea of leaky pipes. I kept expecting something more from the Penny subplot (like, not that Emerson wouldn’t end up getting her back -- that I figured -- but that maybe she never even existed at all). I kept expecting... I dunno. Maybe more pushback against the gang from the concept that love is hard and makes up stupid. Not that I would wish for these characters whom I love to be even more tortured than they already are... but stuff turned out not so crazy for an episode the theme of which is “Love makes you do crazy things.”

Maybe it was just me pouting. Maybe it was just me being reluctant to let this show weasel its way any deeper into my heart now that I know I’ve got just one more opportunity to be surprised by it.

Maybe it’s just that there really is a limit to this concept and it was already getting close to being played out.

One more to go...

Random thought:

• What happened to Chuck’s hair?

(Watch full episodes at ABC’s official site for the show.)

(next: Episode 13: “Kerplunk”)