We spy anxiety building in the loyal fans of NBC’s Chuck, especially for those about to read here what Yvonne Strahovski shared with TVLine about the two-hour series finale airing Friday, Jan. 27.

When asked about her expectations for the five-year-old series’ capper versus what it actually presented itself to be, the Aussie beauty – perhaps skilled by her time playing a savvy CIA agent – ably sidestepped that “trick” question, saying, “I can’t tell you my expectations, because then I reveal what the finale is not.”

But then, measuring her words with some care, Strahovski went on to share, “I had very specific things that I thought it was going to be, and it turned out to be not what I thought.”

In fact, she says, the final leg of Team Bartowski’s journey “surprised me to the point where I kind of felt like an audience member myself, sitting on the edge of my seat wondering, ‘Oh my gosh, how is this going to get resolved?'”

Wait, there are things to be resolved? Edge-of-seat kinds of things? Should fans prepare to be left hanging? “There will be a satisfying ending,” Strahovski reassures, “but it’s almost slightly, slightly tragic, the lead-up to what happens.”

A well-placed source echoes Strahovski’s intimations, telling TVLine that elements of the finale are, indeed, “pretty shocking.”

Officially, NBC’s synopses for the series-ending hours read, in part, “After a harrowing mission, Sarah returns to Chuck with a huge secret,” then, “Chuck enlists his family, friend and some unexpected allies as he races to stop [villain] Nicholas Quinn (guest star Angus Macfadyen, Braveheart) from destroying everything Chuck has built over the past five years.”

But Strahovski boils it down thusly, and romantically: “We’re going to see a lot of the focus on the Chuck and Sarah love story, which is the heart of the show.”

Chuck fans, are you readying for the show’s final mission?