- When a job Casey performs for his former commander lands him in jail for treason, Chuck and Sarah must come to the rescue. Devon has to scramble to keep Chuck's secret from Ellie when she wins a fellowship grant.
- While Brandon is in DC, th team is assigned to test the CIA HQ security by attempting a break-in. Casey abuses the occasion to steal a top-secret pill from a locker, as demanded by his former special ops mentor, Army colonel James Keller, who changed his identity, originally Alex Coburn. Chuck saw him and jokingly informs the general, who has Casey arrested as traitor. The Intersect realizes Brenner is a Ring recruiter, so Chuck tells Sara who helps him free their friend. After he confides Brenner's civilian leverage, the trio comes to their rescue.—KGF Vissers
- Chuck vs. the Tic Tac
Honduras, 1989
Soldiers mill around a camp, toting weaponry. Some are lined up beneath a tent. A commanding officer dismisses a man then calls up another, Lt. Alexander Coburn. Coburn salutes. The commander thanks him for his service, then tells him he does not qualify for training with special operations command. He says he'll be returning home the next day at 0800 hours, and dismisses him. Coburn walks away looking glum.
He's stopped by a Colonel (Robert Patrick) who offers a Tic Tac and explains they remind him of home. Coburn reaches out to take one and the Colonel gives him the entire box, saying he has a feeling Coburn will be out there a while. Then he asked how he felt if he told him there was a special Black Ops team filled with the best snipers, rangers and men America had to offer, all charged with doing whatever it takes to defend the U.S., and that team wanted him.
"I'd say that sounds like a dream come true, sir," Coburn replied.
The Colonel tells Coburn he has a choice to make: Go home to his family, or become the soldier he always wanted to be. "So tell me, Lt. Coburn...you ready to die today?" Coburn contemplates this...and the camera pans away to a close-up on Casey's face.
Casey (Adam Baldwin) is caring for his bonsai as the same Colonel, James Keller, stands in the shadows behind him. Keller tells Casey he's glad Casey took his call. For his part, Casey doesn't look too happy. Keller fills him in and says Beckman (Bonita Friedericy) is going to give Team Chuck a mission to test the CIA's security system, and that he needs him to pick something up for Keller while he's there.
He hands Casey what looks like a key and tells him he knows he'll make the right decision --"You always do."
Outside, Morgan (Joshua Gomez) is spying on Casey using infrared binoculars and recording each bit of minutiae as it goes. Chuck (Zachary Levi) catches him and when Morgan says it looks like Casey is getting a mission and he doesn't want to be left out of the loop, Chuck explains that's impossible -- if Casey were getting a mission, Chuck would know about it. Besides, Chuck continues, missions are dangerous, so Morgan should be glad to be left out of the loop. Casey's door opens, and as Chuck and Morgan duck behind some bushes Keller emerges and tells Casey it'll be a pleasure to work him again. Chuck and Morgan watch as Keller leaves and Casey, looking stunned, closes the door. Chuck is bewildered as he wonders what Casey and Keller are working on.
The next day, Beckman gives the team their mission and as Keller told Casey, it is a trace cell mission to test the security in the CIA's underground vault, which houses the organization's most valuable assets. The team will have to break through 15 levels of security to get there. Casey asks if Shaw will be coming along and Beckman says no, Shaw is in D.C. and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) will have to take a later flight to meet him. Beckman wishes them luck.
Chuck, noting the info about Sarah, glumly asks if everyone has a mission within a mission but him, and Casey, grinning (and not picking up Chuck is on to him) says Sarah's mission is personal. Sarah tells Chuck to stay focused.
They head over to the facility and, with more than a little bit of Chuck's flashing and handy acrobatics, get through all 15 levels to the main floor. Sarah opens the door and Casey keeps Sarah on the door. Chuck heads to the safe deposit box as indicated in the mission and starts drilling while Casey sneaks to another vault and uses a key. He pulls out a green case holding an unknown capsule. Meanwhile, Chuck gets into his deposit box and finds a note from General Beckman: "JOB WELL DONE." Chuck laughs, then heads over to Casey -- just in time to see him close up the other box. When he asks Casey about it, Casey pulls a gun and tells him if he so much as breathes a word about it to anyone, he's a dead man.
Sarah comes in as Casey holsters his pistol and she asks if everything is OK. A shaken Chuck lies and tells her yes.
Back at the apartment, Awesome (Ryan McPartlin) comes over to Chuck and asks for his help in getting Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) to commit to Doctors Without Borders. There's another knock on the door and Awesome hides as Ellie comes in to give Chuck some very good news -- she's gotten the neurology fellowship she's wanted since she was in middle school. She admits she doesn't know what to do, as Chuck's phone rings. It's Casey, telling Chuck he's wanted at Castle and reminding him to keep his mouth shut.
Down in Castle, Beckman tells the team heir test was a day too late -- the vault had already been compromised and a prototype of a drug called Laudanol had been stolen. Apparently Laudanol suppresses emotions in those who use it, making soldiers bolder and stronger. Fearless.
Chuck asks if it could help him flash, and Sarah says possibly -- but he wouldn't feel anything. Beckman reminds them they'll never know unless they get it back. She adds she thinks it was an inside job, only a few people knew the capsule was being kept in box 092407. Chuck chuckles and tells Beckman she's good -- first the solo mission, and now this. Casey growls for Chuck to shut up. Chuck keeps going . He thinks this is a test to see whether he'll betray his country or turn in his friends and partner, John Casey, for stealing the pill. Sarah and Beckman both look shocked.
"Guilty!" Chuck says laughing and pointing at Casey. "He did it!"
Beckman, sounding very serious, asks if Chuck is positive he saw Casey take the pill. Chuck, sarcastically says, "Yeah!" Then he notes the mood in the room and backtracks. Beckman asks Casey if what Chuck is saying is true and Casey, after a pause, invokes his right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment. Beckman orders Sarah to take Casey's gun and she does so, asking Casey what's going on. He doesn't say anything as he slaps the pistol onto the table.
Upstairs, Casey asks Morgan if he recorded Casey's conversation from the night before when he was spying on him. He and Morgan review the stakeout footage and when Keller's image comes up, Chuck flashes. It seems in the interim between his time in Honduras and the present, Keller has joined The Ring. He doesn't say this to Morgan, however, and runs back to Casey's apartment, where agents are turning the place over and Sarah is keeping an eye on things.
Chuck fills in Sarah about Keller's affiliation with The Ring, and the fact he turned Casey's former sensei. Chuck says Casey is likely being played and doesn't know anything about who Keller really is. Sarah tells Chuck since Casey committed treason and is refusing to talk, they're holding him in a site in L.A. before they ship him to a black ops interrogation site in Thailand, outside of America's torture jurisdiction, the next day.
Chuck decides to go after him, but Sarah asks him if he understands the ramifications, if the two of them are caught they'll be tried for treason, lose everything and Chuck will never be a real spy.
Chuck's only reply to that is, "It's Casey."
Sarah smiles. "I was hoping you'd say that."
Back to the CIA underground HQ, Chuck and Sarah prepare to break through those 15 levels of security one more time to get to Casey. Problem is, the CIA has updated security and Chuck smashes into a Plexiglas door mid-flip. The gaffe alerts security and the geek who did the updates, Stanley Fitzroy. Sarah and Chuck play it off by making him think tBeckman sent them for another test. Chuck introduces them as Charles Carmichael and Sarah Walker. Fitzroy asks if they like what he did with Level 1, and they flatter him. But, Chuck continues, what they really want to see is what he did with Level 15. Fitzroy offers to give them the tour and places his hand on a scanner to bypass the rest of the traps.
At the apartment, Awesome and Ellie are having a spirited discussion (while on stationary bikes) about Ellie's fellowship versus the Doctors Without Borders plan. Both think Chuck is on their side. They decide to head over to Chuck's apartment to get a little Marriage Ref action (Cross promotion! Synergy!).
Problem is, Chuck isn't home. Morgan answers the door and after hearing their argument, comes down on Ellie's side and tells Awesome he's being selfish. Awesome asks Ellie to talk to Morgan alone, and steps into the apartment, closing the door in her face. Awesome tries to explain to Morgan if he had the right information, he would agree Doctors Without Borders is the best place for Ellie to be.
Morgan counters if Awesome knew what he knew, he know that here is the safest place for Ellie to be. After a moment of oblique banter, they both realize they know the same secret -- Chuck is a spy! That's why Awesome wants to do Doctors Without Borders, because every time he goes on a mission, he puts Ellie in danger. Morgan's upset Awesome, Chuck's brother-in-law, has been on missions while he, Chuck's "bro," has not.
When Morgan emerges from the apartment with Awesome, he has changed his tune: Ellie should go with Awesome to join Doctors Without Borders.
Back to the CIA's secure bunker! Stanley is geeking out over the fact he has Chuck beside him -- turns out he's a big fan. They head over by the holding cells and he pulls out a key card, explaining he is the only one who has one, and it's the only way in. Sarah kindly requests the key card and Stanley realizes he may have been duped. Before he can react, an alarm goes off. Stanley is perplexed as to how that can happen if they're still standing out in the hall, and Sarah grabs the key card and knocks out Stanley with a punch to the face.
She disarms the security and Chuck quickly finds Casey on the monitor, at the very moment an explosion goes off in his cell. They race to where he is and open the door to find Casey in the room, and behind him, a wall which has been blown out by Keller and his men. Chuck tells Casey the truth Keller - he is a Ring agent. Casey, looking at Keller for a moment, the back at Chuck, mutters "I know," and leaves with Keller.
A shocked Chuck and Sarah try to escape but are headed off by other agents in a van who knock them down and pull hoods over their heads. When the hoods are removed, they're sitting in a CIA situation room where a very annoyed Beckman explains they don't know who Casey really is.
Reading from his top-secret file, Beckman tells them Casey's real name is Alex Coburn. He faked his own death in Honduras in 1989, with the date of his death coinciding with the day John Casey was recruited for Black Ops by a Col. James Keller. Sarah realizes Keller has recruited Casey again, this time to work for the ring. Beckman says the only reason Chuck and Sarah aren't in a federal prison is because they have to get the Laudanol back from the Ring, and it requires a mission only they can accomplish: Find and capture John Casey, dead or alive.
Morgan is heading back to the apartment complex when he's stopped by a man trimming the bushes. It's Casey, who tasks a very excited Morgan with a mission.
Chuck and Sarah are in Castle, Chuck mourning Casey's betrayal as Sarah tries to explain when a person is a spy for a long time, they change. Sarah adds she thought Chuck had changed. She tells him he's on his way to being a great spy, but pleads with him not to lose the guy she met three years ago.
"Don't give up on the things that make you great," she says, offering him a pistol.
"I'll always be that guy," he says, and refuses the gun, pushing it back toward Sarah.
Then they refocus on the mission. Sarah says the only reason Keller would have broken Casey out of holding is if he hadn't given him the capsule yet. Chuck guesses Casey would have hidden the pill in the Buy More, but Sarah says he's smarter than that -- how could he get past all of the cameras?
Use someone else who is desperate, stupid, or willing to do anything to impress him to do it, Chuck answers...and on the monitor in Castle, he watches Morgan clumsily attempting to sneak around. Chuck confronts Morgan in the store as he grabs a DVD of "Planet of the Apes" which happens to have the capsule inside. After Chuck offers to answer any of Morgan's questions about his missions, Morgan hands over the case to Chuck, who heads back home.
Casey is waiting there for him. Casey draws a gun on Chuck and orders him to tell him where the capsule is. Sarah sneaks in through the back door as Chuck tells Casey he knows everything -- about his secret identity, about who Keller is, and about him stealing the capsule for the Ring. The only thing he doesn't know, Chuck says, is why.
Casey lowers his gun and explains when he was Alex Coburn, he had a fiancée named Kathleen McHugh. She thinks he's dead. But now, if he doesn't turn the Laudanol over to The Ring, they're going to kill her. Chuck and Sarah persuade him to let them help. Chuck offers to go get Kathleen to someplace safe while Casey and Sarah take out Keller and his agents at the agreed meeting place.
Casey drives to the meeting in a large black SUV, seemingly alone, and steps out. After an agent frisks him, he lights up a Cuban cigar. He drops the matchbook on the ground, leaving five of them standing straight up. Chuck, disguised as a guy from the gas company, goes to Kathleen McHugh's home and tries to get her out of the house by telling her there's a leak. Then he sees Ring agents have arrived, and pushes her back into the house, in a closet. He puts a chair in front of the closet and waits for the goons to enter.
Casey enters the meeting with Keller and hands over the Laudanol case as Keller gloats good soldiers always do as they're told, and Casey wouldn't be in this situation if he'd had the sense to stop caring about Kathleen. Keller opens the case and finds a Tic Tac inside.
"Your breath stinks," Casey growls. Keller is amazed Casey thinks he's going to just walk out of there, what with five men outside. He tells Casey the one thing he always taught him was to have someone to watch his back. "I know," Casey says.
On cue, Sarah slowly lowers herself from beneath the SUV's undercarriage and counts the matchsticks. "Five against one," she says. She takes out one with a throwing knife, shoots three of them in the chest, then dispatches the fifth in hand-to-hand combat.
Casey and Keller slug it out inside, and when Casey has Keller by the throat, Keller reminds him Kathleen could still die. "You'd never call them off," Casey says.
"You're right," Keller says with a grin, moving to crush Casey's windpipe. Casey blocks him and breaks his neck. He tells Sarah the agents are already at Kathleen's house, and they run to the truck.
Chuck calls them as the agents knock on the door -- they're too far out. Sarah tells him to flash, but he says he can't. Then Casey tells Chuck to take the pill -- he slipped it into his pocket. The pill will make Chuck everything the Intersect is supposed to be. Chuck finds the pill and swallows just as agents come into the door and put guns on him. One knocks him out with the butt of his gun as another pulls Kathleen out of the closet and punches her in the face, knocking her out.
Chuck comes to and springs to his feet, unafraid of any agents. He flashes and in a flurry of kicks and punches, takes all of them down. Sarah and Casey arrive at the moment when Chuck has one by the throat and is about to break his neck like Casey did to Keller. Sarah cries out, and he turns to look at Sarah, which stops him. Shocked, he looks down at his hands.
Casey bends over the unconscious Kathleen and gently strokes her face as she comes around. She doesn't recognize him.
Flashback to 1989: Alex Coburn is on the phone with a young Kathleen and is telling her he has one more mission. She understands -- he loves what he does, and he's good at it, she says. He tries to tell her he loves her, but before he can get it out, she tells him not to get emotional and let his guard down. That way he can get to her in one piece. "And when you do come back," she says, "I've got some news..." Before she can finish, Keller grabs the phone out of the young soldier's hand and tells him Alex Coburn is officially KIA. From this point on, Keller says, his name is John Casey.
In the present: Casey tells Kathleen the authorities are on their way, and steps back as a woman who looks about, say, 20 years old runs into the house and hugs her mom. Casey grimly turns around and Chuck tries to stop him. Casey shakes his head. "Dead is dead," he whispers. "It's too late now." He walks out the door.
At Castle, Beckman scolds Casey and tells him if it weren't him in this situation, he'd be back in jail. But he's not just anyone, so she's giving him his second second chance...as a civilian. Chuck protests, but Beckman won't have it. "For the final time, you are dismissed," she says. Casey salutes General Beckman, and she responds by shaking his hand. Beckman orders Chuck to escort Mr. Casey off of government property. When Chuck and Casey are out of the room, Beckman commends Sarah on her work with Chuck, observing Chuck needs her less and less. Beckman tells Sarah she hasn't forgotten her request for a transfer. The general tells her there's a seat on her flight back to D.C., where they can discuss it.
At the apartment, Ellie finds Chuck and tells him she's feeling better about doing Doctors With Borders. She says she wants to stay with Devon, no matter what. Awesome comes up behind her and takes her back to their apartment, where there's a sign that says "Congratulations" hanging from the ceiling. He tells her to take the job, and Ellie hugs him.
Casey is in his apartment, which has been stripped bare except for the bonsai tree he's tending. Chuck goes in and tells him he can still go back...to his family. He gives Casey Kathleen's address and reminds him that he has a daughter. Casey stoically reminds Chuck he made his choice between love and love of country a long time ago. It was the right decision, Casey says. Then he tells Chuck he needs to make the right decision, Walker's a good woman and it's not too late.
Cut to Sarah in a cab in D.C. The driver asks her if she's from there, and she says no...but she's thinking of moving.
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