A scientist is poisoned with a deadly Truth Serum for nuclear secrets, but as he retrieves them he collapses in front of one Dr Ellie Bartowski. As he's loaded into the ambulance, two things happen: he slips the data chip with the secrets into her pocket, and a watching Chuck realises in a flash who the scientist is.
Chuck, meanwhile, is having love life problems. A cute deli owner named Lou catches his eye when he fixes her phone... but of course, he's supposed to be dating Sarah. But their fake relationship is under scrutiny as Awesome comments on their lack of intimacy, prompting Sarah to suggest they spend their first night together.
Searching for the data chip, the poisoner poses as a police officer interviewing Ellie so he can plant a bug and dose her with the serum. That night is not a happy one in the Bartowski home: a drugged Ellie starts acting very strangely, picking fights with Awesome, while Chuck's resentment over Lou and Sarah's teasing lead to an argument that is interrupted by Ellie. Now fully acting under the truth serum, she barges into Chuck's room to confess to stealing from his piggy bank as a child. When Casey finds interference in his listening devices, he comes over with a detector and finds the bug on Ellie just as she passes out.
At the hospital, Chuck has an idea: he speaks over the bug as if they've found the data chip and are about to move it, forcing the poisoner to come to them. As Sarah and Casey set the trap, Chuck stays with Ellie and accidentally finds the data chip in her jacket. Excited, he runs to find Sarah and Casey... and ends up barging into a standoff, resulting in the vial of poison cracking on the floor, dosing Chuck, Sarah, Casey and the poisoner, who escapes with the data chip.
However, he does drop one vial of the antidote. Grabbing it, Sarah tells Chuck to take it; as the Intersect, his survival is vital. Chuck, however, pretends to take it and runs off to give it to Ellie... with some complications when the truth serum prompts him to blurt out the plan.
After saving Ellie, Chuck finds the tracker the poisoner dropped on the way out and realises they can now use this to track him. At his apartment, they force him at gunpoint to surrender more antidote. He tries to poison them instead, but Chuck insists he drink first. The poisoner tries to flee, but Sarah shoots him in the knee. The team use his own serum to find both the antidote and the chip.
Before drinking the antidote, Chuck has a question for Sarah; is there anything real in their fake relationship? Could there ever be? Sarah's answer is simple: no. Chuck thanks her for her honesty - not that she had a choice - and they drink.
Ellie returns home, and life appears to be returning to normal. That is, until Chuck goes to Sarah to act on a resolution he made while poisoned... and breaks up with her.
As Chuck leaves, Sarah receives a call from Casey, who asks if she said anything to compromise herself while drugged. She says she didn't, but might have if she hadn't been trained to withstand truth serum. She looks on as a smiling Chuck gets a coffee with Lou.
Trope Flash:
- Buy Them Off: When Harry and Mrs Tang relocate to Oahu, Big Mike confesses to Morgan that he "had" to give Harry the position of Assistant Manager out of guilt, because he's "been diddling his wife for the last six months."Big Mike: No, I will not miss the man. But I will forever dream...of the lady Tang.
- Genre Savvy: When the team confront the poisoner at his apartment, Chuck demands he drink the antidote he gives them first. He won't.Casey: Did you flash?
Chuck: No, I've just read a lot of comic books. - Hoist by His Own Petard: Reardon Paine, the poisoner.
- Chuck lures him to the hospital by using his bug to pretend they've found the chip.
- Once there, although he does get the chip, he also gets poisoned with his own concoction, forcing him to go home for the antidote.
- His own dropped tracker allows the team to track him home.
- Finally, they manage to overpower him and dose him with his own poison, forcing him to give up both the rest of the antidote and the data chip.
- Hypocritical Humor: When Sarah arrives in Chuck's bedroom to spend the night together, she teases him for lighting candles, asking if he thinks they're really going to have sex. Then she reveals what she's wearing: a lacy purple negligee.Chuck: What? You give me crap about lighting some candles and you come in wearing that?
- Just Shoot Him: Paine's gymnastic moves are much less impressive after Sarah shoots him in the knee.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Chuck is interested in Lou, a cute deli owner whose phone he fixes. Unfortunately, his friends and family all think he's dating Sarah. The episode ends with him breaking up with her and going to meet Lou for a coffee.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Exploited. Morgan is assigned to help Harry Tang's wife buy a birthday present for her husband. Jeff and Lester film them talking and show it to Harry, making it look as if they're planning to meet for a tryst. This leads to Harry barging into the Buy More Home Theatre during a meeting with General Beckman.
- Mushroom Samba: Ellie behaves very strangely after being poisoned. First she's irritable, then argumentative, then starts acting loopy. It all becomes less funny once she passes out.Ellie: Words taste like peaches...
- The Needs of the Many: Chuck prioritises Ellie's welfare above the greater good.
- When Ellie is poisoned, Chuck wants to trade the data chip for the antidote, despite the many lives that might be lost if the information gets out.
- When Chuck, Sarah and Casey are poisoned, Sarah manages to save one dose of the antidote. She insists Chuck take it, but he wants to give it to Ellie. By pretending to take it and running to Ellie's room, he gets his way, although the plan is complicated by the truth serum kicking in.
Casey: You're a good person, Chuck, and I respect that, but I got a job to do, so take it before I shove it down your throat!
Chuck: OK, OK, fine, fine, I'll do it.
Sarah: Thank you.
Chuck: I'll pretend to agree to take it and then I'll run like hell to my sister's room, and make her take it. Why did I just say that out loud?
Sarah: It's the poison. It makes you tell the truth.
Casey: You do that, I'll give chase, put a gun to your head, threaten to pull the trigger if you don't take it!
Chuck: Would you really shoot me?
Casey: No.
Chuck: Yeah, don't waste a bullet, we're already dead! I'm saving my sister. - Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- The poisoner finds Ellie after Chuck, excitedly watching Ellie treating Mason Witney after he collapsed in front of her, blurts out her full name in public.
- Later, Sarah and Casey have the poisoner at gunpoint when Chuck bursts in, waving around the chip with the code on it that he's just found. He knocks the vial out of the poisoner's hand, poisoning everyone in the room and giving the poisoner chance to grab the chip and run.
- Truth Serum: First nuclear specialist Mason Witney, then Ellie, then Chuck, Sarah and Casey are dosed with a drug that starts as truth serum but quickly turns deadly.
