Chuck: Excuse me, I am a pro! My job is a certified Computer and Electronics Technician.
Cole: Great cover.
Casey: It's not a cover. It's his life.
Team Chuck have a situation: the grave of one of the Fulcrum scientists from Chuck Versus the Suburbs has been dug up by a mysterious (and very handsome) man. Chuck flashes, and realises the man is carrying a data chip. Sarah goes to seduce it out of him, only to get made. A fight ensues that ends with the mystery man in cuffs. However, as they're taking him in, the team are attacked by a helicopter. At the man's urging, Chuck releases him to help, reasoning that they're dead if he doesn't anyway. The man destroys the helicopter by shooting a gas tank underneath it and causing an explosion.
Meanwhile, Morgan is feeling the pressure of Big Mike dating his mother, so Chuck invites him to sleep over for a night. Ellie and Awesome are skeptical, but Morgan behaves like the perfect house guest... at least until they find out he sleeps naked.
Back in Castle, the man is identified as Cole Barker, MI6 agent and all-around badass who's been working to infiltrate Fulcrum for 18 months. He tells them that the data chip alone isn't enough; it needs a special reader, which the contact he was going to meet will have. Luckily, he can still salvage the situation with his contact and arrange another meet. Chuck states that he can hack the chip, but is told to leave it alone. Cole meanwhile makes a pass at Sarah, making Chuck jealous, but is politely rebuffed.
Sarah, Casey and Cole go to the meet, leaving the chip behind for safekeeping. Chuck, feeling insecure and determined to prove himself, ignores his instructions and hacks the chip. This trips a security alarm that tips off the Fulcrum agents that they're being set up, and they take Sarah and Cole prisoner. On the chip, Chuck finds footage of himself being uploaded with the Fulcrum Intersect. Seeing a Fulcrum agent entering the Buy More, he smashes the chip before being taken prisoner himself.
Casey uses satellites to track down the missing team, who are resisting brutal interrogation. Cole is flogged, Chuck almost gets a needle in the eye and Sarah is almost poisoned with ricin before Casey comes to the rescue. The Fulcrum agents are taken in, all except the Torture Technician who uses the ricin she threatened Sarah with on herself rather than be taken alive.
Cole is about to leave, but makes one last pitch to Sarah to fly off into the sunset with him. She declines, but impresses on him the importance of keeping Chuck's identity a secret. He assures her she has nothing to worry about.
Back in Burbank, Chuck and Morgan discuss the nudity incident with Ellie and decide to get an apartment together. But the plan is overruled almost immediately when Sarah arrives with bad news: Cole was abducted on the way to the airport, and is presumably being tortured for Chuck's identity. They have to go into protective detail right now. Chuck and Sarah are moving in together...
Trope Flash:
- Always Someone Better: Cole, for Chuck. Well, it can't be Bryce all the time, right?
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Happens a few times with Cole and Chuck, for example when Cole asks if Sarah is single.Chuck: Why do you wanna know?
Cole: Uh, because she's hot. - Big Damn Heroes:
- Cole in a nutshell. Saves Sarah from a helicopter by shooting the gas tank underneath it, causing an explosion.
- Later, Casey rescues the other team members plus Cole from the Fulcrum Torture Technician.
- Call-Back:
- The data chip everyone is after is from one of the scientists from Chuck Versus the Suburbs, and shows footage of Chuck that proves he's the Intersect.
- Cole protects Chuck by pretending to be the Intersect himself, just like Bryce did before.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Cole being run off the road and captured on the way to the airport, forcing Chuck and Sarah to go into protective detail in case Chuck's identity is compromised.
- Easily Forgiven: Cole is a pretty good sport about being tortured because Chuck ignored orders and tried to hack the Fulcrum chip.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Invoked by Cole. He hits on Sarah in Castle while wearing a towel after coming out of the shower. She turns him down, so he takes the towel off and walks away to get dressed. Yeah, she looks.
- Exiled to the Couch: Morgan sleeps on Chuck's couch for a night, much to Ellie and Awesome's consternation when confronted with the fact that he sleeps in the buff.
- Honey Trap: The team, thinking Cole works for Fulcrum, initially approach him by having Sarah seduce him at a bar. He makes her, and the situation gets pretty dicey before ending with Cole under arrest.
- I Am Spartacus: Cole claims to be the Intersect to protect Chuck, who responds by angrily declaring, "No, I am!"
- I Die Free: Alexis, Fulcrum's Torture Technician, injects herself with ricin to protect Fulcrum's secrets when it becomes clear she's not going to escape.Alexis: Fulcrum wins.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sarah, Cole and Chuck all get captured by Fulcrum and Cole is tortured because Chuck, feeling insecure, ignored orders and tried to access the data without the proper reader; he got the data but activated an alarm.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Chuck, when he hacks the chip and sees footage of himself being uploaded with the Fulcrum Intersect. And again, seconds later, when he sees Alexis enter the Buy More having obviously tracked the chip.
- General Beckman, When Casey informs her that Chuck has been captured and is likely being tortured.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Morgan is struggling with Big Mike dating his mother. Well, it's not the dating he has a problem with...Morgan: The man moans like a wounded sea lion. [Chuck and Morgan shudder]
- Shout-Out:
- Cole is a suave Badass in a Nice Suit who works for MI6 and appears to be Made of Iron. Sound familiar?
- After blowing up the helicopter that has her pinned, Cole says to Sarah, "Come with me if you want to live."
- Tap on the Head: Casey incapacitates Cole in this manner.
- A Taste of the Lash: Cole is tortured in this way for the contents of the data chip.
- Torture Always Works: "Everyone talks" is practically Alexis' catchphrase while torturing Cole. Mentioned again by Sarah when Cole is recaptured.Sarah: Chuck, he knows you're the Intersect. We have to go into 24-hour protective detail until further notice.
Chuck: [...] Are you sure about this? I mean he's a really tough guy. Maybe he won't talk.
Sarah: Chuck. Everyone talks. - Torture Technician: Alexis, the Fulcrum agent played by Katrina Law. Chuck's flash of her features a selection of scary images of her at work, which she seems to really, really enjoy.
- Unwilling Suspension: Chuck, Sarah and Cole are restrained in this way after being captured.Cole: What is his [Chuck's] pain tolerance?
Sarah: I'd say about a one out of ten.
Chuck: WHAT? A one? I'd say I'm at least at an eight!
Sarah: Chuck, the torture hasn't started yet.
Cole: This is the pre-torture? [Beat] Okay, okay. Put me down for a one.
