Six months on, things are not going well for Chuck. He and Sarah broke up because she wanted to run away together and he wanted to go to a spy training centre... which he's just dropped out of due to his glitchy Intersect. Depressed, he moves back in with Ellie and Awesome and glues himself to the couch until, on a rare trip out for more Cheese Balls, he hears that Sarah is in L.A.
Rebuffed by Sarah and pushed away by Casey, Chuck turns up on their mission, ready to get the team back together. Sarah isn't having it and throws him out. However, Chuck has just realised as an assassin is present. Frustrated, he accidentally kicks a Mariachi guitarist unconscious, then slips into the restaurant disguised as him to find the assassin... who is in fact the guy he just knocked out, a Ring agent called Javier. Waking up, Javier gets back to his mission. Chuck dives on Sarah before Javier can shoot her, but the assassin disappears without anyone else seeing him.
Defeated, Chuck slinks back to the couch. However, Morgan comes to the rescue with a tale of woe to rival Chuck's; Anna dumped him, he failed to become a Hibachi chef and he's living in the Buy More Home Theatre Room. At Casey's nudging, Sarah meets Chuck on the way out for a talk about their breakup. The talk is interrupted by Javier, who surrounds them, knocks out Chuck and takes the pair prisoner.
Chuck wakes up in a prison cell in Mexico, where Javier comes in to beat him up and leave him with the promise of more torture later, after which he implies he'll do the same to Sarah. This threat makes Chuck's Intersect stop glitching. He swiftly knocks Javier out and lets Sarah out of her cell. They zipline down from the prison roof but are surrounded, just in time for Casey to come to the rescue.
Back in L.A., General Beckman reforms Team Bartowski, but tells Sarah in private the real purpose of the team: with Chuck's effective-but-unreliable Intersect, the team now exists to contain Chuck rather than protect him.
Trope Flash:
- Call-Back: The team, sans Chuck, are now tracking down operatives for The Ring.
- Crazy-Prepared: Who thought to program the Intersect with Mariachi guitar skills?
- Beard of Sorrow: Chuck grows one after dropping out of spy school.
- Happy Ending Override: Six months on, Chuck is no longer with Sarah and has been fired from the CIA. Morgan has also lost Anna, failed to become a Hibachi chef and is living at the Buy More.
- Killed Off for Real: Emmet, after calling Ring agent Javier a pussy. He gets shot in the eye.
- Mugged for Disguise: Chuck does this by accident to a Mariachi guitarist who sneaks up on him. Ever practical, he takes the guy's place.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When Chuck's Intersect is working, he hands these out (sometimes without meaning to). When the Intersect isn't working, Javier beats the crap out of him without breaking a sweat.
- Oh, Crap!: Casey, when he sees Emmet's body and realises there's a reason Sarah hasn't returned to Castle.
- Tap on the Head: Chuck accidentally delivers one to a Mariachi guitarist who turns out to be the assassin he's after. The assassin later returns the favour.
- Time Skip: This episode takes place six months after Chuck Versus the Ring.
- Underestimating Badassery: Emmet, many times, resulting in his death. First he humiliates Chuck after spotting him buying Cheese Balls, telling him "you have no idea how close you came to getting your ass kicked," while Chuck is visibly restraining a flash that would put Emmet in the hospital. Then he's incredibly rude to Javier when he comes looking for Chuck, and gets shot in the face.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Chuck ruins the team's mission to locate a Ring agent by leaping on top of Sarah when an assassin aims a gun at her. No one else sees the assassin, at least until he turns up later to abduct them.
