Chuck: It's Casey.
Sarah: I was hoping you'd say that.
Is Casey a traitor? On a mission to test the security at a CIA facility, Chuck sees Casey steal a pill for his former commander Keller, now a Ring agent. Casey is arrested, but broken out by Keller who doesn't have the pill yet. Chuck and Sarah are tasked with tracking the pill, and Casey, down.
Turns out Casey has a history: he used to be Alex Coburn, a young Marine apparently killed in Honduras in 1989. He left behind a fiancée, Kathleen, who Keller has threatened to kill if Casey doesn't cooperate. While Sarah and Casey go to sort out Keller, Chuck goes to protect Kathleen.
Sarah and Casey kill Keller and his men, but there's a problem: Keller never meant to keep his word, and his men are already at Kathleen's house, leaving Chuck to protect her alone. As the pair speed to help him, Casey tells Chuck to take the pill, which he hid on him earlier; it's an emotion repressor designed for battlefield use, and it'll help him flash.
It does, but it also makes him - yes, Chuck - a merciless and unstoppable killing machine. Sarah manages to distract him before he kills anyone, but it's close, to both their horror. Meanwhile, Casey is only concerned with Kathleen. She's hurt, but will recover. As the team wait for the ambulance, they're in for another surprise: a girl in her late teens bursts in, calling for her mom, Kathleen, who greets her by the name of Alex.
Casey's long service keeps him out of prison, but General Beckman drops him from the NSA. He tells Chuck that it's too late for him to be a family man, but not for Chuck.
Trope Flash:
- Actor Allusion: Robert Patrick guest stars in an episode that centres around a pill that can create emotionless killing machines... sort of like a Terminator.
- Ironic Echo: Casey kills Keller by strangling him against a wall and breaking his neck. Sarah is deeply disturbed to see Terminator!Chuck almost do this after taking the pill.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Chuck, when he comes down off the pill and realises what he almost did under its influence.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Casey, realising that Chuck thinks his theft was a loyalty test and is about to "pass" by reporting him.
- The team, realising that Keller has already sent his men to kill Kathleen and Chuck will have to fight them alone.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Alex Coburn left behind a pregnant fiancée. Averted, though, because he's still alive; he's called John Casey now.
- Spanner in the Works: Chuck seeing Casey steal the pill. The Ring's plan would have gone off without a hitch otherwise.
- Wham Episode: Casey is dismissed from the NSA. He also finds out he has a teenage daughter.
- Wham Line: After saving Casey's former fiancée, the gang are startled by her daughter, a girl in her late teens (i.e. just old enough for her mother to have been pregnant when Alex Coburn "died.")Alex: MOM!
Kathleen: Alex!
