Chuck Versus the Coup D'Etat is the fifth episode of Chuck's fourth season.
Casey has to fake his death to lure his former teammates out of hiding.
Chuck must decide what he's willing to sacrifice in order to find his mother.
Morgan tries to gather the courage to tell Casey about his relationship with Alex.
- And I Must Scream: Casey's paralyzed body is taken by his former teammates and he's fully aware but unable to do anything as they plan to saw off his arm.
- Badass in Distress:
- A paralyzed Casey is kidnapped by his former teammates.
- They later capture Chuck and Sarah and hold them hostage to lure Casey.
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Casey's former teammates have hunted him down because he locked a uranium vault full of gold with his fingerprints.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Morgan has to rudely send Alex away when Casey's former teammates come to Morgan's house to look for Casey, making her think he's dumping her. Later Casey says Morgan did it because he forced him too, causing her to forgive him.
- The Brute: Tim Isaacs is the hand-to-hand combat specialist of Casey's old team who are now villains.
- Cellphones Are Useless: After he's drugged the second time, Casey attempts to call Chuck to tell him he will hide in a dumpster. But since he couldn't see right, he ended up calling Jeff instead. Hilarity Ensues.
- Chekhov's Gun: Chuck gives Casey another syringe with the drug to make him look dead "just in case" the first one doesn't work. This ends badly for Casey as he's stabbed with the syringe by Kyle after the first dose ran out.
- Dangerous Deserter: Casey former team are deserters that ended becoming dangerous agents for Volkoff Industries.
- Faking the Dead: Chuck comes up with a plan to fake Casey's death to lure his old rogue teammates out of hiding, since they need his fingerprints to unlock a uranium vault full of gold. But they anticipate it's a trap and steal his body instead.
- Floorboard Failure: Casey teammates bomb the floor under his coffin in order to escape his fake funeral.
- Friendlessness Insult: Morgan and Casey's already difficult relationship worsens when Casey learns that Morgan is dating his daughter Alex. When Casey tries to bully Morgan into dumping Alex, Morgan refuses and goes as far as telling Casey that he's really upset because the only people who showed up at Casey's (fake) funeral where the ones who actually wanted him dead.
- Handicapped Badass: Casey manages to escape his old teammates while under heavy sedation.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Casey issues one to Morgan regarding his relationship with Alex.Casey: You break her heart, I break your everything.
- Impairment Shot:
- Happens to Casey after he's stabbed with the syringe with paralyzing drug.
- Also happens to Morgan after he electrocutes himself along with the bad guys.
- Informal Eulogy: Since Morgan knows it's a fake funeral, his eulogy to Casey sounds very informal.
- Internal Reveal: Sean reveals to Chuck that Frost isn't a prisoner in Volkoff, but that she works for Volkoff as The Dragon.
- Lonely Funeral: The only people that show up to Casey's fake funeral that don't know it's fake are his old teammates that hate him.
- Parental Marriage Veto: Casey forbids Morgan for dating Alex at first, but changes his find after Morgan's quasi-Heroic Sacrifice. Casey also gives this as an excuse to Alex for why Morgan "dumped her" earlier.
- Power Trio: The villains form one, each one with their own specialty, with Casey being The Leader back when they were a 4 man squad.
- Close-Range Combatant: Tim Isaacs is the hand-to-hand combat specialist.
- Demolitions Expert: Kyle Packard is the special weapons expert.
- The Engineer: Sean MacKintosh is the electronics expert.
- Friendlessness Insult: In "Chuck Versus the Couch Lock", Morgan and Casey's already difficult relationship worsens when Casey learns that Morgan is dating his daughter Alex. When Casey tries to bully Morgan into dumping Alex, Morgan refuses and goes as far as telling Casey that he's really upset because the only people who showed up at Casey's (fake) funeral where the ones who actually wanted him dead.
- Punny Name: The former member's of Casey's special forces are all named after electronics brands: Packard, T.I. and Mackintosh.
- Rage Breaking Point: Devon tells Morgan the best way to awaken someone who's couch-locked is to make them angry. So Morgan decides to tell him he's been dating Alex. It works.Casey: [lifting Morgan via Neck Lift] I Will Kill You.
- Shout-Out
- When one of the villains is going through the mailboxes in Chuck's apartment complex, it is revealed that Casey's neighbor is named Bauer. Back when Chuck and 24 first aired, the shows were indeed "neighbors," since both aired on Monday night.
- The A-Team.Casey: I had them court-martialed. Of course, they promptly escaped the maximum security stockade...
Chuck: ...to the Los Angeles Underground, where they survived as soldiers of fortune.
[Beat]
Chuck: Like the... The A-Team. You never have... have you ever seen the The A-Team?
Casey: I was the The A-Team.
Chuck: Ah. - The funeral scene in the same episode also seems to reference this scene
from the Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn movie Charade, where a group of four people agreed to steal gold when part of the OSS in World War II. When one of them died, the others at his funeral each tried to make sure he was dead. One sneezed on him, one held a mirror to his nose, and the other (in the exact same manner as Chuck) stuck a pin in him. - Near the end, Mackintosh tells Casey that if he'd let them take the gold, "we'd be on a beach, earning twenty per cent."
- Tracking Device: Chuck puts one on Casey's body before drugging him, but Casey's old teammates find it and put the tracking device on a stray cat, rendering it useless.
- Villain of the Week: Kyle Packard, Tim Isaacs, and Sean MacKintosh (Eric Roberts, Batista, and Joel David Moore), who were members of Casey's Clinton-era special forces team that turned rogue and are now Volkoff agents.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: General Beckman approves of Chuck maturing as a spy to the point of putting Casey as The Bait for a mission, which causes Chuck to be ashamed of himself, especially when the plan fails and Casey teammates successfully capture him.
- Wham Line: The episode ends with Chuck getting a phone call:Frost: Hello, Chuck. It's your mother.
