CHUCK SEASON 2 - EPISODE 03
Bryce returns to fight Fulcrum.
Cast and Crew
Director: Robert Duncan McNeill
Star: Zachary Levi (Chuck Bartowski), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah Walker), Joshua Gomez (Morgan Pace), Adam Baldwin (Major John Casey), Sarah Lancaster (Ellie Bartowski), Ryan McPartlin (Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcomb), Julia Ling (Anna Wu), Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike), Vik Sahay (Lester), Scott Krinsky (Jeff).
Recurring Role: Bonita Friedericy (General Beckman), Matthew Bomer (Bryce Larkin)
Guest Star: Steve Valentine (Von Hayes), Michael Strahan (Mitt), Stephen Holland (Barry Nyes)
Episode Recap
Episode 203 | Season 2 | 10/13/2008
Flashback to Bogota, Columbia, 2005. CIA Agents Sarah Walker and Bryce Larkin have just stolen a briefcase and are hiding from the Federales by posing as kissing American tourists. The Federales lose interest in the couple, but two thugs spot them and give chase. A cartel boss catches Bryce, puts a gun to his head. He wants his money. Her arm concealed by the case, Sarah grabs a gun taped to her back and shoots the boss in the forehead, inches from Bryce's head. They slip back into cover as tourists. Bryce grabs a rose from a vendor and gives it to Sarah.
Back in the present, Chuck stands at Sarah's door, rose in hand, staring at Bryce and Sarah. He goes home, throws the rose in the trash. He tells Ellie and her fiancée, Captain Awesome, that Bryce is back. They're confused. They thought Sarah and Chuck were dating. They are, but Bryce is taking the whole "we can still be friends" thing to heart. Awesome says, "Stalker ex. Not awesome." He adds that Bryce doesn't hold a candle to Chuck and will be out of Sarah's life in no time. It's of little comfort to Chuck as he watches Awesome and Ellie snuggle and drink wine.
At the Buy More, Lester the tyrant is going over the store with white gloves, pointing out dust to his minions. Casey signals a meeting to Chuck, who asks why Bryce is in town. Casey insensitively says maybe for a roll in the hay with Sarah. Meanwhile, Lester sees a bunch of jocks from the Mighty Jocks store raucously playing Madden football on the PS3 in the home theater room. They're eating lunch and have no regard for the store. Lester, too chicken to do it himself, makes Morgan ask them to leave. He does, and an insanely huge jock, Mitt (former NFL great Michael Strahan), stuffs a half-eaten burrito in Morgan's pocket and tells him not to interrupt his game again.
In the bunker, Chuck asks Sarah about Bryce. General Beckman cuts in, telling them the Fulcrum threat is worse than they thought. Not only did they destroy the new Intersect, but their agent stole an encrypted microchip with top-secret information. Beckman says that Bryce learned Fulcrum hired Von Hayes, a wealthy software magnate, to decrypt the chip. She needs an undercover couple to go to the lavish party that Hayes is throwing tonight. Chuck gets excited about the prospect, but Beckman says, "No, the mission requires a real spy." Enter Bryce, who waltzes in confidently, wearing cool spy glasses. Chuck is crushed when Beckman wants Bryce and Sarah to pose as husband and wife, while he poses as a waiter.
At the Buy More, Chuck asks Casey about the mission. He asks if Chuck is worried Bryce will run off with Sarah. Chuck says their relationship is professional and if he's going to be stuck being a spy he should learn from the master. The sarcasm lost on him, Casey tells Chuck the plan to steal the microchip from a vault in Von Hayes' mansion. Chuck wonders how they're going to do that, and Casey says Bryce and Sarah will be very affectionate, so when they disappear from the ballroom no one will ask questions. "That's the beauty of PDA."
At Orange Orange, Bryce is already getting into the married cover, but Sarah wants to keep it professional so there will be no distractions. Disappointed, Bryce agrees. Ellie stops by to ask Sarah to be a bridesmaid, but doesn't go in when she sees them being close. She misinterprets the body language and tells Chuck she saw Sarah holding hands with some guy that was "tall, dark hair, sort of a classically handsome type." Knowing it's Bryce, Chuck says, "I wouldn't call him classically handsome. I mean maybe from a really weird angle or from a super long distance I could see it." But, it's clear he's crushed.
At the Buy More, the Mighty Jocks are back playing Madden and worse than before. Scared, Grimes and Lester devise a plan that doesn't involve direct confrontation to get Mitt and his cohorts out of their home theater room. They covertly get into position to kill the power to the room. Inside, the jocks go wild as Mitt leads his team down the field on a game-winning drive. On Lester's cue, Grimes kills the power and robs Mitt of his touchdown. It's a short-lived victory for the nerds, when Mitt comes out and finds out who was behind it. He says he's going to kick their asses after work, and Lester faints.
At Sarah's apartment, Chuck and Bryce prepare for the mission. Chuck realizes Bryce is staying there when he sees his suitcase. Bryce says it's to protect their cover, but it's clear he's being territorial with Chuck. He asks Chuck if he's allowed the lines to get blurred and fallen for her. Sarah steps out in a killer dress and asks how she looks. To cover his feelings for her, Chuck says she looks great, but red isn't really his color. Bryce notices that Chuck's comment affects Sarah more than it should.
At his birthday party, Von Hayes toasts to himself. Meanwhile, in the van, Casey watches the action via a tapped security camera in the mansion. Sarah and Bryce rule the dance floor as a ruse to check out the room. Their sexy act distracts Chuck, who spills champagne on Hayes. He apologizes, then tells Casey that he didn't flash on anyone at the table. Chuck returns, this time dropping the wine on the floor when he's again distracted by Sarah and Bryce. Sarah sees Chuck's in trouble, but follows Bryce to the vault.
Chuck gets fired, and begs for his job back. As he's being led out, he flashes on a woman's voice, but can only see her back as she talks to Von Hayes. He's kicked out of the mansion and tells Casey he flashed on a woman's voice. Casey taps into the security system and lets Chuck back in. His mission: find the Fulcrum agent that he flashed on and get a look at her face. Casey tells Chuck he has five minutes.
Meanwhile, at the Buy More, Lester and Morgan watch the clock tick toward eight. Fearful of a Mighty Jock beat down, Lester isn't budging from the store, but Morgan musters up the courage to walk Anna out. Jeff yells, "Deaddddd mannnnn walking!" When Morgan gets to the door, he loses his nerve and stays in. Jeff and Anna leave as Lester and Morgan, prisoners of their fear, stay behind.
Back inside, Chuck dodges the waiters and hides under the dining room table when he hears voices. Von Hayes, his bodyguard, and the Fulcrum Agent enter the room. Chuck peeks out, sees the Fulcrum agent. She asks Hayes why he's throwing a party instead of cracking the chip. Hayes tells her the chip is finished and that he wants his 15 million dollars. Instead, she pulls out a gun with a silencer and shoots the bodyguard in the head, then demands Von Hayes hand over the chip.
In the dining room, a terrified Von Hayes says he'll take the agent to the vault. His nerves cause him to drop his keys right in front of Chuck, who sees that the keychain is the chip inside a clear protective cover and flashes on it. In the vault, Bryce and Sarah work on the lock when Chuck says via his watch that the chip is on a keychain and he saw the Fulcrum Agent. Unbeknownst to him, she's still at the door with Von Hayes and hears Chuck's voice. She turns and Von Hayes bolts. The agent, who just heard Chuck say she looks like a "psycho elfin queen," bends down and points her gun at Chuck.
Casey watches the Fulcrum agent take Chuck out of the mansion. Bryce commands Von Hayes to stop, but he doesn't. Bryce tells Sarah to follow him to chase Von Hayes, but she decides to save Chuck. Casey is pissed Sarah strayed from the mission. Von Hayes escapes in his Lamborghini, almost hitting Bryce. In back, Sarah tells Chuck to duck and then shoots at the agent. The agent fires back until a car roars up and picks her up. She throws a hockey puck grenade under a car near Chuck. Sarah pushes Chuck ahead of her and takes the brunt of the blast. She's thrown hard to the ground and doesn't get up.
In the hospital, Chuck visits Sarah and brings her flowers. He sees Bryce has beaten him to it. The entire back of the room is filled with flowers. A disguised Bryce, small cut near his eye, watches Chuck and Sarah in her hospital room. Awesome and Ellie see Bryce, but they're at an angle where they can't see his face. Ellie wants to tell him to back off, but Awesome says he'll take care of it. He approaches Bryce, tells him his cut looks infected and leads him off. As he's cleaning the wound, awesome tells Bryce who he is, and that Sarah, "Is in love with Chuck, dude."
At the Buy More, Anna asks Lester and Morgan if they slept there. They deny it, Lester saying he isn't afraid of that miscreant. Morgan says he isn't either and would tell Mitt if he were here. To their horror, Mitt and the Mighty Jocks enter and march down the aisle. As Lester stays behind, Morgan meets them in the aisle. They ask him where he was last night, since he didn't show for the fight in the parking lot. He asks for another way out. Mitt says they could use some new PSPs. It will cost him two paychecks, but it saves his skin. The jocks walk off.
Outside Ellie's apartment, Bryce talks to Chuck. He tells Chuck that Sarah has feelings for him, and those feelings will get her killed. He says they deal with cold-blooded assassins who have no emotions or feelings. And the only chance they have against Fulcrum is to think and act like they do. Anything less gets them killed. Bryce is concerned that Sarah almost got killed protecting Chuck. Chuck is defensive, saying it's her job, and that Sarah knows what she's doing.
Captain Awesome gives Chuck the flowers that he says Bryce sent to Sarah, having intercepted them at the hospital. He says Bryce doesn't give up, which confuses Chuck because of what Bryce just told him. Angry, Chuck calls the number on the card to tell Bryce to back off, but it's Von Hayes that answers the phone, since he sent the flowers. Chuck switches to the Jorge Carmichael persona and tells Von Hayes if he wants to live, to tell him where the microchip is. Von Hayes assures him he has it. He just doesn't want those people to catch him. He says, "I'm living in a Lamborghini, Jorge. You can't imagine how little leg room there is."
At the hospital, the Fulcrum agent's driver dons a doctor's coat and goes into Sarah's room. Sarah sees that the ID on the coat doesn't match the man wearing it and disarms him with a surprise punch in the face. She holds the needle to his neck and demands to know where his boss is.
Chuck tells Casey he found Von Hayes and negotiated the return. Problem is, he promised Von Hayes $4.5 million in unmarked bills. Casey calls him a moron, but gets the dough. They get to a bus station, where Chuck and Hayes meet to make the exchange under the watch of Bryce and Casey. Bryce spots some hired thugs, and Von Hayes runs. The chase ends with a gunpoint stand-off on a train platform, Von Hayes in the middle. Chuck arrives on scene and offers the thugs the money to let Von Hayes go. It works, and they take the money. Von Hayes gives them the chip, and Casey goes to get the money back from the thugs. Bryce tells Sarah to take the shot, but she can't with Chuck close to the line of fire.
Chuck, Bryce and Von Hayes walk out of the station when the Fulcrum agent takes Chuck by gunpoint and demands the chip. Von Hayes runs, and Bryce, seeing Sarah sneaking around the corner, drops his weapon. He tells Sarah to take the shot, but she can't with Chuck so close to her. From the side, Casey shoots the Fulcrum agent in the shoulder. He has the money, Von Hayes and the chip. He says, "You want something done right, do it yourself."
Back at the Buy More, the Mighty Jocks are at it again. Grimes tells them to leave, but they want PS3s now. Grimes pours a drink over the jocks' head, and it's on. The two face off in the cage. "Sweep the leg," Lester coaches Grimes. Just as it's about to go down, Anna Wu steps in the cage. Mitt says he doesn't fight girls. Anna says, "Neither do I," and goes Crouching Tiger on the jock using a tripod as a weapon. As Casey watches Anna kick some Mighty Jock ass, he calls for a background check on her, thinking she would be good for field work.
Outside Ellie's apartment, Bryce tells Chuck that Sarah couldn't take the shot because of her feelings for Chuck. He tells Chuck he's always looked out for him, and tries to give him his cool spy sunglasses. Chuck gets it, and when Sarah arrives, tells her she's the greatest thing that ever happened to him, but that they have no future because of her job. Sarah is crushed, but can't argue. Holding back tears, Sarah goes inside with Chuck to help Ellie and Awesome with wedding stuff. Awesome tells Chuck he's glad they worked things out, and referring to marriage, "Who knows, maybe you're next."
Chuck goes up to reflect in his room. He spots Bryce's cool spy glasses sitting in front of a note that reads, "For a real spy." Chuck can't help himself. He walks over to the mirror and puts the glasses on. Then, blinding light shoots out from behind the lenses. Thousands of new intersect images, information and secrets flash, all filling up Chuck's brain. He falls to the floor, then says, "I hate Bryce Larkin." The microchip self destructs.
