| Chuck Versus the Frosted Tips | |
| Season 05, Episode 03 | |
 | |
| Air Date | November 11, 2011 |
| Writer | Phil Klemmer |
| Director | Paul Marks |
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Chuck Versus the Frosted Tips is the third episode of the fifth season which aired on November 11, 2011.
Summary
Carmichael Industries attempts to track down a wanted fugitive while Casey reunites once again with Gertrude Verbanski (Carrie-Anne Moss).
Captain Awesome begins paternity leave with Baby Clara and, when it’s not quite as exciting as he expected, he is led to the Buy More.
Plot
Main story
Sarah and Casey work together so that the latter could "coincidentally" run into Gertrude Verbanski outside her favorite restaurant. Though Casey fails to ask her out, he plants a bug on her coat to spy on her.
Meanwhile, Chuck is having a clandestine meeting with General Beckman, who is willing to hire Carmichael Industries to capture Max Zorrin, a man who has confidential CIA secrets. She is not happy that Chuck brought Morgan along.
When Chuck returns to Echo Park after hiding the mission data in Castle, he finds Alex, who asks him if Morgan is seeing someone else. Chuck tells her in the strictest confidence that he's not. But when he walks into Casey's apartment, from the bug on Verbanski, they learn that Morgan has gone behind their backs to work for her.
The next day, when Morgan enters the Buy More, he has a new motorcycle, cologne and frosted tips (spiked and dyed hair). His team confronts him over going behind their backs but he shrugs them off, before text dumping Alex. This saddens Alex. Her father suggests that he'd be allowed to torture Morgan, before comforting his daughter.
Chuck compares Morgan's behavior and overinflated ego to be the same super ego he had in 7th grade. He grew his first mustache and turned their lives into a living hell for a few weeks. It all ended when Meredith Lester pulled down his pants, destroying his popularity and he and Chuck went back to being best friends.
Thinking that finishing the mission would restore his friendship with Morgan, Chuck opens the safe to find the flash drive with their mission info gone. Realizing that Morgan took it to Verbanski Corp, the team goes there to get it back. They infiltrate the place in disguise as security. Casey infiltrates Verbanski's office before retrieving the flash drive. However, Verbanski and Morgan were close to discovering him until the latter is called away for training exercise. Verbanski then finds Casey and wrestles with him, before he cuffs her to her desk and takes back the gun she stole from him in Minsk.
Chuck accidentally gets involved with the training session because he was wearing a blue armband. After Morgan beats all of Verbanski's goons with zooming, Chuck reveals himself. He calls on Morgan for abusing the Intersect. Morgan refutes his claims, thinking that he's just jealous that he's now the Intersect, not Chuck and renounces their friendship. Casey and Sarah come out to try and tranq him but he zooms to avoid the darts. Chuck then pulls down his pants, distracting him long enough so Morgan can be tranqued.
With the data back in their hands, they get a fixed on Zorn's next location. However, Sarah is more concerned over Casey's unresolved feelings for Verbanski and the fact that Morgan be having more than an inflated ego.
Sarah talks with Ellie, being the only remaining expert on the Intersect, who states the program has been altered and advises that they try stimulating Morgan's memory from before he became the Intersect. Sarah then calls Beckman regarding the Intersect glasses she sent, only to learn that she didn't send any. She returns to Castle to report this to her team, realizing that Clyde Decker must have sent those glasses and tampered with the Intersect to overwrite the mind of the user, which was intended to be Chuck. This explains his slowly degrading memory with Morgan forgetting Alex's name and pop culture.
Both Carmichael Industries and Verbanski Corp are racing to capture Zorn fire on a helicopter pad. As Verbanski and Morgan arrive, Chuck tries warning him of the tampered Intersect. Just then Zorn arrives, before his bodyguards are gunned down. The rival spy companies then spend more time fighting each other than arresting Zorn. Zorn attempts to flee in the copter, but Morgan shoots open a hole in the copter, leaking gasoline, threatening to blow it up if Zorn doesn't surrender. Chuck tries reminding him that he's not a killer, before reminding how they got back at Meredith back in 8th grade, when they stole her ham sandwich to lace with Morgan's second mustache. Remembering this, Morgan relents. Zorn then surrenders, admitting that they are all crazy people. As Morgan tells Verbanski that he's resigning, the gasoline ignites from a nearby electrical cable. Chuck and Casey rescue both of them before the fire reaches the copter. There is much kissing afterwards, between Casey and Verbanski and Chuck and Sarah. They both split the bounty on Zorn.
While Casey gets ready for his date with Verbanski, Devon gets a checkup on Morgan, who admits that he wants the Intersect out. Devon advises that he not confuse a job with his life.
Morgan apologizes to Casey for his behavior but is kicked out. He tells Chuck and Sarah that he intends to crash in Jeff's van, which is not occupied.
Chuck is called for another meeting with Beckman, who warns that Decker has called a kill order on Morgan for having outed himself as the Intersect. He then tries calling Morgan to warn him but he's in the shower and doesn't answer his cellphone. As Morgan walks out to his motorcycle, he is unaware that someone has placed an explosive on it.
Captain Awesome and the Buy More
Devon is now on paternity leave to take care of Baby Clara. But after 45 minutes of working out and similar, he gets bored. While watching TV, he views the commercial he made for the Buy More and decides to go there. When he arrives, he finds the store apparently devoid of employees. He then spots Jeff sleeping under his car while the engine is running and rescues him. Examining Jeff, he tells him to never sleep under his car again. The next day, Jeff comes in with a much more mature demeanor and a groomed hairstyle. Immediately, he rejects Lester's plea to join Fernando in dares that would potentially hurt him.
Music
- Raw Meat - The Black Lips
- Rock The House - The Deekompressors
- Strangers In The Night - The Morning Benders
- Here’s a Little Something For Ya - The Beastie Boys
- Through The Crowd - Hotel Lights
References to Popular Culture
- When Chuck and Morgan are arguing over the zip drive, Chuck calls Morgan "Gollum", a reference to the Lord of the Rings character Gollum or Smeagol.
- The way Morgan dodges the darts Sarah and Casey shoot at him is an homage to Neo dodging bullets fired at him in the movie The Matrix.
- Max Zorn is a reference to Max Zorin, the villain from the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill.