Chuck Versus the Colonel

Chuck Versus the Colonel
Season 02, Episode 21

Air Date	April 20, 2009
Writer	Matt Miller
Director	Peter Lauer
Previous	Chuck Versus the First Kill
Next	Chuck Versus the Ring

"The whole stay in the car bit? Aren't we past this?"

―Chuck

Chuck Versus the Colonel is the twenty-first episode in Season Two and aired on April 20, 2009. It is the thirty-fourth episode overall.

Synopsis[]

Chuck and Sarah go on the run in an effort to rescue his father, Stephen Bartowski, and to keep Chuck out of lock down. Casey has just been promoted to Colonel, and begins hunting the two down, as per his orders.

Meanwhile at the Buy More, Morgan becomes a pariah among his coworkers after Big Mike's demotion.

Full Story[]

The episode begins the morning after Chuck Versus the First Kill. Chuck and Sarah head to the coordinates of Black Rock that Chuck flashed on but arrive only to find an abandoned drive-in theater. At Castle, Beckman promotes Casey to Colonel and orders him to bring Chuck and Sarah in, dead or alive. Meanwhile, Ted Roark demands Stephen finish the Intersect by the next morning, or he'll kill Stephen's family.

Unable to return home, Chuck and Sarah stop at a motel. Vincent has tracked their location, Roark asks him to wait until the morning when the new Intersect should be finished before dealing with them. After an altercation with Ellie and Devon while searching Chuck's room for clues as to where he and Sarah might have gone, Casey tracks a call placed by Chuck to the same motel.

The next morning Chuck and Sarah wake up next to each other and finally give in to their feelings but are prevented from progressing too far when Chuck opens his wallet to get a condom, but instead finds and I.O.U. from Morgan. Chuck goes out to get some condoms but is apprehended by Casey outside the room. Sarah then disables Casey and cuffs him to a radiator in the motel room. As they prepare to leave, Fulcrum operatives arrive and Chuck convinces Sarah to go back for Casey, who has already freed himself by tearing out the radiator and confronts Chuck. Sarah is captured by Fulcrum but Chuck rescues her by running them down with the car. Casey takes them back in custody.

Stephen is tracking them, and as they pass the drive-in again, leaves Chuck a message - Tron 12AM - on the marquee, but Casey refuses to turn back, and returns them to Castle. Casey informs Beckman of the message, and she agrees to look into it. Casey's home alarm is then tripped by Devon, and he hurries back to deal with him, muttering "I hate this whole family." Meanwhile, Chuck and Sarah talk while locked up, and are about to kiss again when a short blackout disables the security and allows them to escape. They see Devon trapped in Casey's apartment on one of the monitors when power is restored and rush home to save him.

Chuck and Sarah stop Casey from shooting Devon, and Chuck reveals his secret life as a CIA asset to explain why they can't call the cops. They leave Casey tied up, while they return to the drive-in to rescue Stephen. Meanwhile, as Casey attempts to light his lighter to melt his bonds, Beckman makes contact. She claims that there's not enough time to rescue Stephen, so she has instead decided to order an air strike to destroy the facility to prevent Fulcrum from gaining the Intersect. Casey escapes and goes after the rest of his team, conflicted because he promised to protect Stephen. He joins Sarah in freeing Stephen before the air strike, but they are captured by Vincent.

Chuck is told to stay in the car, but when a large group of Fulcrum agents arrives, he realizes that Roark is going to use the completed Intersect to build an army, so tries to stop it, and snatch the cube. He encounters Roark, who brings all the prisoners into the projection booth. Chuck warns Sarah and Casey to close their eyes, but Stephen tells Chuck to leave his open. He reluctantly does as his father instructs: Stephen had reprogrammed the Intersect to remove data, not implant it. Roark finds this out when he doesn't flash on any of the pictures he's looking at. But before he can kill Chuck in retaliation, Air Force F-16s arrive and begin an attack run on the base. The Fulcrum agents scatter, but most are killed in the assault. However, the team manages to escape, taking the Intersect cube with them. Chuck is at last free of the Intersect.

Back at Castle, Beckman commends Casey on rescuing Stephen, recovering the Intersect, and defeating the entirety of Fulcrum. However, Casey deflects her praise and covers for Sarah by saying it was her idea to pretend going rogue to flush out Fulcrum. Beckman clears Sarah of wrongdoing, and announces their operation is over and Chuck is free to live his life. Chuck tries to thank her, but she cuts the transmission.

The episode ends with a battered Ted Roark hitching a ride on a semi, headed for Ellie's wedding.

Buy More[]

Morgan is on the outs with the rest of his coworkers after Big Mike was removed as store manager by Emmett, who wants to make Morgan his assistant manager. Morgan initially refuses and tries to make things up to Big Mike. Eventually, he accepts the promotion from Emmett and tries to use it to control Emmett's power plays by protecting Big Mike and the rest of the employees. However, Emmett continues to force Mike into menial tasks around the store. After he's ordered to install new registers, Jeff and Lester set off a bomb they found in Casey's locker inside a generator outside the store, which causes a temporary blackout throughout Burbank.

Morgan is ordered to fire them, but he tries to avoid that by asking the two to apologize, which they refuse to do. Anna confronts Morgan about why he takes their abuse and chides him about not having any dreams outside the Buy More. Morgan admits he wants to be a Benihana chef. Emmett continues to pressure Morgan to fire Jeff and Lester, until finally Morgan decides to do the honorable thing. He goes to Big Mike and asks him to take care of his mother, then in full view of everyone strips off his assistant manager's shirt and quits. He asks Anna to come with him to Hawaii while he follows his dream to train as a chef. He and Anna leave the store in style to the applause of all his coworkers.

Devon & Ellie[]

Devon interrupts Casey's search of Chuck's room but grows suspicious about his behavior and Chuck's disappearance. He heads to the Buy More to ask Jeff and Lester if they've seen Chuck and asks about Casey. The two break into Casey's locker and reveal that Casey has keys to Chuck's house and keeps logs of his doings at the store, as well as chloroform and other disturbing equipment. Jeff expresses professional admiration for Casey as a stalker.

Growing more concerned, Devon uses Casey's keys to enter his apartment, where he sees Casey's surveillance equipment, including the camera in Chuck's room. He tries to access Casey's computer but trips an alarm which locks him in. Casey, alerted to his intrusion, returns to his apartment. Devon confronts him about his intrusion into Chuck's privacy and defends himself when Casey pulls a gun. Casey gets back to his feet, but before things progress further, is ambushed by Sarah and Chuck. Devon insists on calling the police, but now that he's seen so much, Chuck tells him the truth--he's an important government intelligence asset, and Sarah and Casey are his handlers. Chuck asks for Devon to "be awesome" and cover for him with Ellie. Devon is stunned but agrees to help.

Later, when Ellie comes home and asks him about Chuck, Devon begins to panic. Ellie mistakes this as wedding jitters and orders him to remain focused. He eventually calms down as they prepare to leave for their rehearsal dinner and assures her that Chuck loves her and was just shaken up by their father leaving again. He asks her to trust Chuck, who finally returns home and apologizes, then brings Stephen in as her wedding present.

As they all head out for the dinner, Chuck stops by Casey's apartment and asks him to join them. Casey says his mission is over, but Chuck tells him he's asking as a friend. Casey closes the door, but as Chuck turns to leave, he comes out saying he hopes it's an open bar. Sarah then arrives, and Casey leaves them to talk. Chuck is unable to believe that it's over, but Sarah assures him it is as she takes him by the hand.

Guest Stars[]

Scott Bakula as Stephen Bartowski
Chevy Chase as Ted Roark
Bonita Friedericy as General Diane Beckman
Arnold Vosloo as Vincent Smith

Trivia[]

The F-16s attacking the Fulcrum site seem to be armed strictly with AGM-65 Maverick missiles and yet are shown delivering a napalm strike at the end of their mission. Additionally, the F-16s have a tailcode of "HL" which would indicate that they are from the Hill Air Force Base in Utah. This seems a little far, but no air force base in California supports F-16s while Hill AB does indeed support F-16s.
The drive-in that Chuck and Sarah are at in the beginning of the episode is a likely reference to the abandoned drive-in in Spies Like Us, which stared Chevy Chase and from which the show has frequent references.
The drive-in theater where Ted Roark plans to create new intersect agents is called the Starbright Drive In. Starbright was the name of the project Dr. Sam Beckett ran, prior to his Quantum Leap project, also the name of a series which Scott Bakula starred in.
Chevy Chase asking the crowd "can you dig it?" is a reference to Cyrus asking the same question to a group of gangs in the movie The Warriors (1979).
Morgan and Anna's departure is an homage to An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), when at the end Richard Gere's character sweeps Paula (Debra Winger) up and carry her off.

Quotes[]

Chuck: What we can't request a cozy little two bed, two bath cell?

Sarah: Two bed?

~

Chuck: Devon, I am a high level CIA asset and these are my handlers. For the past two years they've had to watch and protect my every move.

Sarah: Chuck! No!

Chuck: He can handle it. You can handle this, right? Tell me you can handle this. I need you to be cool about this. I need you to cover for me with Ellie. I need you to be Awesome. Can you be awesome?

~

Sarah: Chuck, are you okay?

Chuck: I feel... I feel different. Lighter.

Stephen: It worked.

Casey: What worked?

Stephen: This. I programmed it to remove the Intersect from Chuck's head.

Chuck: What do you mean "remove"?

Stephen: The Intersect is out, it's over, Chuck. You're free, son.

Music[]

Bon Iver – “Creature Fear”
Malbec – “The Answering Machine”
Bon Iver – “Team”