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Jack Burton is the estranged father of Sarah Walker, who makes his living as a con man. He was once arrested by the ATF while Sarah was attending James Buchanan High School (under the alias of Jenny Burton) in San Diego, CA. Jack is portrayed by Gary Cole.
Jack was glimpsed in Chuck Versus the Cougars, where he is seen being arrested by the ATF while a teenage Jenny watches from cover, and in Chuck Versus the DeLorean when he comes to Burbank to run a con and visit his daughter. He returns in Chuck Versus the Wedding Planner when Sarah is conned by Daphne Peralta, and he wants to find out what had happened in the last two years that turned his daughter from a con to a mark.
Series[]
Jack is first seen in the Season Two episode, Chuck Versus the DeLorean. In a flashback where he is seen perpetrating a scam in Butte, Montana in which young Sarah rides her bike in front of an armored bank truck after transferring money from the bank. Sarah fakes an injury, and Jack arrives "just in time," pretending to be a doctor, and offers to drive her to the hospital. Sarah's role was all just a misdirect, so that Jack could quietly steal money from the truck. After carrying her into his car, he drives off supposedly to the local hospital, when the child is revealed to be young Jenny Burton (Sarah's then alias), who only received a bruise. She asks him if she should go to the hospital, but he instead offers her a Rocky Road ice cream. She agrees that is a better plan.
Back in Burbank, Sarah roused Chuck's curiosity by taking some private time. He tailed to a dinner at De Biaso's restaurant. He spotted a scar on the man with her which led to a flash the revealed Jack's prison record by way of identifying marks, and arrests for forgery, fraud, and larceny. Chuck apologizes for following her but tries to warn Sarah that older man talking to her at dinner is a "very bad man." Jack, overhearing, agrees that he is. Sarah then reveals that the man is her father.
He is deeply involved with Sheikh Rajiv Amad when he 'sells' him Nagamichi Plaza in Los Angeles, using the fictional Hans Lichtenstein; a wealthy individual who has come on hard times and needs to sell a valuable piece of property as a front. When the con blows up, Team Bartowski become involved in taking down the Sheikh.
Father and daughter
Jack's unwitting role will get him leniency, according to General Beckman and arranges for his arrest the following day. Sarah knows the police will arrive at five to arrest her father, and a few minutes before, she asks him to go out and pick up some Rocky Road ice cream for her. Jack finds Chuck just arriving and they speak for a moment, when the police arrive, they watch Sarah come out to meet them together from concealment. Jack deduces that his daughter is "some kind of cop," which Chuck confirms. He tells Chuck to take care of his daughter.
Jack returns in Chuck Versus the Wedding Planner, where he is first seen conning a group of investors in an apparent real estate fraud deal. Sarah and Jack dine at a restaurant where Jack takes the opportunity to take Sarah's CIA credentials from her wallet and asks her how she became a CIA agent. She consults him about a con who managed to take her for $26,000. Jack is both amused and appalled that Sarah got taken.
Jack later arrives at Chuck and Sarah's apartment at Echo Park where he discovers she is living with Chuck. Jack is caught by Devon as he was about the pick the lock. He waits at Devon's apartment with him and Clara until Chuck and Sarah return. He discovers Chuck and Sarah's wedding plan when Devon tried to conceal it.
Chuck asks Jack to walk Sarah down the aisle on her wedding day, but he refuses, as he believes he was never a good father and promised himself never to commit to anything he could not follow through on with Sarah. Jack leaves without a word once again, but leaves the piggy bank she gave him "a long time ago," and leaves a note on her bed saying he never spent a dime of the money, but only ever added to it. At least 11 rolls of 100s with perhaps a minimum of 25 notes in each roll, more than made up any losses.
Family[]
Being a con man, he is constantly on the move, and has either little or no contact with his family for the most part. He and Sarah, however, seem to have stayed in touch after he was arrested by the ATF when she was in high school.
Sarah and Jack have a rocky relationship with her often wishing she could have had a more normal childhood, to which he replies that no kid ever had as much fun as she did. He often involved her in his numerous cons when she was a child.
His relationship with Sarah's mother, Emma is unknown. After his disastrous attempt at proposing to her, his future wife's family refused to accept him. Sarah said that after the proposal they both later saw it as the end of their relationship. "My parents had a nightmare proposal. My mother's family had a restaurant, it was similar to this, and they loved it... so my dad wanted to propose there. God, he had the champagne and the flowers, and the band and the balloons and, I mean, it was chaotic. It was so over-the-top... and in all the confusion, somebody knocked over a candle, and it lit the rug on fire. Luckily, my mother and her family got out with only minor burns....They took it as a sign and they postponed the wedding. My dad always said it was the beginning of the end of their relationship."
Trivia[]
- Jack Burton is the name of the hero in the cult urban fantasy movie, Big Trouble in Little China.
- Jack was accessible through the Intersect because prison records include lists of all distinguishing marks borne by the inmate, including tattoos and scars.