Chuck vs the American Hero

Original air date March 29, 2010

Season 3 episode 12

Synopsis

Chuck is in Washington DC to talk to General Beckman and get his assignment. He is lost in the building and asks for help, but an agent ignores him, enters the morgue, and takes a capsule from the body of Hunter Perry.

When Chuck makes it to Beckman’s office, he is informed that he is going to Rome. He gets a week of leave after telling Beckman he doesn’t feel ready. Beckman tells him he will have a team of his choosing, and he returns to Burbank to recruit Sarah.

Devon wants Chuck out of Burbank so Ellie will go with him for Doctors Without Borders. He recruits Morgan to help him team with Chuck to get Sarah back. Casey joins up as well, thinking he can get on Chuck’s team if they are successful. 

Sarah refuses Chuck’s attempt to recruit her; she no longer sees the man she fell for, she believes he killed Perry, and he can’t tell her the truth or he risks Casey’s freedom. He asks her to give him just this one secret and believe him when he says he didn’t kill Perry, but she refuses.

Morgan, Casey, and Devon use Jeff’s van to kidnap Chuck so they can force a confrontation with Shaw, who is on a date with Sarah. They lure Shaw out of the restaurant with a “Ring” phone call, and Chuck sits in his chair to tell Sarah how he feels about her. 

Shaw finds Morgan, but they are jumped by actual Ring agents. He is taken by the Ring agents, but Devon sees him and tackles him, attempting to stop him from interrupting Chuck and actually saves him from the agents. They crash through the restaurant window and interrupt Chuck’s talk with Sarah.

Chuck gets chewed out by Ellie for asking for the help of Morgan, Devon, and Casey but not her and orders him not to give up on Sarah. 

At Castle, Shaw has hatched a plan to use himself as bait to trap the Ring Leader. He will swallow a tracker and give himself up, then they will know where the Leader is. Sarah objects, but Shaw ignores her. Chuck arrives and sees Shaw kiss Sarah goodbye. Sarah tells Chuck what Shaw is doing, and Chuck locks Sarah into Castle. He is going to be Shaw’s backup and wants her to be safe.

Sarah sees Casey in the Buy More and uses the electric connection between Castle and the store to send Morse code to Casey to come rescue her.

Shaw goes to the rendezvous point, but the agents scan him and find the device, extracting it. They then go to meet the Director. Chuck arrives to find Shaw’s car and the tracking device. 

Fortunately, Jeff and Lester have been following Shaw, feeling left out of the plan to help Chuck get Sarah back. They tell Chuck where Shaw is, and he goes to rescue him.

The Director shows Shaw a video of what actually happened to his wife. She was killed by Sarah during her red test. That was what was on the chip that Perry was carrying when Casey killed him. Shaw attacks the Director, but he’s just a hologram. Shaw is knocked out.

Chuck arrives, but a bombing run has already been called out for the building. The bomber is tracking the device that Chuck is still carrying. Chuck fights his way to Shaw and carries him out. Sarah arrives just as the bomber flies overhead and drops the bomb. Out of the fireball, she sees Chuck carrying Shaw to safety.

At Castle, Beckman congratulates Sarah, but she tells Beckman it was all Chuck. Chuck then tells Sarah how he feels; he tells her he loves her multiple times and asks her to run away with him.

He then kisses her and tells her to just show up at the train station. He turns to leave, and Sarah has tears in her eyes.

Casey shows up at Sarah’s apartment as she is packing a bag. Casey then tells her about killing Perry, saying Chuck isn’t a killer. She thanks him and is relieved.

 After he leaves, Shaw bursts through her door, having left the hospital after waking up and making a phone call.

He tells her they have a mission; he knows where the Director is. Sarah tries to call Chuck but is unable to make a call. 

Chuck waits at the station but is recalled by Beckman to Castle. Beckman shows Chuck the video that shows Sarah killing Eve, Shaw’s wife. Beckman had no knowledge of the event, and Chuck is shocked to realize that Shaw knows the truth and Sarah is with him and in danger.

Shaw is driving Sarah to a secret location; he tells her it is to “settle an old score.”

Points of Interest

• This is what all Chuck and Sarah shippers were waiting for. Sarah finally sees Chuck for who he really is- the real American Hero. She knows for a fact that no matter what happened with Perry, he is still her Chuck, he chose their future over being a spy. 
• Despite her commitment to a new mission and whatever commitment she had to Shaw, Sarah can’t say no to Chuck. When he looks into her eyes and tells her he loves her, she melts. The chemistry between Yvonne Strahovski and Zachary Levi is off the charts!
• When Casey walks into her apartment, Sarah is packing. Shaw is in the hospital and was unconscious when she last saw him. The only choice is that she is going to meet Chuck and run away….again.
• I am from the ‘no, he and Sarah were not intimate’ camp. There are many circumstantial proofs to back up my opinion but the biggest is that the Sarah we know does not pendulum back and forth between men and love like a yo-yo. Sarah loves Chuck, even when she was emotionally devastated. She was comforted by Shaw, he was someone to talk to (about Chuck) but they never showed intimacy openly and what he did to her after they got back from DC showed there was no love between them. He was cruel and uncaring and neither of them showed any sign of emotional or physical closeness. He is touched she cares about him and kisses her goodbye.
• For shippers, the biggest issue with season three is that Shaw and Sarah have no chemistry and the relationship between them is  unbelievable and forced. TV critic Alan Sepinwall wrote this in his review for American Hero: But I also think there have been a few miscalculations on the part of Schwartz, Fedak and company. Shaw has been a misfire, less because he’s been an obstacle to Chuck and Sarah getting together than that he’s been an obstacle to Team Bartowski working well together. It’s not a coincidence that two of the season’s stronger outings (“Nacho Sampler” and “Tic Tac”) both had Shaw absent so we could watch our three leads interact. Even if they weren’t all getting along splendidly (Sarah didn’t approve of Chuck’s handling of Manoosh in “Nacho Sampler,” and Casey was rogue for much of “Tic Tac”) the three actors/characters have such chemistry and such history together that Shaw often seemed like a buzzkill.
• I am not one to criticize the show creators. They gave us a great show with a wonderful cast that has given us hours of entertainment over the years. They were not perfect and I think this was their one glaring mistake. (Many would argue that the finale is   another but I don’t agree.) Shaw was poorly idealized and poorly   written. 
• Ellie continues to be left out of the loop regarding Chuck’s real life. But she continues to be the one who shoots straight to his heart with her ability to read him and give advice. “You didn’t go far enough, Chuck! Sarah is special, I know it, you know it. If you love her, if she’s the one, then you don’t stop, you don’t quit, you never go too far!”

References

Spies Like Us- Chuck uses a soda machine to travel down into the Ring headquarters.

Get Smart- Mr Jibb soda machine also reminiscent of the show.

Music

Down River- The Temper Trap: Chuck asks Sarah to meet him at Union Station; Casey tells Sarah he shot Hunter Perry.

At The Checkout Counter- Billy Martin: Casey tells Chuck not to tell Sarah that he killed Perry.