Chuck vs the Honeymooners

Original air date April 26, 2010

Season 3 episode 14

Synopsis

Chuck and Sarah have a compartment on a train headed out of Paris to Switzerland. They have spent several days in their cabin, with meals delivered to the door. They discuss their choice of being together and decide they have to run away and stop being spies. After throwing their cell phones out the window, they vow to turn their back on the CIA. 

In Burbank, General Beckman decides to send Casey after them when she realizes they have gone AWOL. Morgan and Casey will track them down and bring them back. 

Ellie and Devon are getting ready to leave for Africa and Ellie worries Chuck won’t be back in time to say goodbye.

The train travels to Lyon, France and we see Chuck and Sarah come out of their compartment for the first time. While discussing their plans, they notice a suspicious person and Chuck flashes, realizing he is a Basque terrorist, while Sarah sees a gun on one of the men with him. They don’t say a word to each other.

Casey and Morgan begin to discuss a plan and Devon arrives at the Buy More to ask about Chuck and tell Morgan that Ellie will be upset if he isn’t there for the party. Jeff and Lester overhear and decide they need to be involved with the party.

After Chuck and Sarah assure each other that they are done with the spy life, they both pursue finding out more about Arnaldo, the terrorist. They enter his room separately and end up hiding from each other unknowingly. Chuck escapes detection as Arnaldo re-enters and he goes back to their cabin. Sarah hides in the bathroom and pretends to be a drunk passenger who went in the wrong room. When they both admit to being too curious to ignore Arnaldo, they agree to “one last mission” before retiring.

Morgan and Casey figure out how to track Chuck using a medical prescription and spot him on a security camera in Paris with a ticket to Zurich. They arrive and board the train to Zurich with Morgan pretending to be Canadian. He tries to fit in with a girl he spots as Canadian but she threatens him when he tries to charm her.

Chuck and Sarah hatch a plan to capture the terrorist and assume false identities as Mr and Mrs Charles from Texas to drug him and the men with him.

While waiting for the drugs to kick in, Casey shows up and cuffs them. When he doesn’t believe them that they are on a mission, they punch him and knock him out then pursue Arnaldo, who is not drugged.

When they capture Arnaldo and confine him to the bathroom, Casey shows up and they convince him of their plan.

Arnaldo escapes but runs into Morgan and gets knocked off the train. When they talk to him, they discover he has entered witness protection to testify against the Basque organization and the guys they took down were his Interpol guards. Casey finds out they didn’t run their “mission” through Beckman and tells Morgan that Chuck and Sarah are quitting.

The woman Morgan was talking to turns out to be an actual Basque terrorist and has overheard everything, calling it in to her superiors.

Chuck calls Beckman and tries to convince her that he was trying to do a good things and she is furious that they went rogue. They have to stay and protect Arnaldo until another Interpol team can pick him up.

Lester and Jeff convince Devon to let them play at the going away party that he and Ellie are having. When they rehearse at the apartment courtyard their equipment blows out and they have to go acoustic. 

Ellie drinks her way through the party and stresses about Chuck not being there.

While waiting in a cafe, they discuss Chuck and Sarah’s decision to stop being spies while Arnaldo listens to all the conversations. Casey and Morgan get both to admit that they are doing it for the other person. After saying goodbye and leaving, Chuck and Sarah run into the agents they drugged and discover that the Basque terrorist group is after Arnaldo. At the same time, Morgan realizes the guys that came to pick up Arnaldo are not from Interpol.

Chuck and Sarah take a scooter and crash through the window of the cafe to rescue Arnaldo and their friends. Their teamwork in the fight defeats the terrorists. Arnaldo then tells them that being on the run is not a good choice and encourages them to talk to each other.

When they move away and talk, they realize they don’t want to quit and will be together and be spies.

When arriving back at Burbank, they tell Beckman they are dating. Beckman lectures them that allowing their personal lives to interfere with their professional lives is dangerous but “off the record, it’s about damn time!”

Chuck then realizes he forgot about Ellie and rushes back to the apartment to find her gone. She walks in as he is watching the video of a drunk Ellie saying how disappointed she is with Chuck. She had forgotten her phone but tells Chuck she is really upset with herself for leaving him. Chuck tells her he isn’t alone, as Sarah walks into the doorway, and Ellie realizes they are together.

Later, in Chuck’s bedroom, he and Sarah listen to Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’ and he tells her he thinks this will be her favorite song. She says she likes it and they lay together on the bed and kiss.

Points of Interest

• The Polish rocker that Sarah flirts with to get the handcuffs was played by Yvonne Strahovski’s then boyfriend, and now husband, Tim Loden.
• The timeline for the train from Paris to Zurich is about six hours and not multiple days. The romantic license taken for the show is very entertaining.
• Jeffster performs acoustically for Ellie and Devon’s party. The black turtleneck and glasses are an homage to Simon and Garfunkel.
• This episode pays off all the angst and frustration of the previous Shaw episodes. Sarah is back to being Sarah but the happiest we have ever seen her.
• Yvonne Strahovski gets her first real opportunity to play comedy and is terrific.
• Beckman’s line shows that she knew about Chuck and Sarah and was secretly rooting for them.
• Morgan and Casey now become a team with Morgan’s entry into the spy game.

References

• Lester is wearing a replica of Michael Jackson’s shirt from the video for “Beat It” while he and Jeff are rehearsing for the party.
• Halo 3 video game cases are seen in the Buy More. Adam Baldwin was a voice actor for the game.

Music

Holiday- Vampire Weekend: Chuck and Sarah enjoy their compartment on the train and discuss Sarah’s taste in music.

Four by Four- Shout Out Louds: Chuck and Sarah decide to quit the spy life

Leaving On A Jet Plane- Vik Sahay (John Denver): Jeff and Lester perform at the party.

Light and Day- The Polyphonic Spree: Chuck and Sarah agree to be spies together

 Feeling Good- Nina Simone: Chuck shares a favorite song with Sarah that he thinks she will like. They cuddle and kiss on the bed.