Chuck vs the Living Dead

Original air date May 17, 2010

Season 3 episode 17

Synopsis

Stephen Bartowski is at his cabin and sees a message for him from Ellie that is coded in the newspaper. She needs to contact him. He sends her an answer saying that he will be in touch. Ellie then calls Justin and arranges to meet him.

Chuck discusses with Morgan a dream he keeps having about Shaw being alive. Sarah overhears and questions him but he denies anything is going on. Chuck meets Morgan and tells him Shaw is alive and wants to kill them. He also decides to keep this from Sarah because of the past history.

Morgan convinces Chuck to let him stay in Castle for protection and when Sarah catches him there she gets the truth from him.

Chuck is going through information on Shaw when he sees Stephen come into the Buy More. He has not told his father that he has the intersect and is still with the CIA and lies to Stephen about his status.  Stephen is suspicious because Casey and Sarah are still around.

Chuck lies again when he tells him Casey is only there because he works at the Buy More and Sarah is there because they are a couple.

Ellie meets with Justin and tells him Stephen will be contacting her soon. Justin tells Ellie that Casey is dangerous and gives her speakers that will block any surveillance from Casey. When she gets back to her apartment, Stephen has come to see her.

Sarah talks to Chuck in Castle and tells him he should have told her about his Shaw dreams since they could be flashes. Casey then briefs them that there has been no activity with any of Shaw’s aliases.

Casey and Sarah review her previous activity with Shaw for clues and Chuck is unsettled with discussing their past relationship. When they are reviewing time she spent with Shaw at his penthouse, Chuck flashes on his CIA safe.

Jeff and Lester are playing music outside the Buy More and a customer gives them money to stop. Big Mike comes to give them advice and be their manager. Lester refuses and quits but Jeff agrees and Lester leaves in a huff.

Ellie tells Justin her father has arrived and arranges a meeting. 

Ellie, Chuck and Stephen have dinner.

Stephen confronts Chuck about his involvement with the CIA but Chuck lies and tries to convince Stephen he is just an analyst.

Chuck and Sarah break into Shaw’s penthouse to search for the safe.

Justin doesn’t show up and when Ellie calls him and leaves him a message about not wanting to lie anymore, Casey overhears because he is watching over her safety. 

 While Chuck and Sarah are trying to get into the safe, someone enters the apartment and they hide in a closet. They use their infrared glasses to watch someone access the safe and remove a briefcase. Chuck’s squeaky shoe warns the man that someone is there and he flees after firing shots into the closet. While trying to jump from rooftop to rooftop while being chased, the man drops the briefcase but gets away. Sarah leaves to get the case and Chuck tries to chase the man. He flashes but can’t make the jump either and falls, grabbing the edge of the rooftop. He then hears footsteps of someone coming to him and calls Shaw’s name. It isn’t Shaw but Justin, who tells him Shaw is dead. Justin intends to kill Chuck but Sarah fires at him from below and he runs away. As Chuck starts to lose his grip on the edge, Stephen appears and rescues him after he followed them.

 After going back to Castle, they realize the briefcase contained Shaw’s spy will and the Ring was after it, so Shaw must be dead. Stephen tells Chuck he doesn’t want him to be any part of the spy business.

Ellie meets Justin the next day and he apologizes for missing their meeting the night before (while he was stealing Shaw’s briefcase and trying to kill her brother) as he had a mission. He tells her he needs her to do a bit of spy work for him so they can help her father and she agrees.

Jeff begins playing in the store but many customers are repulsed.

Casey thinks Ellie is cheating on Devon. Casey asks Morgan to talk to Devon to feel out if there is trouble in their marriage. Devon goes into detail about how he pampers Ellie and Morgan believes he is the perfect husband.

 Stephen confronts Chuck and his lies, finally getting the truth about his spy work by throwing a knife at his face that Chuck has to flash to catch. Stephen warns Chuck about the damage the intersect can do to his brain and then quickly rushes out the door. He bumps into Ellie as he goes, asks her what she needed him for, and then rushes off when she assures him she was just worried about him. 

As they hug goodbye, Ellie puts a tracker on Stephen. She then contacts Justin and tells him it’s done.

Stephen goes back to his cabin and begins working on a device that is in his watch. While he is working the Ring agents that followed him arrive and search the cabin then start beating Stephen up to get information.

Sarah and Chuck discuss Stephen’s abrupt departure but she lifted his identification and has the address for the cabin.

They arrive and Chuck goes in, not realizing Stephen is being held. Chuck is also captured and the agents are about to kill both of them. Chuck flashes and fights and when Sarah realizes something is wrong, she bursts in. They all fight and defeat the Ring agents, returning back to Burbank.

Stephen tells Chuck back at the apartment that he has developed a device, The Governor, that helps to neutralize the bad effects of the intersect on the brain and he is going to make one for Chuck so that the intersect doesn’t damage or kill him.

Big Mike tells Lester that Jeff isn’t the same without him. He tells Lester he was once part of Earth, Wind and Fire but their name was Earth, Wind, Fire and Rain. Jeff respects this and feels Big Mike should be Jeffster’s manager.

Morgan tells Casey if there is a problem with the Awesome’s it isn’t Devon. Casey goes to their apartment to check for evidence but Ellie comes home and hears Casey. She is talking to Justin on the phone and he tells her to use the gun that is in the speaker he gave her. She refuses and uses a fry pan in the kitchen to knock Casey out when he comes downstairs. Justin is outside and takes her away.

Sarah is concerned about the danger of being a spy now that she has a real life. She decides to give Chuck her spy will as he is the one that she wants to carry out her wishes if something happens to her.

Justin takes Ellie to his office and assures her that the mission is almost over. 

Chuck sits up at night and begins to write his spy will.

Justin calls his colleagues and tells them they have to act now and then Shaw is shown uploading a version of the intersect from a computer terminal.

 Points of Interest

• Chuck continues to lie to Sarah, convinced that she won’t want to know about his Shaw dreams and worried how she will react to his Shaw obsession.
• Shaw has an apartment and a penthouse. One in LA and one in DC. Sarah apparently spent time in both places and they break into the LA penthouse to find his safe. They are having dinner with family in Burbank right before and obviously can’t then be in DC with Justin and Stephen there too.
• The scene discussing Sarah’s past with Shaw is viewed as a problem with many fans. Sarah and Shaw both told Chuck that their meeting in DC was discussing his future. Sarah said it was all business. Obviously, she lied but that does not mean that the time she spent with Shaw had any true intimacy involved. He was attempting to seduce her, no doubt. But Sarah has resisted seduction many times and there is no evidence she succumbed this time. The evidence is circumstantial and their subsequent behavior after coming back from that trip had no signs of intimacy or even affection. All we see is Sarah kissing Shaw goodbye after failing to convince him not to sacrifice himself. That is the desperate and devastated Sarah in that scene. I believe this scene was written for comedic effect, Chuck’s jealousy on full display. Sarah is uncomfortable, as she would be having her private life examined in front of the man she loves. Casey loves jerking their chains and does so with evil intent here.
• When Sarah enters the cabin to help Chuck and Stephen escape the Ring operatives, Stephen understandably thinks she has the intersect too. “No, Dad, that’s all her. Hi, honey.”- Chuck

References

• Back to the Future- Lone Pines Cabin is a reference to Lone Pine Mall in the film.
• Y-The Last Man- the graphic novel Chuck is reading when Stephen comes to talk to him. Same one that is being read in Chuck vs the Nacho Sampler. 

Music

September- Earth, Wind and Fire:  Big Mike gives his costume to Jeffster.

Love Hurts- Nazareth: Jeffster performs at the Buy More.

I Am Your Skin- The Bravery: Chuck writes his spy will; Shaw downloads the intersect.