Original air date November 17, 2008

Season 2 episode 7

Synopsis

Chuck and Jill attempt to have a private moment on the roof of the Buy More but are interrupted by a surveillance camera. Sarah encourages Casey to give him space, he’s entitled to a real life. Beckman appears on screen in Castle to assign them a new mission, she wants them to find a list of CIA agents that Jill’s former boss had hidden in his hotel room. Chuck enters the Orange Orange and Sarah goes out to talk to him. She tells him the mission and asks if he is okay. He tells her he is happy with a real relationship and asks for more privacy.

Next morning in the Buy More, Morgan shares a device he has for ripping video games and Emmett notices Chuck is on installs frequently. As Chuck gets dressed for the mission, Jill asks about his relationship with Sarah. He portrays it as purely professional as they walk to Casey’s room to join the rest of the team. When they enter Sarah is provocatively dressed and winks at them. On the mission, Sarah is portraying a high end escort to infiltrate the hotel. They change and crawl thru the ducts to get to La Fleur’s room. Chuck accidentally dials Jill on the phone and she overhears Chuck and Sarah discussing their plan, which includes pretend sex. 

Emmett interviews Morgan about Chuck’s extracurricular activity. Chuck, Sarah and Casey find a Venetian puzzle box and have to escape with it quickly when the room is entered by an agent who has killed the FBI guards outside the door. Back in their room, Chuck uses his own knowledge and decodes the box. When he opens it they are sprayed with powder and strip while running for the shower. Casey quickly leaves for a containment unit. 

After overhearing their conversation, Jill goes to their room to see what is going on and finds them just out of the shower and in their underwear, she leaves in a huff. Casey successfully tests the powder and discovers it is fruit punch. 

Emmett is still trying to find out what is going on with Chuck by threatening Jeff and Lester. 

Chuck tries to explain to Jill by phone while Jeff and Lester try to convince Morgan to rat on Chuck. Morgan tells Emmett that Chuck is legitimate, just as Jill enters the Buy More to see Chuck.

Chuck explains to Jill about the fruit punch and she suspects she can help figure out the puzzle. Chuck takes a blind folded Jill to Castle and they are able to figure out the solution. Chuck flashes on the opera glasses inside and finds a key to a lock. They go to the Opera House where they find the hidden lock box in La Fleur’s  balcony box. Chuck and Jill figure out the solution to the puzzle on the box, which has a ticking timer on it. Sarah thinks it is a bomb and wants them to leave but Chuck believes Jill, she thinks it’s just another puzzle. The flash drive they found is taken to Castle to decode.

Chuck and Jill are enjoying themselves in Chuck’s bedroom when he stops because they are being watched by surveillance. He tells her to meet him the next day using a math code that they can understand but Casey can’t. 

Morgan confronts Chuck at the Buy More about seeing Jill. Chuck asks Morgan to trust him even though he can’t explain. Jill and Chuck are off grid and Jill is quickly kidnapped by the agent who interrupted them at La Fleur’s room. He demands the flash drive. 

Chuck rushes back to Castle, asking for help.As  Casey calls Beckman, Chuck steals the drive. Sarah enters and Casey orders her to shoot Chuck, which she can’t do. Chuck escapes with the drive and Sarah traces him to the opera house. Chuck exchanges the drive for Jill despite Casey and Sarah trying to stop him. The Fulcrum agent destroys the drive and Jill is safe. Chuck explains he copied the drive before turning it over. Sarah warns Jill not to hurt Chuck. 

Morgan gets Emmett drunk during poker night then uses the video he made to blackmail him into leaving Chuck alone.

While Chuck and Jill elude surveillance to have some privacy, Sarah and Casey monitor the information found on the flash drive. When Jill’s picture appears on screen as Fulcrum they rush to find Chuck. Arriving at his apartment they find Chuck and Jill have left, leaving Chuck’s watch behind. 

Points of Interest

• The timer on the puzzle box shows 00:07, just like the timer on the car bomb in Sandworm, a shoutout to Bond.
• The Buy More tv’s in this episode show Looney Tunes ‘What’s Opera, Doc?’ after Chuck and Jill crack the code in the opera house.
• Casey opens the Venetian puzzle box by singing a high C, Adam Baldwin actually hit a high E.
• Tuttle Electric logo on van is a shoutout to Harry Tuttle in the movie Brazil.
• Guy La Fleur’s list includes: Animal Mother- Adam Baldwin’s character in Full Metal Jacket, Snake Eyes, Angel, Hondo from SWAT and Reaver from Serenity (Firefly film starring Adam Baldwin).
• The Fibonacci code on the Venetian puzzle box is a sequence in which each number is the sum of the two numbers that precede it.
• The Fulcrum agent (Edgar Winterborne) who escapes this episode is the same agent we see in the last episode of the show, on the plane with Quinn when Sarah tries to kill him.
• We again see Chuck trying to have a ’normal’ relationship, which he seems to define as a relationship with someone who isn’t Sarah Walker. 
• The Nerd Code: The latent heat of aquatic fusion in calories per gram minus the atomic number of thulium. 80-69=11. They would meet at 11am.
• Some of the agents on the Fulcrum list: Brandon Stacey- Romulus, Galina Bryant- Pegasus, Jill Roberts- Sandstorm.

References

• Goldfinger- the use of 00:07 as a Bond reference
• Brazil (1985)- Harry Tuttle is the character played by Robert De Niro in the film.
• “It Ain’t Over Till the Fat Lady Sings”- first used in 1976  by a sports writer but refers to the finale of an opera. Many opera singers of the time were robust in an effort to have more vocal power.

Music

Keep Yourself Warm: Frightened Rabbit- Jill is identified as a Fulcrum agent to Casey and Sarah as Chuck and Jill run off for their romantic getaway.

Buildings and Mountains: The Republic Tigers- Chuck and Jill stop at a gas station.

Libiamo Ne Lieti Calici: Giuieppi Verdi (La Traviata)– The key to the decoding of the puzzle box in the opera house.