Original air date January 25, 2010

Season 3  episode 5

Synopsis

Morgan is being sabotaged by the Buy More staff since being promoted to assistant manager. They successfully glue him to a chair in the break room. 

Chuck finds out from Casey that Shaw is investigating the team, especially him. Sarah is interviewed by Shaw regarding Chuck’s performance. Morgan wheels out of the break room to ask Chuck for help, but he and Casey are interrupted by Shaw summoning them to Castle.

Shaw talks to all three of them and blames Chuck’s development on Casey and Sarah coddling him. Chuck agrees with Shaw and accepts his first solo mission.

Shaw has Chuck use a tranquilizer pen on Jeff to test his ability to function covertly. He passes, and Shaw assures him he is ready for his mission.

Morgan is drugged by Lester with a cup of coffee.

Chuck talks to Sarah and Casey while packing for his mission, assures them he is ready, and Casey finds the nunchaku that he packed, since he doesn’t use guns. Sarah is worried, but Chuck tells her he is going, and Shaw believes in him. Shaw hears her and says Beckman agrees with him. Chuck takes his first-class plane ticket for Paris.

On the plane, Chuck finds himself seated next to Hannah, also traveling for business. They chat about the other travelers in first class while having champagne. Chuck tells a story about his business trip.

Casey finds Morgan in a toy machine in the Buy More and rescues him, gives him advice on earning respect.

Chuck and Hannah move to the bar for more drinks, and Hannah tells him about her job. Chuck brags to her about his travel experience but flashes on a bald man in the plane. He excuses himself and calls Sarah and Shaw, Shaw tells him his mission is the man (Hugo Panzer) on the plane. There is a key he needs to get from Panzer’s bag but must get the claim ticket first to find the bag, using the tranq pen to knock Panzer out.

Sarah is upset with Shaw that Chuck is alone. Shaw tells her that is the point, he needs to function as a real spy. Shaw asks Sarah about the three days that she was off-grid seven months earlier (while Chuck was in Prague). He has a photo of her in Lisbon and wants to know what she was doing. He accuses her of  either being a Ring operative or is this about Chuck?

On the plane, Chuck sits with and drugs Panzer, retrieving the ticket. Casey calls Sarah, and she assures him Chuck is fine. Morgan asks Casey to help him with the Buy More staff. 

Chuck accesses the cargo hold in the plane and finds Panzer’s ticket is for a casket. Panzer wakes up. Chuck calls Shaw, who tells him to open the casket. The body in the casket has the key taped to the palm, but Chuck sees Panzer coming. Chuck tries to call for help, but Shaw ignores the call. Chuck climbs in the casket with the body to hide and calls Casey.  Casey tells him to scream like a girl when they find him and then find a weapon and flash. Casey calls Sarah when Chuck is found. Chuck fights Panzer using a fencing sword and flashes. He calls them when he beats Panzer.

Morgan introduces Casey to the Buy More staff as his assistant. They are successfully intimidated.

Chuck returns to the first-class bar with Hannah, and they both admit to their previous lies about their experiences. Chuck tells her a partial lie about his job. Hannah flirts with Chuck while telling her real story.

Panzer wakes up in the hold and returns to the passenger area.

Casey brainwashes Lester into respecting Morgan.

Chuck realizes his drink is poisoned, and Panzer greets him across the aisle. Chuck goes to the lavatory and calls Sarah and Shaw. A different Ring agent enters the lavatory and holds him at gunpoint, demanding the key in exchange for the antidote to the poison. He takes her to the hold to retrieve the key. Shaw calls and overrides the control of the plane, knowing Sarah is a pilot. Castle’s plane controls are used by Sarah to help Chuck fight the Ring agents in the hold after the female agent (Serena) refuses Shaw’s offer for safe release if they let Chuck go. Chuck gets the antidote and takes it while the plane pitches around and knocks the Ring agents out. 

Shaw tells Sarah he will always protect his people; he lost one spy, and it won’t happen again. He confronts Sarah about Lisbon. She tells him she was there to scatter Bryce’s ashes because she promised him. He tells her he believes her. 

Chuck says goodbye to Hannah after he is told he has to return to Burbank immediately. Chuck invites her to come to the Buy More for a job if she wants one. 

Casey’s brainwashing was successful; Lester no longer is plotting against Morgan. Chuck delivers the key to Shaw and thanks the team for saving him. The key opens a lock box inside the briefcase they retrieved previously (Three Words). Inside is the Ring information they need to bring down the organization. Shaw also takes a small, white envelope from inside the box and leaves the room. Sarah follows him into an office where he shows her a ring belonging to an agent killed by the Ring five years previously. She was his wife, Eve. He tells Sarah they both made the same mistake, falling in love with a spy. Sarah says nothing, returns the ring, and walks away.

Chuck is melancholy at the Buy More desk when Casey and Morgan come over. Casey got a raise, and Morgan asks what happened on his install. He looks up from looking at his souvenir of the Eiffel Tower to see Hannah standing in the Buy More.

Points of Interest

• The first episode of the show, since the pilot, without General Beckman.
• The briefcase stolen during Three Words, which the team was forbidden to open, contained Eve’s lockbox. Chuck’s first solo mission is to retrieve the key from the Ring that opens the lockbox. It is implied that Shaw was in charge of both missions as the Ring expert for the CIA. He is first seen at the end of Three Words, with Beckman begging him to let her tell the team what is going on.
• The three days that Sarah is off the grid has photos of her trip to Lisbon to scatter Bryce’s ashes. It also, presumably, was the same time frame in which she met Chuck in Prague and was rejected.
• This episode begins the Chuck-Hannah and Sarah-Shaw interruption of the ‘will they, won’t they’ Chuck and Sarah story. By this time in the storyline, many fans and critics were weary of the endless push and pull of Chuck and Sarah’s story. Shaw and Hannah appear to be the stereotypical examples of the type that Sarah and Chuck would be attracted to.
• While Sarah and Casey “coddle” Chuck in order to protect him, Shaw pushes him and expresses confidence in his ability.
• When Shaw tells Sarah they both made the mistake of falling in love with a spy, there is no clear indication of which spy he is referring to with Sarah. Does it relate to her story about Bryce or his knowledge of her feelings for Chuck?
• Casey is seen enjoying one of his Costa Gravas cigars.
• Yvonne Strahovski admitted in a press visit on set that she feared the introduction of Intersect 2.0 would decrease her action scenes. She was pleased to discover she just got to share them with Zachary Levi.
• The airline in the episode, MA, was Millennium Airlines. Yet another Star Wars inclusion.

References

• The Manchurian Candidate- The brainwashing of Morgan.
• Bourne Ultimatum- Shaw uses the code names Crystal Palace and Blackbriar during the remote control of the plane.
• The Princess Bride- the lavatory scene is an homage to the gatekeeper scene with Inigo, Westley and Fezzik.
• James Bond- Shaken, not stirred is how Chuck orders his martini at the plane bar.

Music

L’amourese- Carlos Bruni: Morgan tells Chuck he gave Casey a raise; Hannah arrives.

Ready, Aim, Fire- The Unknown: Chuck beats Panzer with a sword.

Respect- Otis Redding: Morgan is ostracized by the Buy More staff.

Women’s Wear- Daniel May: Morgan tells Chuck and Casey about his problems at the Buy More.

Wake Up- Macintosh Braun: Chuck and Hannah admit their lies. (Also used in Beefcake when Sarah flirts with Cole Barker).

Open Late Weekends- Daniel May: Casey tells Chuck that Shaw is reviewing their team.

Dream Come True- Alan Ett: Chuck boards the plane to Paris.