Chuck vs Fulcrum and the Ring
Chuck Bartowski begins his story by receiving an email from his former friend, Bryce Larkin. In the email are hundreds of images that are coded with the secrets of the United States Government. As a result, he is now an asset of the government because this information can be used to help the government defend itself from enemies, both foreign and domestic. Chuck is assigned a CIA and an NSA agent to be his protectors, with the CIA agent, Sarah Walker, designated as his handler and John Casey, the NSA agent, as the primary surveillance officer as well as the sharp shooter.
From the beginning, trouble finds Chuck. The Air Force General in charge of the NSA, General Diane Beckman, decides Chuck will be used as an information source, and the two agents will carry out missions using the information he provides and, protect him as they go. It doesn’t take long for an evil organization to discover something is going on with Chuck. In the episode Chuck vs the Nemesis, Bryce Larkin, who is supposed to be dead, comes back into the picture and brings along with him an organization trying to track down the technology Chuck possesses, the Intersect. We discover in this episode that not only is Chuck in danger if anyone finds out what he can do but Bryce Larkin intentionally sent the technology to him as he trusted Chuck to handle it. We will examine the two organizations Chuck and his team battled for two plus seasons and ultimately, are able to beat.
Fulcrum
Fulcrum is introduced in the tenth episode of the first season. It is a splinter, rogue organization within the CIA and sees itself as a group of patriots who are carrying out the work the CIA is unable or unwilling to do. Most of the operatives we see are also CIA or NSA agents that are double agents within Fulcrum.
Up until Chuck vs the Nemesis we see the building of the Chuck mythology, development of the character relationships, and we get a good grasp of how Chuck, Casey and Sarah have bonded as a team.
By this time the dynamic chemistry between Chuck and Sarah is firmly established as well as the annoyance that John Casey exhibits because of it. There have been several isolated missions that have shown Chuck’s lack of self confidence seriously interferes with his natural inclination towards heroism and his impressive intelligence and humanity. We also know Chuck is very attracted to Sarah but has no inclination to let her know as he feels she is way out of his league.
Fulcrum transports a revived and recovering Bryce Larkin inside a life support system to LA from Helsinki, Finland. When the module is opened by Casey and Sarah, Bryce is unconscious. When he awakens, he will only talk to Chuck. All he wants to know is that Chuck received and downloaded his email. When he sees Casey and Sarah, he knows Chuck has been found and has the information he sent. We then find out that Bryce never went rogue as the CIA believed, but was deceived by Fulcrum. Their aim was to obtain the Intersect being developed and they believed was intented for Bryce.
When Bryce is able to convince everyone he isn’t a bad guy afterall, he is welcomed back into the CIA and assigned the job of helping investigate Fulcrum under deep cover as Fulcrum now think he has the Intersect. This begins the story line that drives the end of season one and all of season two.
The first Fulcrum agent we meet is Tommy Delgado, the agent in charge of Bryce when he is brought back to LA. Before Tommy is captured by Casey, he discovers the truth, that Chuck is actually the Intersect. As explained as the story evolves, Fulcrum is an organization made up of a lot of cells. Each cell has a leader and functions as an independent team. The leaders appear to have communication with the higher leadership but the cells don’t seem to communicate with each other.
In Chuck vs the Marlin, we meet Lizzie Shafai, tasked with investigating what is going on inside the Buy More. It has been discovered that the CIA is involved there and, Lizzie adopts the cover of a Schwarma delivery girl in order to plant bugs to surveil the store. This agent also discovers the truth about Chuck, but is captured and locked away, never to be heard of again.
Season two of Chuck begins with First Date and we meet Mr Colt, a mercenary Fulcrum hired to break into the NSA lab and steal the cipher (an artificial brain that is being developed for the second attempt at an Intersect). Since their discovery that Chuck is functioning fine with the Intersect in his head, the CIA is in a race with Fulcrum to develop another Intersect. Chuck is instrumental in helping defeat and capture Colt and recover the cipher. At the end of the episode we discover that while the cipher was in Fulcrum hands they sabotaged it before the team got it back. When trying to use it to download the Intersect into trained agents the cipher explodes, destroying the Intersect computer and Director Graham, as well as the agents.
In Seduction we find the real cipher is still out there and Beckman believes a former KGB agent, Sasha Banachek, has it. By the end of the mission Team Bartowski has secured the real cipher and the CIA will begin building another Intersect.
In Break Up, Bryce Larkin returns to get their help with intercepting information that Fulcrum has hired a software developer to decrypt for them; to use for the Intersect. The software developer, Von Hays, is just being used by Fulcrum. Team Bartowski successfully intercepts the data and at the end of the episode, Bryce Larkin tricks Chuck into uploading an Intersect update using a pair of sunglasses.
With Cougars and Tom Sawyer, episodes four and five, the missions don’t involve Fulcrum. 
With Ex, Fat Lady and Graviton we are again dealing with an evil Fulcrum plot. Chuck’s ex girlfriend, Jill Roberts, is at a biotech convention with her boss. Chuck is working on the IT for their computers. Chuck flashes on her boss and reports back to Castle. He seems to be involved with a deadly bioweapon and Chuck has to get close to Jill to investigate. The three episode arc reveals that Jill is a Fulcrum agent who now learns Chuck is CIA (because he told her!) Her assignment was to make sure her boss delivered the anti-serum for the bio weapon. As she and Chuck rekindle their former relationship, Casey and Sarah discover that she is Fulcrum. They rescue Chuck but he must stay with his cover so that they can find out what she is up to. She pulls an elaborate con job on Chuck, convincing him she truly cares for him and then gives him up to her Fulcrum handler. When he is captured he is able to use his knowledge of Castle to release Sarah and Casey when Jill and her handler take him away. Casey, Sarah and Chuck are able to subdue them and Chuck locks Jill up in a Nerd Herder when he catches her ready to shoot Sarah. Neither Jill nor her handler find out Chuck is the Intersect.
Episode nine is Sensei, where Casey finds his former mentor, Ty Bennett, has gone rogue and is recruiting for Fulcrum.
With episode eleven we get to Santa Claus. Fulcrum infiltrates the Buy More, trying to discover who Casey, an NSA agent, is protecting and if anyone can be tricked into exposing Bryce Larkin’s whereabouts. They still believe Larkin is the Intersect. In order to protect those he loves, Chuck reveals that he is the Intersect. When he escapes the Fulcrum agent (Lt Mauser) and runs, Sarah rescues him and kills Mauser, who knows Chuck’s real identity and will make sure Fulcrum finds out. Chuck has now been rescued from three Fulcrum agents who discovered the truth.
With Chuck vs the Suburbs we have our most intense Fulcrum episode to date.
It will be noted here that Suburbs was supposed to be aired after Chuck vs the Best Friend. The airing order was switched when the show got pre-empted for the prime time Jay Leno Show and Suburbs was the designated Valentine’s Day episode.-
An agent has been found mentally deranged after a mission involving an LA suburb. Chuck, Sarah and Casey go undercover to investigate. The suburb is a Fulcrum outpost dedicated to the research and development of the Fulcrum Intersect. They have been testing their version on guinea pigs, which the CIA agent fell into. Chuck and Sarah pose as a married couple. Chuck accidentally downloads the Fulcrum Intersect and survives, which brings the full Fulcrum team into play. Casey, Sarah and Chuck are able to capture the agents who survive Casey running the Intersect download in a room they are all gathered in. Chuck now has the Fulcrum Intersect functioning along with his CIA/NSA version.
Beefcake and Lethal Weapon brings in Cole Barker, an MI6 agent assigned to retrieve a data chip hidden in the belt buckle of deceased Fulcrum agent, Brad White, in Suburbs. Cole, Chuck and Sarah are captured by Fulcrum and threatened with torture until they admit who the Intersect is. Cole knows Chuck is the Intersect, but endures torture to protect him and Sarah. Although Cole Barker is shot three different times and proves himself to be a hero, Sarah stays true to her assignment when Barker tries to seduce her away multiple times. Chuck thanks him for his heroism. Barker is the only person who discovers Chuck’s true status who is allowed to walk away.
From episode seventeen until the end of the season (Predator to the Ring) we have the final story arc of season two. Chuck and Ellie’s dad, Stephen Bartowski, enters the story. He is revealed as the designer of the Intersect as well as the former partner of Ted Roark, who is currently working with Fulcrum to finish the building of the Fulcrum Intersect. Jill returns to help Chuck try to find his Dad. When Stephen allows himself to be captured to protect Chuck, he convinces Roark he is finishing the Intersect build but actually creates the Intersect removal software. Fulcrum is defeated, Ellie and Devon get married, Sarah gets assigned to be Bryce’s partner to continue the CIA’s Intersect development and Chuck has the Intersect removed from his head so he can have that normal life he wants.
At Ellie and Devon’s beach wedding, Sarah takes the step of choosing Chuck over Bryce. Bryce is killed and Chuck downloads the new Intersect, intended for Bryce. It has physical skills programmed into it and Chuck is able to take out all the Fulcrum agents to save himself, Casey and Sarah.
Fulcrum has been revealed to be just a small subsidiary of a larger organization- The Ring. From now forward Team Bartowski has a bigger and more powerful adversary.
The Ring
The Ring Council makes its first appearance in Chuck vs the Predator. It is not identified as such but we see as the series goes on that the Council is always portrayed the same way as the scene in Nemesis. They deal directly with Vincent in his search for Orion.
The Ring leadership is comprised of the Five Elders who seem to be senior members of the CIA and NSA and have covertly gone rogue. They are leading a splinter group that does the work they feel the CIA and NSA fail to do. Fulcrum was a part of the Ring but we don’t see any other organizations that make up the rest of the group.
The Ring made its first appearance in episode seventeen of season two, Chuck vs the Predator. Vincent, who was leading the Fulcrum team hunting for Orion, is seen in the Ring Council Room talking with the Ring Elders. He reports that the same signal he saw in Hong Kong is coming from a Buy More in Burbank. He is told that Fulcrum has lost a lot of agents there and it’s too risky an assignment for him to take. He insists he will follow through on his own. His plan was to capture the Orion computer and, with it, Chuck, forcing Orion into the open so he could capture him. Casey shoots him while rescuing Chuck.
During Chuck vs the Ring, Casey’s teammate, Miles, notifies Casey and us that Fulcrum is done and the Ring is now in charge. He assassinates Roark, part of their plan to clean house, but spares the man who saved his life.
The Ring becomes the primary antagonist for Team Bartowski in season three. With Chuck’s agreement to become a real spy, Beckman believes they have the agent to replace Bryce and defeat their adversaries. When we see Chuck fail his training in Pink Slip, we see General Beckman begin the process of developing an alternate plan. Although Chuck ultimately proves himself and returns to the CIA fold, it is determined that he still needs to be trained.
Chuck vs the Three Words has no direct Ring involvement but we see Beckman talking to a man named Shaw about the plan for Team Bartowski. She pleads with him to let her tell them about the danger ahead. He flicks a lighter and walks away.
In Angel De La Muerte, a Ring assassin tries to kill the Premiere of Costa Gravas and is goaded by Casey into admitting who he works for. The Ring wants to maintain the status quo in Costa Gravas and need to assassinate Goya to achieve the goal. As a result of Devon’s heroics in fighting the bad guys we get the situation of Ring agent Sydney Prince recruiting him in Operation Awesome. It is understandable they think he is the spy in the family. Devon is given a Ring communication device and instructions. Beckman insists they use him to infiltrate the Ring cell. Chuck is able to break into the device, the first time something like that has happened. The real reveal of the episode is the introduction of Daniel Shaw as the special agent being brought in to lead the Ring investigation.
He reveals the Ring operates in decentralized cells and Devon will be safe if they just capture Sydney. We also see that Shaw has a second goal in mind. He believes Sarah and Casey have failed in Chuck’s spy training because they are overprotective. He begins the process of taking over all Ring related work and also training Chuck to become a real spy. The Ring believes Shaw to be dead so he will be operating and living in Castle.
First Class is Chuck’s first solo mission, insisted on by Shaw, without any physical backup. He must deal with Ring operative, Hugo Panzer, while stuck on a transatlantic flight. Panzer has a crypto key Chuck has to recover. He eventually does, with Shaw and Sarah assisting remotely. Panzer is captured and the team obtains valuable information about the Ring.
In Nacho Sampler we find out that the Ring has hired Manoosh Depak, a computer engineer, to reverse engineer the Intersect for them. Team Bartowski successfully captures Manoosh and hands him over to the government. Chuck has burned his first asset as a real spy.
Chuck vs the Mask has the team trying to secure a museum piece they believe is being used by the Ring to smuggle weapons or contraband into the country. Shaw and Sarah find deadly gas and must find the counteragent to save their lives. Vassilis, the Ring agent sent to recover the mask, reports to the Ring council about Daniel Shaw being alive and is killed on the spot.
Chuck becomes a real spy in Fake Name. He must impersonate a killer named Rafe Gruber, assume his identity, and meet with his employers. The team discovers the Ring has targeted Shaw, knowing that he is alive, and Chuck must step in to save him. Gruber escapes custody and threatens Sarah but Casey shoots him with a sniper rifle.
As a result of the emotional trauma he experiences during Fake Name, Chuck can’t flash.
In Beard, Chuck is left behind in Castle while Sarah and Shaw are lured into a mission at a hotel. The Ring takes advantage and sends operatives to the Buy More to interview the staff and discover what is going on. They know this is Shaw’s headquarters. Chuck eavesdrops on the agents and discovers what they are up to. Morgan insists on confronting the men who have taken over the store and Chuck enlists his ‘help’ to protect him. They are captured and, believing they are going to die, Chuck tells Morgan the truth. Although Shaw is willing to sacrifice Chuck and Morgan to protect the information in Castle, Sarah and Casey delay his missile attack. Chuck is so relieved by talking to Morgan that he is able to flash and takes the operatives out. He and Morgan exit victoriously and Chuck now has someone he can talk to about his issues.
Another Ring phone has been captured when they neutralized the agents and it rings in Castle. Casey answers it, he knows the person on the other end of the phone.
In Chuck vs the Tic Tac, Casey is compromised by his former commanding officer and betrays his team when he is threatened by the now Ring agent, Colonel Keller. Chuck and Sarah help Casey to defeat Keller and save his former fiancee, who Keller was threatening, to get Casey’s cooperation. Casey is dismissed from the NSA by General Beckman. With Chuck now a real spy, Sarah requests a transfer to DC.
In Final Exam, Chuck must take his red test and kill Hunter Perry, a rogue agent supplying information to the Ring. It is a crisis for Chuck and for Sarah. He has never killed anyone and she believes the man she fell in love with will no longer exists, if he kills someone. Casey steps in and kills Perry, but Sarah only sees Chuck with a gun standing over a dead man.
In American Hero, Shaw tries to sacrifice himself to hunt down the Ring Leader. Chuck rescues him before he is killed. Before his rescue, Shaw was shown a video of Sarah killing his wife (during her red test) and when he awakens in the hospital, he uses his phone to make a call. Chuck has declared his love to Sarah and she is packing to meet him when Casey comes and tells her that Chuck didn’t kill Perry.
Shaw then bursts in and tells her he knows where the Ring leader is and she has to help him. Chuck believes Shaw has been turned by the Ring and goes rogue to save Sarah. When he arrives he finds Shaw with Sarah but Shaw has put his gun away before Chuck and his team can see him. Chuck gets drunk and bereft, thinking he has really lost Sarah but she arrives and assures him she loves him.
Although Beckman doesn’t believe Chuck that Shaw has turned to The Ring, he continues to try to prove it. Morgan provides the evidence, but Shaw has successfully taken Sarah to Paris. Chuck convinces Casey and Morgan to help him save her. Shaw is trying to kill Sarah but Chuck saves her and Casey captures the Ring Leader. The Ring has been neutralized but Chuck was forced to shoot Shaw to save Sarah. Shaw falls into the Seine from a bridge after being shot.
Sarah awakens in a Paris hotel room. She and Chuck ignore Beckman’s order to get home immediately as they kiss.
While Chuck and Sarah now have a real relationship they are not done with the Ring. Chuck vs the Role Models has the Ring inserting an operative into Devon and Ellie’s Doctors Without Borders mission in Africa in order to begin a relationship with Ellie. The operative, Justin, infects Devon with an illness that gets him sent home. In Chuck vs the Tooth, a Ring operative has become involved in organ harvesting and is hiding information in a fake tooth. Although Chuck is having difficulty with his Intersect, he is saved by the fact that Casey and Sarah know how special he is and are able to save him. In this same episode, Justin, the Ring operative in the Congo, follows Devon and Ellie back to Burbank and convinces Ellie to help him find her father. He also convinces her that Casey is a double agent.
In Chuck vs the Living Dead, Stephen Bartowski comes back when his daughter asks for his help and walks into the Ring’s trap to locate him and secure a fix for the glitchy Intersect (the governor) that he has created. Justin succeeds in pulling Ellie deeper into his plan while Chuck is investigating his suspicions that Daniel Shaw is still alive.
In Chuck vs the Subway, Shaw shows back up in LA and Team Bartowski is able to follow him into the Ring headquarters, which is also a CIA headquarters. Ellie is there meeting with Justin and everyone is captured and taken to a meeting with Beckman and the Joint Chiefs of the CIA and NSA. Shaw appears and it becomes apparent he has the Intersect and has helped the Ring Elders to take over. Meanwhile, Justin kidnaps Casey and uses his newly discovered daughter, Alex, as leverage against him.
Stephen Bartowski arrives, springs Chuck, and with Ellie’s help, they infiltrate the Ring base via a separate entrance. They are apprehended by Shaw who shoots and kills Stephen to upset Chuck so he can’t use his Intersect skills. Shaw captures Chuck, Casey and Sarah and vows to kill them. Ellie witnessed the murder of her father and is watching from afar as Team Bartowski is taken away in an armored vehicle.
With Chuck vs the Ring Part 2 the whole family gets involved with defeating Shaw and the Ring. Ellie, Devon and Morgan are able to rescue Team Bartowski from the armored vehicle. Chuck finally tells his sister the whole truth and they set out to take Shaw down. Chuck sends Ellie and Devon away as he contacts General Beckman to help with his plan. Although the plan works to defeat the Ring, Shaw escapes and Chuck must fight him one on one. Shaw uses his Intersect and Chuck struggles to make his glitchy version work. Sarah is able to break free from the constraint Shaw used to make her watch him kill Chuck and is able to help him defeat Shaw. The governor was taken by Shaw and Sarah removes it from his wrist and gives it back to Chuck.
Chuck is released from the CIA by Beckman, as Ellie requested. As the episode ends he receives a posthumous message from his father telling him to visit their old home. He finds his father’s secret basement archives containing all the information obtained during his twenty years of private spy work to protect his family and fight the bad guys. Included is a file for his mom. The Ring and Fulcrum are gone. Season four begins a new storyline and brings a very different kind of villain.
Besides the agents already mentioned there were Fulcrum and Ring agents that played a large part in the telling of Chuck’s story during the first three seasons.
Meadow Branch operatives (Suburbs) – Mark Holloway, Sammantha and Mitch Merryman, Brad and Vanessa White, Sylvia and Cliff Arculin. All were part of Fulcrum’s efforts to develop and test the Fulcrum Intersect. Sylvia and Cliff had the Fulcrum Intersect computer in their house. All either die or are arrested after Casey released the faulty Fulcrum Intersect on them.
Alexis White- A Fulcrum agent assigned to retrieve the data contained in the belt buckle of Brad White. She captures and tortures Cole Barker for the identity of the human Intersect. She commits suicide when captured by Casey.
Javier Cruz- an assassin hired to kill Sarah’s mark in Pink Slip. Foiled by Chuck and mistaken as a courier by Sarah and Casey, he eventually murders Emmitt Milbarge and is killed by Casey. Chuck recovers Javier’s Ring phone.
James Keller- former black ops officer who was dishonorably discharged from the Marines. Keller was turned by the Ring and blackmailed Casey into stealing Laudanol.
Ty Bennett- former mentor to Casey who was turned by Keller.
Ring Associates- we learn that Nicholas Quinn was hired by Fulcrum/The Ring for jobs and that part of his reasoning for revenge against Chuck was that part of his livelihood had been taken away by Chuck and his team.
Many will argue that Daniel Shaw is the main antagonist of season three. That is true but Shaw is ultimately part of the Ring storyline and is not truly a bad guy until he turns rogue. There are many other agents of Fulcrum and the Ring besides those mentioned here. The referenced Chuck wiki articles have full listings of all agents belonging to both organizations as well as their involvements in the story.