Original air date April 27, 2009

Season 2 episode 22

Synopsis

Chuck and Casey enter Emmett’s office in the Buy More and quit their jobs. General Beckman video calls with Chuck and offers him a job as an analyst with the new Intersect project; he refuses. Casey is told he will be rejoining his old team, and Sarah will be joining Bryce on the new Intersect project. Casey gives Chuck his paycheck from the government and his personal phone number (for emergencies) before he leaves. 

Ellie and Devon’s wedding is underway. Chuck goes to ask Sarah if she will go away on vacation with him. She tells him she has to go join Bryce for their new assignment. 

Going into the dining area to drown his sorrow in champagne, Chuck discovers two dead bodies under the table. Roark then sits down with him and says he will kill Ellie if he doesn’t have the Intersect cube within 40 minutes. Chuck bumps into Morgan as he leaves and asks him to stall the wedding because he forgot the rings. He also tells him to tell Sarah what he is doing. Sarah has already seen before that he had the rings. He then calls Casey and leaves a voice mail.

Morgan tries to talk to Ellie, but Devon’s father stops him. Sarah comes out, so he tells her what Chuck said. She now knows something is wrong. 

Chuck arrives at Castle, but the cube is gone. Bryce walks in and tells him he is there for the Intersect upload, and it is already in the computer. Bryce can’t get the cube, but he goes with Chuck to give himself instead. Fulcrum still thinks he is the Intersect. Bryce tells Chuck he made a promise to Orion that he would keep the cube safe. Orion knew that Bryce was protecting Chuck at Stanford. 

At the wedding, Chuck and Sarah are both missing. Stephen knows something is wrong and finds Sarah. She tells him that Roark is there, and she gets into the reception area, finding a set of knives among the wedding gifts. Morgan has Jeffster stall and tells Devon that Chuck asked him to stall the ceremony. Chuck enters the reception area and confronts Roark, bringing Bryce along. Roark wants Chuck dead anyway; Sarah and Bryce fight to protect Chuck but run out of weapons. Casey then comes crashing into the room with his team, via the skylight roof in the room. All of Roark’s men are shot, and Stephen punches Roark. The wedding and reception are destroyed, and Jeffster sets off fireworks, which then triggers the sprinklers, and everyone is soaked.

Chuck goes home feeling like everything is his fault. He then tells Sarah and his dad he is using his government paycheck to stage a wedding. He finds his sister in the bathtub in her wedding dress, drinking wine. He apologizes and tells her it was all his fault. He gives her the rings and tells her he will take care of the rest. Casey and his team help pull it off, and Ellie and Devon wed on the beach with Sarah and Chuck standing up with them.  Bryce is watching from afar; he asks Sarah through her earpiece if she is going with him, and she shakes her head no.

At Castle, Casey and his men are playing poker. One of his men shoots Roark, killing him. When the killer comes back into the room, he sends Casey to Roark’s cell and kills the rest of his men. When Casey comes back in, he confronts his team member, who then tells him he works for the Ring, and he then knocks Casey out, sparing him because Casey had previously saved his life.

The wedding reception is held in the apartment courtyard. Bryce comes to speak to Orion, Stephen telling him he fixed the Intersect in exchange for the government leaving Chuck alone. An agent then comes in to take Bryce for the Intersect upload. Orion flashes on the agent and rushes to tell Chuck and Sarah that the agent is supposed to be dead. Sarah leaves and Chuck follows, telling his dad he loves Sarah. Although Orion can’t go with him, he gives Chuck his arm computer to help. They go to Castle to get Casey and head to the Intersect Room.

Bryce is about to enter the Intersect Room but tells the agent that he lost Sarah to another guy. The agent pulls a gun, they wrestle over the weapon as other agents arrive and Bryce is shot. He then goes into the Intersect Room and closes the door.

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey arrive. Sarah sends Chuck for help when they get pinned down in a gunfight. Instead, he uses the arm computer to access the Intersect Room and finds Bryce lying on the floor, bleeding. Bryce gives Chuck a chip, telling him the Intersect can’t fall into enemy hands and needs to be destroyed. Chuck realizes the Intersect is important to defeat Fulcrum and Bryce tells him that Fulcrum is no longer important. The Ring is now the main enemy. As Bryce is fading, Chuck tells him he can’t die as Sarah needs him for their mission. He tells Chuck she wasn’t leaving with him and that Chuck needs to take care of her, he then dies.

Chuck goes to the Intersect computer, thinking back over the past two years and everything that has happened and that he has been the hero all that time. He activates the computer and downloads the updated Intersect, then a power surge destroys the computer.

The door opens and the Ring’s agents shove Casey and Sarah into the room. They realize Chuck downloaded the Intersect and try to kill him. The new skills he has from the Intersect allow him to use advanced martial arts to take them all out.

“Guys, I know Kung Fu.”

Points of Interest

• Chuck has not been renewed for season three when this episode aired. The Save Chuck campaign was ultimately successful but the word did not come until May 17, around three weeks after the airing of the episode.
• This was the highest rated episode of the series.

• We discover that Devon’s middle name is Christian.
• Matt Bomer, the actor portraying Bryce Larkin, had his tv show, White Collar, picked up at the USA network. This is his last episode portraying Bryce.
• “If, in two weeks, that is the last episode of the show to ever air, it will be one of the least satisfying finales of all time.” -Josh Schwartz, 4/20/09. 

• Reviewer Alan Sepinwall interviewed Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz for the finale of season two with season three undecided. Schwartz is quoted from that interview.
• The Ring has a double reference. It refers to the evil organization that is officially introduced with this episode and also alludes to the wedding ring that Ellie does eventually receive.
• Fulcrum is dissolved and the Ring takes its place. We discover that Fulcrum is a small portion of the bigger organization.
• The final fight scene is choreographed so that star Zac Levi could do most of the work himself. The video highlighting the work of the stunt coordinator, Merritt Yohnka and fight coordinator, Dave Morizot, shows the work done for the fight during the failed wedding as well as the final fight scene.    
• Ellie’s full name is Eleanor Faye Bartowski.
• The season two finale was planned since the beginning of the show but was never meant to be the finale for the show. To be continued….   was a hopeful statement by Fedak and Schwartz because they had more story to tell.
• “Go with your heart, buddy, our brains only screw things up.” This sentiment is repeated in the finale (season 5 episode 13). Chuck says it to Morgan here, Morgan says it to Chuck in the finale.
• Sarah tells Chuck he is a hero and he says he wants more, a real life. Sarah replies, “Chuck, I don’t want to save the world…I want, and Orion interrupts to rescue Bryce.   
• The show is renewed for season 3 on May 17 and filming began on August 6. On October 28, 2009 six more episodes were ordered by NBC. The first episode of season 3 aired on January 10, 2010. The extra 6 episodes were ordered on the strength of the unaired shows that the network had viewed.
• “Not what a normal guy would do”- Sarah’s line to Chuck when he uses his salary to pay for Ellie’s wedding. A recall to Chuck vs the Break Up when Chuck tells Sarah he wants the Intersect out of his head so he can have a normal life and be a normal guy. The same thing he says before he thinks of using his pay for the wedding.

References

• The Matrix- “I know Kung Fu.”
• Take This Job and Shove It- Chuck to Emmett when he quits the Buy More.
• Back to the Future- “4/4 time, in D. Watch me for the changes.”: Marty McFly in the film.
• Sam Kinison- a comedian that looked like Scott Krinsky, the actor playing Jeff.

Music

Mr Roboto- Vic Sahay version from the Styx original: Special forces enters the wedding site to save the day.

Now We Can See- The Thermals: Chuck quits the Buy More.

Looking at the Sun- Gramercy Arms: Chuck sees Ellie before the wedding; Sarah tells Chuck she is leaving for her new assignment.

Friday, I’m In Love- The Cure: Wedding reception.

Christmas TV- Slow Club: Beach wedding; Roark is killed.

3 Rounds and a Sound- Blind Pilot: Chuck and Sarah dance; Bryce talks to Orion.