Original air date February 16, 2009 (The Valentine’s Day episode)
Season 2 episode 13
Synopsis
It’s Valentine’s Day and Big Mike has been served with divorce papers. He is taking his feelings out on the Buy More staff.
Beckman calls the team together for a new mission which allows Chuck and Sarah to escape an awkward Valentine’s cover date. An agent has been left as a mental wreck after a trip to the suburbs. Sarah and Chuck will be undercover as a married couple to find out what is going on in the cul-de-sac. Ellie is very encouraged when Chuck uses the cover of housesitting to explain his living with Sarah.
When Chuck arrives at the house in the suburbs he is greeted by a bunch of blissful couples photos of him and Sarah, a golden retriever trotting happily around and Sarah cooking in the kitchen for a group of neighbors in the backyard. They are hosting a barbecue. Multiple couples are outside for Chuck and Sarah to investigate, one of the wives comes on to Chuck and he reports to Sarah. Casey is undercover as the cable guy, checking for surveillance in the house.
The next morning Chuck is surprised to find Sarah making him breakfast but is concerned about the surveillance and Sarah assures him it’s clear. They prepare for the day and Chuck gets a grocery list from Sarah that he later finds has an invisible ink message for Casey. The woman who came on to Chuck has a former CIA agent as a husband and has apparently set up a special tech system to break into secure government sites. Chuck is told to get close to the wife so he can find out what the former agent is up to.
When he goes to see her she attempts to seduce him, handcuffs him to the bed and then goes downstairs to get Chuck a drink. Chuck is able to get free and finds a computer. He uses the word that he heard from the mentally incapacitated agent and breaks into the computer. He immediately receives an Intersect type download and passes out briefly.
When the husband arrives home his wife tells him Chuck is upstairs but he has since come to and escaped through the window in his underwear. Sarah watches as he runs across the rooftops and arrives at their front door. To maintain their cover she slaps him in front of witnesses around the cul-de-sac. The husband and wife see he ran the computer upload and are shocked he seems to be fine.
Beckman pulls Chuck from the mission and sends Sarah and Casey back in: “The Carmichaels are getting a divorce.” Chuck is confused by the information he uploaded.
At the Buy More, Lester and Jeff set Big Mike up with a dating app to get him a date. Lying in his profile, they pass him off as a wealthy shipping magnate.
When Chuck finds a brochure from the suburb they were in he flashes and realizes that he has Fulcrum information. The whole place is a Fulcrum cell but it is too late to warn Casey and Sarah. They are captured and when he tries to go help them he is captured too.
They strap Chuck to a chair to test him with a full upload of the Fulcrum intersect to see if he survives. They are building their own intersect but so far everyone who has been tested has gone insane or died. When Chuck tries to get Sarah released they guess that he has feelings for her. Chuck gets the full version and is momentarily dazed but comes to quickly and the agents are questioning him to test his mental function. They threaten to test his wife and he tells them he doesn’t have a wife.
Casey has gotten free and sneaks into the control booth. Chuck sees him and they non verbally communicate so Chuck knows that Casey controls the computer. When Chuck asks to speak to Agent Walker while she is strapped into the chair he tells her to close her eyes and he protects her while Casey runs the program. The Fulcrum agents are either killed or incapacitated while Sarah is fine. The surviving agents are taken into custody.
Back at the Buy More, Big Mike is wracked with guilt and insists on telling his date who he really is. She tells him she also lied. She thought he knew because he wanted to meet where her son works. She is Morgan’s mom!
Chuck wants to use the rest of the time at the suburbs house for a real date. Sarah tries to request some time from Beckman but she refuses, citing the danger to Chuck from Fulcrum. Sarah then tells Chuck that the mission is over. When he arrives back home, Chuck tells Ellie that nothing more is happening for him and Sarah. They are always going to be what they currently are.
Sarah and Casey clean out the house in the suburbs. As Casey finishes up he asks Sarah if ‘you got everything you need.’ “Yeah.” Looking wistful she removes her wedding ring, looks around the house, and closes the door as she leaves.
Points of Interest
- Chuck vs the Best Friend was scheduled to air February 9, the previous week, but was preempted by an Obama speech. Because they wanted Suburbs to air for Valentine’s Day they flip flopped the order of the two episodes. If you watch them in the correct order the events of Beefcake and Lethal Weapon flow better.
- The phone number on the grocery list is the California information number.
- The intersect download kills Brad, incapacitates Cliff and nothing is known of Sylvia or Vanessa. See Chuck’s chart on the back of his Tron poster.
- cupidaintstupid.com is the dating site Jeff and Lester uses.
- The Fulcrum intersect is represented in red hues when downloaded and when Chuck’s flashes.
- “This place isn’t real, her feelings for you aren’t real.” Sylvia tells Chuck this before they input the Fulcrum intersect. When Sarah refuses to go back to the house with him he believes this is true. This is shown by the conversation with Ellie.
- We see again that Chuck is special, as his Dad has said. He is the only person who can handle the Intersect, any Intersect.
- The reaction to this episode shows how badly the fans wanted this fantasy to be a reality. We see Chuck’s dream come true. Sarah is a real girl and they have a “normal’ relationship. Part of why the finale of the show had such a volatile reaction- many wanted this to be the way the show ended.
- Sarah gets a glimpse of what a ’normal’ life with Chuck could be like. There is no reason to keep up the cover when there is no surveillance at the house and yet she makes breakfast for Chuck.
- In a review written when the show aired, Myles McNutt discusses the ‘will they, won’t they ‘fatigue that has set into the fan base by this time of the series. Frustration runs high with this episode as we see Chuck’s fantasy life become real for a short time and then Beckman and Sarah rip it from him. When Beckman reinforces the danger Chuck is in Sarah goes back into full protection mode. No matter how she feels her job is to protect him.
References
- A Clockwork Orange- Welly welly well. Ludovico chair scene.
- Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back- Morgan names Big Mike ‘Lando Calrissian’ for his dating profile.
- Raiders of the Lost Ark- ‘close your eyes’ scene when Chuck protects Sarah from the download.
- Blade Runner- A skinjob was what the replicants were referred to in the film.
- The Terminator- Morgan refers to Big Mike acting like a ‘robot sent from the future.’
- Must Love Dogs is playing on the screens in the Buy More and referred to as a favorite film of Emmett’s.
Music
Once In A Lifetime- Talking Heads: Chuck arrives at the house in the suburbs.
I Can See Clearly Now- Johnny Nash: Chuck goes to work from the suburbs.
Fever- Peggy Lee: Chuck gets hit on and handcuffed.
Freeze and Explode- Cassettes Won’t Listen: Chuck tells Ellie about his trip to the suburbs; Sarah clears out the house.
