Chuck Episode 2.04 Chuck vs the Cougars

San Diego, 1998: A teenage Sarah drives home from school. She pulls up to see that ATF agents have raided her home and are arresting her dad. She speeds off, crying, and goes to a wooded area where she digs up a box. Inside are bundles of cash with a note that reads, "In case of emergency. Love you, Daddy."

Present day: While talking to Chuck at the Buy More, Sarah notices a suspicious woman (Nicole Ritchie) eyeing them. She alerts Casey, and then hurries Chuck into the surveillance room hidden beneath Orange Orange, the yogurt shop where she works undercover. She confronts the woman who has followed them to Orange Orange. It turns out she's recognized Sarah from somewhere. Sarah thinks her cover may be blown - and it has been. The woman is Heather Chandler, a high school classmate of Sarah's.

As Chuck watches a surveillance screen with delight, Heather reveals Sarah's real info: Jenny Burton, 1998 graduate from James Buchanan High in San Diego ("Go Cougars!"). She introduces her husband Mark Ratner, who barely remembers Jenny as an ugly duckling. He asks her if she's going to the upcoming class reunion; Sarah says no, clearly uncomfortable with her past life. To Sarah's horror, Chuck enters and immediately flashes on Ratner, seeing aeronautics blueprints. Sensing an opportunity to investigate Ratner and "learn all about my Jenny," Chuck suggests they all go to dinner. Sarah is livid.

Back in Castle (the high-tech spy complex underneath Orange Orange), General Beckman informs Chuck, Sarah, and Casey that Ratner is an engineer at Winthrop-Keller Aeronautics with high clearance to weapons technology. He's building the next-gen F22 Raptor, a super bomber. Sarah and Chuck must go to dinner with the Ratners and see if Chuck flashes on anything. When Sarah tries to recuse herself from the mission, Beckman won't let her, saying her "compromised cover" is the perfect cover.

At the Buy More, Big Mike is going fishing for a few days and puts Lester in charge. He tells the crew to give Lester the same respect they'd show him: "When you look at him, I want you to see Big Mike, and not some scrawny ass Indian kid with a Bay City Rollers hairdo." Looking to make an impression in Big Mike's absence, Lester announces a new sales tool: haggling. He demonstrates, shaving $300 off the price of a TV for a customer. The sales associates begin slashing prices, setting off a frenzy of below-cost sales.

At Sarah's apartment, Chuck asks to be briefed for the mission. Sarah tells him to back off, saying, "All Jenny's boyfriend needs to know is that Jenny hates questions about her past." She illustrates the point by throwing a pencil and impaling it on Chuck's face on a picture of them together.

At dinner, Heather steers the conversation away from Mark's career, curtly saying, "No one gives a rip." She rudely tells Mark he's sweating, so he excuses himself. It's clear she's still the mean girl she was in high school and she soon focuses her wrath on "Jenny," asking about her "career" at the yogurt store, her dreams of being an actress, and whether she visits her dad much. Chuck, clueless about the subtext (Sarah's father in jail), asks Heather if "Jenny's" house was where everyone hung out. Sarah dumps wine in his lap and Heather quips, "There's the Jenny we all know." Chuck excuses himself to the restroom. As Heather continues to be catty toward "Jenny," Sarah

Meanwhile, two thugs accost Mark in the bathroom, wanting some sort of plans. Mark says they must promise not to harm his wife. Chuck enters and flashes on one of the thugs: Russian mafia. Mark gets tossed in a stall, closing the door. A thug grabs Chuck, asks him what he knows. They move to kill him, but Casey enters and knocks them both out. He leaves to get the van. Mark exits the stall and thinks Chuck did the handiwork. When Chuck mentions they're Russian mob, Mark asks how he knew. He explains that he's Special Agent Carmichael.

Under questioning by Casey back at Castle, Mark says he'll only deal with Carmichael, who saved his life. Though irritated, Casey goes with it and calls Chuck "Mad Dog" to scare Mark into telling him where he's meeting the mob to hand over the plans. To demonstrate his toughness, Chuck squashes a Styrofoam cup and throws it to the ground. Casey shows Mark a scar he says Mad Dog gave him for parking in his spot just once. Scared, Mark confirms that the drop-off meeting will be at the high school reunion.

At the Buy More, Lester realizes that the haggling tactic has left the store $3,700 in the red for the day. He assembles the team and asks for ideas on how to make a lot of cash by tonight. Jeff says, "My mom knows a dude who will torch the place. Our troubles will go up in flames." Morgan says, "While I'm impressed with the outside-of-the-box nature of Jeff's pitch, I'm thinking maybe a simpler solution." Joking, Chuck suggests a holding a kegger with an entry fee. Lester and the rest of the group like the idea and start planning. Chuck's glad he's going to be 100 miles away at the reunion.

Sarah works a punching bag as high school memories flash before her eyes. Heather as an Alpha-girl cheerleader, looking "Jenny" up and down. Dick Duffy, a jock teasing her about her dad being in jail as a group of students laugh. Back in her apartment, Chuck brings her a present, a new dress, to break it to her that they're going to her high school reunion. Sarah tells Chuck that high school was worse for her than most people.

At her old high school, Chuck and Sarah enter her 10-year-reunion party. When she gets her name tag, two perky reunion organizers clearly haven't forgotten she's the jailbird's daughter. Chuck sees Sarah's awful high school picture and reacts, then quickly tries to cover, saying it's not that bad. Dick Duffy saunters over and hits on Sarah. Chuck intervenes, and flashes on a tattoo on Dick's arm. He tells Sarah that Dick's in with the Russian mob, and he's the guy Mark's here to meet.

Two Russian mobsters enter the reunion and get name tags. "Go Cougars," one says in a heavy accent. It's lost on the perky girls. Mark tells Chuck that he realizes that he should have come to the authorities first, but that they threatened to hurt his wife. He can't believe a beautiful girl like Heather would ever fall for a math geek like him. Chuck says, "You know Mark, sometimes the nerd gets the girl."

Out in the parking lot, Casey covers Sarah as she talks to Dick, who thinks he's getting lucky. Though it's difficult, she plays it up until he mentions her dad and pinches her butt. She slaps him and he laughs, saying he likes his ladies rough. Sarah knocks him out with a sweeping kick. Casey runs to her side and says "Great, now we know he's a perv, don't know if he's the perp." Sarah says, "Yeah sorry, I'm just working out some childhood issues." They look in his car and see he's a small time contraband dealer, but not Mark's connect.

At the Buy More, the party is in full swing and bringing in the money. Lester tries to retain some kind of order as the crowd is getting out of control and the store is getting trashed. Guests are puking on the merchandise, making out on couches. One guy is even dancing with Big Mike's prized swordfish trophy. Lester asks for it back, and they tussle over it, breaking off the nose. At that, Lester tries to kick everyone out, but they just keep partying.

Heather tells the Russian goons that Mark is working with the Feds and that they are to kill both Chuck and Mark. Chuck flashes on the goons and tells Mark to run. He grabs the mike at the DJ stand and cleverly points out the two mobsters to Sarah and Casey by saying some people make you "flash" back. He points out each goon with the spotlight, entertaining the guests by improvising their names and stories. Sarah sees Heather slink off and realizes she's part of the mob. She pursues her while Casey goes after the goons, one of whom has Mark at gunpoint.

Sarah searches the high school locker room for Heather. She gets the drop on Sarah, sucker punching her, kicking off a vicious cat fight. Heather draws a gun and taunts Sarah, asking how a jailbird's daughter ended up working with the Feds. Sarah kicks her into the trophy cabinet and throws a knife, dislodging a bronze Cougar head. It falls on Heather's head and knocks her out. "Go Cougars," Sarah says.

Meanwhile, the mobsters lock Mark in a locker and tell him he has three seconds to tell them where the plans are before they shoot him. Casey comes to the rescue, shooting one and knocking out the other. Once again, Mark can only hear the action and thinks that Carmichael has saved his bacon. Inside the party, Jenny wins queen of the reunion and walks in wet, shoeless and bloody to receive her crown.

Stuck in their own Risky Business-type dilemma, the Buy More crew cleans the trashed store just in time for Big Mike's return. Just like Joel's mother's coveted glass egg, Morgan has glued the prized fish together and puts it into place just in time. Big Mike enters his office and praises Lester on the sales and tidy store. Lester watches in horror as the fish starts to crack, and asks if he can go back to just being a salesperson. Big Mike says yes, and Lester runs, just as the sword falls off the swordfish. Big Mike says, "What the hell?"

Chuck asks Sarah what happened in high school to change her into the person she is today. Sarah remembers back to the day her father was arrested, and the pile of cash stashed near the tree. Sarah also recalls meeting CIA Director Graham who told her that her dad had trained her well, and that the CIA could train her even better. He asks her how she likes the name Sarah Walker. Back in the present, Sarah tells Chuck he can ask one question about her past. Chuck says he doesn't need to, because he knows who she is now.