Chuck Episode 2.18 Chuck versus the Broken Heart

Coming home from work, Chuck is grabbed by three Ninja-dressed assailants at his door. One tapes his mouth, the other pulls a hood over his head while the third binds him. From behind, Casey orders them to drop Chuck. When the hoods come off, instead of enemy Fulcrum agents, it's Chuck's Buy More co-workers Jeff, Lester and Morgan who are practicing to kidnap Awesome for his bachelor party. When Chuck says they aren't even invited, Lester says there's no better way to be invited than kidnapping the guest of honor. Fed up, Casey sprays them with water so they'll leave.

In his room, Chuck secretly studies the schematics for the new Intersect that Orion stole from Fulcrum and gave to Chuck. General Beckman pops up on his computer screen, wanting to speak to him privately about his feelings for Sarah and if they're compromising his job performance. At Chuck's denial, she plays a montage of surveillance videos from previous missions. All highlight Chuck expressing his feelings for Sarah. Point made, Beckman has to make sure Chuck's protected without causing emotional distractions for her team, so they're going to have to do a 49-B. When Chuck asks what that is, Beckman terminates the link.

The next morning, Awesome wakes Chuck, offering a colon-cleansing drink. Chuck takes a whiff and declines. Awesome notices the words "Conference Terminated -- General Beckman" on Chuck's monitor and asks who that is. Chuck says it's from a video game. When asked, he says he's Agent Carmichael. Voice recognition picks up the name and Beckman appears on screen. Chuck switches it off before Awesome sees. Ellie shows Chuck a wedding invitation sent to their father that came back in the mail. Chuck promises to keep searching for him. Ellie mentions hearing them discuss the bachelor party and tells Awesome that she trusts him completely.

At the yogurt shop, Chuck sees Sarah from behind and tells her about Beckman's suspicions. She turns around, but it's not Sarah. Chuck flashes on her. The woman is Agent Alex Forrest, "Your 49-B." In the Bunker, Beckman briefs them on their new mission. A man believed to be Rashad Ahmad, an associate of fugitive terrorist leader Hassan Khalid, had a heart attack while in Los Angeles to handle Khalid's banking business. Ahmad, who needs a pacemaker, is in the hospital under the name Harry Lime. Beckman wants Chuck to infiltrate the hospital to confirm Ahmad's identity.

Chuck asks about the 49-B. Beckman tells Sarah to explain. Alex is here to assess her performance, during which time she will be Chuck's handler. Afterward, Chuck asks Sarah about it. Her response, "Sorry, to discuss this further would be breaking protocol." At the Buy More, Casey is unsympathetic to Chuck's feelings about the 49-B. Morgan, Lester and Jeff plead with Chuck to invite them to Awesome's bachelor party, finally admitting they've never been to one. At Chuck's refusal, Morgan asks him to think on his final offer. Since Big Mike's dating his mother, he's been locking up. Meaning, they could have the party at the Buy More.

Without actually saying it, Chuck asks Sarah if Alex knows he's the Intersect. Sarah says she won't know that top-secret information unless her position becomes permanent. Which, she assures Chuck, won't happen. Chuck apologizes for letting his feelings get her into trouble. He's been stressed out about his promise to Ellie to find their father so he can walk her down the aisle. He asks if she could find him through the Castle computer. Sarah says that's impossible. Having heard, Alex enters, saying damn right. Sarah would not only get fired, but face charges of misappropriation of government intelligence.

In a surveillance van, Casey, Alex and Chuck review the mission as Sarah sits silent. Once Chuck has identified Rashad, Casey will infiltrate the equipment and donor organ room. There, he'll slip a locator inside Rashad's pacemaker before they implant it, which upon his return to Afghanistan, will lead them to Khalid. Sarah asks Casey if she can do anything. Alex curtly declines. Chuck panics when he sees the hospital is Ellie and Awesome's workplace, but Sarah says they've checked their schedules. Ellie's off and Awesome's in surgery. When Sarah follows, Alex blocks her, sternly ordering her to stay in the van to observe only.

Dressed as a doctor and nurse, Chuck and Alex exit a closet. A nosy candy striper sees and playfully accuses them of hanky panky. To Chuck's horror, Alex tranquilizes her. On surveillance video, Sarah sees Ellie, whose schedule was switched, and warns them. They dodge her, ending up in Hassan's room where his doctor, Mohammad Zamir, is monitoring him. Two thugs guard them. Chuck flashes on both the doctor and Hassan, and whispers to Alex that it's him. Zamir asks to consult with Chuck privately. Outside the room, Alex gives Casey, dressed as an orderly, the go-ahead to proceed. However, his key card doesn't work.

Chuck improvises being a doctor, while Zamir eyes him cautiously. Zamir warns him that the patient is a very important man, and that being his surgeon is a very dangerous job. One that Chuck's life depends on, if he gets his drift. Casey tells them about the access key. Alex suggests taking out a doctor and stealing his key. Casey, in a growing attraction to her, says he likes the cut of her jib. Chuck thinks they're a match made in a very demented part of heaven. When they train their eyes on Awesome, Chuck says no way.

In the Bunker, Chuck objects to them using Awesome. Alex quips, "Fortunately, like children and felons, you don't get a vote." Sarah agrees that Awesome puts Chuck's cover at risk. Chuck pointedly says that's exactly what he was thinking, because he and Sarah are professionally connected. When Alex says she'll handle it her way, Chuck says he has an idea how to get it. Later, Chuck, Lester, Jeff and Morgan kidnap Awesome and take him to his surprise bachelor party at the Buy More. Lester snaps pictures, but Morgan chastises, "What happens at the Buy More, stays at the Buy More." Lester apologizes for being a bachelor party virgin.

Alex reports to Beckman that Sarah is too emotionally entwined to Chuck. This causes her to place her feelings before protocol and orders. Despite Sarah's objection, Beckman terminates her assignment as Chuck's handler. Sarah asks Alex to take care of Chuck. Alex snottily says that she'll do her job if that's what she means. Sarah says she'll leave as soon as she says goodbye to Chuck, but Alex grabs her and says she's done enough damage. She orders her to have no further contact with Chuck.

As Awesome pounds down shots, Chuck assures Casey he'll be so drunk that getting his card will be easy. Casey asks how he plans to distract him. Enter, the strippers, compliments of Jeff, who hired them for a deal. When they strut into the room it's clear they were bargain basement. One of them is Jeff's sister. Awesome cuts away to call Ellie and tell her he'll be late because of the party. Casey feigns drunkenness and steals Awesome's wallet, but the card key isn't in there. He tells Alex, who figures it's around his neck. She says she has a back-up plan.

In the Bunker, Alex coldly asks Sarah why she's still here. Sarah placates her, saying she's tying up loose ends. Once alone, Sarah keys in a search for Stephen J. Bartowski in the Big Computer. It searches, clearly going to take a while. Meanwhile, Alex struts into the Buy More, dressed as a stripper cop. Everyone is captivated, especially Casey. After a pole dance, she cuffs Awesome and takes him to another room as Chuck nervously watches. Trying to get to the access card, Alex puts the moves on Awesome. However, he tells her to stop because he loves Ellie and won't jeopardize that. In response, she tranquilizes him.

As Awesome succumbs to the tranquilizer, he hears Chuck shouting about keeping CIA darts out of his family. After he passes out, Chuck yells at Alex for going too far. "Sarah never would have done this," he says. Alex challenges Chuck, "What are you going to do about it?" Chuck says he'll tell Beckman he'll only work with Sarah. Alex gloatingly tells him that Sarah's been dismissed. Chuck is shocked. Especially when he learns Alex is his new handler. Chuck tries to call Sarah, who's leaving her apartment. When she sees who it is, she declines the call.

In the bunker, Beckman reports that Casey successfully infiltrated the room and planted the locator in Rashad's pacemaker. An audio monitor beats with the sound of Rashad's heart. Chuck asks Beckman how she could just let Sarah go and lie to him. Beckman says that's how the NSA works. Alex snidely adds, "Get used to it." She goes to clean her weapons. Casey follows her to do the same. To Casey, it's as good as sex. That is, until Alex disses Sarah and says he must be glad she's gone. He's about to retort when Rashad's monitor flatlines.

Awesome, who can't remember a thing from his party, wakes with a severe headache. Soon, he realizes his access card is gone. Ellie, who knows Awesome always wears it under his shirt, asks why his shirt was off. When he can't remember, she gets pissed. Chuck, who feels guilty, tries to run interference between the two. It doesn't work. Ellie storms off, telling Awesome she hopes last night was worth it. Awesome says he wants a do-over from last night. Meanwhile, as Sarah drives to Langley, a computer in her car alerts her that it found results for the Stephen Bartowski search. She turns the car around.

After Zamir scans Rashad and discovers the pacemaker has been bugged, they move him out of the hospital to a secret location. Zamir looks up the doctor who performed the surgery, Devon Woodcomb, and sends his goons to get him. At home, Chuck sees the goons looking for Awesome and dons his doctor's coat. He opens the door and they grab him. When they scan him for signals, his watch activates. They remove it and throw it in the fountain.

At the Buy More, Ellie asks Morgan what happened at the Bachelor Party. Even though Morgan is lovestruck, he can't break the "Bro Code." She passes Lester and Jeff looking at a computer. On-screen: pictures of a shirtless, unconscious Awesome in compromising positions with Alex. She storms off. Sarah sneaks into Chuck's room to leave him the search results. She notices his phone on his bed. Worried, she heads to the bunker, but can't gain access. Alex won't let her in, but Casey overrides her, adding that he disagrees with her assessment of Sarah. He says she's a pro and the best partner he's ever had.

Sarah says she found Chuck's phone when she went to say goodbye. Alex says she directly disobeyed an order which is why she was fired. Sarah retorts, "Then there's nothing stopping me from kicking your ass." She lets Sarah by, insisting Chuck's fine, as his signal is in the courtyard. Sarah scans the surveillance cameras, looking for Chuck. She zooms in on the signal, finding the watch submerged in the fountain. They map the last area where Rashad's pacemaker sent a signal, which leads them to a Dubai bank. The steel in the vaults is masking the signal.

Chuck is brought to a makeshift operating room inside a vault. Zamir orders him to surgically remove the bug from Rashad's pacemaker. Chuck stalls, but Zamir threatens to kill him. Casey, Sarah and Alex burst on scene. The goons shut Chuck and Zamir in the vault. Zamir discovers Chuck isn't a doctor and attacks him. Chuck blasts Zamir with nitrous oxide. Just as Zamir is about to kill Chuck, the gas takes effect. Zamir cracks up, saying he forgot why he was mad at Chuck. Outside, Alex want to blow the door but Sarah says the blast will ignite the gas and kill Chuck.

While Sarah, Casey and Alex try to get inside the vault, Chuck, high on laughing gas, asks the equally high Zamir where Khalid is. Zamir tells him. Listening on headphones, the three hear. Impatient, Alex wants to blow the door but Sarah cracks the lock. Chuck is thrilled to see her. At briefing, Beckman says Zamir and Rashad are in custody. She congratulates Alex for leading the mission that led to Chuck learning Khalid's whereabouts. She compliments Sarah's bravery but scolds her for disobeying orders. Chuck interrupts, saying Sarah's feelings are what saved his life. Beckman considers this and reinstates Sarah.

Ellie catches Chuck returning Awesome's access card and becomes angry when she thinks she's covering for him. Chuck says that nothing happened, but Ellie says she saw the photos. Chuck visits Sarah, distressed that the U.S. government is messing up his family. She says maybe it's time for them to help, and hands him the search results for his father. Sarah drives Chuck to his dad's trailer out in the middle of nowhere. He knocks on the door. For a long time, no answer. Sarah comforts Chuck, genuinely sorry for him. They are about to kiss when the door opens. "Dad?" Chuck says.