Let's meet Chuck! He's an adorably floppy-haired geek, complete with pocket protector and a nerdy best friend named Morgan. We start out in a darkened room, in which Chuck and Morgan are seemingly planning some kind of covert commando mission, only when the light goes on, we learn that the two of them are escaping "Chuck"'s birthday party in Echo Park, which he claims is actually an excuse for Chuck's older sister Ellie to have all her friends over. Ellie is played by Sarah Lancaster, of Everwood infame, and it's a testament to the mellowing of my psyche caused by old age that I'm willing to give her a clean slate here. Maybe I'm taking the fact that she's a brunette now as a sign of her like desire to bury the past. Ellie informs Chuck that she's invited "real, live women" on his behalf, and the least he can do is come downstairs. "Morgan, you stay here." Ha! The hot girls Chuck gets introduced to all seem to think he's adorable, even when he confesses that he studied engineering at Stanford and now works for the "Nerd Herd." Talk then turns to a "Bryce Larkin," who was Chuck's roommate in college; Chuck tells one of the women Bryce is an accountant, but an extended sequence that's vaguely reminiscent of Mission: Impossible shows that he actually seems to be some sort of covert agent, as he gets into some kind of sensitive computer area and hacks away. Under questioning from the woman, Chuck babbles cluelessly about his ex-girlfriend Jill, and by the time he gets to the part about Jill ditching him for Bryce, the girl has moved on to less nerdy pastures. Or more nerdy ones, if she happened to stumble across Morgan. We then cut back to the Bryce sequence, in which it should be noted the guy is pretty cute despite being covered in more blood than Sissy Spacek in Carrie. In the white computer room he's in, he plants an explosive charge, then runs at the door, timing it such that he's running through just as the door blow off their hinges. Neat trick -- not sure if you escape without third-degree burns if you're not on TV, but neat trick nonetheless. The doors also fortunately crash onto some of the security officers that have been alerted to Bryce's presence, and he manages to get by the rest of them with some further moves that include running up walls and other acrobatic martial arts that would have made him right at home on Xena. In the stairwell, Bryce takes out his Blackberry to send an email, and I know from personal experience how addictive those things are, but when dudes are chasing you with machine guns, sending out chain mail can wait, you know? There's more acrobat-fu involving jumping from roof to roof, and Bryce eventually gives the cops following him the shake and pulls out the Blackberry again, only to be shot in the chest by some dude. And by "some dude," I mean ADAM BALDWIN! Awesome! However, Adam Baldwin is somewhat screwed here, because as Bryce lies dying, he sneers, "Too late, Casey," and we see him send an email...to Chuck. DUN!
...and we get confirmation of that, as the guy is blathering on, while in the back, the scary red-haired dude is pushing a cart with a silver cover over it. I know they play music at the Academy Awards if your speech runs over, but this seems a little excessive.
Chuck and the two agents come into the hotel at a dead run, but Sarah pauses to say they can't risk taking Chuck in, as he's too valuable. Casey agrees, but Chuck darts away from them, and soon they're in the crowded event room. Chuck quickly locates the bomb, and the agents expose the mechanism, which is connected to a laptop that reads only a minute and a half to go. After an ill-timed phone call from Morgan, Chuck realizes that the laptop is one they sell at their store, and it's got a DOS override. He quickly convinces the agents to let him work his magic, and gets on the internet and searches for Irene Demovar. In a hilarious quick moment that you might miss in the tension, Casey's like, "You're searching for porn!" Just so we know there's a bit of Jayne thrown in with the Hamilton. But the virus kills the computer with .01 seconds to spare, and Chuck enjoys his moment of badassery until he realizes how close he came to being in a million little pieces. Casey: "Don't puke on the C4." Ha!
Casey and Sarah have an argument over who's getting custody of Chuck. Mom and Dad, please don't fight! Chuck overhears a bit of this, and insists they leave his family and friends out of the equation. He realizes that the agents need him, and with that, declares his intention to go home. The morning, Chuck is sitting on the beach in the early sun when Sarah finds him; she tells him she's been there all night, which means he didn't go home. Liar! Chuck ruefully notes there's nowhere he can run, and says he can't figure out why Bryce chose him for this. He asks what happens now, and Sarah tells him he'll go back to his life, and they'll protect him while he works with them. This scene is cut with Chuck arriving home to have Ellie and Morgan animatedly chide him for making them worry. Sarah tells Chuck to keep his family and friends in the dark, and then Captain Awesome comes out in his scrubs on his way to work and stops to participate in the group hug going on in the living room, which he calls "awesome." Hee. Sarah asks Chuck to trust her. We see a shot of her back in her hotel looking at camera-photos of Bryce with tears in her eyes, and then she and Chuck sort of smile at each other. The episode ends with Chuck having a hilarious slo-mo face-off with his work rival, Chuck applying for an assistant manager job, and Chuck going to meet the new trainee -- Casey. HA! Also, Sarah's shopping in the store, and as Chuck passes by her, he gets some images of her killing some dudes on an assignment. Chuck, to himself: "Don't freak out." Why not? This show is awesome!