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When we pick up, we've jumped ahead in time far enough for Chuck to fill Morgan in on what Bakula was up to in his secret basement. Chuck and Morgan begin the hunt for Chuck's mom. It takes them all over the world, and puts them $43,000 in debt, but they finally find her safe house. Unfortunately, there's no sign of her, and the safe in the room is totally empty. All they find is a menu for a dumpling place called Imperial Dragons. Meanwhile, Sarah and Casey are on their latest mission, which leads them back to the new and improved Castle with a secret case that Chuck flashes on. He flashes on the word Volkoff, and notices the Volkoff emblem on the case matches the Imperial Dragons menu. In other words: It's all connected. The CIA's also rebuilt the Buy More, and so far General Redhead (who's in the opening credits, y'all!) seems to be in charge, and everyone's a spy. It's like a big, giant CIA base, which could be pretty cool. (But then how will we get Big Mike? And Jeffster!?)
Chuck and Morgan's mission takes them to Russia to seek out his mom, and Sarah and Casey also conveniently end up there. Sarah and Casey end up captured by Dolph Lundgren, who has not aged well. After some brief sexting with Morgan (you'll have to wait for the weecap), Sarah gets through to Chuck that they need help. Chuck hasn't used his kung-fu Intersect in months, but he tries it out on Dolph's men -- and turns out he's still got it. He rescues his girlfriend and John Casey, and they all head back to his secret basement, where he fills them in. Casey's a little hurt they were left out of this for all this time, but now they're in. And Chuck and Morgan are back in the CIA. However, they're not going to tell General Redhead quite yet. Chuck does know he has to tell the one person he promised he wouldn't be a spy: Ellie. When he shows up at the apartment to tell her, though, she shares her news first: Ellie's pregnant! She hasn't even told Awesome yet, but we're guessing that will happen week, when he'll hopefully be in the episode.
In the end, Chuck's mom, who apparently works for Volkoff, finds out from Dolph & Co. that her family is looking for her. She asks if he's told Volkoff, and since he hasn't, she takes the opportunity to kung-fu and kill all of the men in the room. When Dolph pleads with her, "I have a family," her response, "So do I," followed by a fatal gunshot. Could be we have another Bakula-level guest star in our midst, judging by that episode-ending kick-ass spy-mama moment.
Watch the episode below, then discuss it in our forum. Then see some of our favorite Chuck guest-stars.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!We open in Encino, California, 1994, where Linda Hamilton's reading our nerd-in-the-making a story about a Frost Queen and a prince, whom she compares to "my little Chuck." He sadly asks if she's going away again, and she says for a few days, but then right back to him and Ellie. They tell each other how much they love each other, and then Chuck's voice starts: "My mom was a spy." He goes on that he and Ellie always thought she walked away, but it turns out they were wrong. Then we cut to the secret lair he found beneath his dad's house as he says, "I need your help. I need your help to find my mom." It all sounds very serious and official, then Morgan walks out from between some shelves and raves about how cool it is this is under his house, with the lasers! And gadgets! And neatly organized files! Morgan wonders why Casey and Sarah aren't helping, but Chuck says they'd ruin it, and Morgan can't tell anyone, especially Ellie. Morgan exposits that he gets it, since Chuck promised Ellie he was out of the spy game. But Morgan is so in with this rogue spy team, "outside of the government, secret to the spy world, team of two, army of one, highway to the danger zone, live free or die hard." Chuck stops him: "Buddy. This is not the opening of a TV show. This is real life." How meta.
Kicky music starts up as Sarah puts on makeup and Chuck helps her get ready for her mission, calling her "honey" so we'll remember it's official between them. Morgan secretly waits with packed bags for Sarah to leave. Chuck pretends he's sad she's going on a spy mission without him, and he says he and Morgan will be Go-Kart racing while she's gone, so... "come home soon." They make out until Casey interrupts and says it makes him sick. On the way out the door, Sarah tells Chuck she loves him, and he says the same. She tells him nothing will keep her from coming back, and leaves. Morgan tells him he has their stuff packed: money belts, cloned passports, the essentials. Though he almost forgot sunblock. Then we get an extended homage to I Spy as Chuck and Morgan travel all over the world using credit cards, apparently.
Their trip ends in... Los Angeles, in Chuck's mom's safe house. Morgan would like to point out it would have been more affordable to start here instead of traveling the world, but Chuck says they didn't really know about here. Chuck sees a secret safe on the wall, and gets serious about it, since his dad never made it this far. He uses the code to open the door, but the safe's completely empty. He panics a bit, but Morgan's okay with it, because at least there's a Chinese food menu for Imperial Dragons, so they can get some dumplings. Chuck just glares, but Morgan says they'll start over after some dumplings. By then Chuck's pouting, though, so Morgan sits to him for the best friend pep talk. Which gives our camera a chance to pan out to the camera watching Chuck, and then to the screen of whoever's watching him, and then to Linda Hamilton, who's the one watching her son try to find her. She sighs, "Oh, Chuck." Opening Cake credits. The only change seems to be the addition of one General Redhead. The whole Buy More crew (Big Mike and Jeffster!) are still on board.
Mopey Chuck and Morgan walk toward the car, which is an old yellow junker. Morgan throws the Imperial Dragons menu on the dash, but then a crazy-looking Harry Dean Stanton pulls a gun on them. Chuck asks if this has anything to do with his mom or dad or Tangiers or that café in Budapest, but Harry Dean's all, "Uh, what? I'm the repo man, and I'm here for the car." Chuck questions Morgan, since the car cost, like, $900. But Morgan says they're $43,000 in debt. Morgan suggests Chuck kung-fu him, and Harry Dean's like, "Do you got some chop-sockey, boy?" Chuck, who's given up the kung-fu life, says, "No, sir, fresh out of chop-sockey." They let him take the car. Harry Dean offers some advice before he peels away in the beater: "Get a job." Chuck says he's working on it, and Morgan tells Chuck this doesn't happen to real spies.
As if to show us, then, what does happen to real spies, Casey and Sarah find Dolph Lundgren on a rooftop in Hong Kong and pull their guns on him. But he pulls out a gadget that shuts down all the power within three clicks (does anyone really know what a click is anyway?). Dolph tells them it's Volkoff's EMP and Volkoff's agents will be here any minute, so Sarah and Casey are trapped. Maybe so, but they're still badasses, so Sarah kicks Dolph in the face. After some small talk about whether Chuck should be there (Casey thinks he should be since he's the Intersect and needs to wear his big-boy pants), she tells him it's good that he brought the chutes, and they jump off the building. Which is pretty cool.
Back at home, Chuck wakes up to an empty bed, but Morgan's standing there with his iPhone, snapping photos of Chuck and his bare chest. He says Sara's going to love these and then tosses him some baby oil. But Chuck's not into that and wants to know what Morgan's doing here with baby oil. Morgan says he's trying to get Chuck out of the funk he's in about missing Sarah, so he's here to talk to him about sexting, which Morgan believes is "sex writing." Chuck tries to move on to job talk -- he told Ellie he's looking for work and she set up some interviews -- but Morgan's all about the sexting. To the point that it's a little creepy, actually, because it seems like he's the one who wants to sext Sarah. Or, probably more likely, Chuck.
Chuck's in an interview with a guy who can't believe a catch like him hasn't been snatched up. Chuck overuses the word snatch, then says he's sorry, but he doesn't normally use that word "for a myriad of reasons." Also, he's normally a smooth operator, like Sade. Oh, how I love nervous Chuck. But he says today's been strange because he's had so many terrible interviews. We flash back through them as he says one interviewer fell asleep, one got ill, one went into convulsions, and one went for a cup of coffee and never came back. This interviewer thinks that's crazy and says he has some good news for Chuck. As he's about to offer Chuck the job, his phone rings and he picks it up. He says, "Yes!" Then a concerned "What?" as he looks at Chuck. He hangs up and tells Chuck the position's been filled, and he's going to have security escort Chuck from the building. Chuck wonders who was on the phone and tries to explain, but the security guards are carrying him out.
Chuck and Morgan discuss Chuck's job possibilities on the bus (public transportation is their new thing, you know, since they don't have a Nerd Herder). Then the new Buy More comes into their view, and Morgan says there's always one place. They can't believe it's back. They head in to the shiny new Buy More, and a pretty, sourpuss girl [New Daily Show correspondent Olivia Munn, for those who know of her or care. - Zach] storms up and tells them they're not open yet, but they are accepting resumés. She sends Chuck to talk to the store manager, leaving Morgan with her. She asks if she should show him around, and he says yes: "Should I hold your hand?" Sourpuss: "No, you should not." So he follows. In the manager's office, Chuck tells the manager (whose chair is turned away) that he's Chuck Bartowski and he used to work here. General Redhead's voice says, "You still do work here," and she turns around in the chair. She welcomes Chuck, whose jaw is on the floor. Commercials, including a cute on in which Chuck flashes on The Event, all, "It's... awesome."
Casey and Sarah are in the new Castle, discussing their mission about the EMP. Sarah just wants to hang out with Chuck. Casey says that might work, since General Redhead wants him to come down and look at the EMP and see if he flashes. Sarah says he's out of the spy game, but they see him on the camera talking to General Redhead. She's showing him how the new Buy More is all spies, all the time, with secret gadgets and agents everywhere. It's like a full-blown headquarters now (which makes one wonder why Castle is necessary). He tells her he's out of the spy game, but she's not having it, since he's now the president's priority since he was so successful. She also tells him he shouldn't expect to find any other jobs. Sarah calls and tells him he doesn't have to be a spy. He totally knows, since he just turned General Redhead down. Sarah asks how that went, and Chuck falls through a trapdoor into Castle. They kiss and talk about how they never see each other because Sarah's on the never-ending mission. Casey tricks Chuck into flashing on the EMP, which he sees was manufactured at Volkoff Industries. Casey explains that Alexei Volkoff is like the Russian Howard Hughes, and they've been chasing him for months. Casey's glad to have Chuck back, but Chuck says he isn't.
Back at the Buy More, Morgan puts together that this is all CIA, and Sourpuss is a spy, too. Back at Castle, Sarah and Chuck are alone, and Sarah asks him about "the picture." Chuck: "What picture?" She shows him a shirtless picture he texted her with the words, "U LIKE?" She's like, "Chuck, do you want to sext with me?" Chuck's like, "AH! No." He blames Morgan, but Sarah says she thought it was cute. Back upstairs, Morgan hits on Sourpuss, who seems completely uninterested, but since she has a mission in Thailand in the morning, she'd be happy to hook up with him this very moment. Sarah has to go on her mission now, so she closes the EMP case, which has the same logo as the Imperial Dragons menu. Sarah says it's Volkoff's logo. She leaves, and Morgan comes down the trapdoor. He tells Chuck how much this place rules, with its slides and trapdoors and super-hot Sourpuss Nerd Herder Greta. Chuck tells Morgan they need the car back.
At the car lot, Chuck re-explains to Morgan that the menu could be the link to his mom. They plan to take it quickly and quietly, but Harry Dean shoots at them. He tells "you young, underworked, oversexed kids! You don't mess with the repo man!" They agree, and don't want to mess with him; they just want their menu. But Harry Dean would like some dumplings, too. He asks for the menu, but Chuck and Morgan run, like they apparently did back in Tangiers. Harry Dean yells, "Damn you!" after them. Then pouts, "I love dumplings." Back in the lair under Bakula's pad, Morgan points out there are some words he's never seen on a Chinese menu before, like Shamira chicken. When Morgan says "Shamira," Chuck flashes and finds out this is a menu for weapons, not food. Chuck calls the number on the menu and says he's Carmichael, head of security for "the new ring." The caller tells him to come to Moscow. Chuck tells Morgan, who sadly says he'll have to sell his Millennium Falcon.
Sarah and Casey are headed toward their mission in a private jet. Sarah tries small-talk, asking if Casey's ever been in a long-distance relationship. Casey: "No. I either leave or they die." Then he uses the restroom. While he's there, Sarah takes all sorts of photos of herself to sext to Chuck, which makes it a little awkward when Casey comes back. They hit some turbulence, in the form of Dolph, who tells the flight attendant to release the gas and reroute the flight to Moscow. He puts on a gas mask as they release something into the plane.
Casey and Sarah wake up in a warehouse somewhere, tied back to back in chairs. Sarah asks where they are, and Casey says, "Desolation. Frostbite. It must be Russia." Dolph and his henchmen come in and tell them to relax and think about all of the terrible things Dolph will do to them. Casey says his methods won't work on them, but Dolph says he works for Volkoff, and "I must break you." Chuck and Morgan enter what seems to be the same building (where they plan to access the Volkoff computer system to see what they have on his mom). Chuck introduces them as being with the Ring, and Morgan introduces them as Charles and Michael Carmichael. The lady leaves, and they bicker about how Morgan went off the plan, and introduced himself as Chuck's brother; and what kind of name is Michael Carmichael, anyway?
One of Dolph's guys finds one of the smutty photos of Sarah and marvels at it; she uses the opportunity to kick him and get her phone. Looking at a floor plan of the building, Chuck flashes on it as an old Soviet base and knows exactly where to go. Rather than fight, they decide to just run really fast (once again, like they did in Tangiers). They run into a room with a bunch of buttons and a couple old computers, where they regroup and Chuck tries to access the computers. Morgan finds an EMP, and Chuck asks him not to touch it. Sarah manages to use her phone with her toe and sends a "NEED U" with a sexy photo of her face to Chuck. Morgan sees it and tells Chuck, "It's Sarah. She's sexting you." Chuck's too busy, but Morgan takse it upon himself to tell Sarah to "SHOW ME MORE." Casey asks Sarah what Chuck said, and she's like, "He thinks we're sexting." Casey: "What? What does that even mean?" She sends him "SOS," which Morgan thinks is "Skin on skin," so he says, "yes, please." She says, "Come on," and Morgan replies, "Filthy." Sarah's exasperated -- and who wouldn't be? -- and Chuck finally bypasses security and gets into the computer system. He finds something in the computer about Frost Queen, which were the stories his mom told him as a kid. He hooks up his phone to download the info on his mom that he can't read right now, but Morgan just then realizes Sarah's in this building, with Casey, and they need help. Morgan wonders if they should call General Redhead, but Chuck says they'll be saving them, thankyouverymuch.
Dolph's back with Sarah and Casey. He takes away Sarah's phone and says he'd love nothing more than to shoot them both. Casey tells them to go ahead and do it, but Dolph says they're not the agents he's looking for. He says they're looking for the two agents who have gotten closer to Volkoff than any others before. "They're ghosts. They have expertly used public transportation to avoid being tracked." He shows pictures of Chuck and Morgan looking like tourists, not spies. Dolph asks who these master spies are, and Casey and Sarah pretend they've never seen them. But, just then, Dolph's henchmen find Chuck and Morgan. Morgan asks Chuck how rusty his kung-fu is, and he says he hasn't used it in months. Sarah asks him to flash over the walkie-talkie, but Dolph tells his men to kill them. There's machine-gun fire, then silence on the other end, and Sarah and Casey are upset. Chuck gets back on the line, though, and tells Dolph that he must not know who he is, since he only sent ten men to take him out. He tells Dolph he's coming, and that he'd better not touch a hair on Sarah's head. Once Dolph and most of his men run off to wait at the wrong entrance for Chuck and Morgan, Chuck comes in and kung-fu chops Dolph's guard, then unties Sarah and Casey. Before Casey can kill some Russians, Chuck has something to do.
They head back to the computer room, and Chuck gives Sarah the short version about taking over his dad's work and looking for his mom. She doesn't like that he's lying, which is against their rule. He says, in fairness, this is a secret, not a lie, so they make a new rule for no secrets, either. Casey's all, "Great. You've made up. Now how do we get out of here?" Dolph's voice comes over the loudspeaker and tells them they can't, because everything in this living building (Moya?) is totally automated. "If you die, you die." Morgan thinks that's ominous and hopes the file's worth it. Casey says they're sitting ducks in here. Chuck notices the file of his mom is 90 percent loaded, but he goes to set off the EMP. Sarah asks him what about the file, since he might never find his mom. He says, "It's not worth losing you." He looks at Morgan and Casey and says, "Any of you." Casey, never one to savor the moment, says, "That's great. Pull the trigger." Chuck does and it goes dark. Cut to outside, where the sound of gunfire precedes the whole gang running out into the frigid Russian clime. Sarah wonders about their getaway car, but this is team Chuck and Morgan, so they climb on a crowded old bus. Chuck and Sarah kiss happy anniversary (it's six or nine months or something, depending on who's counting).
Back in the Bakula lair, Chuck finishes up his story for Sarah and Casey. Casey's peeved Chuck didn't ask them for help, and Chuck says he's sorry and asks if they'll help. Of course they will, but Sarah tells him this means he'll have to rejoin the agency and become a spy. Chuck knows, but wonders if they should tell General Redhead about his mom. Sarah says not yet, but wonders what about Ellie. Chuck says he has to tell her the truth, that he's a spy. He heads to the apartments to do that, and she sees him and asks if the interviews went well. He says not really, but there's something he has to do. She already knows; she saw the new Buy More. He tells her he did get a job there, but she tells him it's okay, since jobs are really hard to come by these days. Then she says it's her turn and sits him down. She tells him she's pregnant. He gets excited, and she says she was going to wait to tell Devon when he got home, but she couldn't wait. Chuck hugs her, and she says she's so happy to be starting a new family and that he's with Sarah and he's safe.
Cut back to Chuck telling Sarah he couldn't tell Ellie right now, since she didn't want him to be a spy. But his dad started this mission, so he can't not do this. Sarah says he's being a brother, not a spy. She pulls out a paper she found on his mom in the "deep database." It's an old passport photo or something, that shows him his mom -- "Code Name: Frost" -- was captured. Sarah says she couldn't find anything after that, and Chuck says this whole time he and Ellie thought she left because she didn't care about them, but she was actually taken. He's not going to tell Ellie yet, because he's going to find his mom, if she's still alive, and bring her home.
We're in a room with Dolph and his henchmen, surrounding Linda Hamilton. She asks why he brought her here, and Dolph says they found out some interesting information about her: Someone is looking for her. She asks who, and he says, "Your family." She asks if he's told Volkoff anything, and Dolph says he's told him nothing. She says that's very, very good. Then she jumps up, knocks out the henchmen with kicks to the face and her chair, then shoots them all up. Dolph's still alive when she stands over him with the gun. He pleads: "Please, I have a family." Linda Hamilton: "So do I." She shoots him. Okay, so parts of the episode were lame (the sexting, for instance) and silly, but that ending made it all worth it. We're off to a solid start, at least, which is more than I could say about last season.
Extended preview of this season on Chuck: He'll tell Ellie he's looking for their mom. He'll fight some bad guys. He'll propose to Sarah. Morgan will date Casey's daughter. And Sarah and Linda Hamilton will pull guns on each other.
Watch the episode below, then discuss it in our forum. Then see some of our favorite Chuck guest-stars.
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