Intrigue

Casey goes undercover to protect his daughter from The Ring, Big Mike receives some shocking news regarding the Buy More, and Chuck's father becomes the team's only chance of survival against The Ring.

Ring double agent used Ellie as bait to lure the team into a real CIA base. Daniel Shaw is not only alive and back, he convincingly pleads to a Washington-mandated CIA panel that general Beckman is incompetent and Chuck's Intersect a mental liability. Chuck discovers that Shaw has a Ring Intersect himself, but his clumsy attempt to prove that gets him arrested. Casey is diverted by his daughter's kidnapping. Father Bartowski returns to save Chuck, who refuses to desert cowardly, but is tempted to spare his beloved by disappearing.—KGF Vissers

Chuck (Zachary Levi) can't wait for the Governor to be completed, and he reminds his father, Stephen (Scott Bakula), every five seconds to work on it. Chuck can't calm down, which is understandable, given his cover is blown, Castle has been exposed, and his partner's and girlfriend's ex-lover was a double-agent. ("Way to talk me down, Dad.") But Stephen wants him to realize there are some battles Chuck has to walk away from.

STEPHEN: There may come a time where, if you want to protect them, you have to go.

Chuck doesn't want to do it, but Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) recommends some fresh air, and they get it at a farmers market. Chuck still hasn't told her about his deteriorating mind. And she isn't around to hear the voice Chuck does...and flashes on...and gets a severe headache from. That voice he follows down into the subway. The person escapes on the train. The person...is Daniel Shaw (Brandon Routh).

Chuck and Sarah return to Castle, but Casey (Adam Baldwin) is not convinced Chuck actually saw Shaw. Stephen punches up the video surveillance of the train station and finds him. They determine the station Shaw gets off at and observe him walk through a restricted-access door. Sarah and Casey break out the hardware to get him, but Stephen doesn't want Chuck to go because it could just as easily be a trap. Chuck says he has no choice.

STEPHEN: That's exactly what The Ring wants you to think. There's always a choice!

CHUCK: What choice would that be, Dad? Run away? I'm not you, OK? I'm not going to spend the rest of my life in hiding. I can't leave the ones I love behind.

At the Buy More, Devon (Ryan McPartlin) can't find Ellie (Sarah Lancaster). And Morgan (Joshua Gomez) has to be the one to break the bad news to Devon. ("Wait, you called me Devon.") Morgan plays the message Casey recorded between Ellie and Justin (Scott Holroyd). Devon is in pain, but Jeff (Scott Krinsky) and Lester (Vik Sahay) have a bottle of alcohol at the Buy More for medicinal purposes. They say Devon now has a free pass to mount whomever he wished. But Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence) disagrees. He told Awesome Ellie's hired a pinch-hitter because Devon's not satisfying her enough. Morgan, being the voice of reason (scary!) drags the drunk and slightly un-awesome Devon out of the store.

General Beckman (Bonita Friedericy) has been called on the carpet by the higher-ups at the CIA. She tries to prove Operation Bartowski has been a success, in spite of falling well short of expectations. But the team tries to improve their record by infiltrating the building Daniel Shaw entered through the subway. (Well, the people at Flashforward (2009) won't need it anymore. Same building.) This same building where Justin has been keeping Ellie and still is slinging her the BS he's with the CIA and John Casey is rogue. Chuck trips an alarm and Justin spots Chuck. He's about to take him out, but one kung-fu flash later, Justin is on the ground, and Ellie is shocked to see Chuck. She can't believe Chuck punched someone. ("You quit kung-fu in the third grade!") But Justin runs and Chuck takes him down in an auditorium. The SAME auditorium where General Beckman was trying to defend Chuck's work. WTF???????

In a holding cell, Beckman explains what is going on. Ellie was taken home, and the Intersect project is about to be shut down and she's been trying to keep it afloat. Chuck is certain Shaw is in the building, but Beckman wants Chuck to keep his mouth shut. Chuck, Sarah, and Casey are called to testify in front of the committee, and who should walk right through the front doors but Daniel Shaw himself. He told the committee Chuck was a hero for downloading the Intersect when he didn't have to. Both Chuck and Sarah tried to plead their case Shaw kidnapped her and tried to kill both of them in Paris, but to no avail. Shaw pretended he was a double-agent who almost succeeded in stopping The Ring until Chuck shot him. Shaw uses Chuck's deterioration against Chuck. Sarah tries to deny it, but Chuck (and Dr. Dreyfus') report say otherwise. Shaw recommends the Intersect project be aborted. Beckman speaks for the defense, and one of Chuck's success stories triggers Shaw's Intersect. Chuck sees it. He tries to convince the committe Shaw has an Intersect by doing the same thing his father did to him: throw a letter opener at him. Shaw caught it...in his shoulder. And Chuck is back in a holding cell.

Sarah and Casey walk out of the meeting, but Casey suggests they run. There was no way to know how many Ring agents have infiltrated the CIA and they can't rely on help from Washington anymore.

CASEY: It's not just us they're going to come after. They'll also come after the people we care about. Are you coming?

SARAH: Everything I care about is in this building.

CASEY: Good luck, Agent Walker...Sarah.

Ellie and Devon meet up and have a round of true confessions. Certainly Devon is more happy Ellie knew about Chuck than the possibility she was cheating on him. He's so relieved she knows about Chuck and can tell her the truth. Oops. Now Ellie is upset Devon knew Chuck had been with the CIA for years. She demands to know everything, But Devon only knows the AWESOME missions he's been on. She demands to know more, but there was only one person who knew everything about Chuck.

Casey goes to the restaurant he's frequented for some time. The restaurant where his daughter, Alex McHugh (Mekenna Melvin), works. Alex knows him simply as a friendly customer, but Justin decides to have a piece of pie as well. He knows the score and has a Le tueur de Grosse Pointe (1997) moment with Casey. Only instead of Casey dropping his egg-white omelet on the floor, he drops Justin with a napkin dispenser and takes Alex out of the restaurant against her will. Casey tries to explain who he is, but she doesn't believe him and runs. He catches her, and one very impressive display of self-defense by Alex later, Casey finally he tells her she's named for him. Alex Coburn. Casey is Alex's father. Unfortunately, the CIA have caught up to him. He tells Alex to find her mother and disappear.

Sarah finds Chuck's holding cell, but he has already broken out, courtesy of his father overriding the computer systems. As Stephen drives up to ferry Chuck to safety, Sarah wants him to stay with her, otherwise Chuck will have a Burn Notice (NEW EPISODES START NEXT WEEK ON USA! Sorry, just doing my share for NBC Universal. :-D ) on him and the CIA will never stop looking for him.

STEPHEN: If you stay, everybody you know will be in danger. You have to choose who you want to protect: you, or her.

Chuck tells Sarah he's sorry, kisses her, and runs. Sarah confronts Shaw in his office. She tries to force him at gunpoint to 'fess up to the committee, but he knows he has the drop on her, since it's his word against hers about what happened in Paris. She is taken into custody, but not before she gets in a good solid punch on Shaw.

Apparently, the person who knows more about Chuck than Devon took Ellie's pillow as his date for Junior Prom. (At least the pillow said yes. You try getting turned down for prom 33 TIMES!! Sorry.) Morgan tries to calm her down with Valieran Root tea, because it'll give her brain a soothing bath. Ellie doesn't want to calm down because she still thinks John Casey is a double-agent. Morgan and Devon scoff at any possibility that Chuck could be turned or that Casey would EVER betray his country. Ellie wants one of these "geniuses" to explain why Chuck is being held by the CIA against his will. Morgan and Devon go to Castle to find out, but all they see is a video of Beckman shredding documents and looking like the boogey man is coming to get her.

BECKMAN: They've apprehended Colonel Casey, Agent Walker is in custody, Bartowski escaped this facility and he is a wanted man! As much as it pains me to say this...YOU ARE OUR ONLY HOPE!!!

DEVON: (awkward pause) Dude, did she mean you or me?

Stephen gives Chuck his Governor, and it works perfectly. Chuck is relieved about that, but it was hardly in the forefront of his mind. Morgan tries to call him and explain everything, but Stephen throws Chuck's mobile phone out the window. He tells Chuck it's all a trap to get him and for Shaw to get his hands on the Governor.

STEPHEN: I'm your father. You can't ask me...please don't ask me...to put my own son in jeopardy.

CHUCK: I can't just walk away, Dad! Why did you come back this time? You came back because you wanted to protect Ellie and me. Because you knew no matter how far you ran, you couldn't live with yourself if you knew something happened to someone you loved!

Stephen relents and turns around if Chuck agrees to do this his way. But they need help: Ellie. She knows about what happened when she met Justin. They go through everything she saw at the park bench where Justin and Ellie would meet...just across the street from the subway. Chuck and Stephen go into the subway, but Ellie wants to know first why Stephen ran in the first place. He promises to come back and tell her everything. (Kind of telegraphing that, aren't they?) One problem: Shaw knows "lovestruck Bartowski" is on his way to rescue the captured Sarah and Casey, and he is ready for Chuck and his father. Chuck deduces they're in a Ring facility (McTiernan Industries - great Piège de cristal (1988) reference) They find an elevator behind a fake electrical panel. Only it's not the same base where Sarah and Casey are at. They found the REAL Ring base. Plans have certainly changed.

CASEY: Don't know when it happened, but our boy became a man. Bartowski's a spy. Picked a good one, Walker. Finally.

Chuck and Stephen hit paydirt. They find the Intersect room of the Ring, and everything Chuck saw in his dreams was correct. Shaw and his men get to the station, and Ellie is running the Horror Movie Victim Playbook step by step, following them in. Shaw captures them and takes Chuck's Governor. Chuck taunts him to see how well Shaw's Intersect stacks up against his.

SHAW: There's one thing that is different. You can't function when your emotions have been compromised.

CHUCK: Don't worry about that. I've never been more calm.

SHAW: Really? How are you feeling now?

Shaw shoots Stephen Bartowski dead. Shaw and his men capture Chuck easily. And Ellie sees the whole thing.

Alex, Casey's daughter, walks into the Buy More and asks to see John Casey's locker. Morgan saves her from the two-headed monster of Jeffster! and wants to know who she works for, but Alex is more than a little confused and upset.

MORGAN: Don't worry, this store is as safe as any place you can be...provided you stay away from those two. (Jeff and Lester)

Morgan assures her John Casey is true blue All-American and takes her to the breakroom to see what is in Casey's locker. The key Alex has isn't for the locker, but for a lock inside of Casey's locker. Inside is a boatload of cash. Devon arrives and pulls Morgan aside. Ellie called Morgan and Devon tells him everything. We see Chuck, Sarah, and Casey taken in an armored truck.

SARAH: Where's your dad?

CHUCK: I'm sorry, guys. Shaw has won.

Casey is confident they'll get Shaw, but Chuck isn't. Shaw likes the new defeatist attitude on Chuck.

SHAW: Enjoy the ride, tell war stories. Because as soon as this truck stops, so do your lives.

CHUCK: It's over. There's no one left to save us.

Except Ellie, Devon, and Morgan.

DEVON: Are you sure this is what you want? Because there is no going back -- our lives our changed forever.

ELLIE: Yes.