- Chuck and Sarah discover who is behind a plot to take down their company. A computer virus creates havoc as the Buy More prepares for Christmas. Ellie tries to make Christmas plans for everybody.
- It's Christmas Eve and things are usually how they are at the Buy More: crazy. The Omen Virus has everybody worried, but Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence) reassures the public on TV they can come down to the Buy More and spend their money. Jeff (Scott Krinsky), on the other hand, doesn't make for much of a salesman, claiming you can get an iPad cheaper online and Lester (Vik Sahay) is three shades of paranoid about the virus. Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) is beginning to panic because there are only six hours before her Christmas party and she's not remotely ready, despite Devon's (Ryan McPartlin) Zen-like efforts to calm her. She does, however, have an ace in the hole: Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) is helping her prepare for tonight. She heads out of Castle with a box of holiday decorations for Ellie and a Mr. Pipper, the Preppy Bear for Casey...only to run into Daniel Shaw (), who escaped when the virus opened his holding cell. Still housing an Intersect, Shaw flashes and knocks Sarah off the Castle balcony with some kung-fu moves and takes her hostage.
Chuck (Zachary Levi), Morgan (Joshua Gomez), and Casey (Adam Baldwin) are gathered at Casey's apartment attempting to head off the virus. The bear, by the way, was actually for Alex. Casey bought it for her since he knew she had one growing up. He thought it was a dumb idea, but the guys thought otherwise.
MORGAN: It's like you're feeling real human emotion.
CASEY: Don't you EVER say that again.
General Beckman (Bonita Friedericy) calls to inform them who was behind the Omen Virus. Chuck calls Sarah, only Shaw already has her tied up. Supremely confident he has the upper hand ("No Sarah, no Intersect, you're worthless, Chuck."), Shaw demands Chuck get a device called the Macau from Clyde Decker's office in the downtown CIA office within three hours. Sarah demanded to know how Shaw was able to orchestrate all of this. Decker tried to interrogate Shaw, only he had every last piece of dirt on Decker, thanks to his Intersect. One flash and some blackmail later, Shaw had his own personal team of rogue agents. Chuck, however, had a plan. He sent Morgan back to the Buy More to enlist the help of Jeff and Lester to figure out the Omen Virus, Casey had to find an alternate way into Castle, while he would head to the Decker's office to get the Macau. But without a security access card to get in, Chuck would need some help: from General Beckman.
As Morgan negotiates a price with Jeff and Lester to work on the virus (a 6" Italian BMT from Subway), Chuck meets up with Beckman, who has a way of slipping Chuck into the CIA office to get the necessary access card for Decker's office. Only it involves swiping Big Mike's Santa suit (without the eyebrows), meaning Clara can't have her picture taken with Santa. Beckman find Colonel Hayne, who has the proper access card, is completely plowed at the CIA Christmas party, and has a Santa fetish. One drunken (and highly inappropriate) sit on Santa's lap later and Chuck has her access card. While Beckman fends off the advances of Agent (yes, that one), Chuck searches Decker's office and finds the Macau, which Beckman explained had the ability to compress volumes of data onto a single drive. However, security was right on their tail. Beckman had only one way to deal with it.
BECKMAN: Pucker up, Bartowski. You're about to become a man.
Yes, she makes out with Chuck.
In Castle, Shaw is reducing the temperature in the facility to ice-cold to keep the servers from overheating while the volumes of data the Omen is receiving downloads into its servers. Sarah being overcome by hypothermic shock is a nicely-added bonus. Shaw even taunts her that they used to have something, that Sarah still has feelings for him. She denies it over and over, but it was really a ruse for Shaw to sample her voice into a recording device that let him imitate her voice over the telephone. Casey makes his way into the air vents to access Castle. Sarah frees herself with a blade she had in her boot and looks for an exit. Shaw finds her missing and arms himself. Constantly taunting her througout Castle, he comes to the air vents. Only he doesn't make the same mistake Karl did in ; he shoots the ENTIRE vent, badly wounding Casey and sending him crashing to the floor in the process. Shaw kicks Casey into a holding cell and Sarah attacks him again. Unfortunately, the results were the same, and she finds herself tied up once again.
As Chuck and Beckman head back to Castle (and have one very awkward conversation about what happened), Sarah calls Chuck to tell him she escaped Shaw but was still locked in Castle. He confirms he had the Macau. At the Buy More, Morgan tells him Jeffster is making progress with the virus when Sarah calls him again to say Casey disarmed Shaw and to be there soon. ("Hurry up, dear.") That tipped Chuck off, since Sarah never called him 'dear'. Morgan reminds him the last time Shaw was on the loose, he almost blew up the Buy More. Morgan clears out the store by making an impassioned speech that people should be with their loved ones on Christmas Eve and not at the store. Everybody takes off, including Big Mike, but Ellie arrives, having not heard from Sarah in a few hours. She demands to know the truth, and Chuck tells her Sarah was taken hostage by Shaw. Ellie wants to help, but Chuck sends her home because Shaw took their father away from them and Chuck wasn't going to lose another family member to him. They hug their goodbyes.
In Castle, Shaw wakes up Sarah by kissing her. ("Just wanted to see if some of the old fire is there. No. Ice cold.") He even goes so far as taking Mary Bartowski's charm bracelet off of Sarah's wrist. She tries to tell him she was just on an assignment, that he doesn't have to do this, but her entreaties fell on deaf ears. Meanwhile, a highly-caffeinated Jeffster explains the virus is something of a ruse. The Omen Virus appeared to be ready to hit only government servers, to download all of the data into one place, only there was no single computer that could do that. Chuck put the pieces together and figured out Shaw was using the Macau to steal the CIA's databases and make them into the Intersect 3.0. He sends Jeffster home and puts the Macau on the elevator into Castle, telling Shaw to come up to the Buy More to kill him and let Sarah go free. Shaw explains to Sarah that was his plan the whole time: to kill Chuck while she watched so she would have to live the rest of her life without the love of her life.
Casey finds the Mr. Pipper bear and records a message on it to Alex, saying he was proud of her and how sorry he was he wasn't there to watch her grow up. He also apologized for recording a message like this on an electronic bear...and then he had an idea. Shaw takes the elevator up to the Buy More but doesn't notice Morgan sneaking past him to take it back down to rescue Sarah. Morgan tries to lift Sarah out of the chair, only it's frozen to the floor. If only he had a gun to shoot off the lock to her chains. But Casey has one of those, having used the battery from Mr. Pipper to short-circuit the lock to the holding cell. Shaw trains a gun on Chuck, only both of them know that's not what he wants. Shaw faces Chuck one-on-one, saying Chuck doesn't stand a chance against his Intersect. Chuck claims he had been training considerably for the last two years. But Shaw asks if he can handle taking on someone with an Intersect 3.0, which Shaw uploads into his mind. He's ready to go...only, ironically, he should have remembered what Superman did to General Zod in , because Chuck rigged the Macau to wipe the Intersect Shaw already had. ("You seriously underestimate the power of the Nerd Herd.") A couple of Christmas scenes, and Shaw had his final flash. And the fight was on! Chuck had indeed learned a few moves, based on the arm bar kick he delivers to Shaw's face ("That one's for Sarah."), not to mention nailing him with a computer. ("That was for my dad.") But Shaw eventually breaks away and retrieves his gun, pointing it at Chuck.
SHAW: You're good, Chuck. But you're not lucky.
ELLIE: (knocks him out from behind) That was for me!
CHUCK: Nice shot, sis. But I told you to stay at home.
ELLIE: I'm Eleanor Woodcomb. Since when do I do what I'm told? That man took our father away from us. I wasn't going to let him take anyone else.
CHUCK: Merry Christmas, Ellie. (they hug)
Beckman thanks the team and tells them they have jobs with the CIA if they want. Chuck asks if she can help throw a Christmas party for the one Ellie couldn't have. She agrees, and everybody has a good time. Casey gives Alex (Mekenna Melvin) the bear and tells her she should rethink her breakup with Morgan, Jeff thinks it's the best Christmas Eve ever, probably because it's the only one he remembers, ("I'm usually drunk on Manischewitz by now."), and Clara got her picture with Santa (Big Mike). Chuck was even able to retrieve his mother's charm bracelet and put it back on Sarah's wrist. One awkward conversation about them being kissed by Beckman and Shaw later, Beckman tells Sarah that Shaw wants to speak to her from prison. Sarah goes, despite Beckman's protests. Shaw isn't done torturing Sarah.
SHAW: I'll be locked in solitary the rest of my life. But one thing's going to keep me warm at night. A little something I put into motion that you'll never be able to stop. Do you remember Hungary? Does Chuck know about the baby?
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