Plot:
Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) is in his late twenties, living in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, California and working at a dead end job as a computer expert in the Nerd Herd at the Burbank Buy More a large retail consumer-electronics chain comparable to "Best Buy", with his best friend, Morgan Grimes. Chuck is well educated but lacks direction. His sister Ellie and her boyfriend (husband as of the end of season 2) Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcomb are doctors who are constantly encouraging Chuck to make progress in his professional and romantic life. At the beginning of the series, Chuck receives an e-mail from Bryce Larkin, his former Stanford University roommate, who became a CIA agent and was suspected of going rogue. The entire database of all the US government's secret information — a neural supercomputer called the Intersect — is subliminally embedded into Chuck's brain via encoded images upon opening the email. Both the NSA and the CIA want the intelligence returned to them and dispatch agents of their own — Major John Casey and Agent Sarah Walker — to retrieve the data. With the government's copy of the intersect destroyed in Bryce's attempted escape, Chuck's brain holds the only copy, and so he must use the knowledge he now possesses to help the government thwart assassins and international terrorists — upending his previously mundane life. The intersect causes Chuck to receive involuntary "flashes" of information from the database, activated by certain triggers around him (such as faces, voices, in-context keywords, and various objects). In order to preserve their safety, Chuck must keep his newfound occupation a secret from his family and friends, forcing Casey and Walker to establish an uneasy alliance and secret identities; Walker poses as Chuck's girlfriend and takes a cover job at a local restaurant near the Buy More while Casey reluctantly goes undercover as part of the Buy More team. Chuck, Sarah and Casey all face professional conflicts as they grow to respect each other and a genuine romantic interest develops between Chuck and Sarah. Chuck’s desire to maintain his close relationships and eventually return to a normal life is challenged by the dangers and growing responsibilities of his new secret life, and he gradually becomes a more competent, confident and willing spy. Chuck's father, Stephen Bartowski (Scott Bakula), returns for Ellie's wedding. Stephen reveals himself to be a former CIA agent and creator of the Intersect shortly before he is captured and forced to create the Intersect 2.0. This advanced Intersect allows the user to perform physical tasks they previously could not (e.g. martial arts, foreign languages, and musical instrument skills) in addition to the purely informational function of the original Intersect. A series of events leads Chuck to embed the new Intersect into his brain to keep it from being taken by malicious forces. Chuck eventually willingly decides to become a real spy. Although he fails "spy school", his effectiveness in the field leads General Beckman to give him a second chance and reinstate him as a member of the team, where Daniel Shaw is introduced to encourage his development as an agent. Chuck struggles to learn to balance his emotions to control the Intersect, which is complicated by his lingering feelings for Sarah. Sarah and Shaw begin dating, but Shaw is turned by the Ring, a criminal organization. In "Chuck Versus the American Hero" Chuck is officially inducted as an agent by General Beckman, and in the next episode, "Chuck Versus the Other Guy", he shoots Shaw in order to protect Sarah. Chuck and Sarah immediately rekindle their latent relationship. Chuck's best friend Morgan Grimes also becomes privy to Chuck's "spy secret", following which General Beckman inducts him as part of Chuck's "spy team" and orders John Casey to train him. Shaw is revealed to be alive and has downloaded the Intersect as well, and attempts to kill Sarah, Chuck and Casey, and compromise both the NSA and CIA. Chuck thwarts this plan, although his father is killed and his sister finally discovers his double life. The side-effects from the Intersect cause Chuck to regain a childhood memory in which he learns that he accidentally downloaded an early copy of the Intersect into his brain when he was still a young child. Chuck retires from the CIA, and later discovers his father's secret spy base, dedicated to locating and protecting Chuck's mother and performing spy work that "governments are afraid to do." In season 4, Chuck and Morgan search around the world looking for Chuck's mother, Mary Elizabeth Bartowski (Linda Hamilton). After being unable to secure job outside of the government, Chuck rejoins the CIA without Ellie's knowledge. Chuck and Sarah continue to have communication issues, and Chuck's search for his mother entangles him in a fight with Russian international arms dealer Alexei Volkoff (Timothy Dalton) and his far-reaching organization Volkoff Industries, whom she was assigned to infiltrate 20 years earlier. Sarah tells Chuck that she is going undercover as a double agent to bring down Volkoff Industries and bring back Mary Bartowski. Sarah works undercover in Volkoff for a few weeks until Chuck devises a plan to take Volkoff down. With the arrest of Volkoff, the family rushes to the hospital where Ellie is in labor. Clara Woodcomb is born as Chuck proposes to Sarah and she says yes. Following Volkoff's arrest Chuck and Sarah are sent to find Volkoff's successor, whom is later discovered to be his daughter, Vivian Volkoff. Chuck and Sarah attempt to simultaneously plan their wedding and thwart Vivian Volkoff from selling a device that can kill someone from any place in the world using his or her DNA. In the second to last episode, Vivian uses the device on Sarah, sending her to the hospital unconscious and possibly worse. With the help of Vivian's father, Chuck is able to convince her to turn over the antidote to the Norseman, saving Sarah's life. In the process, CIA hitman Clyde Decker forcibly suppresses Chuck's Intersect and the team's government association is terminated. Chuck and Sarah marry and, using financial assets turned over to them by Volkoff, purchase the Buy More and Castle, determined to start their own freelance spy organization with Casey and Morgan, the latter who has now accidentally downloaded the Intersect.
|
[/SPOILER]
