Chuck S03E06: Chuck Versus The Nacho Sampler

By Xavier Kong
Intern, Staff Writer
February 7, 2010

All images © NBC

[Ed. Note--Xavier, one of our awesome interns, will be writing recaps of Chuck for The Yeti. SPOILER ALERT, duh.]

This episode begins with a quick flash back to the pilot when Chuck and Sarah first meet each other.

Three years ago:

Present day:

Morgan asks Chuck what it was like meeting Sarah, asking if it was love at first sight. Morgan is lovesick for Buy More’s newest employee, Hannah.

Morgan walks off and Hannah talks to Chuck about working in the Nerd Herd.
Chuck tells her “Me safe, everyone else not safe.” I mean, would you want to work with/get hit on by these lovely fellows?

After more Chuck and Hannah small talk, Casey informs Chuck that it’s “yogurt time,” referencing the fact that across from the Buy More is a yogurt shop which houses a secret CIA facility underground. Chuck walks off, promising to give a confused Hannah a full tutorial of working in the Nerd Herd later.

Not your everyday backroom freezer to a yogurt store.

The briefing for Chuck’s latest mission takes place. General Beckman informs Chuck that he has to get to know Manoosh and ask him what he’s working on/why The Ring placed a large amount of money in his account. This is important because up until now, Chuck was always the asset and Sarah and Casey the handlers. Chuck finally gets to be the handler.

Chuck the spy? More like Chuck the cockblock.

Manoosh walks into the Buy More and starts talking to Hannah. Chuck interrupts the two, much to the dismay of Manoosh, who berates Chuck for “ruining the flow with that hottie.” After a brief conversation, Chuck hands Manoosh his business card and lets him walk out of the store with a computer hard-drive for the inconvenience he caused earlier with Hannah.

After the opening credits, Devon is lying on the couch and is startled when his wife Ellie puts some stuff down on the counter. Devon was recently brought along on one of Chuck’s missions unwillingly, and unbeknownst to Ellie. That’s why his behavior has been rash and erratic of late. Before Ellie can get any more information out of him, Devon rushes out of the house.

The next day Chuck is about to give Hannah the tutorial of the store when Casey informs him yet again that it’s “yogurt time” and Chuck leaves. Before he leaves the store though, Chuck asks Morgan to keep an eye on Hannah and prevent the other employees from creeping her out too much with their advances. Morgan invites Jeff and Lester into his comically small “office”—a transformed janitorial closet. Morgan informs them that he wants Hannah and wants the two of them to stalk her so he can get information on her to help win her over.

Chuck and Manoosh have dinner, and a little liquid confidence goes a long way. This conversation gets Manoosh to slowly open up to Chuck, but he never finishes explaining what he’s working on, just that it’s weapons-related. The Ring calls Manoosh and Chuck lets Sarah and Casey know (they are observing from a van on the street). Casey finds out The Ring is closing in so Sarah goes in close the deal. She flirts with Manoosh and ends up tranquilizing him so they can escape from the bar without The Ring finding them.

When Manoosh wakes up, he is in Sarah’s “room”—which is really a dressed-up room in the CIA chamber. Sarah tries to get him to talk about his weapons project again but he is too enamored with her. Who can blame him though? For a nerdy, awkward loner to wake up next to this, it would leave me speechless too:

He is tranquilized again. Poor kid.

The three watch him from the window and when Manoosh awakens he calls Chuck. They agree to meet in the Buy More so Chuck can give back the briefcase Manoosh left at the bar. Before heading to the store Chuck opens it, takes out the weapon Manoosh was working on and leaves it with Sarah and Casey.

When Chuck goes back to the store he’s confronted by Devon, who is having a hard time lying to Ellie about the spy stuff all the time. As fate would have it, Ellie walks into the store too. Devon hides behind one of the racks while Chuck talks to Ellie.

He tells her that he was in Paris on business and that he managed to find Devon and Ellie a place to stay for a week so they could have a real honeymoon. Chuck is unhappy about lying to his sister all the time, but he thinks her safety is a greater concern. As Michael Bluth would say, “Family first.”

Chuck returns Manoosh’s briefcase. Manoosh tells Chuck he’s going on a trip but when he returns, he wants to help Chuck out for being so nice to him, and that they should become business partners. The Ring calls Manoosh and he tells them he isn’t quite finished with the weapon yet. Chuck realizes that The Ring is going to hurt or possibly kill Manoosh so he rushes back to the yogurt store to get help. During that time The Ring operatives see Manoosh so he runs out the back door. They have him surrounded.

Casey manages to find a secret hatch on the weapon Manoosh gave them…

…but it turns out to just be shaving cream. Meanwhile Manoosh unleashes the real weapon on The Ring agents:

The sunglasses are a version of The Intersect, the same computer Chuck has in his brain. It allows the user to “flash” on information and temporarily gives them abilities they normally wouldn’t have. In this case, martial arts.

Guys…Manoosh knows kung-fu.

After Manoosh takes the guys out, he runs off. Sarah discovers he bought a plane ticket to Dubai. When Chuck asks why, Casey responds with:

Weap-Con. A spoof of Comic-con, where a bunch of weapons developers get together and showcase their stuff to people. Could be fun, right? Casey thinks so, and is elated that he can write the flight off as a business trip.

Meanwhile, Morgan is ready to pounce on Hannah and calls her into his office. With Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” playing in the background (Hannah’s most played song on iTunes) Morgan strikes up a conversation about foreign films. Hannah talks about Chuck’s trip to Paris (which Morgan had no prior knowledge of) and Morgan rushes out of his office.

Of course, he has to step over the desk since his closet office is so small. Before walking out, Hannah asks Morgan why Chuck is always at the yogurt shop and Morgan says it’s because Chuck’s ex works there.

Welcome to Weap-Con.
The three look around and find Manoosh, who is about to give a presentation.

He starts talking about the weapon he created. He reveals to everyone that the weapon is just himself, which elicits laughter. Then he puts on the glasses and starts mocking the crowd. A group of guys gets up and easily handled.

Manoosh lets everyone know about the glasses and everyone wants to buy a pair. Backstage, Chuck confronts him about the glasses. Chuck reveals that he’s a CIA agent and Manoosh freaks out. He’s upset about being betrayed by Chuck and tries to run but soon he and Chuck’s crew are surrounded by The Ring.

Handcuffed to chairs now, Casey reveals his escape plan to Chuck and Sarah. Earlier on, Casey bought a laser pen and it is in Casey’s shirt pocket. Casey wants Chuck to grab it out with his mouth, much to Chuck’s dismay.

Chuck manages to get the handcuffs off with the laser pen and they all escape.

Meanwhile, Manoosh negotiates with The Ring. They tell him they no longer need him, so he steps on the glasses. The Ring are about to kill him when Sarah and Casey arrive. There’s a standoff when Chuck comes in and threatens to shoot The Ring leader (no pun intended) with Casey’s laser pen. The Ring leader balks and says Chuck wouldn’t so of course, he does.

The Ring now have the upper hand, until Chuck flashes on a ninja star. He then uses his new found ability to throw the knife-pen at the leader’s hand. Team Chuck prevails and Casey tells Chuck to make sure Manoosh doesn’t leave. Manoosh pleads with Chuck to let him go and not put him in a CIA detention center. Chuck lets Manoosh go, since he feels sorry for Manoosh. Casey sees him walking off and is about to shoot him while commenting that Chuck doesn’t have the stones to be a real spy, when Chuck uses a tranquilizer gun to stop Manoosh.

Back in the underground CIA facility, Chuck is now faced with the task of letting Manoosh know he has to be detained. This is a crucial point in the show, not only for the episode but for the series since up until this point Chuck was always the friendly one. He would put his faith in people and he lived and died with his feelings and emotions. Throwing all that away is hard, but Chuck manages to put all that aside and Manoosh is taken away by two other CIA agents. Casey says the best way to deal with the pain afterwards is with Johnny Walker Black.

Back in the Buy More, Hannah confronts Chuck about the whole “yogurt time” thing. Morgan comes up to Chuck and asks if there’s something Chuck isn’t telling him. Chuck says there is nothing going on and the two walk off. Morgan is upset Chuck isn’t being honest so he has Jeff and Lester spy on Chuck.

When Ellie gets the first class tickets from Chuck for a trip to Paris, Devon freaks out and runs out of the house with the tickets. Morgan is standing outside as Devon departs. Morgan and Ellie talk about how weird both Chuck and Devon have been acting lately and they agree to team up and figure out what is going on.

Watching on the monitors, Casey notes that Chuck is finally becoming a spy and that it’s a good thing.

“Is it?” Sarah wonders, referring back to her feelings of Chuck as the friendly, goofy asset she used to protect, not a cold, emotionless spy. The screen then goes back to Sarah walking into the Buy More for the first time. She’s on the phone with her supervisor giving her instructions on what to do with Chuck. She looks up at him at the Nerd Herd desk and says, “Piece of cake,” as she walks over to him.

Whew! We made it. Well this episode certainly had a lot going on, and it sets up for what is going to be a crazy season. First, the love triangle of Morgan, Chuck, and Hannah is one to note. From the moment Chuck and Hannah met there was an apparent mutual interest, but now that Morgan is in on things, this situation could get ugly fast. There’s also Morgan and Ellie dedicating more time to spy on Chuck to see what is really happening. Seeing Sarah’s remorse at Chuck becoming a spy is also worth noting, as she might still have feelings for him.

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