Chuck 2.15 “Chuck versus the Beefcake” Recap

Corpvandolay here with a recap of this week’s episode of Chuck. Now, there are a few new changes this week, as I have begun to add some icons. These should give you the opportunity to quick-glance and see who is in the episode and what happens. I hope you all enjoyed them. Now, this week’s episode should have followed episode 2.13, which you can read about here. With that said, on with the show…

What Does TV Guide Say?
Chuck gets jealous when Sarah has to seduce Fulcrum agent Cole Barker, codename “Beefcake”. In the meantime, while Big Mike continues dating Morgan’s mother and Morgan takes refuge at Chuck’s place, Jeff and Lester start looking for the “Buy More Babe” as a way of finding a new employee.



Who Stars This Week?









Who Guest Stars?
Jonathan Cake is the ‘Beefcake’in question: a sophisticated MI-6 agent who vies for Sarah’s attention. He has bounced around television over the years, but you can review that for yourself here.

What’s The Episode Really About?
We open in the middle of a forest late at night. There is a man, digging in the ground. Hey, it’s our guest-star, Jonathan Cake! What’s he doing? Well, it seems he is digging up good ol’Andy Ricther’s body from episode 2.13 (though you never see Andy’s face — an obvious body double!). He looks over the body and removes his pants belt. Is this getting kinky now? Nope, not yet, as we cut to our Hero Headquarters.

The General is on screen informing Sarah and Casey that the man in question was digging up a CIA dump-site and that he took some information that is a potential ‘game changer.’As such, Sarah and Casey are not to let Chuck out of their sight.

Chuck is having breakfast with Captain Awesome and Ellie. His phone rings and we see it is Sarah. He decides not to answer it. Awesome compliments Chuck on playing hard to get, while Ellie recalls the conversation she had with him two episodes back. If he doesn’t think they will be together, he should break up with Sarah. Chuck agrees and tells them he’s going to break up with her.

At the Buy More, Morgan is lamenting to Chuck about Big Mike dating his mom. It seems that they are getting along quite well, and practicing a lot of the horizontal mambo. As Morgan puts it, Big Mike sounds like a wounded sea lion. Chuck’s phone rings — Sarah again. He loks at it, thinking not to answer, when we see Sarah over his shoulder. Caught! Sarah then invites Chuck to get a frozen yogurt so they can talk.

Over at the frozen yogurt shop, Sarah is cutting up some bananas with a very sharp knife. This does nothing to help Chuck’s nerves. But, he stumbles around, until she asks him if he wants to break up. It seems that she overheard him at breakfast; eavesdropping is an occupational hazard. Chcuk starts in with the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’line, when Casey pops up at the door and reprimands Chuck for using that track with a trained assassin wielding a knife. Casey then steps back out, and Sarah suggests they tell everyone they are taking it slow and who knows what the future holds. But, to Chuck, this isn’t good enough, as it is still a lie. So, she asks if breaking up is what Chuck truly wants (obviously querying about their future together outside of a cover). Chuck replies that yes, he does. Casey pops back up and exclaims ‘great!’

HQ. The general is briefing our heroes on the mission. It seems they have identified the digger and he is quite a bad agent. We are to imagine a rogue or evil James Bond as images of him with ladies all over the world are show. Chuck flashes on the belt the agent is wearing — it seems that the belt is what he took from the dead body. It is a data device, and has information on it. The mission is to intercept him before he can meet his FULCRUM contacts and deliver the belt. Casey smiles at Sarah: ‘You’re gonna have to get his pants off. Good thing Bartowski dumped you.’

Opening credits.

Buy More. Big Mike, Morgan , Jeff and Lester are hanging out at the Nerd Herd desk. Big Mike asks Morgan to do some interviews for him, as he needs to go over to Morgan’s house and help his mom ‘lay some pipe.’Morgan, and the others, and mortified by the double-entendres that Mike spews forth. Once Mike leaves, Jeff and Lester offer to help Morgan out by doing the interviews themselves. Of course, we find out that their reasons are not altruistic: they are looking to enjoy the time-honored ‘casting couch’as they interview models for the job of ‘Buy More Babe.’

At the hotel bar, Chuck and Sarah are at the bar (not together), while Casey is the bartender. Our mark walks in and sits down in one of the chairs off to the side. Meanwhile, at Chuck’s house, Morgan is in the kitchen when Ellie and Awesome get home. They are surprised to see him as it seems that Chuck failed to inform them that Morgan would be staying over for a few days. As they seem disappointed, Morgan comes through as the perfect house-guest. He has fresh Martinis for them, has drawn a hot bubble bath they can go soak in, and has dinner in the oven. Perfect!

Meanwhile, at the bar, Sarah tells Chuck as Casey that she’ll call for some Cristal champagne if she’s in trouble. She leaves the bar and sits down with the mark. After some brief chatting, she successfully picks up the rogue agent and they leave to go to his room.

Back at casa del Chuck, Morgan is serving Ellie and Awesome dinner. During their conversation, Awesome lets slip that Ellie told Chuck to break up with Sarah. Why?! Morgan says that is a bad idea. Morgan thinks that Sarah is the one for Chuck because whenever Chuck is with Sarah, he is the Chuck we all know and love. Ellie starts to see Morgan’s view and fears that she has told Chuck bad advice. What if he’s already broken up with her? Awesome replies, telling her to look at the bright side — Chuck said he’d move out years ago, so it’ll be a while until he breaks up with Sarah.

At the hotel, Sarah is in the mark’s room, getting all hot and heavy. In the bar, Chuck flashes on some men getting in the elevator. Casey tells Chuck to stay put as he races to catch the elevator with the guys. Casey makes it, getting in, along with a woman and he baby. Meanwhile, in the room, Sarah gets the belt off of our rogue agent, but he uses it to bind her wrists. It seems that things are getting a bit kinky! She tells him she’s not too comfy with being tied up. The elevator stops, and the doors open. Before the men get out, Casey puts a gun in the back of one of them and tells the woman to slowly get out and away, as to stay out of danger. As she starts to, she grabs her baby and hits Casey with it. She’s FULCRUM! A shoot-out ensues. All the while, Chuck is at the bar, having removed his earpiece as he didn’t want to hear Sarah and the Beefcake making out. As a result, when she asks for Cristal, he don’t hear.

After the commercial, a waiter comes up to the new bartender and asks for a bottle of Cristal champagne to be delivered to Beefcake’s room. Chuck makes the connection and knows Sarah is in trouble! Chucks radios Casey, who tells chuck that he is a little busy right now, as he’s in a shoot out. Chuck races up stairs, hoping to save Sarah himself. In the room, Beefcake pulls Sarah’s gun from her purse. She is standing in her lingerie (yes!), helpless to what he may do. Just in time, Chuck knocks on the door — room service! Distracted, Sarah kicks the gun out of Beefcake’s hand and a fight ensues. Chuck tries to bust down the door, finally succeeding, only to find Sarah, still in lingerie, having subdued the Beefcake. She has her gun draw as he is on the ground, her knee in his back.

Up to the roof we go.Sarah and Chuck are escorting Beefcake way, as he tells them they are making a serious mistake. Just then, a military helicopter rises about the rooftop and begins to fire on the trio. Sarah ducks behind one car while Chuck and Beefcake duck behind another. Sarah is pinned down. Beefcake turns to Chuck and tells him that he is MI-6, undercover. Chuck has to trust him so that they can get out of this alive. Chuck does, giving Beefcake a gun. Beefcake gets up and runs over to Sarah, firing at the helicopter, and then, more importantly at the gas tanks on the roof. They rupture and BOOM — no more helicopter. Beefcake stands over Sarah and say, ‘come with me if you want to live.'(Love the Terminator reference!). Just then, WHACK! Casey decks him and knocks him out cold.

Back at HQ, the General apologizes to Agent Cole. They didn’t know he was MI-6. Agent Cole is understandably upset, as they interfered in a long-running undercover assignment. What’s worse, the chip in the belt is useless without the playback device, which he was going to get that night at the hotel. The General orders him to stay locked down at HQ until they can talk to his superiors and determine their next move.

Meanwhile, back at Chuck’s house, Morgan awakens. It seems that it is time for a midnight snack. He throws back the blanket and arises…in the nude. Yes, Morgan sleeps au natural. He gets up and goes to the kitchen. Back in the bedroom hall, Ellie is up, worried and looking into Chuck’s room. Captain Awesome comes up and she tells him that she is worried that she was wrong in telling Chuck to break up with Sarah. As Captain Awesome points out, he’s not home and that is a good sign. He offers to make her some tea. And as they stroll into the kitchen, they come face-to-face with a naked Morgan (who is not shy about his nudity). As Captain Awesome puts it: “talk about your low-hanging fruit.”

Over at the HQ, Chuck offers to Sarah to stay and help her watch Agent Cole. Seems he is a bit nervous to leave them alone for a whole night. Could he be…jealous?! Sarah defers and tells Chuck to go home. As she walks away, Agent Cole comes up to Chuck and asks if anything is going on between he and Sarah. Chuck says there is nothing going on, much to Agent Cole’s delight. As he so eloquently puts it, he’s going to try and “butter that muffin.”

Chuck arrives home that morning. Hey, where is Morgan? Well, as Captain Awesome tells him, Morgan sleeps in the buff. Now, that is a fine thing, just not on their couch. Ellie and Awesome ask Chuck if he did break up with Sarah. Chuck says yes, to an audible “oh” from Ellie. Oh? Oh, what? Well, they fear that he was premature in breaking up with her. She is a great girl and won’t stay single for long. Chuck may have missed his best shot with her.

Over at HQ, Sarah is looking at Cole’s file. It seems that he is a real hero, having done many brave and daring things, saving many lives. Just as Cole comes up, Sarah hides that she was viewing his file. He is curious as to why she didn’t come to bed last night. She wasn’t tired. He smiles and says that they wouldn’t have gotten any sleep. Meanwhile, upstairs Chuck is hanging out in the Orange Orange yogurt shop, and takes the opportunity to view the security cameras through the secret console in the check out screen. He sees Sarah and Cole chatting in the HQ below.

Over at the Buy More, Jeff is decked out in a bath robe, as he and Lester interview girls for the open position. Jeff is blatant and repulsive in his come-ons to the women, much to Lester’s chagrin. Lester thinks he is more suave, however they are both utter failures. Each and every woman in the montage resists the casting couch, threatening to call the cops and/or their boyfriend to get back at them.

At HQ, Cole has the idea to set up a new meet to get the playback device. This mission is very dangerous, as his cover might be blown. Chuck offers to hack the chip, but everyone blows off that idea. Sarah says that taking the chip to a new meet is too dangerous, to which Cole says that he’ll do it without the chip. This mission just keeps getting more and more dangerous!

At the new rendezvous point, Agent Cole is in a casual suit with Casey (with a smoothie!) and Sarah dressed as business people. It seems they are at a busy hang out for professionals on their lunch break. Agent Cole sees his contacts and approaches them. He says he has the chip and asks for the playback device. From a nearby car, additional FULCRUM agents, led by a smoking hot woman, watch the deal. Suddenly, their computer screen lights up — it seems that someone has activated the homing device on the computer chip. Chuck! They know Cole doesn’t have the chip, so they grab him. Sarah tries to intervene, but is nabbed before she can make a move. Casey hangs back, being sure not to have his cover blown.

At the Buy More, Chuck is in the chip. See, he can hack it! Mad skills! He opens the files and sees that the chip has a movie files of his FULCRUM experiment from episode 2.13. As he is watching this, the FULCRUM agents from the car come into Buy More. Jeff and Lester se that one of them ha a gun, and think he is an undercover cop called by one of the models. They duck down and scoot off. Chuck also sees them coming, and smashes the chip before they arrive. The female lead FULCRUM agent comes up to Chuck and immediately sees the smashed chip on the counter. Why do we have to do it the hard way?

Cut to Chuck, Sarah and Agent Cole are in a warehouse, hanging from the ceiling. Sarah and Agent Cole chat, assessing the situation and that Chuck is a 1 on the 1-10 torture scale. Chuck disagrees until he realizes that they are just in the pre-torture stage. He then agrees: he’s a one. Chuck tells Agent Cole and Sarah that he cracked the chip and knows what is on it: it’s him. The chip contains the identity of the intersect. They can’t let FULCRUM know. Just then, the female FULCRUM arrives, and asks, machete in hand, who is going to talk first.

Casey rushes into the Buy More, decked out in his suit. He finds Jeff and Lester and wants to know where Chuck went. They don’t respond until he applies some physical persuasion. They sing like canaries, telling him how a hot female cop came by and arrested Chuck. Casey bolts out.

Back in the warehouse, the female agent is torturing Agent Cole. Chuck is begging her not to hurt him, but she refuses. Chuck breaks and tells her that he is the intersect. She pauses, considering this. Cole then pipes up and say that he is lying, that Cole himself is the intersect. He reasons that Chuck is too weak — the CIA would never make him the intersect. Sarah agrees. Chuck disagrees, saying he is tougher than he seems. In fact, he spies a giant needle on the instrument table and tells her he could withstand her putting that in his eye. She smiles and picks it up. This needle? She moves towards him and brings it to his eyeball. Chuck passes out.

Casey rushes into HQ and informs the General that Chuck has been taken, along with Cole and Sarah, by FULCRUM. They need back up now, as Chuck would never stand up to torture.

Cut to water splashing on Chuck, waking him up. The female FULCRUM agent tells Chuck to talk or Sarah is going to die from a needle full of poison on the count of three. 1. 2… In the nick of time Casey and the back-up arrive. The female FULCRUM agent runs, as Casey and the men secure Chuck, Sara and Cole. Casey runs after her, cornering her in another part of the warehouse. Nowhere to run. She smiles and jambs the needle of poison into her own neck, killing herself.

Decompressing, Casey tends to Chuck. Chuck says that his fainting was all part of his plan; it’s his move. Casey smiles. So, Chuck’s move was to faint, while Agent Cole’s was to endure torture? It looks like Cole’s method is working, as they turn as see Sarah tending to him, helping him with his wounds.

Back at HQ, Chuck and Sarah talk. Chuck makes light of the torture and the situation. I mean, growing up, he endured his sister tickling his toes — that got him to talk every time. Sarah smiles. She is going to miss the relationship. Chuck starts to say that maybe he made a rash decision when Agent Cole interrupts. Chuck excuses himself to let them talk. Agent Cole then invites Sarah on a vacation with him — they both could use one. She defers.

Upstairs at the frozen yogurt store, Chuck decides he cannot resist and pulls up the security camera on the monitor screen. The image comes up and he sees Cole and Sarah kissing passionately. He leaves and goes over to Buy More. Inside he is met by Morgan, who is saying how Ellie seeing him naked was a blessing. ‘Not for Ellie,’Chuck replies. Seriously, it made Morgan realize he needs to move on and quit living at home. Chuck sees the serendipity of the situation: he asks Morgan to get a place with him. Morgan is ecstatic! Then Big Mike comes up and wants to talk to Chuck about all the complaints they are getting about the interviews.

Agent Cole is being chauffeured away to the airport. As he rides in the car, we see a black-clad motorcyclist pull up beside the car and shoot the driver. The care swerves off the road and into a tree.

At Chuck’s house, Morgan and Chuck are there to tell Captain Awesome and Ellie the big news: they are moving in together. ‘No!’Ellie says. She is mortified. She wants Chuck moving forward, but not moving in with Morgan. Just then, Sarah knocks on the door and comes in. She asks to speak to Chuck outside. They go into the courtyard, while the others crowd the window to see what is going on. Sarah tells him that Agent Cole was captured. Unfortunately, what this means is that they have to go into 24-hour protection; Sarah and Chuck have to move in together. (OMG!)

What are Casey and Sarah’s Covers?
First, Sarah is a girl looking for a fling at a hotel bar, while Casey is a bartender. Then, later, Casey and Sarah are business people, hanging out on break in a non-descript business quad.

Is Awesome in This Episode?
Yes. Awesome is front and center with Ellie as they do a little meddling in Chuck’s personal life. Unfortunately for our female fans, Awesome does not sleep in the buff, unlike Morgan. ;-)

Does Casey get shot, poisoned, or otherwise injured?
Casey gets it from a most unusual place this week: a baby. More specifically, he is hit in the head with a fake baby. He survives, unscratched.

What’s the state of the Chuck / Sarah romance?
Well, this episode is a bit wacky. Looking at it, this should have followed directly from episode 2.13. So, with that said, the relationship between Sarah and Chuck has cooled, though not in a bad way. In fact, it opens with Chuck decided to break-up with Sarah (his pretend girlfriend). Of course, a new love interest comes into play for Sarah, thus creating a nice love-triangle for Chuck. But, the episode ends with the two having to up their cover, and move in together (for Chuck’s safety, of course).

Where is FULCRUM?
They are front and center in this episode. They are continuing the nefarious plans hatched in episode 2.13: they want Chuck!

And the status of a new Intersect?
Not mentioned in this outing. Good news for Chuck.