Chuck Versus the Helicopter

Chuck Versus the Helicopter
Season 01, Episode 02
Air Date	October 1, 2007
Writer	Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak
Director	Robert Duncan McNeill
Previous	Chuck Versus the Intersect
Next	Chuck Versus the Tango

“So…in this plan, I basically do nothing?”

― Chuck, when first told to stay in the car.

Chuck Versus the Helicopter is the second episode of the first season of Chuck, which first aired on October 1, 2007.

Synopsis[]

Dr. Jonah Zarnow is assigned to extract the secrets from Chuck’s brain, but complications arise when the man is apparently assassinated. Casey tells Chuck not to trust Sarah, and Sarah says Casey cannot be trusted. Chuck stands alone in the center of the paranoia.

Meanwhile, Ellie invites Chuck’s new girlfriend over for dinner.

Full Story[]

The episode begins with a voice over from Chuck, recapping what happened in Chuck Versus the Intersect. Chuck then enters the Wienerlicious where Sarah is working, and asks her if there is a plan, she tells him there is and asks him if he wants to go on another date to discuss it. He agrees and leaves. Sarah then contacts someone on her cellphone and tells them, “Chuck is in, send the doctor.”

Chuck asks Ellie what shirt he should wear. Ellie is excited that Chuck is going on another date, however, Chuck asserts that it is not a big deal. Morgan refutes this, claiming that Sarah is hot. Ellie gets upset that Morgan has met Sarah, and she hasn’t, and tells Chuck to invite her for dinner.

Inside the Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) building, Beckman, while watching a feed of Chuck waving a red blanket while Morgan charges at it like a bull, solemnly declares that their most valuable secrets have been sent to an idiot. Graham refutes this, happy at least they weren’t sent to Morgan, yet still expresses cynicism about Operation Chuck. Graham and Beckman then discuss the plan, with Beckman claiming that Dr. Jonah Zarnow is the NSA’s best scientist and is on his way to LA.

Sarah picks up Chuck and takes him to Buy More, where he is placed in the home theater room and told that a series of pictures will be displayed on the screen and he has to say what they are. Zarnow is irked he is working ‘blind’, but is told that, for security reason, he cannot know the subject’s identity. At first, the pictures are normal images, however, when an encoded image is displayed Chuck recites secrets from the Intersect database. Zarnow tells Sarah and Casey that he can extract the secrets.

While Zarnow drives away from the Buy More, a cellphone in the back seat explodes. The next day Ellie shows Chuck a newspaper with a story in it that “bank executive” Bryce Larkin had been in killed in a bank robbery – a cover for how he was really killed.

At the site of Zarnow’s car wreckage Sarah and Casey are investigating the scene. Sarah finds the remains of the cellphone and pockets it, telling Casey that there is nothing there. Once Sarah leaves, Casey phones Beckman and tells her that it looks like a CIA job to him and Beckman tells Casey to keep an eye on Sarah.

Inside the Buy More, Casey tells Chuck that he can’t trust Sarah and not to have any private meetings with her. Chuck then receives an e-mail from Sarah who wants to see him. While Casey is distracted, Chuck sneaks across to the Wienerlicious and Sarah tells him not to have any private meetings with Casey, that Zarnow was killed. She shows him the remains of the phone from the wreck, and Chuck flashes, revealing it to be an NSA Incinerator, designed to eliminate all biological traces. Sarah almost convinces Chuck it was Casey who killed the doctor because it’s Casey who works for the NSA. When Chuck returns to the Buy More, Casey asks him what Sarah told him, saying that he knows they talked, when Chuck stays silent Casey goes to confront Sarah, by his logic is that the only two people who knew the doctor was coming, and since he didn’t kill him, she must have. He tries to arrest Sarah and a fight ensues, resulting in Casey fleeing when a group of teenagers enter the store, hoping to see the ‘hot girl’.

Sarah at the ready

Back at Buy More, Chuck gets a call for an off-site repair; he then finds the call was made by Casey and believes that Casey is trying to kill him. A car chase follows, which ends when Casey slams in to the Herder. When they both get out of their vehicles, Chuck sees Casey’s wounds, from the fight with Sarah. Casey claims she tried to kill him, but Chuck doesn’t believe him as the bomb was an NSA incinerator, Casey then explains that they are easily purchased on the black market and comes close to convincing Chuck that Sarah is rogue by telling him that she worked with Bryce, who was rogue. Chuck and Casey get into Casey’s vehicle, but when a cellphone, an NSA incinerator, signals in the backseat, they dive out and the car explodes, which further convinces Chuck that Sarah is rogue. Chuck becomes worried because Sarah is having dinner with his family. But Casey decides to send Chuck to Washington, and while Casey is calling in for support, Chuck escapes in the Herder leaving Casey stranded.

Chuck arrives home where they have begun dinner, Casey arrives soon after and joins them. Chuck goes to get a chair for Casey who follows him and tells him that the NSA ran a check on Sarah, they found that she had posed as a French diplomat, infiltrated the inner circle of an arms deal and killed the entire circle. When Casey says her code name, Elana Truffaut, Chuck flashes and sees that she killed them with poison at dinner – which is a problem, as Sarah has made the dessert for this evening.

Sarah held prisoner

Chuck stops everyone from eating the dessert by proposing a toast, however, when that only delays it, he offers to perform a magic trick: pulling the tablecloth off the table. To his dismay the trick works and the dessert isn’t pulled off the table, however a candle is rocking slightly. Casey knocks the candle over by bumping the table with his knee and the candle sets the dessert on fire. Chuck then puts the dessert in the bath and puts it out by running water over it. Sarah asks to speak to Chuck alone and asks him what Casey and told him. Chuck tells her that Casey told him she killed Zarnow and murdered French some diplomats. Sarah explains they were French assassins and then tells Chuck, “I never asked you to believe me, I asked you to trust me.” Sarah comes to a realization that if Casey didn’t kill Zarnow, then… she runs off and leaves. Chuck and Casey follow. Sarah shouts for help and they run out the gate to see Zarnow putting Sarah in a car. Zarnow shoots Casey with a tranquilizer and gets away. Casey has Chuck pull out the dart and then they follow the signal put out by microbots that Casey put in his quiches that were eaten at dinner. They follow the signal to Buy More only to discover the Morgan ate the quiches. Chuck eventually deduces that Zarnow would take Sarah to an airfield near the water and Casey sets out towards the Port of Los Angeles.They arrive and Casey tells Chuck to stay in the car. When Chuck sees Zarnow leave a building, however, he gets out of the car and goes in the door Zarnow came out of, where he finds Sarah, chained up and gagged. He gives her something to pick the lock, but is discovered by Zarnow and inadvertently reveals that he is the Intersect, by stating that Zarnow has been feeding American scientific data to North Korea for years.

Chuck trying to fly a helicopter

Zarnow then reveals his intention to sell the “human intersect” to an overseas Government and shoots Chuck with a tranq. Zarnow puts Chuck into a helicopter and takes off, while Sarah manages pick the lock to her cuffs. Sarah and Casey meet on the dock and Sarah tells Casey they have Chuck. In the helicopter it is revealed that Chuck was bluffing; the tranq hit his Buy More pocket protector. Chuck picks up the Tranq Gun and accidentally shoots the pilot rather than Zarnow. Chuck then struggles with Zarnow who is knocked unconscious, leaving Chuck to have to fly the helicopter. Casey tries but Sarah manages to talk him through landing it, when she persuades him to view it as a computer simulator game, played in safety. once he is safe, however, she shows how angry she is that he put himself in danger, and ignored their instructions. Sarah goes so far as to threaten to quit the team, if it ever happens again, a situation which would see Chuck transferred to protective custody, probably never to see his friends and family again.

Sarah at Bryce’s funeral

Later, Chuck prepares to go to Bryce’s funeral, telling a concerned Ellie that Bryce was a big part of his life. At the funeral he sees Sarah, who turns away. Casey, hiding behind a tree, is talking to Beckman, who is aghast that Chuck flew a helicopter. She tells him that the new intersect will be functional in six months and then Casey is to do “what he does best”.

In the final scene Chuck apologizes to Sarah and she forgives him. The episode ends with Morgan, Devon and Ellie entering the Wienerlicious to “give the dinner another shot.”

Trivia[]

• Although apparently the same character as the female general in the Pilot, a different actress took over the role, this was Bonita Friedericy’s first outing as Diane Beckman.
• While being examined by Dr. Zarnow, Chuck flashes on a photo with encoded intel saying that Oceanic Flight 815 was shot down by a missile. This is in reference to the ABC series Lost, in which the surviving passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 crash land on a remote tropical island.
• The headline of Bryce’s obituary claims he died in a robbery, however in the actual text of the article, he is said to have died in an “Automobile Crash” while on a fishing trip in Virginia. His surviving parents were listed as Wanda and Bill, his sister as Penelope.
• Bryce’s obit said he’d earned degrees in engineering, political science, and business admin from Stanford.
• Bryce’s obit maintained his cover by claiming at 23 he was made a partner in Carr, Ironside, and Abrams investment bankers, the youngest partner in their history.
• The scene where Chuck chases Casey, who is chasing a shoplifter to the tune of Lust for Life, it is a reference to Trainspotting.
• This is the first time Sarah gets tied up and gagged. The second time is Chuck Versus the Santa Suit.

Continuity[]

• Casey is hit by Dr. Zarnow’s tranq dart in his left arm yet Chuck pulls it out from his back.

Quotes[]

Chuck: Meeting the family is kind of a big step. If our relationship were remotely real.

~

Casey: The doctor’s here
Chuck: When do I get to meet him?
Sarah: You don’t. It’s important that he doesn’t see you, you’re too valuable.
Chuck: Thanks. I’m flattered, and totally freaked out.

~

Sarah: Chuck, do you really think that my name is Sarah? I never asked you to believe me, I asked you to trust me.

Music[]

• Iggy Pop – Lust for Life
• Spoon – Don’t Make Me a Target
• Gnarls Barkley – Gone Daddy Gone
• The New Pornographers – Challengers