- When the CIA targets Vivian Volkoff for assassination, Chuck turns to an unusual ally to protect her: Vivian's father, Alexei. Ellie suspects her mother doesn't want her to find out about her father's past.
- Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) got a visit from her mother, Mary (Linda Hamilton). And not that Mary doesn't want to babysit her granddaughter, but Ellie was hiding something from her. Mary instantly recognized her husband's laptop, which Orion left in his Mustang for Ellie. Since being scanned, thousands of new files had been unlocked, and Ellie was just starting to read through them. Mary, however, was a little reticent about that, although she did not reveal this to Ellie.
Over at Chuck and Sarah's, a little wedding detail that every guy never wants his bride-to-be to hand them: a prenuptial agreement. Chuck (Zachary Levi), being the typical guy, pretends to be OK with it and sends Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) on her way. He goes to Morgan (Joshua Gomez) and Casey (Adam Baldwin) to consult. Both agree he should sign it in a heartbeat. After all, they know what it's like to be a couple, which Chuck notices. (Think and from ...only a lot creepier.) He signs them and gives them right back to Sarah. She assures him it's just family stuff, and he doesn't question her. Apparently the only thing worse than being handed prenup papers is quickly signing them and not even questioning them. Unless your girlfriend invites you to her graduation without inviting her father, who happens to let you live rent-free in his apartment. To be fair, Alex (Mekenna Melvin) did find Casey later and ask him to meet her between the ceremony and dinner with her mom so he can see the video.
But all of them have work to do, as Beckman (Bonita Friedericy) verified the bomb fragments from the device detonated in Castle were from Volkoff Industries. A kill order is placed on Vivian Volkoff (Lauren Cohan), but Chuck thinks she didn't do it. He wants to bring Vivian in to prove her innocence. Beckman provides a compromise: have Chuck and Sarah meet Vivian at a neutral location. If Vivian tries anything, Casey is to shoot her. They meet at the agreed location, where Vivian denies having anything to do with the bomb. She had already turned in lists of contacts and agents in her father's empire. She even gave Chuck and Sarah what looked like some sort of weapon, only she didn't know what it was, nor did Chuck's Intersect. But when a sniper starts firing away, Vivian's trust in Chuck and Sarah is completely gone. Casey wasn't responsible, and they had no leads on who was. Chuck suggests to Beckman if Vivian did hand them a weapon, it would prove her innocence.
They decide to go visit her father in prison. But they should be careful. After all, Alexei Volkoff (Timothy Dalton) cut in front of someone in the cafeteria line in prison. He has 'entitlement issues'. He is sorting out his feelings in therapy when Chuck and Sarah arrive.
ALEXEI: I feel...I feel I'm about to have some fun.
Volkoff tries to play the 'I've had time to think about what I've done' card, but nobody's buying it, not even Chuck. They get straight to the point and tell him the kill order on his daughter can be rescinded if he identifies the weapon. He tells them the weapon is called The Norseman. It's a DNA tracker that can pick out a target or a family of targets for elimination instantly. There were two other components to it, which Volkoff would happily help them find for five minutes with Vivian. And the non-trusting side of Chuck is very fascinating to see. He tells Volkoff there's no deal. But apparently there was, as Volkoff was in Castle later that day. No chilled Chianti or fava beans for him, though. Even Casey thinks it's a bad idea to let Volkoff into Castle, but Beckman overrules them. But Volkoff plays nice and tells them one of the components is held by a Somali pirate, Ellyas Abshir, which Chuck's Intersect confirmed. Apparently, Volkoff lost the piece in a poker game. The team isn't happy Beckman caved into Volkoff's demands but nothing could be done about it. They have to chaperone Volkoff to Mogadishu.
Casey analyzes the plans Beckman sent them (THROUGH WINDOWS SKYDRIVE!!---hey, if it helps get a fifth season, I'll do the shameless plugs too, dammit!) There's only one way in...through the front door.
ALEXEI: It's a rat's nest of a hellhole. But the gambling's good, buffet's decent.
Chuck is going in as a Volkoff agent, and Alexei tells Chuck to say he sent him because it would scare the pirates. ("Why do I always choose fear over love?") While Alexei worked out his lady feelings, Sarah made sure Chuck was good to go. And wanted to know why Chuck wasn't questioning the prenup. But Chuck was trying to play it cool, that it was her decision. And normally that sounds like good strategy, but in this case... And if you were to guess Chuck floating Volkoff's name to every Somali pirate resulted in a whole lot of guns being turned on him, you would be correct. Apparently, Abshir hates Volkoff and really has no problem killing Chuck over it. The team hears everything over Chuck's earpiece, and Volkoff insists going in to avoid a bloodbath. But apparently, Abshir is a reasonable man. Chuck can pick any casino game and take on Abshir for the component. ("Do you have Uno?")
Ellie is upset with her mother because she came back home to find all of the Agent X files gone from the computer. Mary tries to tell her she put a flash drive in and accidentally lost the files, but Ellie plays that game, too, and tells her the computer was set up to back up every file, so she didn't really lose anything. Ellie secretly switches a webcam around to spy on her mother. Ellie and Devon (Ryan McPartlin) go out to dinner, or at least that's what Mary thought. But Ellie caught her mother red-handed getting on the computer. She wants to follow her mother in the morning to see what she does with the file. Yes, Ellie is going to try out her spy skills.
It is on between Abshir and Chuck. And apparently, he DID have Uno. (Ah, fun game.) Abshir is cheating somehow, and Chuck catches him in the act. Of course, one gun beats a Draw Four. But fortunately Alexei made his presence known and told Abshir he cheated. Abshir wasn't going to play ball until Volkoff pulled a dagger off one of Abshir's men and put his arm into the table. Chuck happily takes the component, but Alexei wasn't done with Abshir just yet.
ALEXEI: There's somethng I gotta do, and it's gonna be really painful. You know me, you know what I'm capable of, Ellyas. The time has come for me...for me to...apologize. I want you to understand that I...like all other men...am still a work in progress.
Ellyas seemed to be OK with that, and Volkoff feels so good about it. He even gave Abshir a kiss. But it was time to get out of there. ("Thank you, Mogadishu, and good night!")
Back at Castle, Alexei explains the only thing still missing is the killing agent: thorium. To get it in the first place, Alexei had to destroy the homeworld of a peaceful people and eliminate their Hometree. (Yup, Alexei loved , too.) Alexei wasn't being forthcoming with the location of the thorium, but Beckman handed him an olive branch by showing him a redacted document agreement between them and Vivian, using paper with the Volkoff Industries watermark on it.
ALEXEI: The thorium is in a Swiss military bunker. The locks are coded to my DNA. We fly at midnight. Fuel my jet!
CHUCK: Uh, you don't have a jet.
ALEXEI: (humbled) Of course. Old thinking. It creeps back.
Mary Bartowski says goodbye to Ellie...or Hot Momma, according to Devon...or Six Pack. Devon gives chase, but he'll be quite surprised to discover Mary went to Castle to tell Chuck about Ellie's efforts. Chuck was a little shocked to learn that, given he told Awesome to swap out the drives. But at least Mary guessed this correctly and took out what she thought were the most dangerous files. ("It's as if her father wanted her to find out about the Intersect.") In fact, she goes to Beckman on conference call to explain Ellie is finding this stuff out. But Beckman's getting heat from above to expand the Intersect project, even not knowing who Agent X is or the risk of Ellie getting into danger. Ellie had discovered files the CIA's best tech people couldn't find, so Ellie is now an unwitting employee of the CIA. And the sounds of Danny Boy wafting through the halls of Castle didn't make Mary feel better. Chuck said Volkoff had a 48-hour furlough (had to be referencing the movie, since there's no way in hell you can get to Somalia, back to Burbank, and then to Switzerland in 48 hours). But she doesn't trust Alexei Volkoff either, even though a few cracks were now starting to show in Chuck's armor about him.
MARY: We're talking about Alexei Volkoff. His mind is twisted. Never believe a word he says, and never let him out of your sight. You understand?
They get to the Swiss Alps, where Volkoff has to be a computer at chess within five minutes to open the storage facility with the thorium. ("Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy match.") And as much as you have to admire the show for combining a and in the same sentence, Chuck isn't thrilled by the computer aiming guns at them as Alexei starts losing. Outside, Sarah confesses to Casey she wasn't thrilled about Chuck signing the prenup so quickly, even though Casey knew Chuck did that for her. But now she was the one flipping out over their relationship, even though the prenup was simply her stashing some money away in case her father got arrested again. Sarah clearly had parent issues and didn't like being the kid stuck in the middle, which Casey certainly understood, since Alex invited him to go celebrate her graduation at a gun range.
ALEXEI: Guns, big guns. Lots of bullets. Sort of overkill. Story of my life. (panicking) I used to love games like this and I didn't care whether I lived or died. But now I do care! I don't wanna die! I'm gonna lose and I'm gonna die!
CHUCK: No you're not! No, you're not gonna die right now! We're not gonna die right now! Look, I get that you're trying to better yourself. But would a spiritual man freeze in the face of adversity? Would he choke and die when he's so close to fixing things with his own daughter? Would he hide under a table if his fiance handed him a prenuptial agreement? NO, HE WOULDN'T! Because he would be cool. You still have the DNA of the world's most evil weapons dealer. You are a villain, sir! Your name strikes fear into the hearts of even the toughest of swine. And that name is...
ALEXEI: (quietly) Alexei Volkoff.
CHUCK: You say it like you mean it!
ALEXEI: (confidently) My name...is...Alexei Volkoff! World's biggest bad-ass! Killer of men, conqueror of nations!
CHUCK: Uh, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Games, guns, clock...
Sure enough, checkmate with two seconds to go. They go deeper into the cave, but Chuck and Sarah lose audio on them. But they do pick up Russian chatter. They get on the move as Alexei's DNA opens the vault. But before they go, Alexei wanted to make amends with Chuck, the same as he said earlier about making amends with his mother. The Russian chatter was Volkoff's men, who have captured the team.
ALEXEI: And this is what we call the twist.
Vivian shows up, because she needs the Norseman as leverage to run the biggest company in the world. Alexei is proud to have the chance of running the company with his daughter, but Vivian had a twist of her own. She took the thorium and locked Alexei in with Chuck, Sarah, and Casey to be detonated by plasma grenades. One Chuck flash later, and Vivan's men are taken out. However, Vivian activated a laser grid to keep them in the vault. Chuck couldn't flash fast enough to figure out how to disable it, so he tries to convince Volkoff to get them out of there. Volkoff is upset about failing his daughter, but Chuck wants him to think about all the progress he made. And he did, as he was carrying a portable EMP device with him to disable the power to the laser grid and the plasma grenades. Volkoff was upset he was going to tell Vivian all of his secrets, but that day is now gone.
ALEXEI: Velcome to the future.
Back at Castle, Alexei was devastated for unleashing his daughter on the world, but Mary decided to give him the minute he requested. And he uses it to apologize. He admitted he was drawn to the good in her. ("I was not worthy of your love like Orion was.") He thanked Chuck as they took him away.
ALEXEI: Remember, family and friends are everything. Money and power are a dance with Satan. And he looks like me.
Casey took Alexei's words to heart, as he told Alex he didn't want her lying to her mother. He didn't want to be at the graduation if it meant Alex lying to her mother. Casey left it up to her to tell Kathleen the truth. It scared the hell out of Alex. But she agreed to do it. Meanwhile, Sarah tore up the prenup and asked Chuck to stop being so cool about her giving that to him. But Chuck had a prenup of his own to give her. Only this one simply said they promised to always love each other. She was happy to sign it. They spotted Ellie entering her apartment, and Chuck wanted to talk to her right away and tell her the truth. He asks her about Dad's computer, and she tells him she found some files that were cheat codes on some game their father was developing. In other words, she lied through her teeth, something she's never done to Chuck before. Which was only the half of it, as Vivian got the thorium to use on the only person who could have ever stopped Volkoff: Agent X.
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