The episode opens with a (strangely disjointed) shot of one Colonel James Cameo Keller, played by a dangerous-looking but non-metallic Robert Patrick! Colonel Keller recruits a group of sniper school washouts from some mysterious undisclosed forest locale, then shows up at Casey’s house. He gives Casey a key and tells him he has a new mission within a mission, to retrieve an object from a lockbox in the CIA secret repository where they are going to be sent to test the security. Chuck catches Morgan practicing his stakeout skills on Casey’s meeting, and his suspicions are aroused although he defends his partner to his friend.
The next night Chuck flashes easily to defeat the security measures of the CIA building they have been ordered to test. Unfortunately he also sees Casey take what appears to be a medicine capsule from another box. “Breathe a word of this to anyone and you’re as good as a dead man, Bartowski,” John growls from behind his gun.
Opening theme. Breathe. Try to, anyway.
A drug called Laudanol has been stolen, the General tells them. It renders the user without feeling, pain or emotion. Perhaps it would help Chuck flash (though at what cost?) Sadly it must have gone missing prior to their test of the security system. Chuck spills, thinking Casey’s theft was a part of the test and in a moment so tense it’s nearly beyond description the General orders Sarah to take Casey’s weapon at gunpoint and place him under arrest.
Chuck needs Morgan’s recorded conversation at Buy More, and promises to tell him about the missions. On the recording, Chuck sees the face of James Keller and flashes his identity. When he tells Sarah who recruited Casey they surmise that their partner didn’t know Keller is with the Ring and formulate a plan to break John out and clear his name before he can be moved to a black site in Thailand where torture restrictions don’t apply.
Chuck flashes as before in the CIA complex, but the security’s been changed; he hits a Plexiglass wall where the darts were previously. When caught, they are able to convince the CIA security designer they were testing again, and even get him to show them the level where Casey is being kept.
Devon and Ellie can’t settle on Doctors Without Borders, because Ellie has just received an invitation to a neuroscience fellowship at USC, which has been her dream for years and years, and go to see Chuck for a second opinion. When the couple encounters Morgan instead they ask him and in a pretty funny reveal Morgan and Devon both discover that they are both in on Chuck’s secret.
Chuck and Sarah are on the verge of breaking Casey out when the wall blows out in his cell. Casey is now standing between Keller and two henchmen and Sarah and Chuck. Chuck warns him that Keller is part of the Ring and Casey mouths, “I know,” then walks out the hole with Keller. Chuck and Sarah are easily grabbed as they try to get back out. General Beckman tells them the only reason they aren’t going straight to federal prison is that she has a mission only they can accomplish: to capture Colonel John Casey.
Back at the compound Casey, in disguise, recruits Morgan to retrieve the hidden capsule from the Buy More, the reason they hadn’t found it hidden in his apartment. Chuck intercepts the drug and shows up back at the apartment. He and Sarah corner Casey, who then reveals that he had a fiancee before he joined the NSA and Keller is going to kill her if he doesn’t deliver the drug. Chuck goes to guard her while Casey and Sarah go to the meeting and handily defeat Keller.
Chuck hides Ms. McHugh, the fiancee, in a closet but there are “too many” bad guys. He calls for help, worried he can’t flash; Casey tells him the Laudanol is in his pocket. Chuck takes it and mops the floor with the five attackers in a very well-shot choreography with a stuttering shutter speed that sharpened his every move. He is barely able to stop short of killing the last one with his bare hands as Casey and Sarah arrive, courtesy, one supposes, of the Laudenol. Ms. McHugh, sadly, does not recognize Casey and when her daughter (gasp!) runs into the house Casey waves his partners off, remembering the night he gave up his life: “What’s dead is dead.”
Back at Castle, the verdict is read. Casey is not to be jailed, but he is fired. The General — in person and not on the video screen — shakes his hand sadly and asks Chuck to escort him out. The General then commends Sarah and invites her to return to Washington to work with her.
Ellie, later at home, tells Chuck breathlessly that she’s willing to sacrifice the neurology fellowship at USC to go with Devon. Devon takes her back to the apartment and tells her to take the job. Smooch, music, champagne.
Chuck shows up at Casey’s apartment, devoid of nearly all furniture and tries to reassure him with the possibility of reconnecting with his fiancee and daughter, but Casey tells him he made the right choice between love and love of country. He then admonishes the younger man to consider the same — making a choice: “Walker’s a good woman.” Chuck considers this as Sarah mentions to her cab driver, the Capitol building in the window behind her, that she’s thinking of moving there.
No mention is made, oddly, of continuing effects of Laudanol upon Chuck.
