Chuck and Sarah try to spend a quiet evening watching television on the couch. Chuck falls asleep and has a (-nother) bad dream, which was so creepy I will not attempt to narrate it. The two of them wake General Beckman and Casey in the middle of the night to warn them about the Ring plot he “saw” in said dream. Beckman orders him to see a CIA therapist (Dr. Dreyfus, played by Christopher Lloyd!) who, after discussing the likelihood that the dreams are a side effect of the Intersect meddling with his subconscious, tells him he’s off field duty. This doesn’t sit well with Agent Bartowski, who’s pretty sure from the latest of the dreams that the Ring is going to attack the visiting king of Zamibia at a concert the next night.
Back home Morgan attends to Devon who is recovering from his faux malaria. Chuck tries to reassure Sarah without involving her directly in his mental situation. When he tells Morgan, though, Morgan chides him, but says he’ll help. Morgan acquires tuxedos and wows Anna Wu, who has just shown up out of the blue (to the delight of Lester and Jeffrey). Morgan brushes off Anna and heads to the symphony with Chuck. She is (understandably) confused. As if things aren’t moving fast enough already, Ellie is in the Buy More picking up some videos for Devon and runs into Justin, the “doctor” who befriended them in Africa. He says he’s there to see her, and asks her if they can talk. Everyone in the room yells “Nooo!” but sadly, she doesn’t hear us.
Chuck and Morgan endure the symphony, and Justin shows Ellie fake CIA credentials and tells her he needs to talk to her about her father. He warns her that some very bad people are looking for her father, including one John Casey. He completely convinces her (Uh-oh). It’s not much of a stretch, since she was already suspicious of John, thanks to Devon’s earlier lame cover-up stories for their spy activities. Casey and Sarah discover what Chuck and Morgan are up to and head out for an intervention. Now Chuck has dozed off in the auditorium and has another dream, revealing that a scientist, one Dr. Kowambe, who is in the box with the president, is the one who is brandishing a machete. Sarah reaches him before he can interrupt the dignitaries and then decides to help him. In the President’s private box, they flash their badges and Chuck frisks the scientist to no avail. He then flashes on a microchip hidden in the man’s tooth and busts him in the mouth to get it. We next see Chuck being hauled into a psychiatric ward as Casey and Sarah look on with grave concern.
Beckman angrily demands an explanation of Sarah and Casey. Dr. Dreyfus believes, the general says, that the Intersect is overwhelming his brain. Chuck and Dr. Dreyfus discuss the situation in the CIA psychiatric facility. Ellie goes to see John and accidentally sees his guns. She flees to her apartment and tells Devon. He is nervous that she knows about Casey’s guns, not realizing what’s being done to her, and tries — again, lamely — to cover it up. Later, Casey and Sarah visit Chuck who gives them the tooth he knocked out of the doctor’s mouth. Unfortunately, it’s just a tooth. While Morgan tries to get information out of Casey about what’s happening, Anna tries and fails a second time to score a conversation. Sarah calls Chuck and gives him the bad news as outside the psych. ward, three men approach the nurse. They say they’re there to see Charles Bartowski. The leader smiles, revealing a gap in his teeth — Dr. Kowambe.
The nurse refuses to let them in and gets shot with tranquilizer darts. Sarah shows up at Dr. Dreyfus’ home and tells the doctor how special and important he is and how sure she is that nothing’s really wrong. The doctor steps aside. Casey is in the house behind him — he also showed up, for [ahem, almost] the same reason. Meanwhile, Chuck is being interrogated by the other doctor, who affirms what I already figured, that Chuck did indeed knock out the wrong tooth. He injects Chuck with a truth serum. Chuck flashes but is unable to hit anything because of the effects of the drug. Sorry, no “drunken master” kung-fu in the Intersect! One of the other inmates calls upon the rest of the population (all spies, remember) to attack the bad guys. They spring into action, and are all felled with darts from the bad guys, but it gives Sarah and Casey time to arrive and take them out.
Beckman apologizes, back at Castle, and tells them of the illegal experiments Dr. Kowambe was mixed up in for the Ring. Anna finally corners Morgan and says she was planning to just give him back some of his personal belongings he had left in Hawaii last season but, upon seeing the changes in him, wants him back. Morgan realizes and gently tells her that he no longer needs her, a big development step for his character. Anna is left behind, confused.
Dr. Dreyfus clears Chuck for duty but warns him the stress of the Intersect on his mind could have serious long-term effects. And he should discuss it with his partner. I am left behind, confused. I had been waiting for the last fifty-six minutes for something hilarious to happen, but Christopher Lloyd played the entire role straight as an arrow.
As Chuck walks in to tell Sarah about the doctor’s prognosis she loudly, finally, passionately verbalizes her love for him. So of course he tells her he’s fine. Lastly, Justin meets on a dark corner with Ellie. His recruitment is successful. She confesses that her father had left the means for her to contact her father if she needed to. Lastly lastly, Chuck has another dream: that Shaw is still alive. After the last commercial break I had a dream that Scott Bakula would return to the show next week.
