Heavy breathing rasps in the darkness. A hood is yanked off, and we see Captain Awesome’s head – good news, he’s not dead! Bad news, a the leader of a Ring cell (‘ring’leader?), Sydney Price (Angie Harmon), has him taped to a chair on the roof of a very high building. She says she needs him for something “not too difficult for one of the CIAs best.” Somehow, the assassin mixed up Devon and Chuck, and now The Ring thinks that Devon is the super spy!
Sarah and Casey are trying, still, to calm Chuck down back at Castle. He just can’t, so he goes upstairs to work, where Big Mike is talking to Morgan about the changes he’s seen in him. Morgan is promoted to Assistant Manager. On the sales floor Jeff and Lester accost Chuck to settle an infantile argument while Sarah is trying to interrupt him and a Thai woman is trying to get information from him about big-screen televisions. Chuck, overloaded, flashes; he yells in fluent Thai to the lady, scaring her off, and kicks Lester unconscious. Sarah is trying to tell Chuck that Devon is – behind him? Chuck is very thankful that Devon’s alive, until he shows them the phone Sydney gave him.
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The general briefs the team on how they’re going to use Devon to crack the Ring and, to no one’s surprise, Chuck objects. Back upstairs Chuck congratulates Morgan on the promotion. Lester approaches and thanks Chuck for kicking him. Chuck’s surprise is compounded when Jeff begs him to hit him as well. The pain has awakened something inside Lester, and Jeff wants it to. Chuck takes Devon back to the house to smooth things over with Elly without telling her what’s actually happening. For all his awesome qualities, Devon is not a good liar, and the seed story Chuck gave him grows like a beanstalk, getting more and more ludicrous until Chuck has to rescue him by telling her Devon was at the police station with Casey, helping him beat a drunk and disorderly charge. Casey shows up and doesn’t understand why Elly’s in such a hurry to get Devon away from him.
Back at Buy More all the guys are variously beaten up and carefully avoid revealing to Morgan why they are behaving so strangely. He is completely befuddled. Operation Chuck is being briefed at Casey’s apartment. Chuck will be Devon’s handler. Chuck doesn’t seem to get that this is for the primary reason that Devon believes in him and is not sure he can handle it. Devon shows up with a package from Sydney, who calls on the phone to tell him about it. It contains an earpiece – and after he instinctively snaps it on his ear, she adds that it’s also an explosive device that just fused to his head. If he tries to remove it, it will blow his “pretty face” off. He’s to be at the Crystal Towers (an L.A. office building), in one hour.
Chuck reassures Devon, and Sydney calls him to go to the 12th floor. A security guard asks Devon why he’s there and Devon starts to tell him he’s waiting for Chuck (who’s sneaking up the back stairs) but breaks down under the pressure; he tells the guard he’s been living a lie and can’t stand it any more. The guard empathizes, thinking he’s carrying on with “Chuck” behind his wife’s back, and as Chuck arrives he’s saying “I know – I’ve been there.” Mercifully, he slumps to the floor as Chuck shoots him (no, with a tranquilizer, you know how Chuck feels about guns!). Six guys guarding the twelfth floor are killed snoozed just as effectively by Intersect-supplied (no, Nintendo “Duck Hunt”-supplied!) marksman skills. The next order is to cut out an eyeball for the retina scan, but since Chuck is there to help him they just pick up one of the sleeping beauties and scan their way into – a secure CIA facility. As Chuck starts to lose it, Casey and Sarah lose contact. The general appears on the screen and locks down the van, saying they have new information regarding the mission.
Sydney tells Devon he’s now to find the guy in the corner office and kill him. Chuck tells Devon to hide, and finds the guy, who, strangely, seems to know all about him and was preparing for his arrival. The young man tells Chuck he has to kill him. He takes a pill, and tells Chuck to shoot him exactly there. Chuck goes nuts, not understanding the ruse and won’t, so he shoots himself, telling Chuck to hide and give some written instructions to Awesome after Sydney leaves. Devon arrives just in time; Chuck ducks behind a desk. Sydney enters, surveys the scene with pleasure. She takes the gun, checks the dead guy’s vitals, takes Devon’s earpiece and leaves, telling him to “lose the body and take the phone.” Lastly, she tosses a sardonic “Welcome to the Ring,” over her shoulder on the way out. Devon revives the “dead” man, who tells them he is Daniel Shaw.
Back in Castle Daniel Shaw (Brandon Routh) elaborates upon their plan for taking out the Ring. The general tells them he is now in charge. In order to save Devon, he explains, they have to use him to take down Sydney Price since only her decentralized cell knows his identity. Chuck is opposed, and Daniel politely posits to him, “the question is, do you have a better idea?” Shaw seems very confident that Chuck can swim, and will not sink, if given the chance. This clearly worries Sarah and Casey.
We see Morgan in the Buy More, wandering a nearly deserted sales floor: “Where’s everyone,” he wonders, but not for long. Cheering comes from out back. They have a Fight Club going, in the cage. Power-sodden Lester has even hooked a battery to the chain link sides of the cage. Morgan chases them off, but Lester retorts, “You may have shut this down, but you will never shut us down.” Morgan’s frustration deepens.
Chuck knocks at Devon’s door, and takes the phone: he promised him he wouldn’t have to go through this any more and he meant it. Chuck takes the phone back to Buy More and begins working on it but is interrupted by Morgan’s frustration with his fight club problem. “I’m finding,” he tells his friend, “that the best thing to do is determine just what the problem is and go at it head-on.” Just as Chuck gets Morgan out of the workshop, the computer finishes implementing his hacks, and the device rings. “How did you activate this channel? Who is this?” Asks Sydney. “Devon Woodcomb was a decoy. I’m the spy you’re looking for,” Chuck says, a new levelness in his voice. “…and I’m in charge of this mission now.”
Chuck calls Sarah from Buy More as he realizes what he’s just called down on himself. Curious to see what his plan is, Shaw tells him if he starts something he’d better be prepared to finish it, and cuts off the call. Sydney and her goons break into the Buy More and Chuck unsuccessfully tries to hide. He tells her he took out Shaw and tries to flash. She doesn’t believe him and sics two of her goons on him. He runs, again, and as Casey and Sarah rush to help him, Shaw tries to force them to stand down. Casey’s too fast, though, and they go to his rescue. Again. Chuck manages to corner Sydney, but he can’t bring himself to shoot and she runs. He catches her again and can’t bring himself to fire. Again. As she draws a knife to throw Shaw shoots her from behind. He chides Chuck on the folly of emotional connections in the spy world. “Ask your partner, she can tell you about it,” he suggests. Sarah thoughtfully responds, “Sometimes it helps to know you’ve got something to lose.” Shaw exits.
Morgan, still actively mistreated by all the Buy More employees, asks Big Mike what he’s missing. “First rule of Big Mike Management: you can’t be afraid to pull the trigger”. Morgan approaches the defiant Lester and quotes Chuck’s earlier words to him, pointing out, “You are a problem”. He fires Lester; Lester crumbles pretty quickly and upon tearful repentance is immediately re-hired. Morgan is in charge.
Back at Chuck and Morgan’s apartment Devon and Sarah come in for dinner. Chuck tells Devon it’s taken care of. Devon’s relief is almost comic. Sarah and Casey arrive and Chuck surveys the scene of his friends together with satisfaction. The image dries up to grainy black-and-white on a surveillance monitor in Castle, watched morosely by Shaw. As the camera fades he pulls out a wedding band and puts it back on his finger.
