Chuck Versus the Family Volkoff - Recap

Ellie tells Mary that she found a bunch of pages on her dad's computer,
all labeled "X". Mary plays it cool, but she's obviously concerned. When
she leaves to give Clara her bottle, Mary murmurs "Oh, Stephen; what did
you do?"

Chuck is talking out loud to his book. "Eddard! You don't let your kids
keep a direwolf; that's a terrible idea!" Sarah asks him to sign a
prenup. He doesn't say anything, but tells her to go in without him. He
runs it past Morgan once she's gone. Morgan and Casey look like a
married couple. Morgan tells him to talk to Sarah.

Once Chuck leaves, Morgan checks his mail. There's an invite to Alex'
graduation, and of course as her father, Casey is hurt not to have been
included.

Langley has put out a kill order on Vivian Volkoff, since she apparently
was behind the bomb attacks on Castle. Chuck wants a chance to talk to
her, he doesn't feel she's a cold-blooded killer. Beckman issues a
compromise. Chuck can meet with her, Casey is to create a sniper team.
If she gets hostile, they are to take her down.

Sarah asks Chuck if he wants to talk about the prenup. He says no and
hands them over. Good to go, let's gear up. Sarah is put off-balance by
his refusal to discuss it.

Chuck tells Vivian about the CIA's take on her. She earnestly protests
her innocence, and even gives Chuck something of her father's that she
feels is important, but cannot identify. Shots are fired, and they
aren't from Casey's team. Vivian doesn't believe them though, and her
trust is completely destroyed. Several of her men are wounded. Chuck
can't believe things went so bad so fast.

The team meets with Beckman. Whatever Vivian handed over isn't in the
Intersect, and they can't figure out what it does. The kill order
stands, but Chuck wants to know if she'll be spared once they prove that
what she handed over is a weapon. How will they find out that
information? From Volkoff.

Volkoff is in group therapy when Chuck and Sarah arrive. He's very happy
to see them. Volkoff tries to play Chuck and Sarah, but they're not
having any of it. Chuck asks Alexei what the weapon is, and he says it's
a DNA tracker called the Norseman. All it takes is a tiny sample, and a
target or family thereof can be picked out of a crowd instantly. Some
components are alleged to be missing. For five minutes with Vivian, he
will recover them. Chuck refuses.

Alex apologizes to Casey. She wants him included, however she has to
make it happen. He promises to be there if she names the place. They
exchange an awkward hug.

Beckman overrides Chuck's refusal, and Alexei arrives at Castle.
Granted, he's in chains and surrounded by gunmen, but he's there. He
tells them that the man who has the missing components is a high seas
pirate, Ellyas Abshir. Chuck zones in on him with the Intersect. Casey
asks how the pirate got the component, and Alexei claims he lost it in a
poker game. Sarah tells Beckman she's not buying his act. Washington is
leaning hard on Beckman, hence Volkoff's release. They want the
Norseman. For the next 48 hours, Volkoff is Chuck's responsibility.

The team heads for Mogadishu with Volkoff in tow. Chuck's cover is as a
Volkoff agent. Alexei is jealous, it should be him out there.

Sarah confronts Chuck again about the buffet, and he blows her off just
like last time.

Devon reads to Clara while Ellie works on her dad's computer. She's
upset, because the file she showed her mom is gone. She leaves a message
on Mary's voice mail.

Alexei was eavesdropping on Chuck and Sarah's conversation. He thinks
Chuck is handling the prenup situation very well. Chuck won't discuss
it, and they return to business. Alexei tells Chuck he needs to put on a
show, that he does in fact work for Volkoff. Chuck walks in and says
Volkoff's name, and everybody aims their gun at him. Abshir approaches
Chuck, calling Volkoff a powerless worm in a US penitentiary. Chuck
tells him he's there to broker a deal for the Norseman tracking device,
and Abshir says it's not for sale.

Sarah takes off her earphones and asks Volkoff why he didn't tell them
that Ellyas hates him? He retorts that everyone hates him. The only way
to skirt a bloodbath is if he goes in there.

Ellyas tells Chuck to pick a game. If he wins, the tracker is his. If
Ellyas wins, Chuck dies. Do they have Uno?

Mary tells Ellie that the files just disappeared when she copied a file.
Why didn't she say anything? Because she felt stupid. Ellie tells her
not to worry, the computer automatically embeds the backup files in the
hard drive, so she didn't actually lose anything. As Devon and Ellie get
ready to leave, she swings the baby-cam around to monitor Mary while
they are gone.

They get outside, and Steve says they should drop the plan and actually
go out to dinner. Ellie counters that her mother has the technical savvy
of Steve Job, and she did NOT "accidentally lose" the files. Ellie flips
open her cell and sees Mary seated and active on her computer. She wants
Mary to stay overnight so they can follow her in the morning and see
what she does with the files she took.

Chuck was in luck, as he and Ellyas are playing Uno. Chuck catches
Abshir cheating and calls him on it. Abshir pulls a gun, and that's when
Volkoff arrives. He orders Ellyas to give over the tracking device,
since he cheated (and therefore lost). When Volkoff pulls a dagger from
one of the henchmen and pins Abshir's sleeve to the table, he tells
Chuck he can have the tracking device. Chuck grabs it and runs.

Volkoff won't leave until he has apologized to Abshir.

The Norseman is missing a killing agent: Thorium. He's not about to give
up any information on it until Beckman shows him a redacted agreement,
on paper watermarked as Volkoff Industries. The thorium is in a Swiss
military bunker. The locks are coded to his DNA.

Devon and Ellie follow Mary.

Casey gets an invite to the shooting range to celebrate Alex' graduation.

Mary arrives and fills Chuck in on Ellie and the files. She even knows
that Ellie is following her. She tells Chuck that Ellie needs to know
the truth about him working for the CIA. It's better if he tell her than
that she find out because of her dad's computer. Beckman calls Mary into
a meeting. She puts her cards on the table. Washington is eager to get
their hands on more of the Intersect project. Ellie is getting her hands
on material that their best engineers couldn't get near. Mary calls
Diane by her first name in an effort to get through to her, but she's
unsuccessful. This isn't a request, it's an order; and it comes from the
top.

Mary hears Alexei singing and confronts Chuck. She tells him to watch
his back.

At the bunker, Alexei has a chess board that will prevent him from
getting into the bunker unless he beats it. While he plays, Casey and
Sarah talk about the prenup and the effect it's already had on their
relationship even if he did sign it "no questions asked." So why did she
do it? Sarah says she has some money socked away in case her dad gets
arrested again. She mentions being trapped between her parents and
having to take sides. Given what Casey sees Alex going through, he
empathizes.

Volkoff starts losing at chess, and guns start coming out of the walls.
The computer questions whether it is actually playing against Volkoff.
He starts panicking, and Chuck talks him through it. He wins the game
and opens the vault. He wants a word with Chuck first, but they're
interrupted by the team. Sarah announces they just pick up some Russian
on the radio, and they need to speed things up. They were Volkoff's men.
He's Alexei Volkoff, and he always will be. Vivian joins them. It was
quite a show she put on for Chuck, but she needed her father's DNA for
the thorium, and thanks to Chuck, she got it. Sarah tries to say the
thorium is useless without the other components, but she's wrong. Vivian
assures her that the other components can be rebuilt. It's the thorium
that's priceless.

Alexei asks her to remove his handcuffs, but she refuses. Her team
places plasma grenades and leaves him to die by his own weaponry. Chuck
flashes, and takes out Vivian's men. However, she puts a grid in place
that has them trapped. Flashing doesn't help with the grid. Chuck has to
talk Volkoff down again. He needs to pull himself together and help them
get out of the bunker.

The grid goes down. Volkoff had a modified directive EMP on him that he
used to disable the power. He's still hurting, though. He was going to
tell Vivian all his secrets. They were going to be partners. Not
anymore. Welcome to the future.

Chuck asks Volkoff why Vivian did this. He says she's his daughter, she
takes after him. Mary joins them to give him the moment he wanted with
her. He tells her he was drawn to the goodness in her. He wasn't worthy
of her love. He apologizes, and thanks Chuck as he leaves. His final
words are "Remember, family and friends are everything. Money and power
are a dance with Satan. And he looks like me."

Casey tells Alex he doesn't want her lying to her mother anymore. If she
tells her mom that her dad is alive, then he can be at her graduation.

Sarah tears up the prenup and asks Chuck to stop being so cool. He hands
her his own prenup. It says they promise to always love each other. She
signs.

Ellie gets home, and Chuck goes to talk to her. Ellie lies, says the
files were some game their dad was working on.

Sarah joins him, and Chuck says "My sister just lied to me. She's never
lied to me. Not cool."

Vivian says the only man who was ever a threat to Volkoff Industries was
Agent X. She's going to track him down and kill him. Then nobody will
ever be able to touch her.


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