Chuck: Chuck Versus the DeLorean (Episode 210)

Handler and Handled So, we already know that when Sarah was a kid, her dad was not exactly a model citizen. And now, thanks to yet another (this time sepia-toned!) flashback, we know that Sarah was not only aware of Daddy's unusual money-making methods, but an active participant. I'm not sure how the duo managed to snag a few bags of cash from a bank delivery truck, but Sarah throwing herself in front of the van and faking an accident was the diversion to make it happen.

Chuck finds out about Sarah's dad a roundabout way: by stalking. After he invites Sarah on a fake-date with fake-cuddling but real pizza and she turns him down to attend to some "personal" plans and Casey is less than forthcoming (read: not at all) about what those plans might be, Chuck follows Sarah. She leaves her hotel with a mysterious man, with whom she has an intimate-looking dinner engagement. Chuck's Intersecty brain goes berserk at a scar on the guy's wrist just as Sarah's phone conveniently locates the GPS in Chuck's watch. He tells her she's on a date with a losery bad man who's way to old for her. She's like, yeah, Chuck, meet my dad, and dad, meet my paranoid geeky boyfriend.

Sarah's dad--Burton, Jack Burton--of course thinks Sarah's on the make, given her upbringing as a tiny con-artist, his own inclinations, and the fact that she's living rather comfortably at a swank hotel while counting change at the Orange Orange. He shows her his recent spoils: he scammed a Saudi sheik out of a cool million through a fake sale. Sarah reports this to General Beckman, offering to bring him in. Chuck, who is dealing with his own daddy-issues, is shocked, while Casey simply wants to cuff someone. Beckman, however, has other plans. Seems that the Sheik in question is on the CIA watchlist for funding terrorist organizations in Afghanistan; the agency has no recent pictures of him and he goes by many aliases, so any information is helpful. She wants Sarah to get info about the Sheik's financial holdings from her dad. Sarah's not keen, but General B reminds her that the Sheik is well connected and dangerous, so she better find out what he knows before the Sheik does. Also, she should take Chuck.

As Sarah gets ready, she tells her dad to be nice to Chuck, who is thoughtful, sweet, and all those things she says while not having sex with him. He's suspicious, though, since Chuck's bank account--which he accessed after lifting Chuck's ATM card--has a mere $2200 in it. Sounds like steak dinner to me, but Jack is less impressed. He thinks Chuck is a shnook. When Chuck arrives, Sarah waits until her father's left to get the cab to return the card; Chuck says Jack's merely being protective. Sarah tells him that he shouldn't ascribe good intentions to everyone just because he's a good person himself. Over dinner, Jack regales Chuck with stories of the long--or the short, as he seems to prefer--con. Chuck asks about the Sheik, and Jack says it was his Mona Lisa. The Sheik was salivating to buy anything American, he says. Sarah sees where this story's going and assumes he "pulled a Lichtenstein." It's like Bunburying, but for cons: Lichtenstein is a fake German kajillionaire who's fallen on hard times and needs to sell something fast. Jack is Lichtenstein's broker, it would seem. And this time he didn't just sell art or jewlery: he sold an entire building, namely Nakamitci Plaza. Sarah thinks it's dangerous, but Jack says that the $700K he fleeced was a finder's fee, and by the time the Sheik finds out he's been cheated, Jack will be island living. He tells Chuck that the bigger the lie, the easier it is to believe. Chuck's nearly charmed, wondering to Sarah if her dad's buying them as a couple. They're strolling through his hotel lobby after dinner, chatting, and Chuck flashes on a gentlemen striding through the front door: the Sheik, chasing after Lichtenstein. Sarah rushes to extract her dad from a hairy confrontation with the Sheik, who wants his money back. Jack pretends Sarah is Lichtenstein's assistant, but they want to see Lichtenstein in purpose, not schedule a meeting that he won't show up to. Sarah's got a gun to her gut and caught without a plan when a hotel employee starts calling that she has a message for one Mr. Lichtenstein. And rising to greet Sarah, her dad, and the Sheik, is one Chuck Bartowski. Sarah fakes that he speaks not a word of English, but sets a meeting for the next day.

At the Castle that morning, Sarah apologizes to the General for getting Chuck involved. But General B actually likes this plan, because she is capricious, and wants Sarah to fake-sell the building for $10 million, which, when wired to CIA accounts, will get them access to the Sheik's own personal international accounts. It's off the books, however, which means that Sarah and Jack are going to have to run this con themselves. So Sarah convinces dad, using his own tagline that the bigger the lie, the easier it is to believe: they can ask for 3% of market value down and split it. Four ways. If he wants her help, he has to use her team: Chuck and Casey. Jack thinks Casey has Cop Face, but puts him on security. Chuck offers to trade him Cop Face for Shnook, nickname wise. Casey hands Sarah an account number for the wire transfer, saying he doesn't trust Jack. Chuck asks what to do about the fact that he doesn't speak German. Jack is like, sit down, shut up, and try not to live up to my expectations.

The team evacuates a building for "fumigation" and repurposes it as the Lichtenstein Enterprises, with Casey working his Cop Face as security at front desk. I feel that this Nakamitci Plaza, as well as Casey's get up as Security, are an ode to Die Hard in some way, and that makes me happy. When the Sheik and his team show up, everything looks and sounds perfect. That is until the Sheik refuses to let Sarah translate, and Chuck is left to deal with an outside translater. Which he does by busting out his best Sprockets German accent and eschewing the German altogether. He calls off the deal, and Sarah hurries to finish the charade when the evicted employees from the real company start to filter back in. She's prepared to refund Jack's original take, but Jack thinks they can work something out. One of the Sheik's men backs into the freshly painted Lichtenstein Enterprises sign, and Chuck shouts that the deal is off as he throws a coat over the guy and tries to shove him out the door. But the Sheik says enough is enough, this is his building, and he wants to finish the deal. Jack has him type his account number into the computer, and then he, Sarah, and Chuck leave the entourage to explore their new space. The employees of the actual building arrive just as the grifters are escaping, and the Sheik, he realizes he's been had.

After, the team toasts, and Jack leaves to get ice. Chuck's like, see, it worked! Sarah shrugs that her dad pulled through for her this one time. Casey gets a call, confirming that the money was transfered to the CIA, but he gets the news that the money never arrived. Sarah runs to the hall, where the ice bucket has been abandoned. Also, the laptop with the transaction details is gone.

The next morning, Chuck brings Sarah commiseration chocolate croissants. She's learned that she should prepare for disappointment, she says, and it's her fault for trusting her dad. Chuck tells her his story: his and Ellie's dad, a kooky engineer, walked out on them 11 years ago. He kept in touch for important events until he didn't any more. It's taken Chuck years and therapy to realize it's not his fault, and that as the wronged party, kids can't take on the sins of their father. I can't wait to meet Bartowski Sr.

While Chuck's been battling "personal" issues, Morgan has been dipping his toes into the ocean of Adulthood. Anna wants to move in together, and Morgan mopes about it to Awesome, saying he doesn't have the cash. Awesome, because he is awesome, not only ushers Morgan into Adulthood by telling him it's long past time, but also by providing him a $2500 deposit for a dream apartment (on the condition that he's to pay weekly with 12% interest and an additional 2% increase for late payments). Morgan, however, has his head turned by the sultry vixen that is the 1981 DeLorean DMC--the very model that took Marty McFly Back to the Future. Smitten, Morgan blows his Awesome wad on the car, which he christens with the license plate DEMORGAN. The car is pristene, except for how the passenger door doesn't open and the thing can't go over 22MPH. But it doesn't matter, because where Morgan's going, he doesn't need roads. Awesome is wrathsome over the way his cash has been spent, and Anna's also irate that Morgan could have used the money to move in with her but bought a car that even terrorists try to shoot up. Morgan's like, DUDE. It's a DELOREAN.

Casey gets a directive from General B to take Jack in, but when he arrives at Jack's new fleabag motel room, the place has been ransacked and Jack is gone. Sarah, meanwhile, is beating the stuffing out of a punching bag, exorcising 28 years of parentally sponsored demons. She gets a call from Jack that is half apology, half "I'm the Sheik and I have your dad and I'll kill him if you don't give me the $10 million you owe me."

Morgan begs Chuck to get him out of Awesome-debt by floating him the $2500. When Chuck goes to the Buy More Credit Union (seriously) ATM to withdraw the dough, he sees he has a balance upwards of $10 million--Jack had the Sheik put the money in his account. He runs to tell Sarah, who he realizes is heading out on a fool's errand. When he tells Casey, Casey takes off and leaves him at the Buy More. He promises Morgan the cash in exchange for borrowing the DeLorean.

Sarah faces off with the Sheik and his minions, toting only duffle bags full of tee shirts posing as mmoney and a semi-automatic weapon in her waistband. She's nearly roof-spatter when the Sheik checks her bags, but Chuck pulls up in the DeLorean, computer in hand. He tells the Sheik to enter his account number, and he'll get all his money back via a wire transfer. He says they're bad cons who got in way to deep. The Sheik bites, and puts hisn umbers in. Casey, watching on a laptop nearby, realizes that Chuck has just secured the Sheik's account information for the CIA. The Sheik still wants to kill everyone, but Casey pulls up pretending to be a US Treasury agent. He arrests "Lichtenstein," getting a little familiar with the cuffs. He fakes that he's been after Sarah and Jack for months as well, but the Sheik still wants to take Jack with him. To extract him, Sarah follows the excellent advice of another Jack--Jack Traven, who saved a bus that couldn't speed below 50 MPH--and shoots the hostage. She just wings him, but she tells the Sheik to drop his weapon. His snipers start raining fire (did I mention the snipers?) and provide cover as he takes off in the DeMorgan DeLorean. Sarah takes care of her dad, Casey uncuffs Chuck, and Chuck calls the police to report a stolen DeLorean.

Chuck's about to tell Morgan about the DeLorean when Morgan jubilantly announces that the car's been stolen and impounded, which means he gets Blue Book value for it. He can pay back Awesome and still have $10K to his name: "I'm rich!" Anna: "We're rich." She's doing their living room shabby chic. Morgan's like, adulthood, man. Chuck tells him he's proud. But Lester and Jeff have another temptation: a replica of the General Lee. Relent, boys. Relent.

The General still wants to bring Jack in. Casey tries to vouch for his help, but she's made up her mind. Sarah asks her dad why he put the money in Chuck's account. He says he trusted Chuck, not Cop Face Casey, and he knew that Chuck would never betray Sarah. "I made a ten million dollar bet he loves you. Turns out I was right." Sarah helps him evade the fuzz, without letting him know that's what she's doing, but he runs into Chuck outside the hotel. Jack thanks him for staying when he had ten million reasons to run; and one to stay, Chuck says. He knows she'd have done the same. The cops pull up, and Jack ducks behind a shrubbery. Sarah comes outside, all authority, and Jack asks Chuck if his daughter's some kind of cop. "Something like that," Chuck says. Jack thinks she turned out pretty good, even with a lousy dad. He asks Chuck to take care of her. He promises to do his best. The cops are drivinb away when Chuck approaches Sarah to ask if she's okay. He tells her her dad will be back soon. "No, he won't," she says. Chuck looks over his shoulder to see Jack's already gone.