Here it is, the last new pre-strike episode of Chuck.  This will have to serve as a season finale, but seeing as how the show has been well received by critics and fans, and that NBC already dropped two of its fall 2007 premieres, things are looking up for everyone who wants a second season of Chuck.

The second piece of bread on tonight's Chuck sandwich begins with breasts.  Buy More employees Jeffrey and Lester are ogling video footage of the various pita delivery gals in low-cut tops they've been ordering from.  Chuck (Zachary Levi) calls them out on it, but is taken aside by Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin).  While Awesome pours his heart out looking for advice, Chuck flashes on a bug and accuses Casey (Adam Baldwin) of planting it.

Casey tells Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski), and they call in to home base, where they discover the bug is actually from Fulcrum, the secret group that abducted Bryce.  They must find the source of the bug within 48 hours, or, for the protection of the Intersect, Chuck will be locked away in a holding cell indefinitely.

Still in the Buy More, Morgan (Joshua Gomez) is super excited to learn that Chuck got an advanced copy of the new Call of Duty game, though fearing that it would show up on the Internet, Chuck refuses to lend it out, choosing instead to keep it safe in his locker.  Back to Awesome, he asks Chuck's permission to marry Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and busts out a super big engagement ring.  Chuck says yes, and Awesome asks Chuck to keep the ring safe, lest Ellie finds it prematurely.  The ring goes into the locker as well.  Great, now we have two red herrings to deal with.

The next day at the Buy More, Big Mike is so distracted by a tabloid featuring a bottomless photo of a young celebrity that he fails to immediately notice that every single thing in the store is missing.  When he does, he's more upset that his giant stuffed marlin is missing.  Chuck arrives, rushes to his locker, and notices that the ring is missing.  Awesome calls in, while doing shirtless exercises in his gravity boots.  Chuck covers as best he can.  Big Mike suspects everyone and asks Chuck to find Casey.

Chuck heads to a warehouse to discover the entire Buy More inventory.  Casey and Sarah robbed it to find the secondary receiver, and though they haven't yet, they did discover 29 other bugs.  Using video surveillance, they see a masked Fulcrum spy in the store, but there's also a drunken Jeff and Lester, stealing Big Mike's marlin, which they assume contains the missing receiver.  Uh oh, is Big Mike a Fulcrum agent?  Then Casey and Sarah drop the bomb that Chuck will be locked away forever if they can't find it.  Needless to say, he's a bit depressed by this news.

Chuck and Casey bust into the Buy More and interrogate Jeff and Lester about the missing marlin.  Casey puts on his bad guy routine and the two losers break in no time.  We get a black-and-white flashback of their drunken exploits.  The end result is that they stored it at Chuck's place to frame him in case Big Mike found out.  Sarah is on the phone with her boss, who wants Chuck to be locked away early.

At Chuck and Ellie's apartment, the men are tearing the place apart looking for the marlin.  Ellie walks in and her brother hugs her, saying a premature goodbye just in case.  Then Ellie tells them Morgan stopped by the previous night to take the marlin.  Casey is all too eager to interrogate the "scraggly troll."  After plying him with grape soda, Morgan tells the story of breaking into the Buy More to steal the video game.  He found the ring, suspecting it's for Sarah, then he relays these concerns to Ellie.

In the store, Pita Girl arrives again, saying she's made 29 deliveries.  Chuck puts it together and realizes Pita Girl is a Fulcrum agents!  Chuck climbs through the vents to get Jeff and Lester's breast video because it stars Pita Girl and he e-mails the video to Sarah.  Morgan reveals to Jeff and Lester that the marlin is in the freezer of the Wienerlicious.  Pita Girl overhears it and goes over, but thanks to the video, Sarah recognizes her.  Girl fight!

Chuck is depressed when Awesome calls again, but Morgan says he took the ring and put it in the marlin.  Morgan is relieved the ring is not for Sarah, and Chuck rushes to the Wienerlicious where Pita Girl locked Sarah in the freezer after taking the receiver and the ring.  Chuck tries to shoot the lock off, but a cop finds him and takes him in.  Casey comes by later and frees Sarah.

While being taken away, Chuck overhears the name "Long Shore," and flashes on the fact that he's not a cop.  Sarah and Casey call in to the boss lady, who tells him the cop who took Chuck was one of their guys, taking Chuck away to the holding cell in an underground compound.  Right before putting Chuck on a helicopter, Sarah arrives to stop the transfer until Casey catches the Pita Girl, to no avail.  Chuck sadly asks Sarah to tell all his friends and family something to make them feel better when he vanishes.

Chuck is resigned to get on the helicopter when the CIA agent is killed by Pita Girl, who now knows Chuck is the Intersect.  Chuck plays decoy, chatting Pita Girl away so Sarah can come up behind her.  Girl fight, redux!  They tangle atop a building and fall off into a nearby garbage dumpster as Casey arrives to watch and crack wise, as he does so well.  Later, after Pita Girl was taken away, Chuck and Sarah dig through the dumpster in hopes of finding the ring, which they do, covered in half-eaten pizza.

The next day, Big Mike arrives at the Buy More again, this time oblivious to the fact that the entire inventory has returned, including his marlin.  At Ellie and Chuck's place, Awesome is giving a heartfelt proposal to a sleeping Ellie.  Chuck stops by, and Awesome is thankful that Chuck knows how to "handle my family jewels."  Fantastic joke.  Chuck and Sarah stand outside the window, spying on the actual proposal.  Chuck goes inside to celebrate as Sarah and Casey look on, saddened by the notion that the heat is turning up and Chuck won't always be safe.

Also Read Our Recap of Episode 12, "Chuck vs. the Undercover Lover"


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of NBC)