Chuck Versus the Suitcase

"Chuck Versus the Suitcase" is the second episode of the fourth season of Chuck. It originally aired September 27, 2010. There are crimes of fashion when Chuck Bartowski and Sarah Walker go undercover in Milan for Fashion Week to seize a high-tech weapon, yet Chuck soon recognizes a flaw in his relationship with Sarah. Meanwhile, Morgan Grimes discovers a vulnerability about the new Buy More.

Plot

Main plot

In Milan, a US intelligence operative chases a Volkoff operative named Sofia Stepanova (Karolína Kurková), who stole an ammunition clip containing smart bullets from a weapons development facility outside Paris. She slays him with one of the large smart bullets. In a Team Bartowski briefing, General Beckman reveals that Sofia is the executor of Volkoff's most important weapons deals. She uses her cover as a runway model to travel the world, get access to, and deliver illegal weapons. Beckman sends them to Milan Fashion Week to intercept the bullets, except Colonel Casey, who stabbed a man with a stilleto at Yves St. Laurent.

When Sarah notices that the bullets are in Sofia's purse, Chuck Bartowski moves to retrieve them. This ends in embarrassment for Chuck when she turns and his hand lands on her bottom. When she accuses him of being a pervert, he unsuccessfully explains that he came with Victor (Bronson Pinchot). Chuck and Sarah watch her deliver the purse to a bartender, and he immediately starts running. When they catch him, it is revealed to contain a ticking time bomb. Chuck then grabs it, triggering a dead man's switch, but Sarah manages to defuse it with one second to spare.

They break into the Presidential Suite where Sofia is staying. As they start to open her safe, Sofia enters and takes a shower. While Chuck flashes to open the safe, Sarah encounters Sofia's long-time bodyguard (Lou Ferrigno), who, thinking she is Sofia, professes his love to her. Just as Chuck removes the smart bullets from the safe, a naked Sofia holds him at gunpoint. Sarah incapacitates the bodyguard and she and Chuck escape with the bullets. They are then informed by General Beckman that Sofia was one step ahead of them, and the microchips have been removed from the bullets.

Chuck and Sarah return to Milan when they realize Sofia keeps the microchips in a sequined dress. They pass Sofia's sentries with tranquilizer gloves and Sarah changes into the dress. Chuck is challenged by her bodyguards, the leader of which is still angered that Chuck "messed things up with Ms. Sofia." Although Chuck defeats the bodyguards with a flash on staff fighting and his tranquilizer gloves, Sarah's fight with Sofia drags out onto the catwalk. Even though they are featured on a magazine cover, Sarah's cover is apparently intact.

Buy More

Morgan Grimes begins to notice a serious flaw in the new Buy More. The government personnel are so well trained that their excessive efficiency, pleasant demeanor and helpful service, all of which is completely opposite to the public perception of how a Buy More should be run, renders the store's cover virtually transparent. Morgan demonstrates this to General Beckman by intentionally spilling a drink, which is immediately cleaned up, then repeatedly and casually dropping merchandise, only to have it swiftly and acrobatically returned to the shelves. Beckman asks what he is suggesting.

With Beckman's approval, Morgan and Casey begin "recruiting" the store's former staff, starting with Jeff and Lester, who have been hiding out "in the wild" (actually an urban area seven minutes drive from Burbank, with traffic) since their alleged destruction of the Buy More in "Chuck Versus the Ring: Part II." When the duo realize that Morgan actually wants them to return, they begin to make demands, up until the point where Casey simply tranquilizes them (taking several darts in Jeff's case) in order to bring them back to the Buy More.

When Devon shops there, looking for baby equipment, the efficiency of the place immediately makes him speculate that Chuck has not, in fact, retired from the spy world, leading him to ask questions, first to Casey and Morgan, then to Sarah and Chuck directly. They point out to him that, while Chuck is supposedly retired, Casey and Sarah are still spies and thus the Buy More is still their cover. When Ellie subsequently goes to the Buy More to return some of the baby goods Devon has bought, Morgan has augmented the government personnel with the store's former lazy, creepy, and surly staff, making the place feel more like its old inefficient self. In recognition of this, Beckman promotes him to store manager.

Family

Devon stresses over Ellie, who is 13 weeks pregnant and has not been sleeping well recently. He buys an excessive amount of baby merchandise and tries to keep her resting, reasoning that since she essentially raised Chuck alone without her mother, she shouldn't have to raise this child alone as well. Ellie reassures him that her mother's absence means nothing to her, and promises to let Devon help so long as he allows her to carry part of the load. Devon does try to stop her when she later goes to return some of the excess merchandise to the Buy More in fear the unusually efficient store will convince her Chuck is still a spy, but by the time she arrives Morgan has already returned the former staff. She later nostalgically looks through old photos of her father (Scott Bakula) and mother (Linda Hamilton), belying her earlier protest that her mother's disappearance was of no importance to her.

Meanwhile, Chuck and Sarah's relationship faces a new obstacle: Sarah's unwillingness to "plant roots", demonstrated by the titular suitcase that she refuses to unpack. Sarah discloses that it's a spy thing, which Chuck disproves by noting that Sofia felt comfortable enough to unpack her wardrobe in the hotel's closet. When she reluctantly begins to do so after their first mission to Milan Chuck makes her stop, and tells her to wait until she's ready. At the end of the episode, she willingly unpacks the suitcase except for a photo of her and Chuck (something she keeps in her suitcase, no matter where she is), admitting to Chuck that he is her home, he always has been. As they lie down to go to sleep, Chuck comments that maybe they're "next" to get married and have children, leaving Sarah horrified.

Production

Isaiah Mustafa portrayed the second Greta.

This episode marked Isaiah Mustafa's first portrayal of the rotating character Greta.

Production details

• A harbor shown as part of Milan after Chuck arrives is actually one of the most famous piers of Hamburg, Germany.

Continuity

• Ellie has been pregnant 13 weeks.
• Jeff and Lester have been on the run for 184 days since "Chuck Versus the Ring: Part II."

Flashes

• Chuck flashes on mathematics to open Sofia's safe with probable combinations.
• Chuck flashes on staff fighting skills to defeat Sofia's bodyguards.

Cultural references

• Lester almost successfully pulls a Jedi mind trick on Morgan. The line "These are not the boys you're looking for" references Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
• Morgan gives Chuck a speech about his Achilles' heel and mentions several conflicted relationships: "Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Anakin and Padmé."
• Chuck is rejected in an attempt to replicate Peter and Mary Jane's kiss in Spider-Man.
• When Chuck and Sarah return to Milan they are disguised as Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 from Get Smart.

Critical response

IGN gave this episode a score of 8.5 out of 10.^[1]

References

External links

• "Chuck Versus the Suitcase" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Chuck Versus the Suitcase" at TV.com