Chuck Versus the Muuurder

Chuck Versus the Muuurder
Season 04, Episode 19

Air Date	March 21, 2011
Writer	Alex Katsnelson & Kristin Newman
Director	Allan Kroeker
Previous	Chuck Versus the A-Team
Next	Chuck Versus the Family Volkoff

"Good Lord! Four more Chucks!"

―Casey

Chuck Versus the Muuurder is the nineteenth episode in the fourth season of Chuck, which aired on March 21, 2011.

Synopsis[]

When Chuck's new human Intersect candidate is murdered in Castle, the other candidates are suspected. Bentley still has a grudge against Chuck. Elsewhere, Morgan's leadership is tested when his Buy More troops wage war against the Large Mart.

Meanwhile, Awesome tries to handle Ellie's alarming new hobby.

Full Story[]

General Beckman tasks Chuck to choose new Intersect candidates since he is the only one who truly knows what it is like to be an Intersect. Chuck creates an extensive psychological profile based on his own personality and the CIA sends four appropriate candidates to the Buy More. First is Lewis, a technical operations specialist and star hacker by age fourteen, due to a semester abroad, Lewis has affected an English accent. Second is Josie, a psychological warfare genius whose intuition makes her invaluable in interrogation. Third is Damien, whose distinctive appearance has led to him being embedded in one terror cell after another for the last ten years.

Last to arrive is Brody, who is strikingly similar to Chuck. Chuck tasks Casey with the candidates' physical testing, Sarah with psychological evaluations, and Morgan Grimes with testing their "cultural knowledge." Chuck ultimately chooses Brody as the next Intersect. As Chuck informs Brody with a text message, Brody comes upon someone unseen who raises his suspicions. Brody confronts the person, only to be stabbed to death and dragged away.

After Chuck and Director Bentley find Brody's body, Chuck tries to hold it together despite a minor freak out, but Sarah quietly focuses him. Bentley and the Intersect candidates surrender their weapons to Casey, as Chuck has realized the murderer must be one of them. To determine who killed Brody, Chuck plans to review security tapes and interrogate everyone. Damien then makes it obvious that he feels persecuted because of his appearance, and angrily storms off. As he opens the door to exit Castle, however, an explosive is triggered. Though he manages to shield himself with the door, Damien is injured, apparently ruling him out as a murder suspect.

The explosive cuts the main power to Castle and locks everyone inside, making a review of security tapes impossible. Chuck and Sarah interrogate Bentley, who has the most motive of the group, since she is still angry about the failure of the "Greta" program. Further investigation reveals that the candidates each could have motive and means to commit the murder, as Josie is emotionally unstable due to a recent breakup with her longtime boyfriend, Damien is angry about being typecast as a terrorist, and Lewis was a bomb expert, and Chuck's second choice for the Intersect. After the interrogations, Chuck and Sarah have come no closer to finding the killer, but Chuck notices a bomb planted under the seat the suspects had each been sitting in, and he and Sarah barely escape with their lives before it detonates. They regroup with Bentley and the candidates, though Lewis, the only bomb specialist in the group, is curiously missing.

With Damien semiconscious after taking shrapnel to the back, the rest of the group decides that Lewis is the murderer and splits up to capture him. Chuck and Bentley hear something in the air ducts, but Casey finds a pig instead of Lewis. Chuck and Bentley proceed to the NCS restricted Intersect room, which is bomb proof and the safest place in Castle. When they see Lewis hidden near the room's ceiling, Chuck and Bentley draw their guns and lower the railing. They find Lewis is dead, his throat slit.

Chuck, Casey, and Sarah move to confront Bentley and Josie, the only remaining suspects, only to find them accusing each and holding each other at gunpoint. Chuck reviews the day's events in his mind, and recalls finding a positive pregnancy test in Josie's bag. He then makes a show of leaning toward Bentley as the murderer, as she was out of sight during every murder. When the group gathers close, however, he whispers that the actual murderer is Damien. As they draw their guns, Damien rises from his cot and threatens to detonate a boombox full of explosives if they do not get him to a doctor. Had Brody not seen him planting the explosives, Damien would have escaped. When he was forced to murder Brody and "cover his tracks," Damien strategically detonated the explosive and shielded himself with the door. He also planted the bomb under the chair during his interrogation and used the distraction to hide Lewis' body. Just as Damien reveals that he came for Chuck, Bentley shoots him and retrieves the boombox. It is counting down too fast for Chuck to easily disarm. Bentley runs to the Intersect room and uses a manual release to lock the door behind her. As the one-minute timer counts down, Chuck hacks the door's control panels to save Bentley and they evacuate. The following explosion sends the Large Mart piglet flying into Chuck's arms.

Beckman congratulates the team for solving the mystery and saving Castle from total destruction, with a special commendation to Chuck, saying he is a true leader. Chuck humbly extends the credit to his teammates. Beckman then decides that it is too dangerous to upload the Intersect into a new recruit, leaving Chuck as the only Intersect for the foreseeable future. Bentley is reassigned to Washington, and she apologizes for underestimating Chuck, which gives him relief that he no longer has a nemesis.

As the team later relaxes at Chuck's apartment, Beckman calls to inform them that Vivian Volkoff was responsible for hiring Damien, his target had been Chuck. Chuck is dismayed that he has a nemesis, for real.

Meanwhile, Morgan learns from Big Mike that the Buy More is doing the same promotion as their competitor Large Mart. To promote the sale, Mike stands outside the store wearing a large "BM" on his chest in the Buy More colors, green and yellow. Suddenly, Large Mart employees drive up in a van and kidnap Mike. The Large Mart employees claim that the kidnapping was in retaliation for Buy More employees kidnapping Kevin Bacon. Morgan confronts Jeff and Lester, who lead him to the closet where they have kept "Kevin Bacon", a pig revealed to be the Large Mart mascot.

Morgan meets with the Large Mart manager, Marvin, and several other employees to negotiate a trade. Marvin allows Morgan to call Big Mike, proving that he is alive and being fed. Morgan leads Marvin to the closet where Kevin Bacon was being kept, only to find the pig missing.

Morgan questions Jeff and Lester about the location of the pig, but to no avail. They finally reveal that they have hidden the pig in the air ducts, just as Casey finds him in Castle. Later, an explosion sends the piglet flying into Chuck's arms.

Just as Morgan rallies the Buy More staff to rescue Big Mike, the latter walks through the main door, having easily escaped his "nerd" guards. But their victory is short-lived, as Large Mart employees bring the BM costume to the front door and light it on fire. Chuck then enters the Buy More with the pig, quickly deducing everything that's happened.

Ellie continues using the laptop left by her father, Stephen Bartowski, having been given the computer by Bentley in the previous episode. Ellie studies her father's research and praises his intelligence and creativity. Concerned about his wife's obsession, Devon asks if she should be digging through his father's work, to which Ellie simply replies, "What's the worst that can happen?" Devon calls Chuck, and they agree to keep Ellie out of the spy world. Chuck suggests replacing the computer's hard drive with a blank one, which would make Ellie believe it was simply broke.

Meanwhile, Bentley has taken extreme measures in salvaging her credibility by monitoring Ellie's activity on the laptop. Chuck confronts Bentley about interfering with his family and discovers a surveillance video of Ellie. Bentley later comments that Ellie, is incredibly smart and that if anyone could figure out the Intersect it is her, and maybe Chuck should let her.

As Devon contemplates switching the hard drive with a blank one, Ellie arrives home, having realized the purpose of her father's research. Ellie reveals that Stephen was trying to upload knowledge into the brain without having to learn it. Devon still delivers a hard drive to Chuck; when he returns to Ellie, however, it is revealed that Ellie is still working on same research. Devon and Ellie have agreed to hide the truth from Chuck.

While Ellie is asleep, the laptop scans the room and identifies her, allocating her files and displaying the words "Agent X Files".

Cast[]

Recurring[]

Robin Givens as Director Jane Bentley

Guest Stars[]

James Francis Ginty as Lewis
Karissa Vacker as Josie
Stephen Pollak as Brody
Mousa Kraish as Damien
David H. Lawrence as Marvin, the Large Mart store manager

Trivia[]

Chris Fedak cites Agatha Christie as the inspiration for this murder investigation themed episode.
The title of the episode is based on Lewis's adopted British accent, when he shouts the word "murder".
The name of the Large Mart mascot, Kevin Bacon, is an obvious nod to actor Kevin Bacon.
Nerd Herd staff, Skip Johnson, returns for the episode, after last appearing in Chuck Versus the Suitcase.
The song Any Way You Want It is Brody's ringtone, it was also Chuck's in the pilot, Chuck Versus the Intersect.
When Morgan asks Brody to choose between Grant Morrison or Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons, he answers that he prefers Brian Vaughan. Chuck agrees with him. Coincidentally when Lewis enters the Buy More, he can be seen holding Y: The Last Man, a graphic novel written by Brian Vaughan.
When Morgan asks Lewis which the best album of Rush, he replies Caress of Steel. This is not an opinion shared by many.
The hard drive Devon was supposed to install on Orion's laptop is a Roark Instruments hard drive, indicating that the company might have survived the fall of Fulcrum and the death of its founder.
When Beckman is congratulating the team at the end of the episode, Kevin Bacon, the pig, is eating in the conference room.

Quotes[]

Chuck: Colonel Casey would never kill anyone... who didn't deserve it.

Josie: And what about her?

Chuck: I think I can safely say that my fiancée, here, would never kill anyone... who didn't deserve it.

~

Damien: I'm totally outta here. And by the way, I'm Greek.

Chuck: Greek?! I wouldn't have guessed that - Damien, wait! Casey don't shoot anyone!

~

Jane Bentley: Brody made you light up like a 13-year-old girl! Everyone knew he was your first choice!

Sarah: [nods]

Music[]

"I Need You" by The Blood Arm
"Any Way You Want It" by Journey
"Victim" by Win Win
"Move to the Mountains" by Clock Opera

External Links[]

Chuck Versus the Muuurder - Promo trailer