The Intersect

The Intersect is a government server of vast encoded data connected to every intelligence agency in the United States, such as the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and the National Clandestine Service as of the Season Four episode Template:418.

Throughout the series, the Intersect serves as the core of the story line, as Bryce Larkin sent the First Intersect to Chuck. Various crime organizations strive to obtain the Intersect, or agents who have the Intersect in their head commonly referred as a human Intersect. Human Intersects will observe and analyze the encoded data they recently receive.

The initial download of the Intersect apparently took far longer than any subsequent update or download.  The implication is that Chuck was receiving for what may well have been hours, since dawn arrived as the download completed.  The 2.0, by comparison,  took only minutes to download to Chuck, and updates even less time.

Human Intersects

For more information, see Human Intersect.

• Charles Bartowski - Intersect prototype, First Intersect, Fulcrum Intersect, Intersect 2.0, Laptop Intersect, & Intersect 2.0 via Intersect Glasses
• Hartley Winterbottom - Hartley's Intersect
• Stephen Bartowski - Orion's Intersect
• Manoosh Depark - Intersect Glasses
• Daniel Shaw - Ring Intersect, Intersect 3.0 (infected with the OMEN virus) via Intersect Glasses
• Richard Noble - Laptop Intersect
• Victoria Dunwoody - Laptop Intersect
• Morgan Grimes - Corrupt Intersect 2.0 via Intersect Glasses
• Sarah Bartowski - Corrupt Intersect 2.0 via Intersect Glasses

Government

Prototypes/ early versions:

• Intersect Concept - The concept of how the Intersect works.
• Intersect prototype - Intersect uploaded to Chuck as a child. (FlashBack: Template:319)
• Orion's Intersect - Early Intersect Orion tested on himself.
• Hartley's Intersect - Early Intersect uploaded into Agent X for undercover mission.

Main Intersects:

• First Intersect - The Intersect Bryce stole and which got uploaded to Chuck's Brain for the first two seasons.
• Second Intersect - Replacement for the one Bryce blew up. Built during season 1, destroyed by Fulcrum.
• Intersect 2.0 - First of the second generation. Chuck uploaded it in Template:222.
• Laptop Intersect - Intersect found on one of Orion's laptops. Broken but fixed by Ellie.
• NCS Intersect - Intersect built by NCS in a secret area of Castle.

Enemy Intersects

• Fulcrum Intersect - The Meadow branch + the Roark Intersects developed by Fulcrum.
• Ring Intersect - Intersect built by The Ring, uploaded by and used by Shaw.
• Intersect 3.0 - The ultimate Intersect infected with the Omen virus by Chuck.

Intersect devices

• Intersect Data Drive - A drive containing Intersect data seen in Template:203.
• Intersect Overload Cartridge - Security device to destroy the Intersect 2.0.
• Intersect Glasses - The different Intersect upload glasses seen throughout the series.
• The Governor - The device that prevents the Intersect negative effects.
• Intersect Suppression Device
• Intersect Glasses - The Sunglasses that Morgan Grimes, Sarah Bartowski & Chuck Bartowski used to upload the Intersect into their brains.
• The Key - A device that can change the Intersect

History

Following 9/11, the CIA and NSA were instructed to "play nice" and share their intelligence, in turn making it easier to track and identify threats to national security, and the manufactured Intersect is "how (they) did that." They put "every scrap of data (they) had" into the computer, and the Intersect "saw" patterns in the data that the agencies had not.

For example, Chuck describes in "Chuck Versus the Intersect" that multiple agencies had picked up information suggesting a bombing attempt against General Stanfield during the speech he was due to give, but the CIA and NSA each only had part of the picture. The Intersect cross-checked and combined both groups' intelligence to determine the full nature of the threat. Dr. Howard Busgang (code name Perseus) was one of the technicians involved in its design and development, as was Dr. Jonas Zarnow. The chief designer is Stephen J. Bartowski (code name Orion), Chuck's father.

Stephen Bartowski was apparently unaware of what the government intended to do with the Intersect, and it is not entirely clear what he originally expected or if the government had designs for the Intersect beyond creating more powerful spies. Both he and Dr. Busgang refer ominously to Stephen learning about the government's plans for the Intersect. When Stephen did learn, after completing the original Cipher, he purged his personal records and went on the run.

Intelligence Updates

In Template:203, Bryce leaves Chuck a pair of shades designed to update a human intersect, which at the time was Chuck. The shades needed the Intersect Data Drive in order perform the update to the Intersect with new intelligence.

In Template:213, Chuck is exposed to two test sequences of encoded images designed by Fulcrum in their attempt to build their own version of the Intersect. He believes that Fulcrum programming could be in his brain, but no subsequent information or behavior is known to have come from this source.

In Template:423, one of Chuck's flashes contains information on Vivian Volkoff's possible bases of operation - directly naming her in one of the encoded images. When Chuck last received an Intersect update, Vivian was not in command of Volkoff Industries, nor was she even aware of it's existence. This suggests that Chuck's Intersect is updated frequently with every new data from the CIA and NSA.