Recap: Chuck vs the Baby (5.08)

Oh Baby!

Finally the Sarah back story that everyone has been hoping to see! Instead of the tense “Sarah-has-a-horrible-secret” episode that Chuck vs the Santa Suit teased, the story was actually much more positive and heart-warming than we may have initially been led to believe. Definitely a nice change over the tension and gravity of the past few episodes and I’m sure it will end up on many fans’ Top 5 or Top 10 lists.

Much of this episode was revealed to us as flashbacks to Sarah’s life five years earlier. We see her in Budapest, working with a handler named Ryker. Her mission is to enter a house where the owners have been murdered and collect a “package”.  Inside, she finds a number of men feasting around a dining table and executes them all coldly in a [easyazon-link asin=”B000OPPBEQ”]Matrix[/easyazon-link]/[easyazon-link asin=”B00005JMEW”]Tarantino[/easyazon-link]-esque scene before heading for the “package”, which turns out to be a baby. Apparently she’s an heiress and Ryker is trying to supplement his CIA pension by collecting her inheritance now that her parents are dead and then disposing of her. Sarah collects the baby and escapes with her, guns blazing. She figures out Ryker’s intent before handing over the baby and vows to keep the little girl safe.

We find out that Sarah is actually not at all estranged from her mother as we may have thought. They were in contact with each other up until five years ago when Sarah brought her the baby for safe keeping. Since then, she has been raising the child as her own. Apparently the CIA never knew about her mother because Sarah and her father were using so many aliases by the time they were both captured back when she was a teenager. After leaving the baby with her mother, Sarah tells her that they must sever all contact to protect the baby. Just in case, though, she sets up a protocol to warn her mother if there was ever a crisis.

Back in the present, Sarah is in Castle and sees that Shaw had been in contact with Ryker. She realizes that the safety of both her mother and the little girl are in danger and decides that she must kill Ryker to protect them. She emails Ryker, pretending to be Shaw and sets up a meet in Budapest at a cafe that they often used as a meet. She’s not willing to share this information with Casey or Chuck, however. After both of them make a case to be involved, she agrees to let them accompany her to Hungary, but still won’t tell them anything about the mission except that she’s there to kill Ryker, her old handler.

While they head to Budapest, Morgan is hosting a game night in Castle with Ellie, Awesome and Alex. The game of Life turns very awkward as Morgan tries way too hard to prove his worth to Alex. Ellie and Awesome win the game (albeit with minor cheating) and suggest a break. We next see them amusingly role playing prisoner and interrogator in one of the cells in Castle while they give Morgan and Alex some “alone time” (Devon has the worst British accent ever!).

It turns out that Morgan and Alex aren’t ready for alone time yet, and Ellie and Awesome decide to intervene. Ellie takes Morgan aside and Awesome sits with Alex and they both tell very different sides of the same story about a rough patch in their own relationship. It’s really sweet to see Ellie talking to Morgan like he is both  an adult and a friend, knowing their history and how much Ellie seemed to detest him at the beginning of the series.

In Budapest, Sarah goes to the designated meet site and finds a note directing her to another location. She tells Casey and Chuck to interrogate the waiter and jumps on a departing bus before they can follow her. She arrives at Ryker’s lair, sneaks in, and pulls a gun on him. Turns out he’s prepared for this move and he plays a hidden recording of  a baby crying. Sarah is paralyzed as she flashes back to her time with the baby and is easily subdued by Ryker’s henchmen. Turns out Ryker has a bit of a grudge and he wants the little girl so he can get the money, but he also wants to kill Sarah. He assumes that no one knows that she’s there because she’s always been such a loner with no friends or family. He knocks her out just as there is a disruption outside (rough couple of weeks for Sarah!). Chuck and Casey arrive and rescue her.

Back home in Burbank, Chuck and Sarah have a emotional talk and she finally tells him everything about her mother and the baby and expresses relief that Ryker knows nothing about them and that she can tell Chuck about it. Unfortunately, her relief is short lived as they soon realize that Sarah has a bug in her hair that has relayed everything that they’ve said back to Ryker. Sarah sends the emergency signal to her mother – turns out the baby’s rattle was a signaling device that sent coordinates to a safe location.

Ryker arrives at Sarah’s mother’s house and finds Sarah dressed as her mother washing dishes in the kitchen. They fight using knives, wine bottles, etc, before finally crashing through the wall into the girl’s room. Ryker eventually overpowers Sarah and taunts her as he slowly strangles her with her apron. She manages to throw him off and then stabs him in the back with a large kitchen knife as he continues to taunt her.

After Chuck and Casey take out Rykers goons outside (Chuck really does have some decent fighting skills these days!), the three of them go back to Chuck and Sarah’s apartment and Sarah is reunited with her mother and the little girl, Molly. Sarah’s mother introduces Sarah to Molly as her sister. We are then treated to a sweet family dinner and discussions between Sarah and her mom, Chuck and Sarah’s mom, and, yes, Morgan and Alex, who finally seem to have made up.

We get a final flashback of Sarah meeting with Langston Graham and telling him that she will stay in the CIA but she’s done with handlers. He assigns her a stateside mission and hands her a picture of Chuck (how does Bryce fit into this timeline??). The episode ends with Chuck and Sarah are sitting on the floor by candlelight in their “dream house” as the realtor let Chuck have the keys for the weekend to try it out. Sarah tells him that they can’t afford to buy the house because she doesn’t want to go back to the CIA, but they will own it someday. They commemorate the evening and their love by carving their names on the trim of an entrance way in the house (nothing says “I love you” like vandalism!), because, after all, it will be their house someday!

This was a really fun, poignant episode. I certainly can’t blame anyone for “having something in their eye” (cough…Mel…cough) during several of the scenes! With 5 more episodes to go,  you could feel the story starting to wrap up – Sarah has a family after all, Morgan and Alex are back together, and Chuck and Sarah are planning their lives together, even down to where Chuck will put his gaming chairs (or not!) in their dream house. This episode felt like a late Christmas gift from the creators, cast and crew!

 Memorable thoughts and Quotes:

This area right here – perfect for my game chairs…or not… – Chuck, giving Sarah a tour of their “dream house”

Tenth grade was a good year for me! – Chuck, explaining how he finally caught up to Ellie in height

Why did you make Casey come all the way down here? You know that I’m going to follow him everywhere he goes and I was doing something really important! – Morgan, as he and Casey arrive in Castle

Yes I love you, so of course I’m going to want to know what’s going on… why you are being so secretive and why you need so many guns! – Chuck, confronting Sarah in Castle

Every time you and Sarah have disagreed, she’s been right! – Morgan

Ever since that last mission, they keep asking me tactical questions and using the phrase “ghost op” as if they know what it means – Chuck, explaining Ellie and Awesome’s current fascination with spying

It’s like we’re actively wasting our baby sitter! – Devon is not thrilled with game night with awkward Alex and Morgan

Once again, who doesn’t need the Intersect! – Chuck, tackling the waiter in Budapest

Were we weeping curd cheesecake? – Casey, trying to interrogate the waiter in Hungarian (guess they could use the Intersect after all!)

I’m kind of a sweet guy, in a douchey-Intersect-brain-melting-life-ruining kind of way – Morgan, to Alex

Did you like the episode? Let us know in the comments and be sure to tune in to NBC next Friday at 8/7c for Chuck vs the Kept Man