Posted March 4, 2022

"Chuck vs the Tango" (1x03) Recap
Here are a few things you might need to know in case you forgot.

A painting of water lilies was sold in a series of black-market sales in Tehran, Madrid, and Los Angeles. In each, the buyer disparaged the painting and killed the seller, before taking the painting.

Back at Buy More, Big Mike said to get the assistant manager position, Chuck to get the Nerd Herd to fix a bunch of old computers. Chuck told the task to his team, then Morgan interrupted and said Chuck's lady (Sarah) was at the store.

Out at the front of the store, Sarah was happy to see Chuck and then insisted he kiss her because they had been on three dates. Chuck only gave her a peck on the cheek because he said he wasn't into PDA. Sarah took his hand and escorted him to the home theater room. Casey followed and interrupted their cover-trist.

Turns out the privacy was to show Chuck pictures of the killings to see if he would flash. He didn't flash on those, but Jeff entered the home theater room holding a newspaper with a photo of the painting being sold at an art auction. Chuck flashed on that, seeing the name La Ciudad. That evening, Beckman and Graham gave Sarah and Casey orders to take Chuck to the art auction to see if he flashed so they could capture the dangerous arms dealer.

The next day, at the store, Chuck asked Casey about what to do on a mission. Casey said he would be fine, as long as he knew how to tango. Chuck left to go on his cover date with Sarah at the art auction, and they planned for the mission. Chuck came up with the cover-name "Charles Carmichael." He told Sarah in real life he was kicked out of Stanford after Bryce found tests under Chuck's bed, which Chuck didn't steal. Sarah reassured him that he would be fine on the mission, but said Chuck's hands were "moist." Chuck said that was because he was freaking out.

Not wanting to mess up the mission, after work Chuck asked Ellie if she knew how to tango, so she could teach him. Devon overheard, and he taught Chuck.

On the mission, Sarah was Chuck's date with Casey as their limo driver. Sarah gave Chuck a tracking watch. Chuck said he had studied how to tango, which Sarah thought was code between Casey and Chuck. It turned out that needing to tango was a joke on Chuck.

Inside, Chuck flashed on the last of the series of killers who had been taking the painting. Chuck thought it was La Ciudad. Sarah went to confront him and told Chuck to stay at the bar, where Casey was working as a bartender. Sarah was taken away, so Casey left the bar and Chuck to provide backup. Outside, Casey saved Sarah. The man who Chuck had flashed on revealed he was MI-6 and had been tracking La Ciudad.

Meanwhile, Chuck left the bar to look at the painting on display and noticed the frame had been changed. A beautiful woman was interested that Chuck was looking so closely at the painting. Morgan had been trapped in a locked cage at the Buy More with the broken computers, and so he called the hotel to find Chuck, who had the keys. Because his cover was "Carmichael," Chuck denied he was Chuck Bartowski.

A tango started playing, and the mysterious woman and Chuck danced. Because Chuck had danced with Devon, he had learned the woman's part, meaning the woman had to lead. At the end of the dance, Chuck flashed on a scar on her neck and realized she was the real La Ciudad. She and her thugs took Chuck to be interrogated in her room at the hotel hosting the auction.

Chuck didn't last long under threats of torture and said his real name was Bartowski. However, he didn't reveal everything and made up a story that he had used a fake name to impress a girl and noticed the frame was different. La Ciudad believed him, but she couldn't let him live because he had seen her face. Sarah and Casey rescued Chuck.

After returning to the Buy More, Chuck fixed the rest of the computers. The next morning, Big Mike was impressed and said it was only an incentive. After the store opened, two large men came to the Buy More to get Chuck. He managed to stay away, and Casey stopped both of them. Outside, La Ciudad set up as a sniper on the roof of Wienerlicious, but Sarah fought her hand-to-hand and defeated her.

That evening, Sarah went to dinner at Chuck and Ellie's, and Morgan arrived, too. After dinner, Chuck escorted Sarah out. She said she was impressed with how Chuck withstood torture and helped catch one of the world's most-dangerous arms dealers. It was ok that not everyone knew Chuck was a hero because he knew and she did. Chuck said if they were really dating, he'd be "forced" to kiss her and could "suffer through it."

Chapter Characters: Chuck, Sarah, Carina

Songs (from 1x03):
- "Santa Maria (del Buen Ayre)" by Gotan Project
- "Slow Show" by The National

www. imdb. com (8.3/10)
chuckthisblog. wordpress. com (32/91)

Thursday, October 11, 2007
Buy More
Burbank, CA

Sarah

It was about time for Chuck's two o'clock lunch break, and he found himself daydreaming about what he was always daydreaming about for the last three weeks… Sarah. He wished someone as amazing as her really liked him and was his real girlfriend.

Who was he kidding? He didn't want someone. He wished Sarah was his real girlfriend. That would mean he had asked her out, or that she had asked him out for some reason other than a mission. That would never happen, though. Sarah was just his cover-girlfriend.

She was so good at the cover that it sometimes felt real to Chuck, but he knew it couldn't be real. His sister had that female-sixth-sense about that type of thing, but Sarah was so good, she even had Ellie fooled. She told him it was real, but it couldn't be.

Even with it not being real, he couldn't resist daydreaming about Sarah as his real girlfriend. Friday night, it was wonderful having Sarah on his arm at the art auction. Before that, they sat together at Wienerlicious, like a normal couple. If he didn't have a computer in his head, they could sit together outside where she worked and hold hands because that's what real couples did. If Ellie was right that Sarah was really into him, maybe all he needed to do was get up the nerve, go across the parking lot, and ask her to lunch. Instead, he sat at the Nerd Herd desk and had a vision that she walked into his store. Wait a second…

The vision in front of him wasn't a daydream. The real Sarah was in the Buy More.

He hurried around the counter and up to the front to meet her. She looked around the store as if she had no idea where he was. When she saw him half-way up the aisle to meet her at the front, her eyes lit up and her teeth shined in a bright smile. If Chuck didn't know better, he'd think she was very happy to see him. But just like she was looking around the store when she knew where she was the entire time, she was pretending to be that happy to see him. She couldn't be that happy.

Sarah kissed him on the cheek, making Chuck feel like anything was possible. Fortunately for everyone else in the store, she had only kissed him on the cheek. Anything more, he would have been a puddle on the floor.

"You have your lunch break now. Let's go eat." Sarah took his hand and guided him out the store. She said, "We should do this more often. They always seemed to have breaks at the same time. How did she know he had lunch right then? Of course she knew his schedule. She probably synchronized them."

Chuck wondered where she was taking them. They started in the direction of Wienerlicious, but stopped at Sarah's car. "Lou's Gourmet Italian Deli" was opening in a couple weeks and they didn't need to drive there or anywhere else in the plaza. Sarah was driving them somewhere.

Sarah raced her Porsche out of the Buy More plaza. In the middle of the afternoon, traffic wasn't too bad. She couldn't really let it loose because they were only on surface streets in Burbank. Having a car like hers was often a waste in LA, but it still was freeing being able to weave through traffic in the regular logjam.

Chuck and she need to do this. They hadn't had much chance to talk since dinner the night of the last mission. Getting away from Buy More and Wienerlicious would give them a chance to talk, which was good for their cover.

Looking over at Chuck, he didn't look as comfortable as she felt. She couldn't reach his right hand, which was holding on to the far door's armrest, but she managed to pry his left hand free of the armrest. The strength of his grip was strong around her hand. It was a little damp, likely because he was freaking out again, but it felt good to be linked to him. She was responsible for his protection, and he was strongly attached and not going anywhere. While she liked the feeling, that didn't explain why Chuck was freaking out. "Are you ok, Chuck? What's wrong?"

"Yes. I'm fine," he said through his clenched jaw. "I'm just holding on for my life."

They were weaving through traffic a little, but they weren't going that fast. If she had to, she could have driven faster and already be at their destination. Sarah reassured him, "I'll never let anything happen to you."

"Of course not. I'm just not used to riding in a car that is moving like this. I think I left my stomach back there, but I'm sure it'll catch up by the time we eat. Where's it going to meet us? Or do I not need it? Do we have a mission? I thought you'd only want to have lunch when we're prepping for a mission."

Sarah calmly said, "You're the entire reason I'm in California. We are boyfriend and girlfriend. I'm always on a mission. That's why we need to go somewhere we can talk. I want to make sure our cover is rock-solid. For that, you can't act like you are scared of me." She stopped them at an In-N-Out. "Here we are."

"We're alive." Sarah gave Chuck a flat look. He quickly said, "Of course, we're alive."

After they got out, Sarah went around to Chuck and took his hand again. It was no longer a death-grip. It was… she wasn't going to think about how it felt.

This time of the afternoon, there was no line inside. After staring at them for a few seconds, the worker at the counter said, "Excuse me," and went to the back. A minute later, her vested manager took position at the register.

"Is there a problem?" Chuck asked him.

The manager said, "The problem is you," pointing at Sarah. "You started a little over two weeks ago, but we've already had a dip in customers because they are all going to Wienerlicious to see you. It isn't right. Now, you're in here wearing the uniform of the enemy. Are you rubbing it on, or please say you like a job here?"

Sarah didn't work at Wienerlicious to help its sales. She worked there to monitor the store to protect Chuck. That paid off when she stopped La Ciudad. What this man described did explain why the past couple weeks had been so much busier than the first couple days at her cover-job. Sarah wrapped her hands around Chuck's upper arm and tilted her head to his shoulder. "I'm happy working across the parking lot from him. I'm sure the novelty of me cooking hot dogs on a stick will wear off. If it doesn't, I'll do what I can to scare people away. Can we order?"

The man didn't take their order. Instead he had a different proposal. "If you like eating here, maybe you could be in a commercial doing something like eating an In-N-Out cheeseburger?"

Sarah was tired of these people thinking she should be an actress, so she poked Chuck to start ordering. He ordered a 3x3 from the secret menu and fries. Sarah ordered a Green Monster. The manager said he didn't understand. Sarah clarified it was an animal-style burger with extra pickles.

The manager smiled. "Clever. You know how you want In-N-Out." He looked mortified when he realized what he said, likely thinking of the sexual implication, rather that what she did to steal intel as a spy.

He didn't know about the last time when she didn't get "in and out" cleanly, destroying Chuck's computer by putting it on a faulty shelf. She really should tell Chuck about that sometime. Although he had probably figured it out, and if not, she didn't want to make him more scared because he was dating the ninja that kicked him into the wall. She never would never do that again, and he needed to trust her.

The man taking their order clarified, "I mean you know what you want on the secret menu and how to change it." He abruptly turned to get their food.

When their food was ready, Chuck paid for both of them. She told herself it was good for the cover, so it didn't mean anything if it happened to feel sweet, having someone act like her real boyfriend.

Chuck thought sometimes it was a pain to always have to eat at a different time than noon because that's when the most customers shopped, but this time it gave Sarah and him some privacy. This time of day, no one was at this fast-food place. Sarah steered them to a table away from the doors, presumably for some spy reasons, like being able to see both entrances.

Chuck said, "I was impressed you ordered from the secret menu like a regular. I didn't know you knew it."

No one was close enough to hear them (another good reason for their location), so Sarah said, "It's a secret menu. I'm a spy. Of course I know about it."

"You knew to come here. You said you're from DC, but you must have been to California."

"The other day, I said I moved around, but I went to high school in California."

Chuck hadn't realized that was the truth. Did that mean Wisconsin was true? He was afraid to ask.

Sarah had an instruction about his food order. "We're together. Next time, hold the onions"

"Why do I need to do that? It was not like we're together for real."

Sarah didn't look happy at his resistance. "We might need to kiss for cover."

"I should be gentlemanly and prepared. Gotcha."

At that point, Sarah stole one of Chuck's fries. He couldn't believe it, so he called Sarah on it. "I saw that. You can make requests about onions, but don't get between a man and his food."

The thief said, "You can try to stop me, but I'm your girlfriend. It's expected that I get any fries of yours that I want. I'm also a spy." She took one and pointed it at him. "I wasn't trying to be sneaky before, and I'm not now. That doesn't matter. If you try to stop me, you're not going to succeed."

Sarah stared at Chuck defiantly for a few seconds, then she smiled, popped the fry in her mouth, and started on her messy cheeseburger. Chuck didn't know if it was intentional, but she made short, quiet, moaning sounds. He wasn't sure he was going to be able to eat. He could simply watch her. After a few more seconds, he realized he shouldn't waste his burger, so he started on his own.

After a minute, some of Sarah's extra pickles had fallen out. She stopped and ate them one at a time, savoring each one. She must really like pickles. A little later, Sarah had sauce on the corner of her mouth, so he said, "You have something on your…"

Sarah got his meaning and licked the corner of her mouth. Chuck wondered if she did what she did intentionally because she licked the wrong corner…slowly and sensually.

"No. Not there."

"Where?"

Chuck waved his finger to the other side of her mouth. Sarah turned her face, putting the sauce close to him, and she waited.

She couldn't mean that, so he didn't do anything. Sarah asked, "Could you please get it, Sweetie?" Sarah waited longer with a little grin. "Come on, Chuck. As my boyfriend, you shouldn't have a problem. Consider this practice."

His cover-girlfriend wanted this. She called him her boyfriend, but she didn't say 'cover.' What did that mean? Last mission, he survived torture. This wasn't torture. Chuck held his breath and used his finger. Immediately after Chuck got it, Sarah captured his wrist and sucked his finger clean. Chuck's eyes bugged out.

"Chuck, you need to relax. That's why we're here. You need to be more comfortable around me, like you were on our first date."

"I wasn't very…" He didn't know how to put it. He knew he wasn't suave, but he was embarrassed to say that he was trying to be.

Sarah didn't care what he was or wasn't. She countered, as if reading his mind, "I couldn't tell." "It was the best date I had since…since I don't remember."

"Back then, I thought you might be interested in me. Now, I know we aren't really…"

Sarah corrected him. "No matter what we do or do not feel, we need to act like we're into each other." Chuck didn't understand that. He felt something… Chuck couldn't complete that thought because Sarah was still gently holding the hand with the finger she had licked. She explained more, "You need to not jump when I take hold of your hand. Since you are not 'big on PDA' we don't have to kiss. I don't completely understand it because most of the guys that I've been around on missions are jerks or evil, and they act the opposite of you. As I said the other night, you're a hero. You're different in all of the important ways."

Chuck didn't know what she meant by that, but he could simply gaze at Sarah and be happy. She continued, "The important thing is you shouldn't act like you're scared of me. We need to get used to this. You should look at me like…like…like you are looking at me right now." A little smile formed on Sarah's face.

Chuck didn't know what that meant either, but it didn't matter. Sarah stopped critiquing him, and they simply looked deeply in each other's eyes.

After a minute or two, Sarah broke the moment by stealing another fry, not in a subtle way. "Remember, as your girlfriend, I'm allowed to eat your fries." Then she finally let go of his hand.

Chuck knew he would never stop her. He pointed out a possible consequence. "I might starve."

"It's my job to protect you, so I'll make sure you don't. You should take your girlfriend to lunch more, like today. We shouldn't go a week without seeing each other again." Sarah had been coming by during her breaks before and after the art auction mission, but they never talked like they were talking at the moment, so Chuck knew what she meant.

He pointed out, "Not on Wednesday or Friday. Morgan and I go for surf-n-turf."

"You should clear something like that."

"Casey asked where I was going yesterday, so I told him."

"You should clear something like that with me because I'm your girlfriend. Right now, I'm saying that it's ok. However, we should have dates that aren't missions. That way, when you and I go on a 'date' for a mission, it won't seem unusual."

Dates without missions? Did she mean cover-dates? That's not what she said. It sounded like they were really dating, but they weren't. She must have mean cover-dates. What would they do… Chuck had a thought. Chuck invited Sarah on a cover-date. "Do you want to come over tomorrow night for a couple's game night? We have a game called 'Know Ya.'"

Sarah said, "It would be good to be a second couple against Ellie and Devon."

"Um… well… You and I will be the third couple."

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't dated in a while, and Morgan and I have known each other for years, so when Devon got the game, we played as a team against Ellie and Devon."

"If Ellie and Devon beat us, that is understandable because they've been together for years, but you and I will be second," Sarah confidently said. "We can do better than you and Morgan."

"Um well, Ellie and Devon might be second. Morgan and I won last time."

"You're kidding. Whatever. Since you and I are a new couple, it'll be good to show that we are getting to know each other and want to know even more about each other. I'd still like to beat you and Morgan. We should prepare. How's the game work?"

Chuck knew he and Sarah had no chance of beating Chuck and Morgan, but he wouldn't admit defeat to Sarah before they even played. Chuck explained the key to winning the game was knowing trivia about the other person, so Sarah started asking questions about him. Sarah and Chuck talked about him growing up. She seemed to hang on his every word. She knew many things from her deep-dive background check, which she had obviously studied thoroughly.

Chuck avoided talking about some painful things in his memory, like how Stanford ended. Sarah asked him why he was interested in sailing. He said the America's Cup idea was just a story about what he imagined wildly successful people doing, as he had never been in a sailboat.

They didn't talk about Sarah much. No matter how much prep work they did, they were going to get trounced when going up against Chuck and his hetero-sexual life-partner and the Awesome couple. It was more important that they have fun and seem like a couple, rather than seem like two people who crammed for a test.

Back at the car after lunch, Sarah thanked Chuck for paying for lunch and slipped him a twenty. "You did the right thing for the cover. People expect boyfriends to pay, even when it's not necessary."

"Of course. I can't take this."

"Just take it. As I said, everything I do is to protect you, and we came to strengthen our cover. That made this a mission. I'll expense it." Chuck gave up on arguing. He didn't make much at Buy More, so eventually, he'd run out of money and lose the argument. He didn't like arguing with Sarah anyway. It's not like he dragged her there.

Sarah drove more sedately back to Buy More. She still held his hand across the center armrest. He was getting used to Sarah's driving, and they weren't going backwards down a staircase, so he didn't hold her like his life depended on it.

When she dropped him off, she leaned across the center armrest and gave him a kiss on the cheek, even though no one could see. What did it mean? He was confused.

Getting out, Chuck reminded Sarah, "Tomorrow is Friday, so I have lunch with Morgan."

"That's ok. I'll see you tomorrow night."

Returning to work, Sarah was happy that it had gone well. After today, their cover was stronger. Dating Chuck was already her longest cover since joining the CIA, but she was glad it was with him. It was easy to be the girlfriend of a great guy like him, and he was learning. She looked forward to more lunch dates.

The only problem with today was she didn't prep Chuck with a cover story for her background. The problem was she never was a sharer and wanted to hear so much about Chuck. It was just as well because they would be expected to lose the game anyway. It would still be a fun date, as long as Chuck doesn't try a magic trick.

She was going to be in LA a while, so she decided that after work, she'd stop by a pet store.

Carina Miller reviewed her target: a drug diamond held by Peyman Alahi, an international financier at his home near LA. She wondered…

She did a quick check on her old teammate's current assignment to see whether she was stateside. Considering what happened to her partner, Sarah could use Carina's mission as a distraction.

It turned out that Sarah wasn't just in the US. She was in LA! Carina could give her a break from whatever less important thing she was doing and get her to help. It would be fun!

A/N: The cover is stronger because Chuck and Sarah are going on dates. One problem. Carina is coming.

MyNameIsJeffNImLost AU stories:
- "Chuck & Sarah vs Trust" (chapter 3, "When You Can't Tango")
- "The Bartowskis vs the Spy World (chapter 3, "Frosty")
- "Ellie vs the Ninja" (chapter 5, "Ellie vs the Tango Lesson")