Posted March 14, 2022

"Chuck vs the Sizzling Shrimp" (1x05) Recap
Here are a few things you might need to know in case you forgot.

At Buy More, Morgan revealed the first part of his plan for an "Evening of Morgan" to Chuck. His goal was to test Sarah to see if she had "anything to bring to the relationship." Chuck had forgotten to mention it to Sarah, and when he did because she heard Morgan as he was leaving, Chuck told her it was important because Morgan was his best friend and they hadn't had much time together recently.

A young Chinese diplomat was kidnapped outside the Chinese consulate in LA.

For the Evening of Morgan, Chuck, Sarah and Morgan went to Chinatown, and Morgan revealed the three important acts. The first act was food: "Sizzling Shrimp" from "The Bamboo Dragon." Act two was watching Enter the Dragon later, and Chuck and Morgan faked doing kung fu on each other as they were walking. The third act was setting off illegal fireworks, which Chuck vetoed because he wanted to keep his hands. It looked like act one was also a bust because the dining room was closed, but Morgan knew someone who worked there and got them in the kitchen. While waiting for Morgan to get food, Chuck flashed on a Chinese spy, Mei-Lin Cho, who was working there, undercover.

The Evening of Morgan was called off for Chuck to look at files to see if he flashed on anything that would explain why China's top spy was in the US. The next morning, Ellie confronted Chuck, not just about leaving shrimp in the fridge, but about leaving her alone with Morgan. Chuck apologized and said Sarah had a "spastic colon."

Chuck went with Saran and Casey on a stakeout to find out what Mei-Lin was up to. They followed her to a nightclub, following a big-shot businessman, Ben Lo Pan. Chuck thought the spy was going to kill Lo Pan. The American spies went to stop the assassination. From the car, Chuck saw Lo Pan escaping in a wheelchair, so he got out of the car and helped. As he finished taking the elderly man to his car, Chuck saw the kidnapped diplomat thrown in the car. Mei-Lin arrived as they were driving away, and she revealed that Lo Pan was Triad and that the kidnapped man was her brother. Casey and Sarah came out and Mei-Lin ran off.

The next day at work, Chuck was called by Mei-Lin, who was watching him. He went with Casey to talk to Sarah at Wienerlicious and presented an idea to get her to defect, if they all helped her. Back at Buy More, Mei-Lin caught Chuck in the back of the store, but since China had refused to help, she let him go and accepted help from the Americans.

That evening, Chuck was supposed to have "Mother's Day" dinner with Chuck. While Ellie was cooking, he went over to Casey's to help the three spies plan, and he ended up being drafted to help on the mission to rescue Mei-Lin's brother.

The spies went inside to rescue the brother and were captured and taken to the Bamboo Dragon freezer. On comms, Casey said Chuck should run; he didn't. He purchased Chinatown fireworks and set them off inside a van by the Bamboo Dragon, providing a distraction. Inside, he freed Sarah, Casey, Mei-Lin, and her brother from the freezer. They fought the Triad who was there, and Chuck made up for earlier, stopping the Lo Pan from escaping once again.

Morgan and Ellie had bonded in an "I miss Chuck." moment. The next day, Morgan thought he was going to lose a sales competition, so he quit, but Ellie saved him by buying her Christmas presents early, giving him sales credit. Morgan rescinded his resignation.

That evening, Ellie gave a make-up "Mother's Day" dinner, which was to celebrate when Chuck and Ellie's mom left them and they learned to take care of each other. Since it was their own holiday, they could change the rules. This time, Sarah and Morgan were invited.

Afterwards, Chuck told Morgan he couldn't believe his best friend and sister got along for an entire night. Delusional, Morgan said he had been slow playing her and was willing to change his last name to Beretta for her, because Ellie deserved a last name that cool.

Chapter Characters: Morgan, Sarah (with Chuck)

Songs (from 1x05):
- "Lake Michigan" by Rogue Wave
- "Private Eyes" by Hall & Oates

www. imdb. com (7.9/10)
chuckthisblog. wordpress. com (63/91)

October 24, 2007
Los Angeles, CA

Morgan couldn't believe it. He was actually riding in a Porsche. The back seat had no room for him because it was practically non-existent, but it was still so cool. He had never been that close to one before he met Sarah, and now he was in one. When Chuck said he'd drive a Herder again for this make-up "Evening of Morgan," Morgan pointed out it was actually an "Evening of Sarah." At first, she didn't agree with that naming of the night, but she didn't argue and said she'd drive, if Morgan was ok in the back. He thought that you should never complain about a Porsche or other luxury car. He'd be fine in the trunk.

They arrived at their destination, and Morgan couldn't get out. After a minute of not being able to extract himself, Chuck leaned in and pried him free. There was no space in the back, but Sarah's car was completely awesome!

Morgan looked around to find out where they went for an "Evening of Sarah." The original idea of a make-up "Evening of Morgan" would have taken them back to Chinatown, and for Sarah's evening, they went to… Chinatown.

"Why are we back here?" Morgan asked.

Sarah said, "We're here for two parts of the night. I've heard they have really good shrimp. Where do we get fireworks?"

Two parts? This was supposed to be an "Evening of Sarah" but was like an "Evening of Morgan Reloaded." It was so cool that Sarah was doing this. She was great. She was doing what he wanted to do the first night. He needed to stop putting up resistance. It was "Evening of Morgan, Part Deux," but with Sarah's awesome car. "Two parts" meant Sarah was going to get Chuck to do it all.

Morgan led them to the fireworks dealer, Jake.

"Hey, Dude."

Jake recognized him. "Grimes."

"What can you hook us up with?"

"No can do. It's too hot here right now."

"What do you mean?" It was October. Was Jake saying "Evening of Morgan, The Sequel" was not going to be complete, like the first one needed the asterisk, before it was left unfinished?

"You haven't heard? The local Triad boss went down, so everyone is worried about who's going to be the next big guy and run this place. The cops don't even know, so they're everywhere. That means I didn't bring any of my goods tonight. I can take your order for when it cools down, though."

"That's no good. It has to be tonight."

"Sorry, Man," Jake said. Looking over at Morgan's companions, he said, "Hey, Chuck. Do you still have anything left from what you bought the other night."

Chuck? Why would Jake know Chuck? Why would Chuck have fireworks? He's scared to death of the stuff. His best bud confirmed by saying, "I don't know what you mean. I don't have any fireworks. Why would I have fireworks?" He widened his eyes, and he looked at Sarah.

She backed him up. "Oh. Right. You hate the fireworks." She said to Morgan. "Sorry, Morgan. Tonight will just have to have another asterisk. I'm not going to disappear again, though. Let's go get some Sizzling Shrimp."

Well, they tried. "That's ok. After coming in your car, no asterisk is needed." When they got to Bamboo Dragon he saw something that forced him to rethink. "Evening of Morgan, Bigger, Larger, and Uncut" was going to be cut, like the first was. The dining room was closed. "Not again!"

Sarah said, "It's ok. I called ahead." She opened the unlocked front door, and they went inside.

It turned out Bamboo Dragon was still open for carry-out. When they went to get their order, a woman who worked there apologized and said both managers and four from the wait staff had disappeared and they couldn't reach the owner, so they told the wait and delivery staff to take the night off. The kitchen was still open for take-out because they couldn't shut down completely.

With the "Evening not quite with an Asterisk," the three hungry people took Sizzling Shrimp back to Sarah's car to watch the movie of the night, and Morgan squeezed into the back again.

Morgan knew he was a third wheel, just like he had told Chuck a week and a half ago. At the time, it seemed like Carina was the wonderful solution. Then she kissed him and left him. Ellie was warming up to him by saving his job and asking him to Mother's Day, but deep down, he knew he didn't have a chance with Awesome around. Morgan would remain a third wheel in the meantime.

What about Carina? Maybe he shouldn't give up on her. He asked, "Sarah, Carina said she had an old boyfriend thing, but before that, it seemed like we really had something. Do you know who this boyfriend is? Do I have a chance?"

"Morgan, stop thinking about Carina."

"Figures. I'm not as good as this other guy."

"That's not it. Carina is my friend, but trust me. She's not good enough for you."

"She's not good enough for me? No. Carina is incredible."

"When you weren't around. She hit on Chuck."

She what? "Chuck, you wouldn't do that to me, would you?"

Sarah countered, "Of course not, Chuck didn't do anything. It was all Carina, wasn't it, Chuck?"

"What… I didn't…"

"You told me she told you about my ex."

"Right. But, I didn't say—"

"Of course you didn't. You told me Carina called Nerd Herd support to get you to her room. I know Carina and know exactly what she would have done. I trust you, so I know nothing happened. She said what she did because she was frustrated that you turned her down and wanted to get back at me. My point is, Morgan, Carina would just use you."

Morgan didn't understand why being used by someone as hot as Carina would be a problem. It sounded like Sarah wasn't going to go to bat for Morgan with her friend, though. That was too bad. Between the super-car he was stuffed into and the hot shrimp he could hear sizzling, Morgan was thinking Sarah was almost perfect. "Do you have another friend?"

Sarah didn't answer, but Chuck did for her. "Remember, she's from DC and doesn't really know people around here, yet."

Too bad... She couldn't fix him up with another knock-out friend.. Maybe she wasn't perfect. The sequel was never as good as the original, and the original "Evening of Morgan" flopped. The movie was probably going to be Bridget Jones's Diary or some other chick-flick.

They set up dinner in front of the TV to watch the movie: Morgan at one end of the sofa and Chuck in the middle. Sarah stood directly in front of Chuck. She didn't say anything, but Chuck figured out what she wanted. He moved to the opposite end of the couch, and Sarah sat practically on top of him. With her shoes off, she pulled her legs up on the sofa and bent them over his. The coach was for three, but Sarah was almost on Chuck's lap, so the two of them took less than half of the space.

"What are we watching?" Morgan fearfully asked.

"Enter the Dragon," Sarah replied.

No way. Morgan set down his take-out box, paused the movie before it started, and stood up on the other side of the coffee table. Chuck knew what Morgan was doing, extracted himself from where he was pinned to the corner by Sarah, and took position opposite Morgan.

They bowed, and Chuck raised his hands. "Prepare to die," he said in his kung fu movie voice. He started to raise his leg to fake a kick, but then his foot nailed the coffee table. "Ah! Ow!"

Sarah popped up and said, "I've got this Chuck."

Chuck hopped to the couch and collapsed rubbing his foot. Now, Morgan was facing Sarah. He said, "What are you doing?"

"My job is to protect…my boyfriend…because I'm his girlfriend."

Her job is to protect Chuck? That's not how it worked. Morgan didn't want to use his fake-movie kung fu moves on Sarah because he might hurt her. He never wanted to hurt Chuck's girlfriend. Morgan didn't even do that to Jill, even though in hindsight that would have been good. They could have unleashed Ellie and gotten popcorn. He didn't want to hurt Sarah. Before Morgan could say something… What?

Morgan reacted instinctively. He turned his head, covering his face and his most vulnerable part. He hadn't had his ass-kicked by a girl in 15 years. But Sarah had kicked at his head.

"You're ok, Morgan," Sarah said. "What are you doing?"

Morgan was too scared to say anything. Chuck explained, "It's 'the Morgan.'"

"That what?"

"It's the move Morgan and I did when we were younger. You turn your head and protect… you know."

"I wouldn't hurt your friend, though. I easily kicked over his head."

Morgan had reacted, so he hadn't seen what she did. He did what he did back when they were growing up: "Chuck, please help."

Morgan went to the couch, and Chuck, feeling better because it was only a stubbed toe, took his place across from Sarah.

Sarah didn't understand what was going on. "I'm not going to hurt you, Chuck."

"I trust you."

Sarah took a half step back, then extended her leg up towards Chuck's face and held her socked foot directly in front of Chuck's face. Morgan thought it was incredible, her leg was well past 90 degrees, and she held it there like it was no problem. Holding it in the air, she calmly said, "See. You're tall, so I can reach my leg above your head, like I did with Morgan"

She didn't move her leg while she turned her head and told Morgan, "Morgan, you were never at risk. I can easily kick above your head, but I can't kick above someone as tall as Chuck without jumping, and that wouldn't be a good idea in this small area." She smiled and turned back to Chuck. She pointed her toe, tapping Chuck on the nose. With her foot! Chuck's eyes were shut, but he didn't budge and smiled. He must have known Sarah could do that.

After touching Chuck, she lowered her leg. She went up to Chuck, and said, "Thanks for trusting me," as she kissed him on the tip of his nose.

Chuck and Sarah returned to their position. Sarah grabbed her box of take-out and snuggled up against Chuck on the couch again.

Before they unpaused the movie, Sarah asked, "Morgan, what do you know about pets?"

Uh oh. This had happened before because of how he hung around his best friend. "I may be small, but I'm not Chuck's pet."

"No, no. That's not what I was implying. It got a pet goldfish, Orangie, and wondered if you knew anything. He's my first pet. From Chuck, I only learned to not let him run away or get hit by a car. Those aren't an issue with a fish."

Sarah had a pet? At least she wasn't saying Morgan was Chuck's pet. "Sorry, I don't know anything. I only know I'm glad you're on our side. You know. Like The Lion King."

"What do you mean? You put Chuck against me, but I'm on Chuck's side."

Morgan needed to work on his Timone voice. Or maybe it wasn't obvious to Sarah. He said, "I'm on Chuck's side too, so we're all on the same side."

Chuck quipped, "Unless Morgan goes to the dark side."

"You're safe. I'd have to have a Padme, first." He wasn't going to get Carina back, and Sarah didn't have any other friends to hook him up with, so he needed someone else.

"You need a pad?" Sarah hadn't followed.

"No, Padme, like the prequel trilogy." Sarah didn't show any sign that she understood. "Star Wars. Episodes 1-3."

"Oh, I've never seen those."

"What, you never… They aren't the best, but you have to see all six movies."

"I only saw the first one when I was young. I've never seen 5 or 6 either."

Morgan made his best Luke Skywalker impression from Empire. "No. That's not true! That's impossible!"

Chuck came right back with a deep Darth Vader voice, "Search your feelings. You know it to be true."

Sarah still showed no recognition. Morgan had a scary thought. "If you never saw Empire, does that mean you don't know the biggest secret of Star Wars?"

"Of course I know Vader is Luke's father. I also know James Earl Jones voiced Vader. Everyone knows those things. I'll watch all of the movies with Chuck."

That wouldn't do. Sarah had an incomplete education. Morgan said, "We should watch the original trilogy right now.

"I want to see this Bruce Lee film," Sarah said. "I've never seen one. I've heard this is the greatest kung fu film ever."

Sarah didn't know anything. "You don't know who Bruce Lee is either? Makes sense because with what you can do, you're probably better than Bruce Lee, so why waste the time? You're Brucette Lee-a."

"I know who Bruce Lee is. You can know things without seeing movies."

Morgan wasn't sure about that, but he had a more important question for Sarah. "Are you better at kung fu?"

"He didn't really do 'kung fu,' but he invented jeet kune do. I don't really know kung fu, either, but I'm sure he was better."

"I said 'kung fu' because that's what Neo said in The Matrix."

"I've never seen that movie either. Chuck and I can watch it sometime. A few years ago, I trained in kickboxing, but that doesn't make me better than everyone. Who is Brucette Leea?"

"You. You're a female bad-ass. You're like Bruce Lee, but you're real. Sure, Bruce Lee was a real person, but he was in the movies. You're right here, so you're more real. You're a woman, so 'Bruce-ette.' Leia is the bad-ass woman in Star Wars, which some people in the movie pronounce as Lee-a, instead of Lay-a."

Sarah thanked him for the compliment and snuggled back into Chuck. Then, they started the opening credits of the movie.

Morgan wasn't sure he had ever been so jealous of Chuck before. It didn't feel right, though, because he'd never be jealous of his best friend. He didn't want his best friend's girl. She didn't approve of her friend, Carina, but that didn't make Sarah any less awesome. She was a gorgeous, female martial arts expert with a cool car, even though it was designed for two. Chuck was so lucky she wanted to experience all of the classics with him for the first time. Ellie was cool enough to take his name "Beretta" after he changed his name for her. Sarah shouldn't do that, though. She was so cool, Chuck should take her name, making him Chuck Walker. If they moved to Texas, and she trained him, he'd be like Chuck Norris: Chuck Walker, Texas Ranger.

After the movie, Morgan asked Sarah if she could have done all of that too. She was mysterious and didn't answer. She was so awesome.

Their stomachs were full enough to make seals jealous, and the movie had been watched, so the "Evening called the 'Evening of Morgan' because Sarah was too Awesome for one Evening" was complete. They could play video games, but Morgan didn't want to spoil the evening by finding out Sarah couldn't shoot things. It was time to go. She asked Morgan, "Do you want a ride home in the front seat?"

"Yes, but my bike is here. You don't have a bike rack, do you?"

Sarah shook her head. He should have guessed. He said, "Sarah, when we started the 'Evening of Morgan,' I wanted to make sure you had something to bring to the relationship. Now, I know you definitely do. This wasn't an 'Evening of Morgan 2,' and calling it 'Evening of Sarah' is inadequate. This was 'An Evening of Chuck's Amazing Girlfriend.' He's a lucky guy."

Sarah smiled, "I'm with Chuck. I'm the lucky one."

Morgan left, but Sarah hung back to say goodbye to Chuck. With only the two of them present, Chuck thanked her. "Thanks for doing this tonight."

"Of course. As you said, Morgan's your best friend. That makes him important to me. I'm sorry I didn't realize about the fireworks before Morgan tried to buy some. Before we left tonight, I called the Bamboo Dragon again and had the movie here, but I didn't realize chopping off the head of Triad would make everyone too scared to do anything."

"That's ok."

"You say it's ok that there weren't fireworks, but you can't use the excuse you did the other night. I'm here as evidence that you're not scared of fireworks. I didn't know how you created a distraction until tonight, but now I know what my hero did." Sarah wrapped her arms around Chuck and hugged him tightly. "Thank you."

Chuck took a few seconds to lift his arms to hug back. Sarah pulled back and spared him from feeling awkward because unfortunately, he never knew what he could do with her. This wasn't a "thank you" not a "punishment." However, while Chuck was her hero, as his protector, she knew she should be mad at him.

Sarah smiled and teased Chuck, "I should be more mad at you because you didn't follow orders and save yourself instead of all of us, but that shrimp was too good to be mad at the person who saved my life."

Chuck and Sarah stood staring at each other for a minute, simply holding each others' hands loosely between them. Chuck finally broke the silence. "About tonight. The cover…"

"You did a good job of acting like my boyfriend, letting me snuggle up next to you like I wanted."

He wrinkled his forehead. "Like you… No, I had no problem with that."

"Good."

"I meant the fake fighting. I've seen what you can do, but Morgan hadn't. He now knows a fraction of what you can do. What's the cover for that?"

That was a good question. Sarah was happy that Chuck was thinking about potential problems in the cover. She explained, "I only said I was trained in kickboxing. He doesn't know what I can do with knives or the four black belts I've earned."

"Four?" Chuck breathed out in amazement.

"I'll be around enough, some of what I can do will be obvious at some point. This is kind of like working at Wienerlicious but driving a Porsche. We can't hide everything, but we don't have to give the details. No one would guess the truth."

Chuck nodded that he understood, so she answered his question, "The cover is that I had training in self-defense a few years ago. He was amazed that it was so close, but he couldn't think I was as good as Bruce Lee because I held my leg up to your face."

Chuck raised his eyebrow. "This is Morgan, who has the great skill of self-delusion. I'm not sure he is delusional, in this case. I've seen you stare down an oncoming SUV."

"He doesn't need to know things like the guns I use or that I'm pretty good with knives. The next time I see Ellie, I'll tell her I'm taking a taekwondo class. That'll explain any visible injuries, like the one from La Ciudad's lucky kick. It's a good excuse around two doctors who might notice, and it's a lot better than saying I'm a klutz who works around a grill all day."

Sarah grinned even bigger. "Also, it'll be good for Morgan to know I won't put up with anything from him or from you." She pecked him on the cheek and said good night.

A/N: Sarah had to prove the cover to Chuck's best friend. That didn't mean she was lying.

In progress readers: this has been posting Monday/Friday, but probably, the next Monday and Friday will have to be skipped. there are still 85 more "in betweens," so more is coming.

MyNameIsJeffNImLost AU stories:
- "The Bartowskis vs the Spy World" (chapter 5, "White Nights")
- "Chuck & Sarah vs Trust" (chapter 5, "Practice")
- "Ellie vs the Ninja" (chapter 7, "Ellie vs Chinese Spy")