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TV Chit Chat - September 2008

Grey’s Anatomy: The Becoming

September 30th 2008 22:21

Meredith: (VO) There’s this person in my head. She is brilliant, capable, she can do chest tubes and tracheotomies, she can run a code without freaking out. She’s a really good surgeon, maybe even a great surgeon. She’s me, only so much better.



Bailey is walking her son down the hall and stops by the bulletin board. The Chief is looking at something that he says will be really good for the hospital. But, “Is Yang going to have a problem with this?” Bailey looks at it. “I’d say so.”

~*~*~

In therapy, Meredith confesses that, “Every time Derek walks into a room, all I can think about is his tongue…in my mouth.”

“So you think about kissing Derek.”

“It’s making surgery very difficult.” She wants some therapeutic tools to help her get through it so that she can finally save someone in the trials she and Derek are conducting. They have their fifth patient today.

Her therapist makes her think about reality. “The kissing’s not going to happen now because he’s with Rose…”

“Powerful stuff reality.”

~*~*~

Outside the patient’s room, Meredith chants, “He’s with Rose, he’s with Rose, he’s with Rose…” Right. She goes in. “Sorry I’m late.”


Their new patient was in the Army. His dad brought in all his army buddies to help him through this.

~*~*~

Bailey knocks on the clinical room door. “Dr. Sloan?”

Sloan opens the door bare-chested, and then semi-closes it again. “Dr. Bailey, Dr. Bailey’s baby…”

She tells him that it appears his nurse is no longer available for his surgery. Okay then, get him Nurse Kate. Sloan ducks back inside. A woman giggles.

Bailey checks her sheets then knocks on the door again. “Dr. Torres, Dr. Sloan would like to use Nurse Kate this morning.” Currently she’s scheduled for one of Callie’s surgeries, but if she’s willing to move it back Nurse Kate can do both.

There is a moment where we hear Sloan say “Ow!”, and impatient, Bailey knocks on the door again. “Dr. Torres, I know you’re in there.”

Callie opens the door. Yeah push it back an hour, whatever, that’ll be fine. She tells Tuck hi, then glances back at Miranda. “Don’t judge be Bailey.”

~*~*~

Everyone except Cristina is crowded around the bulletin board. Meredith asks if Cristina’s seen “it” yet, and Izzie thinks they should take it down. She reaches for it, then pulls back telling George to take it down. Meredith argues that they can’t take it down because she’ll hear about it eventually.

“Who’s gonna hear about what?” Cristina asks and they all swing around. Izzie tries to casually cover up the bulletin board, but it’s obvious she’s hiding something. Cristina tells her to move and goes over to see what it is.

She stares at the bulletin board a moment, then says, “Good for him,” before walking off.

They all turn around to stare at the newspaper clipping of Burke. The headline reads “Area Surgeon Takes Prestigious Award.”


Izzie can’t get over that they actually know someone who’s won the Harper-Avery award.

~*~*~

Alex asks Izzie to ask Meredith if she’d be okay with Rebecca moving in for a while. What? Izzie reminds him that she’s married…and what about her kid? Alex reminds her that Rebecca’s pregnant. She’s leaving her husband and they’re going to get their own place, but they have to work out everything first.

Alex rushes out. Izzie is torn…

~*~*~

Dr. Hahn asks who would like to present and everyone but Cristina raises their hand. Alex gets it. He reads the file about the heart transplant. Hahn keeps asking questions, and everyone except Cristina keeps raising their hand. Finally, Erica asks, “Yang, am I boring you? Because if you’d rather spend the day in the morgue, I have about 50 cadaver hearts that need to be harvested.”

Hahn starts back in on their patient assessment, but Cristina raises her hand. “I would love to go to the morgue. Thank you.”

She leaves.

Hahn takes the rest of the group to go meet the “mom in the plastic bubble” who is currently on the verge of an emotional melt down. “Get me out of here!” she cries, pounding on her plastic surroundings.

His husband tries to calm her down, but she just cries, “It’s been eight weeks without touching another human being!”

Dr. Hahn reaches her hand through the gloved opening. “Take my hand.” The patient doesn’t want to, but finally grabs her oxygen mask and takes Hahn’s hand. She’s upset that they told her she was going to be able to leave but—Hahn interrupts that that’s what she’s there to tell her. “We have a heart for you.”

The woman stops crying in happy shock. Really? Yes.

~*~*~

The Chief pages Dr. Sloan to tell him that “as of this morning, the nurses are boycotting your surgeries.”

Sloan argues that he hasn’t done anything to the nurses…at least nothing to get them sued anyway. Well, either way, the nurses has hired a union rep. They walk in to find that the rep is, in fact, The Chief’s wife. The Chief is as surprised as Sloan to see her there.

She tells them that she’s “more than just a housewife” and as of today they’re instituting a “date and tell” policy. If any hospital employee is hooking up with another, they need to register it. Sloan stares at the clipboard. “Is this some kind of joke?”

Do they want to wait until they have $20 million dollar lawsuit? Sloan looks to The Chief for help, but he tells him to fill out the form. He’s not happy about it either but—whoa, wait. He has to fill one out too?

The Chief stares at his wife and the form in her hand. He is not happy.

~*~*~

Down in the morgue, Lexie asks if Cristina is okay since she passed up a really awesome case. She asks if it’s about Dr. Burke, but Cristina just silences her with a look. She turns back to the body on the table and starts singing. “I made it through the wilderness, you know I made it through…”


Lexie doesn’t quite know what to do. “Should I—”

Cristina just sings louder. “You made me feel shiny and new. Like a virgin—”

“Hey!” Lexie starts to sing with her and Cristina stops. She turns to stare at her and Lexie stops. “Uh…I’ll just go upstairs and go, carting—” She leaves.

Cristina goes back to work, singing.

~*~*~

The Chief and his wife argue in the hallway about how they’ve both changed. He tells her that he’s “got himself an intern. The Chief’s Intern.” Right.

Later on, The Chief catches George in the hall to tell him he’s been watching him. A guy like him needs a change, a challenge. How does he feel about being his intern? “George O’Malley, Intern to the Chief.”

“George O’Malley, Intern to The Chief?” George repeats, slightly in awe. “Is that even a real thing?”

~*~*~

Derek and Meredith are looking over the MRI scans of the brain. He thinks they need to get aggressive with the virus. He talks about the procedure, she gets distracted by his mouth, but tries her best to pay attention.

Derek steps over to the practice brain to show her how “needle number one will go into the tumor here. Needle number to goes in here.” In order to do this right, they’re going to need to inject the virus in at the same time. “You’re needle number two.” Don’t worry, they’re going to practice.

Derek shuts off the light and the brain lights up. “Now remember, we both have to be completely in sync. Let me know when you’re ready.”


As Derek reaches behind to grab something, Meredith whispers to herself, “He’s with Rose, he’s with Rose…”

~*~*~

“Do you like princesses?” a little girl in her own princess outfit asks Alex.

“Yeah sure,” he tells her. When the little girl asks her if he’s going to fix her mommy’s heart, he tells her that it’s “Like in Snow White, where she eats the poison apple and she dies for a while. But she’s not really dead.”

Oh no. The mom looks from him to her daughters.

“My mom’s gonna be DEAD?” the other little girl asks.

“Snow White dies?!”

Both girls rush to their dad, crying.

“When they’re little, you skip over the scary parts,” the mom tells Alex.

Oh. “I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay, you don’t have kids. How would you know?”

This hits Alex harder than the woman could have known it would.

~*~*~

Izzie tracks down Dr. Bailey to ask her if she can’t get rid of her patient, is it okay to give her results to her patient’s really good friend?

“No!” Bailey replies in a ‘Are you crazy? You know this’ kind of way.

Well, yeah, but what if “her friend is a really good friend of mine and he’s changing his whole life for her because he thinks she’s pregnant and she’s NOT?”

Bailey tells her that if she wants to win herself a Harper-Avery award, she’s going to need to learn to “master the basics of privacy.”

~*~*~

“The Chief needs to know who’ve you slept with by the end of the day, be thorough,” George is telling everyone. Izzie argues that that’s no one’s business, but George simply answers, “It’s The Chief’s business, so it’s my business.” He clicks his pen. “I’m The Chief’s intern.”

When Bailey asks to see what he’s handing out, George pulls his clipboard back, telling her, “The Chief says you are the only person in the whole hospital who is exempt. Congratulations.”

Uh-huh. Bailey walks off.

Rose awkwardly asks what level of intimacy do they need to know for this thing? George stammers around a bit, then tells her just the uh, “highest level”. Okay then. In that case, Rose won’t be needing one of the forms.

George takes the form back, not really sure what he’s supposed to do now, and as he walks off, Izzie mutters, “Freak.”

“I am not a fr—I am the The Chief’s Intern,” George defends himself.

As he starts to walk off, Izzie calls after him, “Mmmhmm, that’s not a real job.”

Okay, he just needs her form by the end of the day.

~*~*~

Hahn complains to Callie about Burke winning the award instead of her just because he’s a guy, and asks Callie if she wants to meet her for drinks tonight to trash talk him. Callie laughs, then tells her she doesn’t really think she can tonight because um…

Sloan shows up, asking Callie if she’ll talk to the nurses, tell them to call off the boycott because he’s a good guy. Hahn informs him that they don’t think he’s a good guy, but Sloan slaps Callie playful from behind. “Dr. Torres thinks I’m a good guy.” He leans in. “Don’t you Callie?”

“Um…” Hahn gets it and walks off.

~*~*~

Meredith is talking to her patient and his friend, who’s determined to stay with his buddy whether he likes it or not.

“Why did you come?”

“How could I not?” his friend asks. The patient glances hesitantly at Meredith and she gets up.

“Why are you so paranoid?”

The guys kiss.

Suddenly the door opens and Meredith tries to warn them. “Mr. Covington!”

They break apart and the father stares at them in disgust. “Don’t make me throw you out.”

The boys platoon leader shows up. “What’s wrong?”

~*~*~

Sloan approaches Rose, who immediately tells him “No.” She’s not talking to the nurses for him.

“I hate women like you,” Sloan tells her. “You string guys along acting like sex is some prize, but really you’re just afraid that once you give it up he’ll lose interest.”

Rose closes the elevator doors on him.

~*~*~

Meredith’s patient tells him that his father’s a good guy, but he’s a soldier. He thinks Todd should just leave, get him out of his mind. He knows the drill, you leave your personal life at home…He just never thought he would meet his personal life at work.

Meredith tells him she can still go get Todd, but he tells her he can’t. “I know what you’re thinking. Brave soldier who can’t even stand up to his father.”

“I was thinking this is hard.”

“The gay part or the tumor part?”

“The whole part.”

~*~*~

George is back. “I need your form.”

Alex grumbles about the “sex police” and Meredith thinks forms are stupid. Either way, he still needs them by the end of the day.

Rose walks up and discreetly tells George that she thinks she’ll take one of those forms after all.

“What? Why?” George asks loudly, then, “Oh.” He tries to sneak her one, but everyone sees it.

Lexie turns to apologize to Meredith, but she tells her that “Derek is with Roes and I’m okay that Derek is with Rose.”

George pages Cristina, but Lexie warns that they don’t want to see Cristina right now. Why is she crying? Staring straight ahead being super quiet? No, she’s singing. Meredith’s eyes widen and she jumps from the table.

This is bad!

“I still need your form!” George calls. Alex hands over his and George looks at it. “This isn’t complete.”

What’s he talking about? George rolls his eyes towards Lexie and Lexie’s eyes widen. “Oh right, sorry,” Alex says calmly, taking it back and getting out his pen.

Alex leaves and Lexie is furious. “He FORGOT he had sex with me?!”

~*~*~

Meredith orders Cristina to stop singing. She just sings louder until Meredith shouts, “I’m in therapy!” Cristina stops singing. “Thank you. That makes me feel a little better.”

“You’re welcome.”

~*~*~

Bailey asks The Chief why she’s exempt and he tells her that “I don’t even want to see you holding the form.” Bailey stalks off.

The Chief’s wife stares at him.

“What?”

~*~*~

Because Alex has a temperature Hahn won’t let him enter the surgery. He asks her to page Yang instead. He’s on babysitting duty the rest of the day.

~*~*~

Meredith tells his patient that they could take a moment before the surgery. He glances between his father talking to Derek and Todd sitting in the hallway. Todd stands up.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Let’s just go.”

~*~*~

Dr. Hahn tells Cristina that the donor heart is on its way. They stand outside waiting in their scrubs, and she continues, “I can’t imagine how you must feel about Dr. Burke’s award. You actually helped him with his research and he didn’t even mention you in that article.”


Cristina remains silent, and Hahn goes on to tell him that she’s not surprised. His arrogance is quite well known. Cristina still doesn’t say anything. Hahn thought they finally had some common ground, but “good for you, refusing to trash him. Rising above, that’s very impressive. I’m going to follow your example Yang. Congratulations Preston,” she tells the open air. “I wish you well.”

~*~*~

“Okay remember what I said. We have to be in total sync for the virus to have maximum infiltration,” Derek tells Meredith as they get ready with their surgery. Ready? Ready.

They both start to inject their needles.


They start to get off track and Derek warns, “Slow down, don’t look at the monitor, look at me.” When she stares at him, they get back in sync. “The virus is in.”

Everyone claps and Derek looks at Meredith. “We’re standing on the moon Dr. Grey.”

~*~*~

Dr. Bailey hands over a sheet of paper to The Chief. “I just wanted to drop off the form myself.”

The Chief and his wife look up at her as The Chief glances at the paper and says, “There are interns listed on this form.”

“I require the energy of youth,” Bailey simply replies, and The Chief’s wife shares in moment by staring at her husband: see? “Dr. Shepherd was just a moment of weakness for both of us.”


“Dr. Sloan?” The Chief interrupts, his eyes widening at the sheet.

“Oh that was many moments, in On Call Rooms, hot.”

“Mmmm, steamy,” Adele adds.

Okay, alright all ready, The Chief gets the joke. Bailey is furious! That’s just the point. She’s a single woman in this hospital, and here he singles ONLY her out as the one person who couldn’t attract the opposite sex? That’s just, just—Bailey struggles for a word for it and Adele offers, “Harassment.”

“Adele—”

“Shame on you, Sir!” Bailey yells, hitting him in the shoulder.

“Ow!” The Chief stares after her as she leaves, close to tears. He has no idea what just happened.

~*~*~

Izzie confronts Alex about wearing himself out, and he argues that she can’t even pass a baby on the street without stopping. ‘The only freakin’ baby in the world you’re not happy about is mine.”

“It’s not that I’m not happy for you, it’s just—” Izzie stops. Should she do it? Should she tell him?

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Yeah that’s what I thought.” Alex walks off.

~*~*~

Callie and Hahn scrub in and Hahn asks, “So are we on for tonight or what?”

Callie tells her she already told her that she had a thing. Hahn finally confesses that she doesn’t make friends easily, is awkward about it, bad at small talk, and generally doesn’t like people she doesn’t know, but she made friends with Callie and now she has this “Thing”, which just so happens to be Sloan.

Callie looks at her. “Are you mad that I’m sleeping with Mark Sloan?”

No, she mad that she didn’t tell her she was sleeping with Sloan, or that she’s one of those “girls who gets all poufy when she gets a boyfriend”. Instead, she just goes off with her “thing”. Callie is surprised and watches Hahn leave. Hahn stops at the door to again tell her, “I don’t make friends easily.”

~*~*~

Meredith is excited about their “super sync”-ness in this surgery, and Derek tells her that he can stay here tonight. They start to grin almost like old times, and suddenly Rose appears. She was just heading home and wondering if he was coming, or…?

Derek tells her that he needs to stay and Rose understands. She starts to leave, but Meredith calls her back. She assures Derek that she can page him if anything bad happens. Is she sure?

Derek: I’ll stay. If you want me to stay, I’ll stay.

Meredith:…No, you should go be with Rose.

He stares at her a second, then heads off.

~*~*~

Callie knocks on Sloan’s door. “Sex. Let’s go.”

Sloan continues to sulk at his desk. Callie’s back. Is he coming or what? No, he’s just “not in the mood.”

Callie is shocked. “What! You’re always in the mood.”

“I know,” he answers sadly, “But I’m just…my surgeries got cancelled today.”

“You’re useless.” Callie walks off leaving poor Sloan to wonder if she’s right.

~*~*~

Meanwhile, the woman who received the new heart transplant is seizing. “I think something’s wrong!” her husband calls out and Alex rushes over. “Page Dr. Hahn.”

“She’s not moving!”

Alex hesitates only a moment, then breaks the isolation barrier, stepping up to the patient’s bed. The woman’s two little girls watch fearfully nearby.

Alex tries to tell Mr. Marshall to get his kids out, but he can’t. Alex finally tells them, “Okay, Zoe, Jessie, this is the scary part, turn around.” He assures them he knows what he’s doing. He gets to work and Mrs. Marshall wakes up. Okay, they can turn around now. Mommy’s fine.

~*~*~

George tosses the files over to The Chief, who tells his wife, “See, I’m delegating.” She’s impressed. She really has seen some progress today.

“Thank you.”

George looks at them, starts to leave, then stops. “Dr. Webber, can I have a word with you?”

Adele leaves and George confronts him. “I give up major surgeries today and all my friends think I’m a brownnosing perv, but it was worth it because I thought you SAW me. All due respect sir, you’re just using me to get back with your wife.”

He doesn’t know if it’s possible to quit “a thing that isn’t really a thing”, but he does quit. The Chief stops him, telling him that he does see him. The Chief’s intern wasn’t a real job, but he’d like to make it one.

~*~*~

Bailey walks by and notices Dr. Sloan sitting alone in the hallway, deep in thought…


Meredith’s patient starts to code…”Clear!”

Bailey walks by again…Sloan’s still sitting there…

Meredith sits with her patient’s father. Todd appears and tells him that he was trained not to leave a man when he’s down. All he wants to know is how his friend is doing. Meredith finally interrupts him, “Todd…”

Todd finally looks at them, sees their faces, and realizes what’s going on.

~*~*~

Hahn tells her patient that “Dr. Karev saved your life, but the chance that you were exposed to infection is too great.”

“Can she get another heart?”

“You’ll be at the top of the list.”

“But I’m going to have to stay in isolation, right?”

Alex watches the family go right back to where they were before this all happened.

~*~*~

Bailey comes to a stop in front of Sloan. He looks up sadly. She slaps him in the head.

~*~*~

“Spinal tap showed encephalitis,” Derek says, appearing behind Meredith. There’s no way they could have predicted that.

He sits down next to her. “On my way over I bought this.” He shows her the bottle of wine. They’re going to save it until they succeed, and then they’re going to use it to drink to “all the other patients who helped us change the face of medicine.” They’re going to use that as their victory dance. “Meredith, we will,” he assures. “We’re going to open this bottle of champagne.”


She smiles tearfully at him.

~*~*~

Cristina stands in front of The Chief and his wife and The Chief says he noticed that she didn’t turn in her form.

“No, Sir.”

“Well I need you too. The hospital is still liable even though Dr. Burke isn’t here.”

Cristina takes the form and stares at it. She fills it out. There. Satisfied?

He knows this is difficult on her. Cristina argues that no, he doesn’t know. Burke is out there changing the world and she’s still here in the same hospital, doing the same thing, even living in the same apartment. She’s right where she chooses to be. “But Sir,” she says. “When his hand was shaking, I performed his surgeries. I kept his secrets, I nursed his pride. You know it, and I know it, and he knows it. HE knows it. And yet, nowhere in that newspaper article does my name appear…I am the unseen hand to his brilliance.” She turns away. “Excuse me.”


She gets herself back under control. “And yet although everything is the same, it’s very very different. Now I’m lucky if I get to hold a clamp. Hahn, treats me like…I was his hand. And now I’m a ghost. That’s not difficult. It’s unbeatable. I know everybody’s proud of him, but I’m not. And I do not wish him well.”

She leaves.

~*~*~

Bailey stands before the nurses. “This boycott has gone on long enough.” She knows she doesn’t have any authority here, but she’d like to give them her thoughts on Sloan.

Sloan leans over. “You’re doin’ great.”

“This man,” Bailey begins. “Is a whore.”

Sloan’s grin disappears to confusion as the nurses all nod.

“Has always been a whore, will probably always be a whore, but that’s not a secret,” Bailey tells them. They all knew that before they dated him, and now they’re all “woe is me, he didn’t call me back?”

“He’s nasty,” Bailey says. “But he’s a doctor here, and a pretty good one. So let us all close our knees,” she says loudly to all the nurses, who start to look at the floor uncomfortably, “And get back to our jobs so he can get back to his job and help the people who really need it!” She turns to smile at him, then tell the nurses, “Disperse!”

They all leave. Poor Sloan. (Haha, only Bailey could do that.”)

~*~*~

Izzie tries to tell Alex she heard he did great as they watch the woman get to hold her scrubbed up kids. Alex rushes off, yelling that “You think I’m scum, you think I can’t do this but It’s my kid. MY kid, and what you think doesn’t matter!”

~*~*~

Meredith’s patient’s father says he wants him to have a military burial. He exits and nods at Todd. Todd enters to kiss his dead friend. Meredith watches.


“It was a good day…”

The Chief and his wife are getting into the elevator.

“Heading home.”

“Maybe you have changed.”

He looks at her a moment. “That’s a nice blouse.”

Meredith (VO): Maybe even a great day.


Bailey sits on a bench outside the hospital, catching Izzie on her way out. Did she get in touch with her patient? No. Did she tell her friend? No. “You’re growing Stevens.”

“I wish it would stop.”

Bailey tells her that right now “my husband is out on a date…a date. She gets up to push Tuck’s stroller home. Izzie watches her go.

Meredith (VO): I was a good doctor. Even when it was hard. I was the me in my head.

George joins Lexie at the bar and she tells him that she just left three messages with her ex-boyfriends to find out how forgettable she is. “I’m sure they’ll call me back.” So she made a mistake, George informs her that no one’s made more mistakes than him. Let him be an example. “I am the man at the right hand of The Man.”

Callie admits that she’s been avoiding Callie because of what Addison said when she was here. When she tells her, Hahn just laughs and Callie can’t help but laugh too.

Meredith (VO): There was a moment when I thought, ‘I can’t do this.”

Adele looks over at her husband in bed. “Well I’m glad some things haven’t changed.”

They laugh.

Meredith (VO): I can’t do this alone…

Derek and Sloan enter the elevator. He tells her that a “the most refined, professional, lady-like doctor finally came to my defense tonight. The best she could come up with was ‘he’s a whore’.” He looks at Derek. “I’m a whore.”

“I slept with her. And the whole time I was thinking about Meredith,” Derek admits. “Who’s the bigger whore?”

Meredith (VO): But I closed my eyes and imagined myself doing it. And I did. I blocked out the fear and I did it.

Cristina sleeps alone.

~*~*~

Meredith sits in her therapists office, telling her she thought it was a really good day. Her therapist tells her that she’s just going to get right down to it (since Meredith’s insurance only covers 20 sessions and all). Basically? “That was a load of crap.”

Meredith is confused. Her therapist tells her that her “tragic patient dies alone while the love of his life is literally IN THE NEXT ROOM! That’s you!”

Meredith thinks “THAT is a load of crap.”

“He’s with Rose,” his therapist keeps telling her and Meredith can’t understand why she keeps telling her that?

Because if he’s with Rose, then that means he’s not with her. Does she know why? “You’re scared.”

“Are you calling me a coward?”

“What do you think?”

Meredith leaves, the door closing behind her.

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(PS-I know I'm way behind, but don't worry! I'll eventually catch up. And I just can't seem to get myself to post about new episodes knowing there are a few older ones I haven't recapped yet...)
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Heroes: The Second Coming

September 29th 2008 21:08
Heroes: Volume 3: “Villains”

Who shot Nathan Petrelli? Probably the last person you would have guessed…


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*****SPOILER ALERT*****

We begin Chapter 1 of Part 3 of the new season of Heroes 4 years in the future, in Manhattan with future Claire trying to shoot future Peter. He tries to stop her, telling her he can go back “before they found out about us”, but she thinks it’s too late. Telling him she always loved him, Claire apologizes and shoots.

Peter stops slows time enough to sidestep the bullet and grab the gun. He’s gone before Claire can even figure out what happened.

~*~*~

Present Day: Chapter one: “The Second Coming”

We’re back to the day Nathan’s giving his speech. Only this time, we’re with the killer. A man pulls a baseball cap down low over his head and steps up, raising the gun and shooting.

People scream, Nathan falls, and Peter runs after the killer…who just so happens to be…his future self!

Seeing reports of the shooting on TV, Claire automatically calls Peter, who tells her to stay at home. She argues that she can help, that her blood—Peter cuts her off. She needs to stay there.

At the hospital, the emergency crew brings Nathan in. Doctors order Peter out until the hallway, where he slumps to the floor and waits…and waits…and waits. Until finally, the doctor comes out. “I’m sorry.”

Peter walks into to find his bloody brother lying on the stretcher. He kisses Nathan’s forehead. “It shouldn’t end this way.” He lays a hand on Peter’s shoulder and—With a gasp Nathan wakes up.

~*~*~

Meanwhile…

Hiro is bored out of his mind sitting at his father’s desk at Yamagato Industries, playing with going back and forth a few minutes, fifteen minutes in the past, 45 in the future. He sighs. This is not how he pictures his next quest.

Ando knocks on the door. “You busy, sir?”

“Stop calling me “sir”,” Hiro insists. “Just because I’m in his office…doesn’t mean I’m becoming my father.”

Ando says that he can’t help it, he’s intimidated. Intimidated, why? Well, for one, Hiro now owns 51% of the company, a fleet of corporate jets, and $250 million in cash. Hiro’s response? “I can teleport, remember?” He has no interest in money.

“You can always give it to me,” Ando says with a smile. “I’m extremely interested in money.”

Slightly depressed, Hiro says that money won’t show him his destiny. He’s saved the world now…twice! And here he is stuck in a desk job? “Now look at me, a man without a quest,” he says. “All I do is sit here, bored. It’s not like destiny is going to come knocking at my door.”

Cue knocking at the door!

Hiro and Ando look at each other.

Hiro gets up and accepts an envelope from his father’s lawyer. Inside is a DVD from his father, one that informs him about his destiny.

~*~*~

Claire shuts off the news and hastily packs a bag. She flings the door open and stops dead in her tracks.

“Hello Claire.”

She stares at Sylar in shock. “I saw Hiro Nakamura kill you, I was there.”

He tells her that he’s fully recovered from that, well, maybe not fully, but that’s why he’s here. “I want your power.” He takes a step forward and Claire hits him over the head with a trophy.

She runs into the kitchen as furniture begins moving to block her in. After finding the phone dead, Claire grabs a kitchen knife and slowly starts her search. Sylar follows close behind, waiting silently for the right moment to strike.

Claire stops. He’s right behind her.

Suddenly, she swings around, knife ready. Sylar’s too fast. He disappears before she can get to him.

Claire runs and locks herself in a closet, using her dog’s leash to hold the door closed. Sylar calmly walks up, enjoying this game of cat and mouse. He tries the knob. It rattles but doesn’t open, the leash doing its job.

~*~*~

Another doorknob rattles in another apartment as Maya holds up a wooden paddle, ready to hit her attacker. The door swings open and—Whoa! Mohinder Suresh almost got it that time! Maya quickly apologizes, telling him that she thought Sylar had come back.

Suresh says he hopes he did the right thing sending Molly off. He quickly starts gathering up his things, telling her that he’s going back to India. He’s spent all this time trying to find a way to take these powers away, trying to continue his father’s research, he’s found nothing. He’s at a dead end, he’s going home.

Maya argues that she came all the way from South America to find him! He can’t give up before he’s even tried! When Suresh apologizes but tells her there’s nothing he can do for her, Maya’s powers start to emerge.

Suresh’s eyes begin to go black. “Maya—”

She backs off. “I’m sorry. I should go now.”

Suresh rushes after her, suddenly changing his mind. How did she do that? She tells him that she just sort of calms down and it goes away. On the verge of a major breakthrough, Suresh begins talking about the mind and body connection and suddenly it hits him: “Fight or flight. The adrenal gland, they control our stress levels. My father had it all wrong!” All this time his father thought these superpowers originated in the blood, but it’s not blood, it’s adrenaline!

He picks up a syringe. “All I have to do is make you mad again.”

~*~*~

Back in Japan, Hiro and Ando get ready to watch Hiro’s dad’s DVD. Hiro presses play. His dad fills the screen, sitting at the desk they’re not standing next to.

“Hiro, if you’re watching this, then I am dead. I have left you my fortune.” Hiro bows towards his father’s image. “But more importantly, I leave you with a sacred duty. You are now to be the sentinel of a dangerous secret.”

“A secret…?” Hiro asks.

“One that you must keep, as I and my father before me had done. It resides in my personal safe…In the wrong hands, this secret will destroy the world. ” Hiro nods again. “So it is your task now,” his father continues, “your sacred duty…to never open the safe.”

The video ends and Hiro stares at it in confusion. Ando grins. “Well, you said you wanted a quest…”Never open the safe.””

“I don’t want to be a sentinel!” Hiro says, disappointed. “I want to be a hero!”

He automatically rushes over to the safe. Ando follows him, asking him what he’s doing. There has to be a button to open the safe somewhere! Hiro rushes back to the desk, shuffling things around as Ando says, “Kaito Nakamura was like a father to me. You will do his name a great dishonor.”

“I was nobody in my father’s eyes until I proved I was my own man,” Hiro says, still looking over the desk. “I can’t go back to being nobody.” He looks at his friend. “My destiny…your destiny, Ando…is in side that safe.”

Hiro opens a red-tied black box he finds on the desk and smiles. Inside is a remote with one circular button. Yes! He quickly pulls it out and presses the button. The safe slides open, revealing a fingerprint ID scanner.

Hiro and Ando kneel in front of it and Hiro holds up his thumb.

“Why would your thumb print work?” Ando asks. “He doesn’t want you to open it.”

Hiro presses his thumb against the scanner and grins when the light blinks green and the safe unlocks. He smiles at Ando. “Or maybe he does.”

Hiro opens the safe to find another envelope with a note pressed to it. “Please press play.”

The two friends exchange a confused look and then Hiro gets up to grab the DVD remote again, pressing play.

His father’s image once again fills the screen. “I asked you not to open the safe.” Hiro is even more confused. “But now that you have, beware,” his father warns. “There are those who will stop at nothing to get this half of the formula. “

“Formula?” Ando asks. They both look at the envelope.

“Should it fall into the wrong hands,” Hiro’s father continues, “there is only one hope; a chosen one among you who carries the purity of blood, the “light” to safeguard against the darkness…Do you understand?”

“No. Not really,” Hiro answers the screen.

“So guard this half of the formula with your life. The fate of the world depends on it. Godspeed, my son.”

The video ends.

Ando and Hiro stare at the screen a second, both processing this new information, then Hiro quickly turns around and starts to open the envelope.

“Are you sure you should—“ Too late, he’s already gotten it open.

Hiro pulls out a white sheet of paper held in protective plastic. Hiro stares at the half of formula written on it. “I knew I should’ve paid more attention in Chemistry class.”


Suddenly with a whooooosh! The paper is snatched out of Hiro’s hands. Both he and Ando let out a surprised noise, and Hiro quickly stops time, staring at his empty hands.

Hiro looks around at the time-stopped office, and follows a ghostly white and pink streak through the room, out the door, through the office…and to a girl with short blond hair. The streak suddenly catches up to her and she unfreezes.

“How are you doin’ this? Are you a speedster too?”

Uh, no. He explains that he stops time, but she argue that he doesn’t stop it completely or they wouldn’t be having this conversation.

“So…you move fast?”

“No,” she answers. “I move really fast.”

She stole something from him and he wants it back. “This?” She whips out the formula and pulls it out of his grasp when he reaches for it.

“So this whole time-stopping thing, how does it work?” If he chases her all the way to Bangkok, will time still stay frozen here?

“I don’t know,” Hiro admits, never having thought about this before.

Well that’s something he can think about when he gets up. Wait, what—Too late, the girl punches him in the face and is gone in a whirl of office paper.

~*~*~

Peter’s going through a storage closet when Matt opens the door. “Looking for this?” He holds up the gun with a pencil. Peter side-steps the question commenting on how amazing it is that his brother’s going to recover so well. “Said the bullets went straight through him, barely any damage.”

Matt asks him how he knew where to find the gun, and Peter says he just didn’t think there were that many places for “him to stash it.”

“And what makes you think he stashed it?”

Matt tries to do his mind reading thing, but Peter fights back.

Matt: Ahh!

Peter: You had to go and be the detective, didn’t you Matt?

Peter reveals his real scar-slashed face and Mat can just stare at him in shock.


Matt: How—how did you—

Peter: I came from the future. To stop Nathan from telling the world about us. I had too, it’s where it all begins.

Matt: The future?

Peter lifts his hand. “And now that you know, you can’t be here.”

Matt disappears before he can even protest.

Peter shifts back to present-faced Peter and heads out.

~*~*~

Nathan wakes up in his hospital bed, frowning at his suit hanging on the back of the door.

Peter walks through the emergency room and a woman points to a room. He opens the door. The bed is empty. The suit is gone.

Outside, a news reporter is talking on camera about Nathan’s miraculous recovering when Nathan just walks out.

“That’s him!” They follow him into a chapel, where Nathan turns from staring at the cross to a woman tell a praying woman, “I saw God today.”

Peter exits the hospital and spots the camera crew.

“I was dead and he gave me another chance,” Nathan tells the woman, kneeling in front of her. “But now I know…the reason I’m here…To do great things. To do His bidding.”

The reporter asks him if he’s ready to make his statement now. Nathan looks at him as Peter sneaks in behind a column, hand readying his gun.

“God is the only one with a message,” Nathan answers. “It’s a message of hope and urgency, because he’s not going to wait much longer.” Nathan stands up. “His message is a simple one…we’re all connected. Our hopes, our dreams, our children’s futures, reflected back in each other’s eyes.” He glanced down at the woman and her children. “We fight our own battles.” He kneels in front of her to whisper, “But we know we’re not alone. Because only together can we make our short time on this planet mean something.” The woman nods. “Only together can we be our own destiny…”

Nathan turns to look at the camera. “And we hold in our collective hearts one noble goal.” He stands up. “To save ourselves…To save the world.”

Peter replaces the safety on his gun as his brother turns toward the cross. He walks up just in time to catch Nathan as he stumbles.

~*~*~

Suresh is doing an experiment with the dopamine from Maya’s adrenal gland. They just have to wait a second to see if the enzyme attaches to the cortisol. He tells her she’s very brave to “have found me the way you did.” She tells him that there’s no other choice.

He imagines that, unsettling as it may be to have this power, he’s also imagined how exhilarating “one must know to know such power, to feel so special…” Maya looks at his hands on her arms and he lets go, turning back to the microscope.

“It worked.”

“What have you done?”

“What my father never could.”

He’s isolated the genetic building blocks of the powers. “The contents of this single syringe could give powers to anyone.”

He starts to rush out, but Maya calls forlornly, “Give powers?”

Suresh smiles. “And with the added effects of adrenaline? The effects would be instantaneous.”

He leaves.

~*~*~

Claire is still hiding out in the closet. Sylar bangs on the door, then stops. “I know you’re scared. I would be too alone in this house with someone like me…A man you barely know.”

He starts to wander around, looking at all the boxes that belonging to Claire’s father. He tells her he doesn’t want to hurt her, he just wants what she has.

Sylar opens the box. “See, I lost everything that made me special.” He pulls out Noah’s files. “Lost but now found.” He starts to flip through them. “There’s a whole shopping list of abilities right here. But I’m gonna start with the best. And once I have yours—”

He turns around and Claire stabs a kitchen knife into his chest and tries to run. Sylar uses his powers to pin her to the wall, drawing his bloody line across her forehead. Claire screams.


~*~*~

Claire is lying on the kitchen table. “What are you doing to me?”

“Looking for answers before I bleed to death,” He answers, looking down at her exposed brain. Why doesn’t she feel anything? No nerve endings. He imagines the answers they’ll have if they could use 100% of their brain instead of just 10%, maybe 20. “Why is there evil? How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? How do we make love stay? All these answers, they’re all right here…” he says, trailing a finger across her brain in awe.

“Are you gonna eat it?” Claire asks dazedly.

“Eat your brain?” His gaze shifts to her face and he leans down to whisper, “Claire that’s disgusting.”

“Ahh, there it is.” Sylar reaches in to pull something out of Claire’s brain. He struggles to his feet and rips out the knife in his chest. He looks down at his stab wound, smiling evilly when he heals.

He starts to leave, then stops to pick up the top of Claire’s head, which has been lying on the floor. He places her hair back on her head and Claire takes in a sudden breath, sitting up as her body begins to heal.

“Wait,” she asks, standing up. “What about me, aren’t you going to kill me?”

Sylar turns to her. “Poor girl. There’s so much about yourself you don’t understand. You’re brain is not like the others Claire,” he explains. “YOU are not like the others…You’re different, you’re special…And I couldn’t kill you even if you wanted to.” Stares at him in horror as he adds, “You can never die. And now I guess neither can I.”

Sylar leaves.

~*~*~

Suresh glances up from the microscope as Maya enters to tell him he needs to destroy this new discovery. “It’s like you said, it’s against the laws of nature.” He argues that this breakthrough, the possibilities for ordinary people to—Maya interrupts “would have my ability!”

No that’s not true. “Each individual’s blood chemistry is unique. Like fingerprints.” Their abilities could manifest in an infinite number of wonder abilities. Or terrible, Maya argues.

Suresh won’t give it up even when she argues that in the wrong hands this could be disastrous! He argues right back that “it’s IN the wrong hands” right now! An entire clandestine company dedicated to hiding this from the world? Suresh doesn’t think that’s good.

“Yes,” Maya argues. “Because of people like me. Because of Sylar.”

Right. Suresh argues that Sylar killed his father. If he could have injected himself with this compound to stop him…Maya is shocked. He’d actually inject himself with it?

Suresh grabs a syringe. “There are quantum leaps in science that one dreams of being a part of. This is one of them.” He doesn’t understand why she doesn’t understand that. Maya doesn’t understand why anyone would want these abilities. “It’s a curse!”

She steps up to him. “Can what’s in that syringe cure me or not?”

Suresh doesn’t answer.

“Then it’s evil. And you should destroy it,” Maya answers. “For the sake of all of us.”

She walks out, leaving Suresh with his own thoughts.

~*~*~

Nathan wakes up in his hospital bed and looks at his brother. “Am I still here?”

“Yeah.” Peter holds up a newspaper, pointing at the headline. “Touched by God. It’s what you said in the chapel.”

Nathan thought he dreamed that. Even so, “It’s true Pete. He cured me. Brought me back.”

Peter sits on the bed beside him, reminding him “you’ve seen what people like us can do.” Nathan lays and hand on his brother’s shoulder and asks, “Who’s to say this isn’t the hand of God? All of us? With these powers…did you ever stop and think about it Pete? We could be angels, all here to do God’s bidding.”

“What happened to telling the world about is?”

“We couldn’t be angels now if everyone knew, could we?” Nathan slips back into sleep and Peter stands up.

“I don’t expect you to understand what I did to you. But I hope that someday you’ll forgive me…” He kisses his brother’s forehead and leaves.

~*~*~

“Life is funny, isn’t it Nathan?”

“Linderman?” Nathan wakes up. “You’re the one who healed me.”

Linderman steps up to the bed. “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends. Rough hew them how we will.” He pauses then adds, “It seems you and I are meant for great things, Nathan…Great things indeed.”

~*~*~

A man watches the news report on Nathan on the TV. “Tracy baby,” he calls to the woman getting dressed in the room behind him. “I think we found our guy.”

“Isn’t that my job Governor?” a familiar voice asks. Nikki steps out of the bedroom, pulling on a robe. “What’s his name?”

“Petrelli. Nathan Petrelli.”

‘Tracy’ smiles, watching Nathan on TV. “I like him.”

~*~*~

The Desert

Matt wakes up to find a scorpion crawling on his face. He quickly shoves it off and jumps up. “NOO!” He tries to listen with his powers…nothing. “Is there anybody here?!”

~*~*~

“It was like she was moving at the speed of sound,” Hiro explains to Ando as they stand in the middle of downtown. “She must have known that I was going to open that safe. What was so important on that paper?” Hiro starts to walk and Ando follows him.

“I told you not to open it.”

Hiro glances at him, then asks, “And what was my father talking about, the “light”?”

Never mind that, Ando wants to know “What about the world being destroyed if that formula falls into the wrong hands?”

He’s got it! Hiro just has to go back into the past and ask his father. No way. Hiro’s decided that he’s “never going to the past again. You saw what happened last time.” He thinks for a second, then gets a great idea. He’ll go into the future! The future?

“If the world is going to be destroyed, I need to see how so we can stop it.”

“But what if you get stuck—”

Too late, Hiro’s already gone. Ando sighs. Here we go again…

~*~*~

Hiro reappears in the future, where things are quite different. Sirens blare, people are running and screaming, it’s total chaos.

On a balcony above, Hiro spots himself holding the formula.

“Give me back the formula,” Ando orders him.


“No. You betrayed me.”

“You’re wrong.”

Hiro watches in total confusion as his future self pulls out a sword, aiming it at his best friend. Just as he’s about to swing, Ando shoots a red electrical charge at him and Future Hiro falls to the ground.


Future Ando steps up and takes the formula back. Hiro watches in shock as he runs off.

He starts to walk away in a daze…then he starts to run, getting knocked by people running in the opposite direction. Hiro finally turns to look at the city.

The sky is dark with unnaturally swirling black clouds of smoke, lighting flashes as the electricity in all the skyscrapers flickers out. The electrical smoke suddenly barrels down the street, lifting cars and taking out buildings.

Hiro’s eyes widen in horror. A car flies towards him and—

Suddenly all is well again as Hiro brings himself back to the present. Ando spots him. “Hiro!” He runs over.

“Well…?”

Hiro can only stare at him, still thinking about what he saw. “We have to find that formula.”

Ando nods happily and Hiro nods back. There is no smile on his face.

~*~*~

Suresh stands at a dock with the syringe held out over the water. He pauses just as he’s about to let go, then suddenly pulls back and jabs the needle into his arm.

He pulls the needle out, flexing his hand. Suddenly he’s racked with seizures and falls to the ground.

~*~*~

Nathan’s mother stands over his bedside, turning when Peter enters. She follows him out into the hall.

“What have you done with Peter?” Peter stands up and she asks. “Who do you think you inherited your first ability from?”

She has dreams. She “dreamed you’d come, I saw what you’d do.” Shooting his own brother?!

Peter argues that he had to. The powers? The greed? The war?

“Who are you to play God?” his mother asks.

“You can see the future,” Peter argues. She knows that the formula she and her friends tried to buried gets out. “And it destroys EVERYTHING.”

Her mother grabs him by the collar pinning him to the wall. “The only future I’ve ever seen in the one caused by you.”

Peter pushes her off, growling, “Nathan. Didn’t. Die. And now he doesn’t have to.”

It doesn’t matter, his mother argues. He’s changed everything anyway, “So why don’t you go back to where you came from, you understand?” She relaxes. “Now…what did you do with my son?”

“Don’t worry,” Future Peter says smugly. “I put him somewhere safe.”

~*~*~

Level 5

“This is a mistake!” a man yells. “I’m not who you think I am! I’m Peter Petrelli!”

The camera moves down the hall, revealing people in cells with glass windows. They’re all the same people who Sylar saw in Noah’s files…

Suresh (voice-over): Turning and turning the widening giant…the falcon cannot hear the falconer.” *the camera swings to show Noah, bouncing a ball against the glass of his cell* Things fall apart…the center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

“I’m PETER PETRELLI! Please get me out of here!”

Noah stops bouncing his ball…

~*~*~

“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere a ceremony of innocents is drowned…*Claire’s mom opens her front door to find her daughter still sitting at the table, a line of blood on her forehead* The best lack awkward fiction…while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand. Surely the second coming is at hand…The second coming…”

Matt wanders through the desert, coming up a painting on a rock. It’s a picture of the earth split in half by fire.

“Hardly the words out when a vast image out of spiritus mundi travels my sight…somewhere in sands of the desert…*Sylar walks down a suburban street, red file in hand* A shape with lion body and the head of a man, a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun…is moving it’s slow thighs, while all about it, real shadows of the indignant desert burns…”

Linderman sits at Nathan’s bed.

“The darkness drops again…”

Tracy/Nikki watches Nathan on the news.

“But now I know that 20 centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle...and what rough beast, its hour come round at last…”

Suresh is still lying on the ground on the dock.

“Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born…”

Two guys walk up to mug Suresh. They find the syringe. “Dude’s got some money here somewhere.”

Suresh stirs, confused.

“Give me your money…I said give me your money!”

Suresh is only just starting to realize what’s going on.

“Man, waste him,” one guy tells his friend, and his friend pulls out a gun.

“Ahhhh!” he shouts in pain as Suresh grabs the gun, crumpling it like it was tinfoil. He throws it away and springs to his feet, grabbing one of the guys and flinging him down the street.

Suresh stares at his hands in awe as the guys run away. He doesn’t notice the graffiti painted on the building behind him…a world being split apart by fire…


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Yes the premiere was in two parts. Yes I am posting in in two parts.
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Okay, that one made me a laugh out loud...

September 29th 2008 20:44
Gas prices are way up. Stocks are way down. But even in this depressing time at least Entertainment Weekly can still make you laugh.


I don't know about you guys, but I need some witty remarks. So what do you say? Here are some of this week's EW quotes that made me laugh out loud.

'The Daily Show' writers present Election Day predictions:

"The Daily Show staff confronts the stark reality that their show's stars, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, are leaving, realizing this must have been what it was like when The X-files brought in Rober Patrick and Annabeth Gish."

Ahahah! That's great! LoL

THE EMMYS HAVE BIG PROBLEMS LUCKILY, WE HAVE SOLUTIONS

One moment said it all about last week’s Emmy Awards. Did you see when Bones’ David Boreanaz presented the Outstanding Guest Actor and Actresses in a Comedy Series awards alongside The Hills’ Lauren Conrad? Usually the most affable of actors, Boreanaz, introduced by Heidi Klum as star of The Bones, could barely bring himself to look at Conrad. His dead stare and body language said, “I was on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, two great shows that this academy barely even acknowledged. Now I’m acting in another hit show, and I have to hand out an award with a reality star? Get me outta here!”

Yes! That is EXACTLY what I thougth when I watched him present! Poor guy.

And then of course, there's the "What to Watch" quotes to brighten your day:
Heroes: Tonight’s plot or fortune-cookie fortune: Peter uses his past to fix the future.

Chuck: Chuck’s second season opens with the possibility that accidental superspy Chuck may be returning to civilian living. (Yes, the end of the show’s central conceit sounds totally likely.) Aside from a hilariously clunky fight scene between guest villain Michael Clarke Duncan and Chuck’s hot handler, Sarah, the show remains a game mix of satire and sweetness—although Chuck still has better chemistry with his sister Ellie than Sarah.

90210: Annie and Adriana audition for an indie film. This screams “director tries to get teens topless.” If only they could get a dose of Mrs. Walsh’s good sense…

America’s Next Top Model: The models pose as natural disasters. Would posing as a hurricane after Ike be less offensive if said hurricane was fierce?

America’s Got Talent: Finally, we find out who’s the most talented person in America. Hint: not David Hasselhoff.

My Fake Baby: More disturbing than modeling earthquakes and the Hoff? This doc about collectors of lifelike dolls with veins and beating hearts.

When Weather Changed History: I’m all about the 10-day forcast, but this is taking rain a little too seriously.

Supernatural: Set your TiVos, X-Philes! Mitch Pileggi (a.k.a. Scully and Mulder’s boss) plays Dean’s grandfather.

Okay, I admit, that last one I included just because, uh…yeah, I can’t wait...
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Chuck vs. The First Date

September 29th 2008 07:51
Chuck is back with a season premiere that will remind you why you loved this great geeky (or should I say Nerd Herdy?) spy show!


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chuck is being hung upside-down out of a window by one man. “Before you do anything rash, I think you should know I have the cipher!”

“Hand it over right now.”

“Don’t you think we should discuss terms first?” he shouts nervously, and the guy grabs him and pulls him up. Chuck is now standing on the ledge high above the busy street. The only thing keeping him from falling is the man’s grip.

“Now. Who are you”

“You know, you probably wouldn’t believe me,” Chuck hastily replies. The man loosens his grip on Chuck’s tie. “Ahh! Oh!”

“Last chance. Who are you?”

“Chuck.”

“Okay…now tell me everything, Chuck.”

Chuck’s eyes widen, and suddenly the picture freezes as Chuck continues in a voice-over: There is no way he is going to believe me, and I don’t blame him.” He goes on to quickly explain his background, how he’s the secret intersect an all, and oh yeah. “Of course, I can’t tell this guy that!”

The guy loosens his grip and Chuck rushes to explain, “Okay, okay! I kinda, sort of work for the CIA and the NSA on my off hours when I’m not working on the store—this is kind of a second job for me—and though I don’t look it being lanky of build, you should know that I’m probably, the most important intelligence asset—“ he pauses to catches his breath and nervously look down. “In the world.”

The guy just stares at him a second, then answers, “That is the single, dumbest story I’ve ever heard.”

“That very well may be, but,” Chuck warns, “If you drop me, there are a couple of people who are going to be very very upset.”

*Cue shotgun blast and door busting open*

Chuck’s voice-over continues: Meet Sarah and Casey. They’re here to protect me. *flashback scenes of Sarah* That’s Sarah. She’s here to protect me. *Sarah punching out the bad guys in her undercover outfit* Believe me. I know. *Cut to Casey* That’s Casey. He works for the NSA. He’s not as pretty.

“Let the geek go!” Casey yells, gun aimed at the bad guy.

“Wait!” Sarah quickly yells. “Not out the window.”

Casey shoots her a look. “Aren’t we picky.”

The guy glances at them, then tosses Chuck across the room, who yells until Casey catches him and drops him to a nearby couch.

Chuck: *scared and out of breath* Nice hands Casey.

The bad guy jumps out the window and Casey runs to watch him slide down a cable and run away.

Sarah: Why didn’t you stay in the car?

Chuck: You know what? It’s never safe in the car!

Casey turns around. “Well did you get it?” Chuck doesn’t answer. “Tell me you got it.”

Still slightly out of breath and shell-shocked from his near-death experience, Chuck just raises the cipher. “Yeah I got it! Of course I got it, it’s me.”

Casey snatches it out of his hand and walks out and Chuck falls back against the couch. Sarah gives him a smile and heads after Casey.

~*~*~

“Excellent work Sarah, Casey,” their boss tells them over the video conference.

Sarah asks, “What exactly is the cipher?” and why would mercenaries break in and steal only that? The general tells her that the cipher is “the artificial brain for the new intersect computer.”

Chuck suddenly sits up in alarm. Uh, if that’s the new intersect, what happens to the old one? As in Chuck? Casey sneaks a sideways look at him as his bosses tell Chuck that tomorrow the new computer will be online and “Operation Bartowski officially comes to an end.” No more briefings, no more missions, no more spies. “Enjoy the rest of your life Chuck.”

~*~*~

As Chuck and Sarah walk through the courtyard back to Chuck’s apartment, Sarah asks him what he’s going to now that he’s got his life back.

He doesn’t really know. He was starting to think he was going to be followed around by Casey and Sarah for the rest of his life. “Or whatever the adult version of ‘forever’ is.” He doesn’t really think he’s cut out for this whole, “disarm a bomb, steal a diamond, and then jump off a building” type of job.

Sarah: Well you could have fooled me.

Chuck: That’s very kind of you to say, but I’m pretty sure my girlish screams in the face of danger give me away.

Haha. So what happens now? Well, he’s always got the Buy More. As Chuck’s thinking about this, Sarah tries not to smile and asks if she can tell him something. Sure. She’s seen what he can do. “Anything you wanted you could have.”

Chuck considers her words and a slow grin spreads across his face. Hmmm…

~*~*~

In his apartment, Casey’s checking out the cipher under a magnifying glass. His computer blinks on.

“Thought you might call.”

The General asks him if he understands the situation, and he says that he does. “We can’t have another Intersect wandering around Los Angeles getting into trouble.”

“General, Chuck may be a novice spy,” Casey answers, leaning toward the computer. “But the results speak for themselves. Surely we can find another exit strategy.”

“You have your orders, Major,” she tells him, leaning into the camera herself. “Tomorrow night, eliminated Chuck Bartowski.”

With that she terminates the video feed.

Casey pulls out and cocks his gun. “I used to like the sound of that.”

~*~*~

7:00 AM

Chuck wakes up with a smile and turns up the music. He dances a he grabs his Buy More uniform off the closet door. He tosses it on the bed, then jumps up and bounces around himself. It’s a new day and his days as secret spy intersect are almost over! Yay!

Chuck dances into the bathroom to the tune of “it’s hip to be square”, and frowns at the foggy mirror. He wipes it clear and “Ahhhh!”

“Ahhh!”

“Mornin’ Chuck!”

Chuck stares at the reflection of his sister hiding behind Captain Awesome in the shower. Chuck slaps his hands over his eyes. “My eyes! My eyes!” He runs out. “Oh I’m blind! I’M BLIND!”

Ellie buries her head in her fiancé’s shoulder as Captain Awesome just frowns.

Okay, so maybe not such an awesomely good day after all. LoL

~*~*~

Chuck stares straight ahead as Captain Awesome takes another bite of cereal. Ellie stares at the ceiling. No one talks.

Finally, Chuck can’t stand it. “Okay, first of all, congratulations Devon on the, the what, you know, whatever God gave you there.” Devon grins and takes and picks up his mug. “Second of all, the door was not locked so I’m not a complete pervert. And third of all, this is just another reminder of why I need my own place.”

Ellie assures him that there’s no rush, they like having him there. He tells them her he’s been thinking about his life lately and how he shouldn’t be working at the Buy More, but “should have a real job with a real future.”

Ellie’s eyes widen in surprise. “What happened?”

Nothing, just, you know how sometimes you just meet someone and they “Flip you on your head just to shake things up a bit?”

Captain Awesome slaps Chuck on the shoulder. “You’re talking about a Mr. Tony Robbins.”

Chuck: “So close, and yet so far away.”

He checks his watch. He’s gotta go. Ellie jumps up from the table, whoa whoa, wait a second. “Talk to me, Chuck. I need to know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.”

No, no, he assures her. “It’s not a Tony Robbins cult thing, I want this!”

“Okay great! Then I’m really happy for you.” Ellie stands in front of him a second, then admits, “I’m like, super excited right now and I’m trying to keep it in, so—”

“Of course.” He understands. It’s probably healthier that way.

“I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m so proud of you!” Unable to hide her excitement, Ellie grabs her brother in a hug. Chuck laughs and hugs her back. “Okay I love you, see you!”

Ellie grins like a proud parent as she watches her little brother leave.

~*~*~

Chuck walks into the Buy More, taking his time looking around at his life in a new light. Suddenly Morgan with a whispered, “Hey! Come here, come here.” What’s up?

Morgan unrolls a complicated “Call of Duty” game plan. He doesn’t want the “Large Mart Goons” to see it, but here’s what he’s thinking: “23 infantry troopers, 16 snipers, 7 heavy gunners, 4 demolitions experts, and enough ammunition to orbit Arnold Schwarzenegger, 50 gamers, one call all ready for battle.” With this plan, he’s pretty sure they can beat ‘em.

Chuck: Morgan you are my new hero.

Morgan: I know, I know.

Oh, Big Mike was looking for him. Right, but first Chuck has to track down Casey to, well, tell him thank you and just “That I’m gonna miss you man.” He thanks Casey for always being there to catch him when he fell...”Which sounds horribly cheesy now that I’m saying it.”

“Really,” Casey replies. “Forget it.”

Casey rushes off as Big Mike suddenly appears, snapping, “Bartowski!”

~*~*~

Chuck sits across from Big Mike at his desk. Big Mike doesn’t want to interview his employees for the assistant manager position because “They scare me.” Right…So what’s Chuck say? Doesn’t he want the job? Chuck stares at him in total surprise.

~*~*~

“Da, da, da, da, da, DA! All hail the once and future Assistant Manager Chuck Bartowski.” Morgan claps, assuring everyone that as Chuck’s lieutenant he’ll make sure to “institute policies we’ve always wanted, right team?”

Everyone gives him an unenthusiastic, “Riiight…”

Chuck informs his best friend that he didn’t take the job, and Morgan’s face falls. What?! Why oh why not? As his punishment he’ll have to interview everyone else for the job. Chuck tells Morgan that he’s not completely convinced that the Buy More is where he wants to work the rest of his life, and Morgan answers, “Got it. Where would we work then?”

“We…” Chuck tries politely as Morgan shakes his head impatiently (uh-huh, uh-huh?) “I don’t know, wherever.”

Morgan decides that it makes since. After all, if would make since if he was going to pick someone over him it would be “her”. Her?

~*~*~

Chuck walks next door and confesses to Sarah that he misses the Weinerlicious. The building has now turned into an ice cream place.

Sarah: My clothes smelled like sausage.

Chuck: Nostalgia completely gone.

Sarah asks what’s up, and Chuck pauses a second, then finally asks, “You want to go on a date sometimes?” One without aliases and spy gear?

After reminding him that she’s still a CIA agent and that there are a hundred reasons she shouldn’t, he argues that in a week she’ll be off in a knife-fight some foreign country, and she’ll wish she had one more nice fun night with him. After thinking this over a second, Sarah finally agrees.

Wow, really? Really. Okay then, tonight. Their first real date. Or second first date, whatever. He promises no gunfight.

~*~*~

*Insert Chuck, Sarah, and Casey getting ready montage. Chuck changing his shirt, Sarah brushing on makeup, Casey getting out his gun, Chuck changing his shirt, Sarah putting on her dress, Casey shooting a picture of Bin Laden, Chuck changing his shirt, Casey’s shooting target changes to Hitler, Sarah exits her bathroom and stares at her gun, Casey’s picture turns to Ronald Reagan, he winks at it, Chuck finally decides on the black button-down, Casey’s target changes to Chuck. He fires and Misses?! Uh-oh. Seems Casey’s conscious really doesn’t want to do this after all.*

Chuck gets ready to head out for his date, pausing in the living room to tell his sister where he’s going. Ellie turns to her future husband. “Recognize the sound of a proper date when you hear it?”

“The tanks empty, babe.”

So, has Chuck thought about what he wants to do with his life?

Ellie: And if you say pilot the Millennium Falcon, I will hit you.

Chuck: I, why—why would I say that, that’s absurd? I’m gonna be a ninja assassin.

Ellie: No. Try again.

Chuck: Uhhh…an Olympic—

Ellie: Uh-uh.

Chuck thinks a moment longer, then finally says, “Secret Agent.”

“This is what happens when you sit in front of the television too long,” his sister answers with a smile. Seriously, what’s he going to do? He doesn’t know, but he does want to finish college, travel, “Learn an obscure language that only really cool people know.” But, oddly enough, none of his dreams involves working at the Buy More another week.

“Well look who’s growing up.”

The doorbell rings, and it’s Morgan. He knows Chuck has a date, he’s just wondering if he wants to go over a few quick Call of Duty maneuvers. Chuck’s eyes widen and his sister warns, “Chuck…”

“Baby steps, sis,” he says quickly. “Baby steps.”

~*~*~

Casey’s doorbell rings. He scans the messenger for weapons, and when there isn’t one, he opens the door and asks for the verification code. “Morning Glory.” Casey hands off the cipher, then asks, “Where’s your backup?”

In answer, the guy lifts his hand and sprays Casey with a gas that makes him fall to his knees coughing.

The messenger heads out, opening his phone and telling the man waiting in the car (who just so happens to be the same man who tried to steal the cipher before), “It’s done. I’ve got the cipher.” Good, the man in the car tells him to “go to the second location. We have two more targets.” He pulls out a picture of Chuck and Sarah.

~*~*~

*knock knock*

Chuck: Ready to go?

Sarah: Yeah.

The door closes, leaving the camera to close in on Sarah’s gun…left behind.

~*~*~

Sarah is impressed with the Chinese restaurant Chuck’s picked. Where did he hear about it? Morgan. “The man has a black belt in dumplings. I trust any recommendations he gives me on food items less than ten dollars.”

“So our first date is a Morgan recommendation?”

“Wow, no faith in the little bearded man, okay,” Chuck answers in the same teasing tone. “I think you should know that he’s always been supportive of our fake relationship. And, he’s never found it remotely unbelievable that a guy like me could be dating a--” Chuck clears his throat and Sarah takes another bite. “You know.”

“What?”

“Uh, you know, you.”

“What about me?”

Chuck laughs. “You’re really gonna make me say it aren’t you?”

Sarah merely waits.

“Okay, we’ll play it your way.” Chuck looks at her. “A girl like you. Or more appropriately, a woman like you.” He thinks she’s smart, and cool, and extremely beautiful and “you can stop me any time with the compliments anytime”. No, she thinks they’re very “Sweet.”

Chuck: Sweet. Golly gee thanks for makin’ me feel like I’m eight.

Sarah chuckles. “Well you’re not so bad yourself.

“Please,” Chuck brushes it off. “I’m fantastic.”

Sarah looks straight at him. “Yeah. You are.”

After a moment, Chuck asks, “What would Casey think if he knew we were doing this right now?”

“It would probably kill him,” Sarah answers with a laugh.

~*~*~

*Cut to: Casey scrambling on the floor, face white, eyes bloodshot, choking for breath*

Casey grabs for a chair, it falls to the floor in no help. He continues on, still choking, covered in blood. He reaches up and grabs a glass frame with a picture of Ronald Reagan in it. “Sorry, Sir!” He smashes out the glass and grabs the hypodermic needle hidden inside.

Pressing a button on his remote, Casey flops over and continues to choke as his lights suddenly come out of the ceiling to reveal a decontamination shower. Water rains down around him and he jabs the syringe into his heart.

~*~*~

Back at the restaurant, Sarah opens her fortune cookie and Chuck asks if it reveals her next mission. “Actually it does.”

“Really?”

No. Plus it doesn’t work that way. They’ll probably put her somewhere undercover as far away from here as possible.

Chuck: What if they didn’t?

Sarah: Chuck, a CIA officer doesn’t get to choose.

He starts to lean forward, reminding her that he still has a lot of secrets I his head…The Lindenberg baby, the formula for new Coke…Sarah is also leaning forward. “What are you saying, Chuck?”

He’s now only inches away from her. “What I’ve always wanted to say Sarah…”

They both start to lean forward and just when they’re almost about to kiss—“No, no, no, no not now!”

Chuck spots a couple across the room and has a flash: A red car with “Finally Married!!” on it, Omer Koray, Male 27, Morocco, Gun Trafficking, Drug Offense.

Chuck grabs the table. “Ohhhhh…”

He spots another woman at a different table. FLASH: A woman with a slashed throat sitting out with the garbage bags, another, a bloody knife, “Offentliche Fahndung nach Natalija ELITA”, a clock.

He’s not even over the rush of that flash, when he spots the waiter and FLASH: Chinese temple, and ID card, an atomic bomb cloud.

Sarah: Chuck, what is it?

Chuck: We’re surrounded.

Everyone starts to get up. Sounds of cocking guns.

Chuck: Sarah, you have your gun, right?

Sarah: Nope.

What? Why not? “You don’t bring a gun on a real date, remember?”

Suddenly the man from the beginning steps up. “Hello again Chuck.” And who is he? Mr. Colt. And why would they want to go with him? Because he’s going for imposing. Go ahead look, is he imposing? Yep, definitely is. He tells them that the guys he works with “give me the heebie jeebies”. Well, when you put it in that context…

Mr. Colt tells them to get up and follow him, but Chuck stalls him as Sarah slowly inches her hands towards the red chopsticks.

Chuck: How much do bad guys normally tip?

Sarah tries to strike, but Colt grips her by the neck. Sarah cries out and Chuck jumps up. “Sarah!”

“Move and she dies!”

Chuck sits back down.

Suddenly Chuck’s watch starts to beep.

Colt: What is that?

Sarah: It’s a homing device.

Chuck: *glancing out the window* Is that a Crown Victoria?

Move! Everyone jumps out of the way as Casey slams his car through the front window. “Hey! Somebody order drive-through?” Get in the car!

Chuck and Sarah dive for the car as Casey spots a ring with a red jewel coming straight for him. Mr. Colt punches Casey and he falls into the car. They speed away in a rain of bullets.

“’Ahhh! Ooohh, oohhh--Somebody order drive-through, huh?!” Chuck all but screams angrily. “Did you think that up while you were rushing over to save us? ‘hey maybe I’ll stay this after I CRASH into the restaurant?!”

All smashed into the front seat, Sarah tells Casey they have to go back to see who they were working for. He argues that there’s too many of them. Chuck is relieved that they at least still have the cipher.

Casey: Yeah, about that…They look at him. “Looks like you’re still the Intersect Chuck.”

Chuck: Sarah…?

Sarah: Don’t worry Chuck, we’ll get it back.

~*~*~

7:00 AM

“Power of love, is a curious thing...” (Anyone else having “Back to the Future” flashbacks? )

Unlike yesterday, Chuck wearily gets out of bed and puts on his Buy More uniform. He walks through the hall, glancing at Devon doing sit-ups on the ceiling. He half-wave to his sister in the kitchen and sits down at the table….At the Buy More, he sits, sadly, head in his hand.

Morgan comes up to tell him he’s got all the resumes together. Chuck’s decided he’s picking Morgan. Whoa, Morgan tells him. He’s got to think about this for a second here. “I have this perfect system for doing as little as possible. It’s a science, really. Doing nothing. Promotion at this point would destroy all my hard work.”

Chuck frowns, thinking this over. “You’re telling me I have no choice?”

Yes, but Morgan wil