Meet Chuck. Chuck is a loser who got kicked out of Stanford, lost his girlfriend to his former best friend, Bryce Larkin, and now works for $11 an hour supervising a Nerd Herd at the Burbank Buy More electronics store. After his sister catches him trying to escape from their shared apartment, he tells his whole story to an unsuspecting woman she invited to his birthday party.
Meanwhile Bryce, who is not an accountant, is breaking into a heavily secured facility in Washington, D.C. and downloads something from a very fancy computer, then blows it up. Before he can escape, he’s shot a man he addresses as Casey, but before dying, he emails the files to Chuck.
After Chuck solves a riddle from Bryce, the computer displays a series of images which Chuck is transfixed by, staring at it all night until he collapses in the morning. He wakes up to find his best friend Morgan standing over him, neither of them sure what happened. Chuck begins to go about his day, but something has changed. An announcement on the radio makes him think of a bunch of the images from the email, and somehow he knows where the cops are setting up their speed traps.
At the Buy More, Chuck briefs the Nerds on a new computer killing virus called the Irene Demova virus after the porn site it comes from. The news triggers another series of images, and now he knows that a general who’s going to give a speech is already in town.
In D.C., the man who shot Bryce, Major John Casey, is being briefed on what the computer was. It’s called the Intersect, a computer created for the CIA and NSA to share all their data. Casey uses Bryce's phone to trace the message he sent to Burbank.
At the Buy More, a beautiful blonde woman comes up to the Nerd Herd desk and asks for help with her phone. Chuck helps her out and then lets a girl’s father re-record her ballet recital, for which he draws criticism from Harry, one of the senior employees.
When Chuck and Morgan get home, they find a masked burglar trying to steal Chuck’s computer. The burglar challenges them to a fight (and makes quick work of both of them), but the computer is destroyed in the process. The burglar races away and unmasks, revealing herself to be the blonde woman from earlier. The next day, she is watching him, talking to her boss. Her name is Agent Sarah Walker, C.I.A., and she’s after the database, and wants another chance to find it before Casey gets there. Meanwhile, Chuck's new brain recognizes a demolitions expert as he shops for a new part at the local Large Mart.
Back at the Buy More, Sarah reapproaches Chuck and asks him to show her around since she’s new in town. Chuck, with some prodding from Morgan, accepts. That evening they go to a Mexican restaurant and get to know each other better, then go dancing at a club. Sarah uses some very provocative dance moves to dispel an attack from Casey’s agents without Chuck noticing. Eventually, she has to drop the act and leave with him on a high-speed chase with the NSA in pursuit. After they shake them, Sarah explains that she and Bryce are in the C.I.A. In turn, he also tells her about the email he got and the pictures in his head.
Casey shows up and a starts a standoff that ends when Chuck has another episode and tells them that someone’s going to kill the general who’s speaking.
He leads them to the bomb, which has a computer-controlled detonator with a minute and a half to go. Chuck manages to disable it by introducing it to the porn virus from earlier. Casey and Sarah argue about what to do with him, but Chuck decides he wants to go home, responding to their threats by telling him they need him and the secrets in his head.
After meeting his family and making sure they're okay, Chuck heads to the beach to think everything over. Sarah tracks him down and reassures him, asking him to trust her. Afterwards she heads back to her hotel and looks through some pictures on her phone that show her and Bryce as more than just partners.
The next day, Chuck takes his newfound confidence and challenges Harry by applying for the assistant manager position. After turning in his application, he’s sent to train the new guy, who turns out to be Casey. Waking through the store he sees Sarah, wearing a ring that makes him see a video of her gunning down a group of thugs.
- Chuck: Don’t freak out.
Trope Flash:
- Camera Abuse: The video of Sarah killing the thugs ends with her shooting the camera.
- Can't Stop the Signal: Bryce manages to send the entire contents of the intersect to Chuck before Casey can stop him.
- Chekhov's Gun: The virus-infested porn site that Chuck warns the Nerd Herd about is what enables him to disable the computer controlling the bomb.
- Coincidental Broadcast: Chuck flashes when the TV Morgan turns on shows General Stanfield.
- Combat Haircomb: Sarah uses the chopsticks on her hair as projectiles weapons against the NSA agents when they come after her and Chuck in the club.
- Crash-Into Hello: According to Chuck, this is how he met Jill in his Freshman year at Stanford.
- Description Cut: One of the girls at Chuck's birthday party asks what his former roommate and nemesis Bryce is doing now. Cut to Bryce in Washington, D.C., hacking into a computer.Chuck: I think he's an accountant.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The episode opens on Chuck and Morgan preparing to sneak out of what turns out to be Chuck's birthday party, thrown for him by Ellie. They're planning to do this by climbing out of Chuck's bedroom window, which later episodes show looks out into the courtyard... where the party is.
- In both this and the next episode, Sarah and Casey are at each others throats, both professionally possessive of Chuck for their own organizations' purposes. They'll soon gel into a well functioning, formidable team, but for the moment they assume the worst of each other.
- Fanservice: Sarah is wearing only a black bra and panties as she prepares for her "date" with Chuck. Later scenes have her grinding on Chuck in the club and barely dressed in bed as she lingers over photos of her and Bryce. (Get used to a lot of scenes like this)
- I Resemble That Remark!:Chuck: Did you spike the punch?
Morgan: Something goes wrong, you blame me. After all these years, where's the trust? Yes, I did. - Left the Background Music On: As Chuck goes to turn in his application, he passes Harry in a showdown-like fashion as appropriate western music plays, then gives a look to Morgan, who turns the music off.
- Lock-and-Load Montage:
- The episode starts with one. It turns out to be a subversion, as it's actually Morgan trying to sneak Chuck out of his house. Morgan has even tied some bedsheets together to "climb down" from Chuck's window. Chuck lives on the first floor.
- Later this is played straight with Sara, albeit with fanservice since she starts wearing only underwear.
- Omniscient Database: The Intersect.
- Pinned to the Wall: Sarah does this with one of Casey's men.
- Samus Is a Girl: The burglar who wipes the floor with Chuck and Morgan turns out to be Sarah.
- This Is No Time for Knitting: When trying to defuse a bomb that is attached to a computer, Chuck remembers a computer virus he was talking about earlier that is spread by porn sites. So he logs onto the computer and accesses the porn site, eliciting this type of cry from Casey.
- Trust Password: Bryce sends Chuck a line of text from Zork, a text-based video game they had played together in college. When Chuck enters his personal weapon from the game, he receives the Intersect.
