Chuck Versus the Three Words

"Chuck Versus the Three Words" is the second episode of the third season of the American action comedy TV series Chuck. It was aired January 10, 2010, on NBC.

In the episode, Carina returns with a new mission for Team Bartowski – steal back a stolen weapon from her "fiancé", an arms dealer named Karl Stromberg. Meanwhile, Morgan plans to "win" her back, with the unlikely help of Jeff and Lester.

As the episode opens a man is running through the jungle, clutching a briefcase. Before he can escape he is caught by a massive, scarred man who shoots him and reclaims the case. The man's phone rings and he answers it, saying goodbye with the words "I love you, Smooshie." His men begin to laugh but are cut off by a glare, before he shoots his victim again in the head.

Back in California, Sarah is drinking at a club with her DEA friend Carina. Carina begins to needle Sarah about Chuck, and as they talk, she realizes that Sarah has truly fallen in love with him, violating the "cardinal rule" of spying, although Sarah attempts to deny it. While Sarah and Carina are out, Chuck and Morgan are sitting around their largely unfurnished apartment playing video games. In an effort to cheer Chuck up, Morgan takes him out on the town but by chance they end up at the same club as Sarah and Carina. After being pressured into talking to Carina by Morgan, Chuck is spotted by Sarah and he comes over to join the two women. While Chuck greets Carina the massive man from the opening arrives, whom she identifies as her fiancé, Karl Stromberg. Chuck takes Carina at her word, and he flashes on one of the man's scars, identifying him as an arms dealer and tries to warn her. Instead, Carina brushes off his concern by telling him she knows and reveals that Stromberg is the team's next mission.

The team is briefed in Castle by Beckman. Stromberg has been wired a sizable amount of money for the weapon he's carrying, and Carina has pretended to fall in love with him to get close. They are to retrieve the weapon during the "couple's" engagement party. Chuck and Sarah are to go under their old cover relationship, while Casey attends as Carina's uncle (after objecting to being too young to play Carina's father). At the party the next day, Chuck tries to talk with Sarah about what happened in Prague while waiting for their chance to move on Stromberg's vault, but she coldly rebuffs him. Carina sees this and angrily tells Chuck to get it together, and that Sarah has been so cold because she loves him. When Stromberg begins his toast, Chuck and Sarah leave the party and make their way to the vault, but Chuck keeps trying to talk to Sarah, forcing Casey to take over and extend the toast to buy more time. As they get to the vault, she agrees to listen once they've completed their mission. Sarah opens the vault, and reveals it is protected by moving security lasers. Chuck begins to panic but she calms him down, allowing him to flash on the gymnastics skills to allow him to circumvent the lasers and reach the briefcase. Sarah is impressed as he retrieves the weapon and makes it out, only to accidentally trigger the alarm when he reaches her again and tells her it's time to talk. The vault door shuts and toxic gas begins to pump into the chamber.

While two of Stromberg's goons are dispatched to investigate, Sarah attempts to pick the lock but instead breaks into a vent to shut off the gas before Chuck can suffocate. While waiting, Chuck tries to talk to her through the door, unaware that Sarah is no longer there or able to hear him. Instead the goons arrive and snicker as he airs out his feelings for her. Sarah ambushes the guards from the ventilation shaft and opens the door only for Chuck to collapse into her arms with the words "I love you." Sarah and Carina are debriefed by Beckman on the weapon while Chuck is undergoing treatment for gas exposure. Sarah asks the General for a reassignment, citing Chuck's feelings for her will be a liability, but Beckman denies the request and orders her to continue training Chuck.

Sarah angrily begins pushing Chuck with staff fighting techniques and tries to force him to flash. They begin to argue and Chuck refuses to use the Intersect because he's afraid of hurting her. Fed up, Sarah knocks him down with her staff and stands over him, telling him he can't hurt her. Meanwhile, Carina is getting into her car at the Buy More when she spots Stromberg arriving. She flees into the store with the briefcase and gives it to Morgan with explicit instructions to turn it over to Chuck. He agrees after she accepts an invitation to his housewarming party (see below). Before Carina can escape she is captured by Stromberg, who plays a security recording of Chuck locked in the vault, who accidentally blew Carina's cover when he tried to talk to Sarah. Stromberg takes her to Chuck's apartment to find him and the weapon.

Later the team discovers Carina is missing and meets to discuss the situation at Casey's apartment while Morgan's party rages in the background. Stromberg and his goons arrive with Carina and force their way into Chuck's apartment, where Morgan unknowingly returns the weapon after calling Chuck to tell him Carina came to the party. While Casey evacuates the apartment by spraying the party-goers with his garden hose in the guise of an "angry neighbor," Chuck and Sarah prepare to incapacitate the guards with firearms and a tiki lantern. However a Mexican standoff ensues between the two parties. Chuck persuades his team to break the standoff by setting aside their weapons, then throws the lantern into the complex's fountain, which is filled with Jeff's highly-flammable "Jail Juice". In the chaos, Casey and Sarah incapacitate Stromberg's men, but Stromberg still has Carina and the case. Chuck then begins to reason with him, drawing on his own issues with Sarah to reveal he understands how deeply Stromberg was hurt. Carina plays along and tells him that while it began as an assignment, she genuinely came to love him. Stromberg lets his guard down and Carina quickly disables him.