Diane Beckman

Brigadier General M. Diane Beckman, USAF is a fictional character in the NBC television series Chuck. Beckman is a senior official of the National Security Agency, working within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She holds her rank of brigadier general in the United States Air Force. She revealed that she spent a significant amount of time and resources hunting Orion, the Intersect's chief designer, before he re-appeared and made a deal with the government. Little information about her personal life and past service has been revealed. She first entered the military prior to August 14, 1974, and fought in two battles during the Gulf War. She has had a non-exclusive romantic relationship with Roan Montgomery for more than 20 years (see "Personality" below). Beckman also maintains a close friendship with Dr. Condoleezza Rice.

General Beckman first appeared in "Chuck Versus the Helicopter", replacing the National Intelligence Director (Wendy Makkena) as overseer of Operation Bartowski. Initially, Casey and Sarah were to protect Chuck only until the replacement Intersect was back online. Sarah and Chuck believed that once this occurred Chuck would be free to go back to his normal life; however Beckman secretly issued orders to Casey that Chuck was to be killed to prevent the government secrets he retained from falling into the wrong hands. However, after the destruction of the second Intersect this order was rescinded. Additionally, because Operation Bartowski was the only effective weapon against CIA splinter group Fulcrum, Beckman decided that Chuck was far too important and valuable a resource to be released. She therefore blocked his attempts to contact Orion and have the Intersect removed. Beckman has also made it clear that if Chuck is ever identified, he will be taken into protective custody.

Beckman's primary role on the series is to provide "Team Bartowski" with intelligence updates on Chuck's flashes and assign their mission objectives. Most of the time these missions are the result of something Chuck flashes on in the course of his normal day. However, on several occasions Beckman has issued an assignment of her own devising based on events elsewhere, to which Chuck's abilities as the Intersect are particularly well-suited. Beckman herself is seldom personally involved on these assignments and allows the team to proceed on their own. However, in "Chuck Versus the Crown Vic" she benched the team when a flash by Chuck went bad, and ordered Casey locked down when his personal vendetta against his former mentor botched a mission. Beckman personally involved herself when Chuck was contacted by Orion after a rogue search and flew to Burbank to debrief the team. This was the first time since the pilot episode that one of the team's supervisors met with them in-person, and also the first time they were directly involved in that episode's mission.

General Beckman typically declines to interfere directly with the team's dynamics. However Sarah's confrontational attitude towards her treatment of Chuck in "Chuck Versus the Predator" led to her concern that Sarah was too emotionally close to the asset. After Casey attempted to cover for them, she requested he provide an unedited report on Chuck and Sarah's relationship. This led to her reassigning CIA agent Alexandra Forrest as Chuck's CIA handler under directive 49-B. After Forrest subsequently failed to protect Chuck because she lacked Sarah's close personal connection and understanding of him, Beckman was forced to acknowledge that Sarah's feelings for the asset made her the best choice to protect him.

After Chuck's failed operation to locate his father, and he allowed Jill to escape, Beckman decided to pull the plug on Operation Bartowski and ordered Casey and Sarah to take Chuck into permanent custody. She reversed this decision when the Intersect was removed from Chuck's head in "Chuck Versus the Colonel". In "Chuck Versus the Ring" she offered Chuck an analyst position on the Intersect Project. She then freed Casey to return to his old unit, and reassigned Sarah to the Intersect Project with Bryce Larkin.

Rounding out Beckman's interference with the team, she ordered Sarah to apprehend Casey upon learning that he had stolen a valuable item from a CIA facility, and when Casey was broken out, she came to Castle and ordered Sarah and Chuck to capture him, dead or alive. Despite the three agents eventually working together and taking down the Ring cell that had coerced him into stealing from the CIA in the first place, Beckman could not brook Casey's treason, and dismissed him on the spot. Beckman also wished to discuss Sarah transferring out of Burbank, as Chuck has needed her less and less.

Beckman does not look lightly on the three years and "untold millions of dollars" spent helping Chuck reach his potential, but has become understanding of Chuck's "hand-wringing" and "second-guessing" as part of his process. Beckman insists that until seeing video recovered from the Ring, she had no knowledge that Sarah had killed Shaw's wife.

In the season 3 finale, Beckman is before the higher ups of the CIA, who were concerned about the state of Operation Bartowski and Chuck in particular. She gets swept away in a setup staged by a very much alive Shaw. The purpose was to discredit her so that he could take her place at the spies' convention, where the Five Elders of the Ring were going to be to take over the NSA and CIA. Team Bartowski arrests the Elders along with Daniel Shaw and Justin Sullivan, leading to the disintegration of the Ring. Chuck later reveals to Ellie that Beckman was reinstated, and she allowed him to resign from the spy world.