Fates Guide

What Fates Impose, the Timeline

Nickname	Story Title
Fates	What Fates Impose
W&T	To Resist Both Wind and Tide
FFF	Fortune Favors Fools
BJ	Bank Job
Hayloft	Sleeping on the Job
Bunny	He’ll Someday Call Her Bunny
Wasted	Wasted on Us
Scream	To Sleep, Perchance to Scream
TLC	Truth, Lies, and the CIA
TLC2	Training, Lies, and the CIA

1980 –

Sarah is born. Birth name Samantha Lisa Something. Not actually terribly relevant. Chuck is born. Birth name Charles Irving Bartowski. Birthplace: Encino.

1986 –

The Bartowskis move to Burbank. Chuck meets Morgan Guillermo Grimes.

1990 –

In Butte, Montana, Sarah pulls the “bank truck” job with her father, wants ice cream. Rebecca Frankel.

1997 –

Stephen Bartowski leaves Ellie, a junior in college, and Chuck, a junior in high school to protect them. At Ellie’s insistence, Chuck attends weekly counseling sessions at the Brisbane-Delta Community Center with Scott, an A’s fan.

1998 –

May

San Diego, California. Jenny Burton. Two weeks prior to Jenny’s graduation, ATF raids house, Jack Burton is arrested, and “Jenny” meets Langston Graham, her soon-to-be mentor. Sarah Walker, the clean slate identity that shares the fateful SW initials, is born. Chuck graduates high school.

June

Sarah ships out to intern with the CIA, set for fast track to operative status. Think Alias-type training.

August

Sarah starts at Harvard, choosing a smart, reserved student as her personality for the Sarah Walker identity. This will stick with her for years. Chuck starts at Stanford on a full ride.

1999 –

February

Chuck meets Bryce Larkin on the quad near Larkin hall. Bryce introduces him to Jill, a girl on Bryce’s floor, but it’s a fleeting meeting, and Chuck and Jill don’t have their meet cute yet.

June

After a couple of weeks of faux boot camp designed to train operatives to think like military men and women, “Stephanie Wilkins” ships off to study Russian and Arabic, Monterey, California. Stephanie Wilkins, Airman, USAF, Monterey Institute of International Studies: Custom Language Services

August

Sarah returns to Harvard and a full schedule of language, physics, and martial arts training.

2000 –

March

Bryce dates Sheila Rowanson. Bad things go down. Chuck’s car gets keyed.

May

Sarah goes to Camp Peary, Virginia (a.k.a. “The Farm”) Operative Training for the summer. Flight lessons!

2001 –

January

Chuck and Jill have their meet-cute (bumped heads, dropped books) on the first day of classes. They vaguely recognize each other from Bryce’s dorm freshman year, Chuck nobly offers to walk Jill to class.

April

Chuck and Jill kiss on the Ferris wheel at a carnival.

June

Sarah goes to Harvey Point, North Carolina (a.k.a. “The Point”) Operative Training with specializing in joint operations between foreign governments. Meets Carina Miller, then Katrina Hansen, whose nationality is not known to her, but is on retainer as a brand new DEA undercover agent. The two strike up a friendship. Sarah’s cover at the time: Sabrina Wiley, a Kentucky farm-girl, hanging with all of the big CIA men and “Katrina,” of course. Bryce Larkin is at the Farm while Sarah is at the Point.

December

Sarah Walker meets FBI Agent Gwen Davenport when she accompanies Graham and other agency candidates to a Christmas party.

2002 –

March

Chuck is recruited into the CIA by Professor George Fleming. He is fast-tracked past the normal training. A connection is set up with Mr. Carver. Chuck is given a very strict work-out schedule. His studies fall off a bit, but he’s so determined that he puts himself through it all.

May

Sarah graduates Harvard, leaves before commencement because it’s not like anybody’s there to see her walk across the stage. She immediately ships off to Fort Benning for three week Army Airborne course. Sandra Williamson, poker fiend, friendly, from Southeast Missouri. Chuck graduates Stanford and immediately reports to Army Basic Training at Ft. Benning. Spends most of the two weeks with Jill and Ellie. Reports in at Ft. Benning on the same day as Sarah. They just barely miss each other at the USO Lounge at the airport. Chuck even holds the door open for Sarah to leave as he’s going in.

June

Sarah reports in to Quantico for 10 weeks of training at the FBI National Academy. Phillip Dartmoor, Marine E-5, suffers a psychological break with reality and opens fire on a crowd. He is gunned down by another man in his unit.

July

Chuck finishes BCT at Ft. Benning. He is given 10 days leave and heads back to Burbank to see Ellie and Jill one last time before OCS, as he knows his CIA training will take up most of the next year. Jill is slightly distant throughout the visit, but Chuck attributes it to her unhappiness that he’s leaving.

August

Sarah is loaned to Secret Service as an undercover agent for a duration of twelve months to learn both asset protection and how to operate stealthily in crowds and public places. Cover: Sarah Walker, agency unknown, temporary Secret Service Agent status. Chuck reports to OCS on 1 August. On 13 August, he receives a “Dear John” letter from Jill. On 15 August, he is kicked out of the program for having failing grades. He wakes up in the first bunker with his new assignment – data filtration—or so he thinks. In reality, Chuck reports to Lackland AFB, where he undergoes the first stages of Project Lincoln, a subliminal training program designed to create the most obedient and deadliest soldiers on the planet.

2003 –

August

Sarah meets Bryce Larkin in August. They’re both done with their operative training. Bryce has been red-tested and is okayed for red missions (bah, hate that), but Sarah isn’t official. Their first missions together are purely reconnaissance, but the two have a flair for getting in trouble.

November

Bryce and Sarah go through Seduction School training with Roan Montgomery.

2004 –

February

Paraguay with the stupid goat!

March

After the Paraguay mission is reviewed, Bryce and Sarah are relocated. Sarah is based in Monaco, Bryce in Nice. They spend the next six months operating individually for the most part. Sarah does analyst work, Bryce reconnaissance.

April

Project Lincoln is relocated to Warsaw, Poland.

July

Carver shoots Tango in the forehead to drive home a lesson to the subjects of Project Lincoln.

November

Chuck wakes up in a bunker in Siberia. He has been sedated and transferred there from Warsaw, Poland.

2005 –

January

Sarah heads back to the Farm for assassination training.

1 JAN

Project Lincoln is discovered by Langston Graham and disbanded, though the documentation about the project’s objectives and success is wildly incomplete. The six surviving analysts are transferred to another department for use and Carver is fired.

17 JAN

Carver kills Gail Hollway, his assistant in Project Lincoln. She is found shot to death in an alley in what’s believed to be a random mugging.

February

Sarah kills Eve Shaw to finally complete her training. It isn’t her first kill, but it is her first assassination.

07 FEB

Joseph Hanks, temp for Project Lincoln, slips on the stairs and is pronounced dead on the scene. Nobody suspects foul play.

March

21 Mar

Carver kills Dr. Robert Wolf, head neurobiologist for Project Lincoln and Project Omaha, Dr. Jennifer Sample, head pyschologist.

April

Sarah goes on a mission with Carina in Pakistan, just for kicks and giggles. It’s the first time they work together officially, and Carina almost gets them killed. Sarah fractures two ribs and is put on medical leave for two weeks.

May

Sarah and Bryce are pinned down by a cabal of renegades in South America. Sarah moves back to DC.

June

Sarah is nearly killed on a mission in the Congo, Bryce saves her life. She and Bryce have sex in the shower.

August

Sarah and Bryce rescue Marie Gestreaux in Belize with the Belgian embassy is under attack. Sarah meets Jean-Claude Gestraux for the first time.

September

Bryce finally tracks down Chuck in the bunker and begins making plans to visit him.

November

Following months of nonstop work after her medical leave, Sarah is looking forward to a week of mindless fun and sex in Cabo. She gets 48 hours in a bunker in Siberia instead (Fates 1/2, W&T 1-3).

December

Sarah and Bryce are reactivated and put back into the field, where they work with Chuck for the first time. Chuck wishes Sarah a merry Christmas over the video link. Sarah sends Chuck a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black and a graphic novel for Christmas (W&T 4).

2006 –

January

Sarah moves to Warsaw. Bryce and Sarah’s mission goes horribly awry. They’re imprisoned for two days before rescue can get them. Sarah gives in and has sex with Bryce.

March

Things are tense between the partners, but they keep producing results and they trust each other, so neither requests a reassignment. Sarah purchases her plane, “The Sting,” and sets into motion an egress route that will get Chuck on the bunker and send the Walker-Larkin Wonder Team running if need be (FFF 4).

April

Things implode between the partners. After a mission in the Sudan is a questionable success, Bryce requests a reassignment after putting it together that Sarah has feelings for Chuck (FFF 3). Sarah is temporarily loaned to the DEA.

14 April

Sarah and Carina begin planning to liberate the contents of a safety deposit box in the First Persian Gulf Bank of Dubai. When it’s obvious that the tech work is far too advanced for them, Sarah gets permission to use Chuck even though he’s technically Bryce’s asset. Carina, of course, puts it all together. Bunker Boy becomes Chuck’s official name by her (BJ 2).

24 April

Sarah finds a break in the case: one of the bank managers has a stripper fetish.

25 April

Carina, acting as a stripper to get blackmail material on one Mr. Faisal, bank employee, causes a minor altercation at a strip joint (BJ 3).

26 April

Carina and Sarah rob a bank. Though the alarm is tripped partway through, Chuck manages to guide them from the bank using smiley faces and Morse code. Sarah sends a thank-you to him and receives a smiley face in reply. She is somewhat disgruntled to find out that their intended quarry was incriminating photos of Carina, given Carina’s proclivities, but the redhead assures her that these pictures are serious and could get her into trouble—which they eventually do (Wasted, Fates 11). They drink a toast to being the baddest badass spies ever (BJ 3/4).

June

Sarah contacts Jean-Claude Gestreaux in order to purchase emergency paperwork for herself, Chuck, and Bryce, should they need to go on the run together (FFF 4).

July

Sarah kills a table full of French diplomats (Chuck vs. the Helicopter). She moves to Mexico City under the guise of cultural attaché to the embassy there.

August

Sarah, wearing a heavy trench coat, fights two foes and takes them both down, then gets pissed at the camera and shoots it (Chuck vs. the Intersect/Fates 45).

November

Bryce gets over his hissy fit and requests reassignment to become Sarah’s partner once more. Sarah’s grateful, as that means she’s no longer being sent on assassination missions. They agree that sex is off the table, though it’s obvious to Sarah that Bryce still has feelings for her.

2007 –

January

Sarah moves to Seoul.

August

Sarah moves back to Washington, DC.

24 September – 2300 EDT

Bryce steals Intersect, sends it to Chuck, gets away clean. Sarah, who has a friend on the protection detail, hears about it first, gets the geeks to suppress the information for as long as they can, and takes off to go track Bryce down through the only lead she has—a transmission to Chuck Bartowski (Fates 1, FFF 1).

25 September – OMST

Chuck receives Intersect, watches several hours of it, passes out. Receives phone call from Bryce: keep things on the down-low. Sarah flies to Amsterdam, bribes a friend, air-drops down, steals a snowmobile (in Fates, it’s a car, that needs to be changed) to get to Chuck.

26 September

Sarah shows up at the bunker at roughly 6:30 in the morning (she’s exhausted, at the end of her wits, and cranky). She quickly figures out that Chuck is the Intersect and in danger, so they do the only thing she can think of—they use her plan to get him out of the bunker safely (FFF 2).

27 September

Sarah and Chuck arrive in Moscow (Fates 2, FFF 3) and take the Sapsan up to St. Petersburg, where they transfer to the airport and Sarah’s plane. They meet Jean-Paul Gestreaux, who furnishes them with “Pete and Diana Rogers” paperwork (Fates 3). They land 10 km from Radomsko, Poland, and have their first argument. Chuck wins; they sleep in the hayloft for four hours. Perhaps Sarah’s exhaustion gets the better of her. She wakes up pretty much on top of Chuck (Hayloft). They hit the road, trekking to where she’s stored a car for them.

28 September

Sarah and Chuck drive to Thessaloniki. Frea discovers she messed up her timeline, but doesn’t care. They take a ferry from Thessaloniki to Athens. Sarah dumps Chuck in the Bungalow while she goes off to meet Randy, her ex (Fates 4, FFF4). Chuck falls asleep. Bryce sneaks in and leaves Project Omaha menu in bungalow. Sarah comes in to find Chuck sleeping in his boxers, swears the man is out to kill her, and falls asleep. Casey receives an anonymous tip that Chuck and Sarah are in Athens.

29 September

Chuck wakes up, finds the menu, which leads Sarah to discover the room’s been breached. They flee, heading for the Acropolis so that Sarah can gather her bearings. While there, Chuck discovers that Sarah is in danger because of him and he attempts to turn himself in. Sarah doesn’t let him. Chuck wakes up in the back of an ambulance, meets Sarah’s “ex,” Randy. Randy agrees to help Chuck with a plan on the way to dropping him off at the safehouse (Fates 5).

30 September

Randy drops off a phone for Chuck. Sarah and Chuck act out a version of Sarah’s sex dream from the bunker. This time it ends with guns and Casey rather than a storm. Chuck bluffs everybody with nothing but a cell phone and his wits.

END OF PART I: EPITHEMEUS.

PART II: PROMETHEUS

October –

1 October

Casey interrogates Sarah at the air base, choosing to break the more experienced agent. They never finish the interrogation. Casey’s third-in-command breaks in with the news that Lieutenant Smith is beating up Chuck, and Sarah just about kills Casey (seriously, the dude is lucky he only escapes with a black eye) after Chuck is safe.

2 October

Sarah, Chuck, and Casey land at Dulles and the CIA agents are immediately thrown into a holding cell at Langley (Fates 8).

5 October

With Agent Davenport as his rep, Chuck is shunted off to a better facility and studied anonymously by scientists like Dr. Zarnow and the most recent Intersect team (Fates 7). He is always referred to as Patient X. With Gwen on his side, his demands are met—he is assigned a working base in Burbank on probation (thankfully, the results speak for themselves). Throughout this stretch, he suffers from daily panic attacks (October 5-16). arah, meanwhile, spends another twenty-four hours in the detention facility, pending her closed-door session/trial.

3 October

Her actions are reviewed by a panel of bureaucrats (among them, Director Graham and General Beckman), and she is eventually, tentatively cleared of being a traitor, though the panel recommends she be dismissed from the CIA immediately. Graham stands up for her, stating that she’ll officially be reassigned to a desk job, permanently. It’s a little heartbreaking for Sarah. The instant they’re out of the meeting, Graham pulls her into a briefing with General Beckman. They’re assigning her to Operation Prometheus. Sarah declines the offer, as she doesn’t think having her around will actually help Chuck in the long run. Graham points out that she either joins Prometheus or gets discharged. Sarah agrees to join the team, on the condition that she has to keep Chuck in line any way she can.

9 October

Sarah moves out to Burbank and in with Ellie. She oversees operation setup, including finding a place for Chuck and Casey, and keeping an eye on Castle.

15 October

Sarah and Carina make plans to steal a diamond and bring Fidget in on it.

16 October

Sarah, Carina, and Fidget steal a diamond. Chuck and Casey land at Burbank airport and go to the Castle for the first time (Fates 6). Chuck immediately heads off to reconnect with Ellie (Fates 7). While waiting to return her car keys, he has a panic attack. Devon helps him out, the two reconnect, and Ellie invites Chuck to stay with her for the night as he hasn’t even seen his new place. Sarah finds him in the waiting room to warn him not to blow her cover. Chuck gets his first Project Omaha clue from Bryce: Phillip Dartmoor

17 October

Chuck and Ellie have a conversation at her place (Fates 8). Chuck wishes Ellie a Happy Mother’s Day. Sarah and Chuck talk openly for the first time since Athens. In Castle, the team is briefed for the first time, and Sarah beats the hell out of Frank, the dummy (Bunny). Sarah has been read into “Project Lincoln Lite.” Team Bartowski receives its first mission in “Sizzling Shrimp” (Fates 9). They attempt to retrieve Lee Cho on their own, Sarah and Casey get taken. Chuck saves the day, but passes out at the sight of Sarah’s blood and once again ends up in the hospital. Sarah gives him a pocket knife (Fates 10).

18 October

Chuck heads back to the Buy More to see Morgan. The friends reconnect, Chuck buys himself a new computer (Fates 11). When he returns, Sarah brings him lunch, the two share a few moments, but are interrupted by the ninja in Ellie’s apartment. With Ellie actually in the apartment, Chuck refuses to stay put, so he goes with Sarah and meets Carina. Operation Bartowski meeting where Sarah explains that she and Carina stole a diamond from Peyman Alahi (Fates 12). Chuck stalks Jill for the first time. Carina crashes. The two are unfortunately kidnapped because Peyman’s men figured out where Carina is. They are rescued at the warehouse by Bryce Larkin (Fates 13). Chuck…does not react well.

19 October

Sarah and Casey show up to save the day when Chuck splits up with Bryce. Casey takes Chuck away while Sarah sticks around to help Carina and clean up the scene. Chuck stumbles over Fidget’s dead body. Carina and Sarah have a heart to heart in which Sarah confesses to Carina her fear that she will not be able to protect Chuck. Carina tells Sarah to get over herself (Wasted). Carina comes over to say good-bye to Chuck and apologize for getting him involved in the mess the night before. Chuck and Sarah talk about Bryce Larkin, partnership, and trust (Fates 14).

END OF PART II: PROMETHEUS.

PART III: ATLAS

30 October

Team Bartowski is warned to be on alert that Laszlo Mahnovski, a weapons designer, is loose in LA (Fates 15). Since he designed Castle, he is most likely headed their way. Sarah takes Chuck out of Castle to deliver the news for fear that he will say something treasonous, and goes off to rendezvous with Agent Scary. Chuck studies up on Laszlo’s file, modifies Castle’s security. He goes on to stalk Jill. Morgan gives him a call and tells him to report in at the Buy More, so Chuck and Casey join the Battle of Wolf 359. During the battle, they run smack into Laszlo, who is using the battle as a cover to collect supplies. Laszlo gets away, though Casey and Chuck drive around looking for him.

31 October

Chuck calls Sarah to fill her in on the progress, and does more research on Phillip Dartmoor, which has been a dead end so far (Fates 16). He uses screenshots from Buy More security cameras and visits the Buy More (run-in with Harry Tang) to figure out what Laszlo was after. Definitely a bomb. His session with his new psychiatrist, Amy Farnsworth, goes horribly. She’s Sarah’s twin sister, pretty much. The session does lead Chuck to figure out that Laszlo is bombing the Santa Monica Pier. He disobeys Sarah’s orders and goes to disarm the bomb with them. Once they figure out the bomb is actually under the pier, they race down to stop Laszlo. He gets the drop on Sarah, but it’s Chuck’s tranq gun that actually knocks her out, making him Castle’s Employee of the Month. Casey shoots Laszlo. Chuck disarms the bomb (Fates 17). Chuck attends a Halloween party at Ellie’s and the Sandworm makes its second debut. Chuck also gives Sarah a copy of “Speed” on DVD and gardenias to apologize for knocking her out. Ellie barges in without knocking just as they’re hugging. In return, Sarah dresses as Tatiana Romanova from “From Russia With Love,” in a sort of wink-wink-nudge-nudge way. Chuck...misses the implications.

09 November

Casey gives Chuck his first hands-on gun training and lets him shoot a gun, but the lesson is cut short by an urgent briefing from the Talking Heads in DC (Fates 18). Chuck’s old professor Fleming has dropped off the grid and Team Bartowski is assigned to go collect him. Sarah steps forward and covers for Chuck, volunteering herself and Casey to run this mission without him. Once they leave, Chuck beats the hell out of Frank and his knuckles. he mission goes badly. Magnus shoots Fleming (and Casey), but Chuck is able to figure out that the intel would be stored in Bryce’s dumpsite in Green Library. He calls his sister and gets tickets to the big game the next day.

10 November

Ellie’s bomb patient has a complication at the hospital, pushing back the departure time by several hours (Fates 19). Chuck, worried that he will be unable to handle all of the crowds at the big game, goes into the bathroom for a quiet freak-out. He gets more than he bargained for—and an eyeful of naked Sarah. At the game, Sarah wards off a freak-out by dragging him to get her a pretzel, but her plans go badly when Chuck runs into Jill for awkward conversation. They escape to go get the disk. The retrieval goes well until Magnus and his men show up (Fates 20). Chuck and the others sneak up onto the fourth floor, split up when Magnus and his men spot them. Chuck takes out a thug without really thinking about it, he and Casey escape by running across the tops of the bookshelves. It’s the first time Chuck sees Sarah in Kung Fu Barbie mode. Sarah smuggles Chuck out of the library while Casey takes Magnus out. Chuck, unable to handle going back to the game without Sarah, heads instead for his old dumpsite, where he retrieves the promise ring for Jill, and an old deck of cards. Ellie joins him at the library and asks about Sarah being a spy (Fates 21). Bryce jumps Chuck outside the library and steals the disk, and Chuck finds out about Sand Wall and that Bryce is not a traitor.

11 November

When they get back to Ellie and Sarah’s place, Chuck pulls Sarah aside, tells her about Bryce, and ends the chapter with, “OhandEllieknows,too! Kthxbai!” Like the hero he is, he runs away (Fates 22).

12 November

Sarah flies to DC and spends the day in meetings, convincing the higher-ups to add Ellie to Operation Prometheus. On the way to the airport, she stops by the Davenport Estate to see Gwen and request that the woman serve as an Agency Representative for Ellie. Chuck has his first appointment with Dr. Anton, in which he does not talk. Casey gives him some important advice about therapy. Sarah has a nightmare on the plane back from DC (Scream). Chuck and Casey pick up Sarah at the airport (Fates 23).

13 November

Sarah and Chuck have their first real fight over Sarah’s actions in DC. Though Chuck is unhappy with the thought of his sister joining the team, he agrees to go along with it, with one condition: Ellie cannot know he was alone in the bunker. Sarah and Ellie have a heart-to-heart about Sarah’s motives regarding Chuck, and Ellie joining the government. Issues are aired, a friendship begins (TLC). >Back at Castle, Casey makes Chuck, who hasn’t slept, take a nap. Ellie joins the team. Beckman holds a briefing, promising Chuck both the Intersect documents, giving Casey and Sarah permanent cover identities for Burbank, and assigning the team to go after Fulcrum (Fates 24). Chuck narrows down the search for Phillip Dartmoor to two, and talks to Ellie on the phone. He sleeps in his bed for the first time in nearly a month.

14 November

Chuck hooks up Sarah’s new (much cooler) office and gives Sarah access to his computer, including his file on all of his flashes. Sarah finds Chuck’s flash about Randall Kaiser interesting, as it includes information on Jackson Burton. Chuck notices, but the team decides to go after Sergei Ezersky on Beckman’s list of Fulcrum agents before Chuck can figure out what it means.

16 November

Sarah teaches Ellie some hand-to-hand combat and there is much bonding to be had (TLC2).

18 November

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey break into Sergei Ezersky’s estate (Fates 25). Things go awry when Chuck finds a trapdoor and Chuck and Sarah chased from the estate by crazy Russian robot rabbits (robo-rabbits) before they can fully acquire the necessary intel (Fates 26). Drugs in the robo-rabbits’ darts make our favorite spy couple hallucinate and pass out. The drugs also leave the duo’s memories of the event patchy at best. Chuck wakes up that evening, is tended to by Ellie, and shaves his head after taking a shower. Ellie discovers the pictures Chuck has carried around for years, and advises him to start thinking about Jill so that he can get over her (Fates 27). She suggests that Chuck write Jill a letter. She invites Casey over for Turkey Day.

21 November

Chuck has trouble cracking Sergei Ezersky’s drive (Fates 28). Sarah interrupts him to drive him to his therapy appointment with Dr. Anton, and convinces him to talk to the doctor instead of staying quiet. Chuck talks about Casey and Sarah to Dr. Anton. Chuck writes the letter to Jill. He then teaches Casey how to play Call of Duty 3.

22 November

Sarah attempts teach Chuck how to pick-pocket somebody, with amusing results. Ellie drives Chuck over to Jill’s apartment to deliver the letter. As Chuck is delivering it, however, he hears footsteps in the apartment and hides. Instead of Jill, a well-dressed older gentleman appears, holding a binder of Jill’s. Chuck, suspicious, uses his new skills to lift the man’s phone, and discovers heavy-duty security on it (Fates 29).

23 November

Sarah and Chuck go running in the park together. Chuck lies to Sarah about his plans for the day, which are to go to Radio Shack with Morgan and build a jammer so that he can copy the data on the stolen cell phone. He does so at Castle and Sarah accidentally comes close to revealing the hidden base beneath to Morgan. Chuck lies to her again about the jammer, but it works.

24 November

Casey blackmails Chuck with a picture of Sarah and Chuck in a compromising position outside of the Ezersky estate for a missile-launcher in the Crown Vic (Fates 30). Chuck spends the morning trying to break the code on the Ezersky drive with no luck. Sarah brings him a picnic lunch and gives him the idea for the break-through. Jill returns from Sacramento a day early. Chuck goes to stake-out her apartment and keep watch over her while he tries to break the encryption both on the stolen cell phone and the Ezersky drive.

25 November

Chuck wakes up to find Sarah cleaning her gun in the passenger seat of his car, looking pissed. They argue about Chuck’s stalking; during the argument, Chuck accidentally hits a code on his computer that leads him to realize that the encryption on the cell phone and the drive are the same, which means that Ezersky IS Fulcrum, and so are the people taking things from Jill. Sarah and Chuck make a plan to get Jill to safety, but they are interrupted by the gentleman (Lawrence/Matching Pocket Square) pointing at gun at them. Chuck and Sarah are taken to the desert to be executed (Fates 31). With Chuck’s help, Sarah turns the tables on their captors and kills/incapacitates the lot. They drive off with Jill and go off the grid in a motel outside of Piute, CA, where they wait for Casey to join them (Fates 32). Chuck discovers that Jill wasn’t being threatened by Fulcrum: she IS Fulcrum. He races back to the room to inform Sarah, but arrives just in time to see Sarah take Jill down (Fates 33). They interrogate Jill, and Chuck finds out that she’s been Fulcrum since college. Chuck finally puts it together that Sarah has a thing for him. His brain does not explode, though it’s a close call. Casey arrives. Chuck starts laughing and then coughing and almost passes out, but Sarah manages to calm him down. Right before they’re about to leave to deliver Jill to the Marshals, Fulcrum arrives (Fates 34). A gun battle ensues in which Chuck and Jill are separated from Sarah and Casey, and a meth lab is blown sky high. While hiding out in the office, Chuck and Jill are found by Leader, Jill’s Fulcrum contact. He is not there to support Jill, however, but to clean up the mess. He shoots Jill and is about to finish her off when Chuck attacks him, but Leader quickly fights him off. He shoots at Chuck’s head, but Chuck throws a knife that Sarah has given him at the Fulcrum agent without realizing what it is. The knife hits Leader in the liver; the bullet misses (Fates 35). Sarah arrives and shoots Leader center-mass three times before he can bleed out from the knife wound. Chuck tries to save Jill’s life. Chuck, overwhelmed by the betrayal of Jill, Sarah’s feelings, almost killing Leader, and everything that has gone down at the Heartbrake Hotel, goes into a fugue state, steals an FBI car, and drives off in the middle of the crime scene clean-up.

END OF PART III: ATLAS.

PART IV: MENOETIUS.

27 November

Chuck watches the sunrise over the Grand Canyon (Fates 36). Sarah arrives, gun-out. When she sees Chuck, she breaks down on the spot and cries for over twenty minutes. They argue. Sarah makes Chuck promise never to do that to her again, Chuck agrees, and asks her why she likes him. She tells him that she thinks he’s neat. They depart for Phoenix and DC by way of a department store in Flagstaff where Sarah surprises Chuck in the dressing room to check on his bruises. Chuck surprises Sarah by stopping to visit her father in the Phoenix Federal Correctional Institute. Sarah turns the tables on him by letting him know Jack wants to see him as well, so Chuck meets the father of the Great Sarah Walker (Fates 37). They fly to DC. Chuck teases Sarah on the plane. Casey meets them at the airport, much to Chuck’s chagrin. The team, including Ellie and Awesome, is staying in the Virginia home owned by Gwen Davenport.

28 November

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey report to the CIA headquarters, where their covers are Agent Cameron Lynch, Agent Karrin Lynch, and Major Barnabas Lynch respectively. This is the introduction of Vespa Weier, personal assistant and bane of Sarah Walker’s existence. The trio meet with Graham and Beckman, the former of whom rips them a new one for Chuck’s actions. Chuck visits Digital Dave and finds out that the barette Jill was wearing led Fulcrum right to them (Fates 38). He snaps at Sarah. At the NSA headquarters, Casey and Ellie observe Chuck’s round of testing with Intersect scientists, in which he is Patient X. Ellie’s cover for the NSA is Major Nelson. Awesome spends the day in orientation, ensuring that his credentials are up to date. After work, Chuck spends some time on the treadmill while Sarah picks up her car and dinner for everybody. Chuck meets Russell Davenport, Gwen’s husband and the most laidback man on earth, and has an eye-opening conversation with him that pushes Chuck forward in making decisions about his own life. Team Prometheus has an outdoor barbecue with a bonfire and steaks, and Chuck clears the air with Sarah. He also asks Casey to look into Phillip Dartmoor for him, since Chuck has been unable to figure out which Dartmoor he should be investigating due to lack of pertinent information. Sarah walks Chuck back to the house. He asks her out on a date. She says yes, and then trips while doing a victory dance on the way out.

12 December

Sarah tells Chuck she has figured out their date and promptly shoves him into a closet so that he will not be seen by Dr. Zarnow of the Intersect project (Fates 39). Chuck knows nothing about the date save that he apparently thought of it.

14 December

Ellie brings up her concerns about Chuck dating Sarah as Chuck is getting ready for the date. Chuck points out that he has problems, and if not now, when? Ellie is for the moment appeased. Chuck and Sarah go on their date, eating take-out at Sarah’s apartment first before heading to the National Mall site for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The date goes well for awhile--Sarah confides in Chuck a little about her time at Harvard, and the two genuinely have a good time--until it is interrupted by Dr. Zarnow, who intends to kidnap Sarah so that he may torture the identity of Patient X from her, not knowing that he is pointing a gun at the very same Patient X. Chuck slips his watch to Sarah as a tracking device and moves to where she can grab his tranq gun. It proves to be worthless. Bryce Larkin saves the day, as he had been following them, waiting to come in from the cold thanks to messages Sarah has been leaving him at their old haunts (Fates 40). Sarah thanks him by putting two tranq darts in his chest. Casey comes to collect Chuck and Sarah heads back to the CIA to get started on cleaning up the Bryce situation, but before she goes, she kisses Chuck.

15 December

Dave and Chuck work on the Fulcruminator, their Fulcrum security hacking system, before Chuck is called to a team meeting in which it is revealed that Bryce will be joining Prometheus as a proxy agent going deep undercover. Another briefing is called for Monday morning with the full team. Sarah says that she and Chuck need to talk about some things, and they agree to talk once they are back at the Davenports’ and out of hearing of anybody official (read: Casey). Chuck gets drawn into a basketball game with the Davenports, Ellie, and Awesome, where he is grilled by Ellie (Fates 41). Afterward, Gwen gives her blessing to the Chuck and Sarah relationship, so to speak, and Chuck goes to wake Sarah up, not knowing she is in the middle of a nightmare. Sarah’s reaction to being woken is a bit extreme. Sarah and Chuck have a conversation about where they would like the relationship to go.

17 December

Operation Prometheus meets up with Beckman and Graham. Ellie and Devon are issued cover identities: Adele Beckett and Bryan McGee respectively. Chuck meets up with Dave, who has finished the Fulcruminator, and the nerds pass it off to Bryce to take on his mission deep undercover. Before Bryce leaves, Chuck notices his regretful look out the window, at Sarah.

2008 –

03 January

Chuck visits Morgan at the Buy More and discovers that in his time away, Harry Tang has demolished the Wall of Chuck, much to Chuck’s relief (Fates 42). Morgan swears to quit the Buy More and tells Chuck about his other job, deejaying, at which he has landed a primo gig. Chuck mistakes the logo on his business card for the Playboy Bunny. Sarah shows up at the Bachelor Pad a few hours later for some quality time with her boyfriend. While there, it is revealed that Chuck has grown nervous that he has yet to kiss Sarah first. And that Chuck and Casey have worked out a system of not-quite-bribery with cigars for whenever Casey stumbles upon something he doesn’t want to see.

17 January

Chuck attempts to break up an argument between Casey and Sarah about who will meet with Bryce. Casey loses by way of a coin toss.

18 January

Chuck waits up for Casey to come back from meeting Bryce. While waiting, he examines the Intersect creator files that Beckman delivered to him via Bryce. Casey reveals that Bryce gave them a name: Piers Faulkner. When the man isn’t in the Intersect, they have to do old-fashioned spy work to discover more about Faulkner.

21 January

Casey and Sarah reveal they have no good leads on Faulkner, but Chuck realizes, thanks to recognizing the logo for Kanichen Enterprises, Faulkner’s company, that Morgan’s upcoming gig is for Kanichen. Casey and Sarah strong-arm Chuck into getting Morgan to put their names on the list, against his will.

25 January

Chuck and Sarah show up at Andy Kohlmeier’s birthday party at Kanichen Enterprises. The mission is a success; Chuck and Sarah easily clone Andy Kohlmeier and Piers Faulkner’s hard drives and rifle through their offices. In addition, Chuck befriends Andy Kohlmeier (Fates 43).

31 January

Casey has Chuck disassemble and reassemble Sarah’s gun while blindfolded, and they inadvertently discover that Chuck is a blind marksman (Fates 44). Before Sarah can kill Casey for letting Chuck go anywhere near a live firearm while blindfolded, Chuck flashes on the motherload of Russian baddies, among them Casey’s dead girlfriend, Ilsa Trinchina. Chuck goes to therapy with Dr. Anton, who gives him simple, helpful advice. Casey and Sarah are waiting outside for him when he comes out; they’ve got a mission at the Grand Saville, the swanky hotel home to aforementioned Russian baddies. The mission goes down almost identically to canon, with Chuck being mistaken by the same Russian as a cousin, and Ilsa being revealed as the hopeful bride of Victor Federov (Fates 45). Sarah contacts the FBI to run surveillance. Chuck goes off to have a drink with Awesome, who asks his blessing to marry Ellie, which Chuck happily gives. He then goes home to find Casey drinking over Ilsa and decides to join him for a gaming and liquor marathon. The two get so excited about guns in their drunken haze that they decide weaponry and alcohol mix well. Ever the conscientious drunk, Chuck calls Sarah for a ride, but when Casey points out that Sarah will rightfully stop them, tries to convince her he’s not going to do something extremely dangerous. It doesn’t work.

1 February

Sarah is waiting for them at Castle and shepherds them back to her apartment, where she can keep an eye on them. During a fit of teasing and humor, Casey finally cracks and tells his partners about meeting Ilsa. Chuck passes out on Sarah’s bed. Chuck wakes up hungover; he and Sarah head to work, where they discover through the use of logic and hacking that Ilsa isn’t merely an AP photographer getting married to a crime lord, but a French spy. When Casey, Chuck, and Sarah go to the Grand Saville to confront her about this, Victor Federov gets the drop on Casey and Chuck. Sarah gets away. When Chuck and Casey break free of the guards, they’re forced to leap from the seventh-story balcony and into the pool, where Sarah and Ilsa show up with the FBI team to neutralize Federov. Casey requests use of the Bachelor Pad for the night, so Chuck cleans up and gets ready to head to Castle, but before he can make it there, Sarah comes over and teases him about Ellie’s wedding ring. Things get interrupted by a briefing with the bosses, who are pleased with the success of Prometheus, if not the methods. Sarah is requested to stay after for a one-on-one meeting with Beckman that infuriates her into beating the stuffing out of Frank; Chuck hacks the feed to find out what was said to set Sarah off. Beckman’s conversation with Sarah is about whether or not Sarah is keeping Chuck in line by ways of seduction. Chuck and Sarah argue about this and Chuck discovers that Beckman and Graham have been pressuring Sarah to use her wiles against him. They talk it over and agree that it’s time for things to change. Chuck tells Ellie about the situation, and mentions for the first time that he plans on getting the Intersect out of his head.

2 February

Chuck wakes up to find a note from Sarah on the bed — she’s gone away to think. Her destination: the Grand Canyon.

4 February

Casey’s birthday. He celebrates by going to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, leaving Chuck alone in Castle. Bad move: Andy Kohlmeier calls Chuck up, desperately needing his help. Chuck agrees to meet Andy at Madame Cotillard’s, a five-star restaurant nearby. Bryce goes along for cover. Both Andy and Bryce are kidnapped; Chuck gets away by flinging vegetables and serving bowls. Casey comes back and they track Bryce’s watch to Sergei Ezersky’s manor, where Sarah joins them. Chuck gets past security, but gives himself up as bait. He’s taken to the same vault room that held the roborabbits, now devoid of all robots, and meets Sergei Ezersky there. This was all arranged by Piers Faulkner, who is a) displeased with Ezersky for not releasing a project on time, b) displeased with Andy for snooping around Kanichen’s affairs, and c) really mad at Bryce and Chuck for being annoying. The group of men in the vault manage to escape, thanks to a little help from Casey and Sarah. During the battle to flee Ezersky Manor, however, Bryce is shot while protecting Chuck. Faulkner gets away. In the ambulance afterward, Bryce mistakenly and druggedly thanks Chuck for accepting his apology, claiming that Chuck is the best because he’ll forgive Bryce anything, including the fact that it’s Bryce’s fault Chuck ended up in the bunker. Chuck’s world is just a little bit rocked. While Casey and Sarah hunt down Faulkner, Chuck finally sits down and does some research on the clues Bryce has given him. He uncovers Project Omaha, the super-soldier branch of the Intersect project, and discovers that Phillip Dartmoor was one of its subjects. In addition to have medical issues, Dartmoor also snapped and opened fire on both his allies and the nearby crowd, presumably an effect of the Omaha training. Chuck comes downstairs and finds Piers Faulkner and Andy Kohlmeier standing in his living room. It’s obvious from the beginning that things are not right with Andy, who stands silently and empty to the side while Piers Faulkner reveals himself to be Dr. Richard Carver. Things do not go well from Chuck: Andy beats the crap out of him and when Chuck tries to flee, Carver uses a simple phrase on him, freezing him in place and then controlling him. A flash breaks Chuck out of the stupor as Carver is using him to break into the CIA’s mainframe and delete hidden documents about Project Lincoln. Chuck waits for the opportune moment and gets away, using a zipline to run into the park. With his senses going crazy and his feet bare, he runs away from Andy, only for the other man to catch him and continue to beat the living tar out of him. Chuck is caught and discovers, through his own flashes and Carver’s bragging, that he was turned into a sleeper assassin as part of Project Lincoln, Project Omaha’s darker half. When Carver tells Chuck he will use Chuck to kill Ellie, Sarah, and Casey, Chuck turns the tide on Carver, using a phrase on Andy to mow down Carver. Andy is in turn shot by Chuck’s FBI protection, who has just woken up from a concussion. When he returns inside, Chuck sees Sarah’s name on a new document and discovers that she knew about Project Lincoln. Paranoid about what he’s become and not sure who to trust, he drives away into the night.

END OF PART IV: MENOETIUS.

5 February

Chuck places the Prodigal Sorcerer card in his dump-site at the Auxiliary Library on the Stanford campus.

27 March

Casey and Sarah track Chuck in Barcelona. He gets away, though it’s a narrow escape.

2 April

Chuck arrives at the bunker and begins his long, arduous process of tracking down anything he can about the Lincoln project, and figuring out exactly how his brain works.

8 April

Sarah visits Bryce as he’s about to leave the rehabilitation clinic, where he has been healing from his gunshot wound. She lays it out in cold, bare detail exactly what his actions led to and why Chuck is gone.

May

7 May

Chuck receives an email from Beckman, ordering him to return. Knowing his time is running out, Chuck strikes a compromise.

START OF PART V: ZEUS.

14 May

A mysterious person named Orion, who claims to have created the Intersect, contacts Chuck in the bunker and offers help. Though Chuck turns Orion down, Orion leaves Chuck a way to contact him. Casey collects Chuck from the bunker, and Chuck is reunited with Ellie and Sarah in Moscow.

15 May

Chuck and Sarah talk honestly about Sarah’s involvement in Lincoln, which isn’t extensive, but is certainly enough to be damning. Sarah was given only a few control phrases and told Chuck took part in a study that involved isolation and subliminal training, though given Chuck’s inherent mannerisms, she had always suspected there was more to it. She apologizes. Chuck understands, but the truth still hurts.

The team flies back to Dulles, where Awesome promptly proposes to Ellie (while Chuck is in the bathroom) (Fates 59).

16 May

The team has a meeting at the NSA headquarters. Chuck is arrested almost immediately upon entering the building, and it turns out to be a power play from Graham, who is less than pleased that they were going to meet without the CIA, who technically have half-ownership over one system in Chuck’s head and full ownership over another. He threatens Chuck; Beckman offers Chuck a contract. Ten million for Chuck’s silence and continuing, occasional missions.

28 May

The first message from Orion appears in The Washington Post.

June

12 June

Chuck returns from his therapy session in a bad mood.

21 June

Ellie and Chuck meet at St. Lucy’s hospital, where Ellie runs tests on Chuck to determine the physical and mental aspects of the Lincoln programming on his brain. She brings up the idea of using a phrase on Chuck. He is resistant, but reluctantly agrees, and even agrees to ask Sarah to read the phrase, as she’s one of the two that knows any of the phrases, and he doesn’t want anybody else knowing. Sarah just about takes his head off, as the Lincoln programming has an embedded command to flee upon completion of an assignment, and she’s sworn to never put him through that again after he nearly died of starvation and cold at the Grand Canyon. They talk honestly about what they meant to each other for the first time since arriving in D.C (Fates 60).

22 June

Chuck visits Ellie’s apartment to talk to her about why she kept the knowledge of the Lincoln programming to flee from him; she had assumed he already knew. Chuck then joins Sarah on the roof and offers friendship to her, though he’s not entirely sure he’s forgiven her. She accepts. Chuck gets a text message from Bryce (Fates 61).

July

1 July

Chuck meets with Bryce at Dulles. Bryce apologizes that his actions led to Chuck being accepted into Project Lincoln and mentally and emotionally abused for two years before being thrust into a bunker, but Chuck doesn’t really want to have much to do with Bryce. He refuses Bryce’s offer of his unedited entrance interview at Stanford and leaves.

7 July

Casey drags Chuck running at the Capitol. In front of the Lincoln monument, Casey lays the facts out: Chuck is angry and trying to hide it because he feels it isn’t fair, and that’s not healthy (Fates 62). Sarah comes over to watch The Island with Chuck; he tries to sort out how he feels about her and if Casey is correct that he needs to let go of his anger. Sarah gives him a nautical rope bracelet that will cover up his Intersect tattoos stylishly because they’re friends.

11 July

Chuck and Sarah visit Langley. Chuck plays Ultimate Frisbee with Digital Dave’s team until an emergency calls the rest of the nerds away. Before they can get too comfortable, Carina, who is in town for a few days, arrives. Chuck urges Sarah to go out with her friend and have fun, and that he will be fine. Chuck has lunch with Digital Dave, who informs him that the spy life has grown to be too much and that he wants to quit and form his own software company. He offers Chuck an opportunity to come on board, but Chuck’s contract with the CIA/NSA forbids it, so instead, Chuck offers to bankroll the operation instead. They are interrupted by Langston Graham, whom Chuck had deliberately hoped to avoid at Langley. Against Chuck’s better judgment, he meets with Graham, who tells Chuck that he will be downloading the newest version of the Intersect (something that will keep Chuck under contract. Chuck tells him to shove it, but not before Graham can plant seeds of doubt and the loyalties of Ellie and Sarah. Chuck storms out and meets Russ at the gym to sink some of his frustration into a punching bag. On the way out of the gym, he notices that he is being followed by several men (Fates 63). His attempt to get away fails. They “arrest’ him and bring him to a room beneath the Metro station. Chuck figures out that they are working for Graham, who will have him download the Intersect 1.5 at any cost. Chuck forces a flash of the Metro system layout and escapes thanks to some cleverness with a necktie and a Taser. He gets free, but, worried that Graham might be wire-tapping any of the members of his team, goes on the lam, going instead to find Russ. Russ and Gwen Davenport, however, are old hands at dealing with government oppression. Russ smuggles Chuck back to the estate, where Gwen has gathered a team of FBI agents looking out for Chuck’s interests. They see Carina and Sarah as the women are leaving, though Chuck has no idea why they would need to talk to Gwen. He waits out the time until the new Intersect is downloaded—freeing him—by playing video games until he can contact his team. Before that can happen, though, Gwen delivers bad news: the Intersect has been blown up and Ellie was in the observation room (Fates 64). Chuck races to the hospital and arrives as Ellie is just finishing up emergency surgery, meeting Awesome there. He receives yet another shock, though, to find Sarah in the vending machine lounge, where she is pacing and trying to gather up the strength to tell Ellie that Chuck was killed in the Intersect explosion. Her reaction at seeing him is extreme. After Chuck goes in to assure himself that Ellie is okay, he tells Sarah the shortened version of what happened to him. She is less than thrilled about all of it, but before they can really talk about it, Casey arrives with Chuck’s watch and cell phone. He promptly informs them that they’re being put on the first flight out of there (Fates 65).

12 July

The team heads to Pisa, where they meet with a new contact that has a cover mission and cover documents for them. Sarah and Chuck are once again Diana and Pete Rogers, and Casey is once more Barney Lynch. Apart from Chuck being hit in the face twice, the mission in Pisa is a milk-run. The team heads by car up to the Cinque Terre region of Italy, where they will lie low until the Intersect mess has blown over. They stay in a tiny village called Riomaggiore, and things only get more awkward when Chuck and Sarah are due to share an apartment. Since Sarah is in a bad mood and wants to be alone, Chuck heads out by himself to watch the sunset and reflect on his day. The sunset makes him realize that he would rather have Sarah than be angry, so he goes back to the apartment to try to sort things out with her. It is empty, but in her room, he finds a book of poetry on her bed. When he picks it up, the bookmark flutters to the floor. He recognizes it as being from the deck of cards from the bunker in Siberia. Confused about what it could mean that she has such a keepsake in her go-bag (for they have nothing but their emergency bags with them), Chuck tracks Sarah down to a bar on the coast, where she’s enjoying a glass of wine and the sunset. She is not exactly happy to see him, and it doesn’t take long for Chuck to realize she’s a little drunk. Sarah confesses that she went to see Gwen for a new job as an instructor at Quantico, as she can’t keep working for the CIA if things with Chuck are going to be awful. Chuck accuses her of abandoning him, and it thankfully leads to a more open communication trail in which Sarah reveals that she took the card from the bunker because she wanted something she could keep with her of him. She tells Chuck that she doesn’t want to be his friend—she wants to be more. Chuck is amenable to that. And then they done sex. Afterwards, Chuck can’t sleep, so he gets on the computer and finally digs into his kidnapping, discovering that his captors did indeed work for Graham. He also hacks the list of those killed in the Intersect 1.5 explosion and discovers that all of the remaining Lincoln subjects have been killed (Fates 66).

13 July

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey meet for breakfast and discuss their options, confirming that it was Fulcrum that blew up the Intersect. Chuck confesses that he has been in touch with Orion, who has left him coded messages in the newspaper. They agree to contact Orion, as Fulcrum has become too large of a problem for them to handle reliably. Sarah and Chuck form a lazy plan to hike to the next village over and see if they can pick up a burn phone. They take a hike on the Via Dell’Amore (Lover’s Path), where Sarah takes delight in informing Chuck about her sex dream from the bunker, and they both indulge in some PDA. Sarah tricks him and shoves him off of a boulder into the water. They splash around for a bit before being absolutely lazy jerks on a beach. That night, Chuck wakes up to find the bed empty. Sarah is sitting on the bathroom floor, thinking about life, the universe, and everything. She tells him that she is probably trying to sabotage herself. She tells him that she never really picked him, that he was just always on her thoughts after they met, almost like a disease. She is noticeably put out at the idea that it might be fate, but Chuck points out that he doesn’t mind, as it led them to be together. She then tells him that she thinks there is something off about the ads that Orion has been leaving him in the newspapers.

14 July

Chuck goes for a hike with Casey and gets a call from Ellie, who figures out right away that Chuck and Sarah have made up. She demands that Sarah be a bridesmaid. Chuck and Sarah decide to watch a movie, and that leads Chuck to ramble on about his childhood love for things like the Transformers. Sarah finally puts it together that the ads in the newspaper are all tailored for Chuck and must be from somebody who knows him personally: possibly his father (Fates 67).

25 July

Chuck and Sarah wander through Venice before meeting up with Casey. Ellie, finally healed from the explosion, is on her way to Venice with Awesome, where the team will be reunited. Together, they have decided to meet up with Orion as part of their next adventure. It is decided that their next goal will be to get the Intersect out of Chuck’s head any way they can, get away from Fulcrum, and live their lives to the best of their abilities. They join Casey on a borrowed water taxi to start on their new mission. It’s not quite riding the horse into the sunset, but it’s near as makes no never mind (Fates 68).