Chuck: The Episode Ellie Learns Her Brother Is A Spy
When does Ellie find out about Chuck being a spy in the eponymous TV show? Created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak, Chuck is an action-comedy series that aired for five seasons on NBC between 2007 and 2012. Chuck - which changed its original plan - centers around its title character Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) – a computer whiz and Stanford University dropout whose normal life is turned upside down when the sole remaining copy of a top-secret government database called the Intersect is implanted into his brain.
With the vast amount of valuable intel that’s embedded in his head, Chuck becomes both an asset and a liability to the government and is recruited by NSA agent John Casey (Adam Baldwin) and CIA officer Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) to help them eliminate assassins, terrorists, rogue spies and other threats to national security. Chuck eventually grows accustomed to being a government secret agent but because espionage is dangerous work, he’s forced to keep his new life a secret from his family and friends – namely his best pal Morgan (Joshua Gomez), sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and brother-in-law Devon – to keep them safe.
Because the Bartowski siblings have such a close relationship, Chuck feels especially conflicted when it comes to lying to his sister Ellie about his life as a secret agent. In the Chuck season 1 episode “Chuck Versus The Truth”, she became the first person that Chuck told he was spy. However, she wasn’t aware of his confession at the time because she was in a coma as a result of being poisoned by a toxic truth serum administered by one of Chuck’s adversaries. So, in what season of Chuck does Ellie really find her brother is a spy? Ellie suspected her brother was keeping something from her for a long time and finally found out about his secret life in season 3’s penultimate episode “Chuck Versus The Subway.”
In the lead up to the episode, Ellie had been manipulated by Justin Sullivan (Scott Holroyd) – an operative with the criminal spy organization The Ring who was posing as a CIA agent – into revealing the whereabouts of her and Chuck’s father Stephen Bartowski (Scott Bakula), the chief designer of the Intersect. In “Chuck Versus The Subway”, Justin takes her to a Ring-controlled CIA building where she bumps into Chuck who promises a confused Ellie he’ll explain what’s going on.
However, it’s Morgan and Devon (Ryan McPartlin from Bad Boys spinoff L.A.'s Finest) – who were already aware of Chuck’s spy work – who tell Ellie he’s been working for the CIA for a few years when she later presses them for information. Soon after, Ellie helps Chuck and Stephen locate The Ring’s headquarters where she witnesses her father’s murder at the hands of rogue CIA agent-turned-Ring operative Daniel Shaw (Brandon Routh) and watches as he carts off her brother in an armored truck. The episode ends with Ellie – now officially drawn into Chuck’s secret life – trailing behind the truck on a mission to rescue her brother from Shaw and setting the stage for an emotional reunion between the two siblings in the Chuck season 3 finale.