Sarah Walker

Early Life

 About to get by a car 'de'de'da'

As a child growing up, Sarah was not only aware of her father's activities, but actively participated in them. One of their scams involved Sarah fooling an armored car driver into thinking she'd been hit by the vehicle while riding her bike, while her father claimed to be a doctor and examined her. During the confusion, he would then lift money from the vehicle. The "Lichtenstein," a scheme in which her father would masquerade as a struggling German inventor or businessman attempting to unload an invention or other valuable commodity that never actually existed.  She explains that her childhood was complicated having a con artist for a father evident by the fact that Christmases were spent scamming the Salvation Army.

 Gary Cole as Jack Burton

Sometime in 1998 before her high school graduation, Sarah's father was arrested for his own protection after a scam went wrong and put his life in danger. He left her a hidden cache of money for just such an emergency, and it was while recovering this that she was first approached by CIA Director Graham. He took her in as a protege after remarking on her many aliases as a child and gave her the cover name of Sarah Walker. Although apparently "recruited" at this point, flashbacks make it clear that she continued in high school; several of the popular children cruelly mocked her as the "jailbird's daughter" because of her father's imprisonment. 

Sarah's CIA "red test," or first kill, was Evelyn Shaw in 2005. Sarah was given no background information about her target, and couldn't check on the kill because she had to flee from the scene before police arrived. She has remarked that her "red test" was the worst day of her life, and that she was never the same after that. 
 
 

Sarah's Life through the Series

When Bryce apparently goes rogue to steal the Intersect computer, Sarah—not realizing that he did so to protect it from a cabal of rogue spies called Fulcrum —feels both personally and professionally betrayed.Sarah is subsequently assigned by Graham to attempt to recover the Intersect. The only lead is the e-mail Bryce sent to Chuck, and she tracks him down to the Buy More where, posing as a customer with a broken phone, she first makes contact. Sarah soon becomes one of Chuck Bartowski's two government handlers. She is partnered with NSA agent John Casey and assigned the task of protecting Chuck. This extends to acting on information Chuck "flashes" on.

As part of her cover, Sarah is pretending to be Chuck's girlfriend. One of the complications and the main focus on the development of her character throughout the series is that although initially she insists this is only part of her cover, a genuine romantic interest grows between them. While Sarah herself is initially slow to recognize or acknowledge her feelings, other characters have readily picked up on her attraction to Chuck. Sarah's DEA friend Carina is one of the first to recognize that Sarah's feelings for Chuck are more than merely professional. Casey also recognizes that she is falling for him, something he teases her and Chuck about frequently.

The development of a relationship between Sarah and Chuck meets with two major sets of obstacles throughout the series. First, professionally Sarah is supposed to avoid romantic entanglements, and her affection for Chuck sometimes does put him in danger. Second, both characters become jealous of competing romantic interests, including instances where one of them has to seduce someone for a mission.

There are two particularly notable cases of these love triangles in the first season. Chuck's interest in finding a real relationship leads Chuck to "break up" his cover relationship with Sarah and pursue Lou the sandwich girl, which causes Sarah to become jealous and protective.

 Bryce the old flame

 Soon afterward, Bryce Larkin returns and competes for Sarah's affections. Sarah is torn, but ultimately decides to stick with her mission protecting Chuck rather than follow Bryce. By the end of the season, Sarah displays a willingness to go to great lengths for Chuck, and is even prepared to go rogue and draw her gun on another CIA agent attempting to take him into government custody.

 First "Real" Date

In the second season, Chuck and Sarah haltingly move towards establishing a real relationship. Sarah agrees to go on a first "real" date with Chuck as it appears he is being released back to civilian life However, the rebuilt Intersect is sabotaged, pulling Chuck back into his spy life and re-establishing Sarah's professional barrier. Then, as Chuck attempts to pursue Sarah anyway, Larkin returns a second time. This time Sarah's feelings are clearly for Chuck, but when her affection for Chuck places both her life and Chuck's at risk, Bryce convinces Chuck to "break up".

Shortly thereafter, Chuck runs into his ex-girlfriend Jill Roberts , creating another love triangle that makes Sarah jealous and protective of Chuck. But this time she shows more restraint, trying not to interfere, at least until she discovers Jill is a member of Fulcrum. Yet another love triangle arises later in the season with the arrival of Cole Barker, who (like Bryce) is a suave and formidable spy, but that only goes as far as a kiss.

Chuck provides Sarah with emotional support when a mission forces her to revisit part of her childhood, and later when Sarah's father returns. Chuck makes some strong suggestions that he loves Sarah, including notably in the mid-season finale when he gives Sarah his mother's charm bracelet, a gift Sarah says is something he should save for a "real girlfriend."

Sarah's personal feelings for Chuck lead to her temporary replacement as Chuck's handler, as Beckman is concerned those feelings jeopardized the mission. However, the replacement agent, Forrest (Tricia Helfer ), failed to effectively protect Chuck and he refused to work with her because of her methods. Sarah's feelings also gave her a close insight that warned her something was wrong when Forrest couldn't. Beckman reluctantly acknowledged Sarah and Chuck's feelings for each other were actually a benefit to their working relationship rather than a danger, and allowed Sarah to resume her role as his handler.In the meantime, while Sarah's professional obligations to Chuck are suspended, she becomes more personally involved. Sarah makes an unauthorized and illegal search of the CIA database at Langley to locate Chuck's father after his own efforts fail, and ultimately she takes Chuck to meet his father.

General Beckman orders Sarah to lure Chuck to Castle so he can be taken into custody and brought back to Washington. Sarah objects, but is about to carry out her orders when at the last minute she warns Chuck that it is a setup and takes him on the run. While on the run, Chuck and Sarah spend the night in a motel, and share a bed. 

 Heat of the Moment

While not under surveillance, they kiss and are close to having sex but are interrupted by a lack of a condom , followed by the appearance of Agent Casey. After Chuck successfully removes the Intersect from his head, Sarah is reassigned to work on the new Intersect project with Bryce, but soon decides not to go and instead stay with Chuck. But even after learning that she turned down the assignment, Chuck consciously re-establishes the professional barrier by uploading the new Intersect.

By the beginning of the Third Season, Sarah's relationship with Chuck is shattered. Flashbacks throughout the episode reveal that shortly after uploading the new Intersect, Sarah asked Chuck to go AWOL and run away with her so they could be together. Chuck was initially enthusiastic, but by the time they met with each other he refused so he could pursue his spy training. Sarah was heartbroken and subsequently cut him off. She was forced to reconnect again when Chuck interfered with an operation against the Ring. Ultimately, Chuck was reinstated on the team and Sarah was ordered by Beckman to help train Chuck. Their relationship issues again came to a head during an assignment with Carina. Because of Chuck's remaining feelings for her she requested a transfer from Beckman on grounds she was a liability but was denied. They managed to partially resolve their situation, and Carina showed Sarah security footage of Chuck trying to explain to her he chose to take his spy training because of Sarah's own encouragement, and his realization he could help people and a desire to protect those he loved-including her.

Team Bartowski's new leader, Daniel Shaw , began romantically approaching Sarah. Although initially Sarah very vocally rejected his advances, when she and Shaw were exposed to cyclosarin gas Sarah admitted that she over-reacted and somewhat enjoyed Shaw's attention. Sarah and Chuck agreed that they were free to pursue relationships with other people, and Sarah began allowing Shaw to get closer. In "Chuck Versus the Fake Name", 
 

 Even Sarah is slightly uncomfortable

Sarah tells Shaw that this job is making her slowly forget who she was before and says that for the last three years, she has never once told anybody her real name. When Shaw asks her what it is, Sarah reveals that her real name is Sam (most likely from Samantha). Chuck also finds out her real name after he overhears this conversation while posing as an assassin the Ring hired to kill Shaw. She is still initially reluctant to allow herself to become involved with him, but by the end of the episode relents.

Sarah administered Chuck's "final exam" as a spy alongside Shaw. During the mission Chuck tried to talk about what happened in Prague, but the mission interrupted them. Although pleased with Chuck's successful handling of the assignment, Sarah was greatly disturbed when Shaw instructed her to order him to kill a rogue CIA agent. She attempted to resist, fearing what it would make Chuck into, but eventually gave Chuck his instructions. When Chuck finally cornered his target he hesitated and Casey completed the hit from the shadows, however from Sarah's perspective it was Chuck who pulled the trigger. After the mission she refused to answer when he attempted to call, and expressed to Shaw her distaste over what she had turned Chuck into. When Shaw pressed if she was still in love with Chuck, she replied she no longer was.

Chuck presses her on how he feels, and asks for a second chance at Prague. Sarah is in the process of packing to meet him when Casey arrives. Although she insists what he has to tell her won't change her decision, Casey admits he killed the mole instead, to Sarah's visible relief. However before she can leave, Shaw arrives and tells her they have a new mission and there is no time contact Chuck. In Shaw's car Sarah is distressed that there is no signal to call Chuck and asks where they are headed. Shaw tells her only they are going to "settle an old score."

Sarah was then taken by Shaw to a Ring facility where, masquerading that they were still on a mission, he revealed to Sarah that she was set up to kill Evelyn. Despite the revelation, Sarah continued to trust Shaw over Chuck's misgivings. She and Chuck did reconcile their feelings for each other and were preparing to begin a relationship when Shaw lured her to Paris. He took her to the street where Evelyn was killed and revealed he had turned to the Ring and intended to kill Sarah in retaliation for his wife's death. Chuck correctly guessed Shaw's intent and destination and arrived in time to save Sarah's life by killing Shaw when he refused to back down. Unlike the death of Perry, Chuck's killing of Shaw to save her life put Sarah's mind at ease and the two chose to spend a few days together in Paris before returning to Burbank. She also admits she fell for him before the climax of the Season 1 pilot.

Who said traveling by train was  boring

She and Chuck did attempt to run away from the spy life together until an encounter with a defecting Basque terrorist helped them realize that they "wanted it all," and were determined to build their relationship without giving up on their careers. Although Beckman was not pleased when she learned of the couple, even she noted "it's about damn time."

Chuck asks her to move in but she initially declines, telling him that they aren't a "normal couple" so they shouldn't pretend to have a "normal life." General Beckman assigns them to observe an experienced spy couple, the Turners. After seeing the Turners' rocky relationship, Chuck and Sarah find that their relationship could be more of a challenge than they thought. However, Sarah agrees to move in with Chuck at the end of the episode, so that they can have something "to fall back on after [their] spy life is over."  
 
Even though they are living together, Sarah still has difficulty expressing her emotions to Chuck. When Chuck starts to show signs of a mental breakdown and is locked down in a CIA mental hospital, Sarah believes in and supports his claims that a Zamibian scientist has connections to the Ring . Although her investigation indicates that Chuck is wrong, she goes to his doctor and tells him that she loves Chuck and wants to help him work through whatever problems he is facing. At the end of the episode, she candidly tells Chuck that she loves him.

Sarah struggles with Chuck lying to her  about his dream that Shaw is alive. After she obtains the truth from Morgan, she confronts Chuck and along with Casey, go through her relationship with Shaw to find any clues as to his whereabouts or plans. She breaks into Shaw's penthouse with Chuck and recovers Shaw's safe after a confrontation with a Ring agent . When Chuck's dad leaves, she provides Chuck with his address and takes him to Stephen's cabin, where she saves Chuck from a trap by Ring agents. At the end of the episode, Sarah gives her spy will to Chuck, saying that he's the only one she wants to have it in case something happens to her. 

Shaw returns once again to cause trouble for Team Bartowski, and mostly succeeds. He kills Chuck's father, makes Chuck himself look completely insane, and forces Sarah and Casey to look like criminals, though Sarah does get in a good punch knocking Shaw on his ass. After a long fight between Chuck and Shaw,  Sarah is finally the one to take down Shaw by swinging a metal pole at his head, knocking him unconscious. Sarah and Chuck promises to stay together even though Chuck had decided to leave the spy world. After Chuck asks, "Think you can love a regular guy", she responds with "I fell in love with a regular guy".