John Casey

Biography

Only scattered information has been revealed about John Casey's past or his family. "Chuck Versus the Tic Tac" reveals that his real name is Alexander Coburn (Chuck had flashed on this name in a previous episode, but the face is redacted and Casey cautions him not to dig further) and that under the command of Col. James Keller, he faked his death and was given the new identity of John Casey. In a second-season episode, Casey was shown calling someone he referred to as his mother, but considering the situation and the fact that he referred to himself as "Johnny Boy", it seems he was speaking in code. He was a choirboy and has perfect pitch.

Even his age is unknown, though there are clues in his revealed career history. He was attempting assassinations in the 1980s; he left the Marines to become an agent in January 1989; he was 23 years old when he started training with his mentor, NSA instructor Ty Bennett; and it was 1994 at some point in his training with Bennett.

Casey has flown a stealth fighter. He holds his rank through the US Marine Corps. "Chuck Versus the Fake Name" reveals that Casey is a world-class sniper, and it is confirmed two episodes later that he began his career as a hot-shot Marine sniper. He served as a lieutenant in a Marine amphibious force in Honduras in January 1989. While serving there, Casey was informed that he had not qualified to train with Special Operations Command, and immediately after receiving this news was recruited into the NSA by Colonel James Keller.

"Chuck Versus the Tic Tac" reveals that Casey served in the Marine Corps as Alex Coburn and had a fiancée named Kathleen McHugh. However, Col. Keller ordered Casey to fake his death, requiring him to give up his life and Kathleen, whom he did not know was pregnant at the time. She told him over the phone that she had some news for him, but before she could finish, Keller cut them off and gave Casey his order of faking his death. Later in that episode, after Chuck rescues Kathleen from Keller's men who were sent to kill her, Casey arrives to help him clear everything up and finds out that Kathleen has a daughter named Alex whom Casey fathered, and who is named after him. When Casey is dismissed from the NSA by Beckman, Chuck tries to persuade him that all is not lost and that it is not too late to make amends for the past now that he is a civilian because Kathleen lives around town and he can finally get to know his daughter. Casey tells Chuck that he made the choice of love of country over love of a woman a long time ago, and that it was and still is the best decision for him. In season four, Casey reveals that he had proposed to Kathleen prior to being sent overseas, noting that there was no such thing as the perfect place to propose (he proposed at the bus depot); the only thing you need is the girl.

Series

Casey was on-hand when Bryce Larkin stole the Intersect data, and participated in the pursuit to apprehend him. He shot Bryce during his escape attempt, apparently fatally, but not before Larkin was able to successfully send the contents of the Intersect to his old college roommate, Chuck Bartowski. The National Intelligence Director (Wendy Makkena) dispatched Casey with a team to clean up the operation. He was to find the Intersect data and capture Chuck to determine what Chuck knew and who he worked for. CIA agent Sarah Walker simultaneously attempted to recover the Intersect, and in their independent missions, Casey and Walker ended up in a standoff for control of Chuck. After Sarah proved Chuck was not a threat and both agents discovered that he contained the Intersect secrets in his brain, Casey was assigned to protect him.

During an assessment to determine whether the Intersect could be removed from Chuck's head, consulting Dr. Zarnow was apparently killed by a bomb planted in his car. Sarah and Casey each secretly blamed the other for murdering Dr. Zarnow after investigating the wreckage. Sarah showed Chuck the detonator she recovered, and the flash identified it as a NSA device. However, later, Casey and Chuck were both nearly killed by another of the same device, implicating Sarah as the assassin. After a confrontation between Chuck and Sarah it was revealed that Zarnow faked his own death. The doctor kidnapped Sarah in hopes of torturing the identity of the Intersect from her. Casey and Chuck pursued, and Chuck was subsequently captured and loaded on a helicopter. However Chuck resisted and the pilot was knocked unconscious. Casey attempted to talk Chuck through landing, but quickly lost his patience at which point Sarah took control and helped him down.

Despite their frequent antagonism, Casey revealed his respect for Chuck's honesty and good nature while under the effects of truth serum. Sarah while under the effects of the truth serum calls Casey her partner, their working relationship improves. However given Sarah's admission to having trained to resist such drugs it's possible Casey has as well.

As part of his cover Casey is given a job at the Buy More where he works as a "Green Shirt" selling appliances. Despite poor customer service skills, Casey is nonetheless an effective, if aggressive, salesman, and he is ruthless in dealing with shoplifting. When interviewed for a Buy More instructional video, it was revealed that he nearly eliminated shoplifting from the Burbank, California branch. Although most of his coworkers are afraid of him, they also know to come to him in dangerous situations. In the transition from Season 2 to Season 3, Casey quits his job at the Buy More at the same time as Chuck, only to be re-hired along with Chuck and Morgan less than a year later when it once again becomes a useful cover. When Morgan needs help to put down an employee revolt led by Lester, a visibly gleeful Casey remarks, "Insurgents? I hate insurgents!." Promoted by Morgan to "Lieutenant Assistant Manager;" Casey intimidates the staff by putting out a burning a cigar using his arm and not flinching a muscle, and (without fully disclosing to Morgan) ultimately brainwashes Lester, and for his success Morgan rewards him with a raise.

Development

Adam Baldwin was cast in the role of John Casey, announced on February 8, 2007. Schwartz had Baldwin in mind for the role almost from the beginning of the casting process.

Although the character of Casey has received relatively little attention, Schwartz indicated in interviews that "Chuck Versus the Undercover Lover" established a lot of what made Casey, Casey. He received further development in "Chuck Versus the Sensei," when it's revealed that his former mentor had turned rogue. Most lately, Casey's beginnings, along with the revelation that John Casey was not his birth name, was hinted at during "Chuck Versus the Fake Name" before being revealed in "Chuck Versus the Tic Tac", along with significant present-storyline development, including his dismissal from government employment. Much of Casey's personality and background is revealed through small details that surface in episodes, often used to humorous effect.

Interviews with Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak at San Diego Comic-Con 2009 have indicated Casey's role will develop from strictly a protector to take on aspects of a mentor/student relationship with Chuck. Chris Fedak has also confirmed that Casey's family will be revisited later in Season 3.

Branch of Service

Confusion throughout the series over Casey's branch of service was resolved in "Chuck Versus the Angel de la Muerte," when he both identifies himself as a Marine and the letters USMC are clearly visible stamped on his dog tags. "Chuck Versus the Tic Tac" had previously supported the theory that Casey was a Marine officer, and his recruitment into the special forces is depicted in a flashback. Furthermore, he constantly wears a class ring resembling the United States Naval Academy, a commissioning source for Naval and Marine officers. He wears his Marine Corps Blue Dress "B" uniform when staging his own funeral in "Chuck Versus the Couch Lock".

Rank

In addition to confusion over his branch of service, the series was also ambiguous over the rank Casey was promoted to in "Chuck Versus the Colonel." Throughout the episode, he is referred to as "Colonel Casey." Although normal rank progression from major is to be promoted to lieutenant colonel, the episode never establishes whether he was promoted to this rank or full colonel, as both ranks are frequently referred to as "colonel" in casual usage, and "colonel" is the proper honorific used when addressing officers of either rank.

"Chuck Versus the Couch Lock" ultimately clarified Casey's rank when he is seen wearing the eagle insignia of a full colonel with his dress uniform, confirming that by this episode Casey had received a promotion to "full bird colonel." However it is still unknown whether he skipped ranks directly to full colonel, or if he was initially promoted to lieutenant colonel during the events of "Chuck Versus the Colonel" and had since been promoted again.

Awards and decorations

Awards and decorations identified from a close-up of Casey's/Coburn's "fruit salad".

Continuity

"Chuck Versus the Tic Tac" introduced further confusion into Casey's age, service, and background. Although in "Chuck Versus the Angel de la Muerte" he mentions having attempted to assassinate Premiere Goya at Beckman's personal orders on several occasions in the early 1980s (once as early as 1982) and further admitted pride in the number of Goya's men he killed fighting against the Communist revolution in Costa Gravas, the name "John Casey" did not even appear in the government's records until 1989. Beckman herself gave no indication of having known Casey was born as Alexander Coburn until his file was opened after his apparent treason. In "Chuck Versus Santa Claus" Casey is seen calling his "mother" and identifying himself as "Johnny Boy."

The character's age is implied to be considerably older than that of Baldwin in "Chuck Versus the Couch Lock". His ribbons include the Vietnam Service Medal with three campaign stars, the Vietnam Gallantry Cross (unit award), Vietnam Civil Actions Medal (unit award), and Vietnam Campaign Medal. Even if his three campaign stars are for the final three campaigns in Vietnam for which campaign stars were awarded, he would have had to have been fighting in-country on or before 29 March 1972, the last eligible day of "Consolidation II" (see Vietnam service campaign dates), thereby placing Casey well into his fifties. Still more out of place is his Philippine Independence Medal which has not been awarded since 1948. See #Awards and decorations.

The series never addresses these continuity conflicts.

Personality

John Casey was described by Sarah in "Chuck Versus the Intersect" as a "burnout", although the exact meaning of this was never explained. Chuck describes him as having an "angry center", as opposed to the traditional "calm center". He is gruff, straightforward, cynical, and hard-edged, and tends to keep everyone at an emotional distance. He is often sarcastic and ironic, and rarely shows signs of caring for anything other than his job and country (and his bonsai tree), and takes a dark delight in playing on the insecurities and romantic awkwardness of his teammates (most often Chuck, but he has teased Sarah on occasion; in one deleted scene, he seemed to enjoy Jill Roberts' discomfort upon meeting Sarah). He is often impatient and views what he knows as common knowledge, making him an incredibly poor instructor: when stuck flying a helicopter, a panic-ridden Chuck demanded that Casey put Sarah on the phone as Casey's instructions were too technical for him to understand; when tasked to train Morgan Grimes, he gives Morgan a number of tasks to test him as a field agent, but fails to demonstrate how to accomplish the tasks, subsequently causing Morgan to fail each task set. He has an adversity to those rebelling against the "order" of things, as shown with his formed alliance with Morgan against Lester's "insurgent" (as Casey put it) uprising.

Despite the humor, the unavoidable reality is that Casey is a killer and experienced assassin who has no compunction about solving problems with violence, often has difficulty distinguishing the value of human life, and seems to enjoy the prospect of killing a little too much. In the pilot, he apparently kills Bryce, he permits his fellow NSA agents to kill Sarah, and, later, he comes close to killing both Chuck and Sarah, calling it a night and going out for pancakes. A number of times, Casey has only been kept from killing Lester and Jeff because of Chuck, most notably when Lester stole Chuck's Orion Laptop and almost blew up the Burbank and Beverly Hills Buy Mores with a predator. When Anna claimed to know someone that could arrange Harry Tang to have an 'accident', Chuck immediately asked Casey if he offered his services to Anna; Casey's reaction was an overenthusiastic "No... Why? Do you want me to kill him?" When Devon broke into (and got trapped in) Casey's apartment to ascertain why Casey was so interested in Chuck, Casey was only stopped from killing Devon by Sarah's timely arrival. He has also let his anger come to the point that he almost killed Chuck when his former sensei locked Chuck in his trunk and goaded Casey to a game of chicken; Casey acquiesced despite knowing Chuck was in the trunk. In a bonus feature in the season two DVD, Casey instructs how to become a deadly spy, starting with shooting two guys who were talking off-camera and ending with advice on getting a second job during down time and advocating the elimination the other applicants ('... so go out and find a goat. Start practicing'). His predisposition to violence does lead to problems; while mainly personal (for obvious reasons), some have been professional errors that have led him to be removed from future missions (in "Chuck Versus the Suitcase", Casey is benched from going on a mission to Milan because he stabbed someone with a stiletto).

Relationships

Casey and Sarah

Before being assigned to protect Chuck, Casey knew of Sarah as "Langston Graham's wild-card enforcer." He authorized his fellow NSA agents to kill Sarah when attempting to take Chuck into custody and was prepared to do so himself before being jointly assigned to protect him. He also initially warns Chuck not to trust Sarah.

Casey's working relationship with Sarah was strained not long after when her personal feelings for Chuck began to interfere with their assignment to use Chuck's new girlfriend, Lou, as a means to get close to the smuggler Stavros Demetrios. Although Sarah denied any such feelings, Casey chided her for falling for men she worked with, making a point to add that he was in no way interested.

Despite his nature and preference for conventional spy tactics, Casey has realized that Operation Bartowski is most effective with Sarah Walker, and omitted most of the details of Chuck and Sarah's emotional involvement from his reports to Beckman until she specifically ordered him to give an unabridged report. This led to a 49-B, a practice wherein another Agent (in this case, Agent Forrest) would assess whether or not the emotions between the two were a liability, which, eventually, Agent Forrest decided they were. While Casey admired Forrest's thinking, he also realized she was a greater liability on the team than Sarah, despite (or perhaps even due to) her feelings for Chuck. In a rare display of emotion, he told Agent Forrest that Sarah was the best partner he ever had and strongly disagreed with her assessment of her as a liability to the operation. He encouraged Chuck to tell General Beckman why Sarah should remain on the team.

Casey and Sarah's relationship continues to grow, and Casey's strong bond with the whole team is displayed again at the end of Season 2. In season 3, Sarah stands up for Casey and helps him rescue his ex-fiancée and daughter when his old superior blackmailed Casey. Both Sarah and Chuck try to keep Casey on the team when General Backman fires him for "betraying" his country.

In "Chuck Versus the Final Exam," Casey helps Chuck pass his Red Test by killing the mole (Perry) Chuck was meant to kill but couldn't. Sarah sees the dead mole and Chuck with a gun in his hand and assumes Chuck was the one who pulled the trigger. Because of that, she refuses to get back together with Chuck because she thinks he is a changed person. Later, Casey arrives at Sarah's apartment to find her packing, admits he was the one who killed Perry and Chuck was unable to pull the trigger. At this confession, Sarah's face lights up, and she thanks Casey, who responds with wishing her a good life as he departs. Casey's confession ultimately helps Sarah and Chuck get back together.

Casey and Chuck

Casey's relationship with Chuck is complicated. A running gag is that Chuck (always unintentionally) will typically cause Casey distress, embarrassment or physical harm at some point during an episode (such as the destruction of Casey's prized Crown Vic). Typically, Casey is hard on and insulting to Chuck and takes a dark pleasure in making Chuck feel insecure; he shows frustration with Chuck's constant mistakes, inability to perform tasks for which he is not trained, and constantly failing to follow orders. However, although he seldom expresses it openly, he seems to recognize that Chuck is doing the best he can as a civilian forced to act as a spy with little or no training. He does at times show appreciation for him and recognizes that he has potential as an agent. He has expressed respect for Chuck's integrity, intelligence, and inventiveness. He showed particular respect for Chuck's courage in deciding to use the only sample of an antidote in their possession to save his sister's life, even though he had been poisoned and would die without it. The two seem to have a brotherly relationship; Chuck drives Casey crazy but still cares about him.

After Chuck helped Casey save his former fiancé in "Chuck Versus the Tic Tac", Casey tells Chuck not to waste his chance with Sarah because it's not too late.

Casey, Devon and Morgan agree to help get Chuck and Sarah back together, but Chuck's first attempt fails when Sarah responds icily to his promotion. She admits after seeing him "kill" Hunter Perry, he's no longer the same man she fell in love with. Morgan, Casey and Devon refuse to let him back down, The trio borrow Jeff's spy gear-equipped van to kidnap Chuck and stakeout Sarah and Shaw on a date. While Morgan draws Shaw out of the restaurant by calling him in the guise of a Ring agent, Chuck moves in and lays out how he feels to Sarah. The plan goes belly up and the men get arrested.

Meanwhile, Casey is still largely paralyzed by his dismissal and initially unwilling to help when Morgan and Chuck arrive to enlist him in their off-book operation to save Sarah. However, Morgan is able to appeal to his sense of duty and convinces him to help. On the flight to Paris, Chuck's ability to flash is of no use in determining Shaw's destination, however Casey reminds Chuck of his own intelligence without the need of the Intersect.

He also showed genuine pride with Chuck in "Chuck Versus the Subway" when Chuck discovers and infiltrates Shaw's Ring base (clearing his, Sarah's and Casey's names and exposing Shaw as a Ring Operative and enemy Intersect) instead of directly attempting to rescue Sarah and Casey, visibly causing Shaw distress; both Sarah and Casey smile at Shaw's discomfort and Casey admits to Sarah that "Bartowski's a spy."

Casey and Morgan

The importance Casey puts on loyalty and honor is a catalyst for his growing fondness of, and respect for, the eccentric, juvenile and essentially untrained Morgan Grimes. Casey repays Morgan for the loyalty and support Morgan provided during Casey's dismissal and humiliation, by insisting that the government hire him.

When Morgan needs help to put down an employee revolt led by Lester, a visibly gleeful Casey remarks, "Insurgents? I hate insurgents!." Promoted by Morgan to "Lieutenant Assistant Manager;" Casey intimidates the staff by putting out a burning a cigar using his arm and not flinching a muscle, and (without fully disclosing to Morgan) ultimately brainwashes Lester, and for his success Morgan rewards him with a raise.

Casey vacates his prohibition against Morgan dating Alex after Morgan saves the team's lives at great risk to his own, and is perfectly accepting of the relationship's obvious sexual component as soon as Morgan professed that he cares deeply for Alex. When Morgan defies Casey's order to retreat and goes to save his employees from terrorists, Casey immediately belays his prior order and loans Morgan a sidearm. While initially against allowing Morgan to move into his apartment, Casey is pleased with Morgan's resistance to torture and his demonstrated reliability.

when tasked to train Morgan Grimes, he gives Morgan a number of tasks to test him as a field agent, but fails to demonstrate how to accomplish the tasks, subsequently causing Morgan to fail each task set. He has an adversity to those rebelling against the "order" of things, as shown with his formed alliance with Morgan against Lester's "insurgent" (as Casey put it) uprising.

Casey and Alex

It is revealed in "Chuck Versus the Subway" that Casey has re-established contact with his daughter, Alex, and is a regular visitor to the diner in which she works although she is unaware of his identity. When Justin captures Casey at the restaurant, Casey escapes, "kidnapping" Alex, later revealing his identity as her father. At the end of "Chuck Versus the Ring: Part II", Alex comes to dinner at Chuck's apartment with Morgan, to whom she gave her number, Casey, and the rest of the growing Team Bartowski. Casey has shown to be very protective of his daughter. He threatens to break Morgan's fingers (his thumbs were already broken) if Morgan does not stop flirting with Alex. After Casey is drugged and rescued, Morgan is forced to awaken him by confessing that he is dating Alex. This provokes Casey into throat-lifting Morgan, threatening his life. Morgan willingly nearly electrocutes himself to save Chuck, Sarah and Casey. Impressed by Morgan's courage and loyalty, Casey relents and deems Morgan fit to date Alex. After convincing Alex to get back together with Grimes he threatened Morgan "If you break her heart, I break your everything." When Casey sees Alex leave Morgan's and Chuck's apartment one morning in one of Morgan's shirts, he intimidatingly confronts Morgan. Morgan initially attempts to deny his sexual component to his relationship with Alex but eventually explains that he cares deeply about Alex; Casey then releases his grip on Morgan and explains, "That's all I wanted to hear." Despite his love for Alex, he is uncomfortable expressing it in words and admonishes Morgan likewise to show it with actions rather than stating it in words. Alex tells Morgan over Casey's injured and comatose body that, while she's only known Casey a short time, she loves him very much; Morgan assures her that Casey loves her more than she can know.

Casey and Devon

Casey always considered Devon to be just a Frat boy, as Casey muttered "God, I hate this family" when alerted that Devon broke into (and got trapped in) Casey's apartment to ascertain why Casey was so interested in Chuck. Casey is only stopped from killing Devon by Sarah's timely arrival. After Morgan discovers Chucks secrets, Shaw insists that Morgan be placed into witness protection, against Chuck's objections. Casey is also unconvinced when Chuck points out Devon knows his secret as well (as Devon is "Awesome" and Morgan is a moron). Casey has no reservation against using Devon for his mission's needs. At Devon's bucksparty, he assists Agent Forrest into getting Devon's medical pass in a plot to find an Afghan terrorist.

Casey accepted Chuck's offer to attend Devon's and Ellie's engagement party hoping it was an open bar. After Ted Roark and Fulcrum gatecrash Devon and Ellie's wedding, ruining the reception and destroying the ceremony, Casey's Special Forces unit help by quickly organizing the beach-side wedding that Ellie had really wanted the entire time.

When Ellie is in labor, Casey reveals to Devon that he regrets missing his own daughter's birth, and advises Devon not to make the same mistake. Morgan and Alex later join Casey and the rest of the Bartowski clan outside the birthing suite. when a midwife asked if they were family, they all replied that they were.

Casey and Ellie

Though it starts relatively genial, Ellie and Casey's relationship becomes strained and uneasy at the start of Season Three, when Chuck protects Devon by lying to Ellie that Devon was getting Casey out of jail for being drunk and disorderly (Devon adds that Casey exposed and wet himself) during the time Devon was on a Ring mission to kill Shaw. Frequently in the third season, Ellie is distrustful of Casey, mentioning her being aware of his public indecency, and taking any alcohol away from him, much to Casey's constant confusion. While it plays primarily to the comedy of the series, the mistrust also allows the Ring to use Ellie later.

Casey and Gertrude

John Casey was given a romantic interest in Gertrude Verbanski, the head of Carmichael Industries' biggest spy competition, Verbanski Corp., said by Fedak to be "the best spy company in the world".

Gertrude Verbanski is a former KGB agent and head of Verbanski Corp. She was once an adversary of John Casey, having disarmed him of his gun in Minsk, 1995 before they had a formal relationship in Season 5.

She shares similar characteristics with John Casey; they are both cold, ruthless, and devoted to their chosen profession. They feel both have strong feelings towards one another, but both have trouble admitting it in the beginning, especially Casey. With the help of Sarah, Casey finally asks Gertrude out on a date. Gertrude later saves Casey by breaking him out of prison and by murdering Decker, who was behind the conspiracy that put Casey in prison. At the end of the series, Casey leaves Burbank to meet up with Gertrude in Dresden.