Sarah Walker (Chuck) - Biography

Biography

Very little information about Sarah's past has been revealed throughout the series. The only people outside of her family confirmed to know her real name, revealed to be "Sam", are Director Graham (now dead), Daniel Shaw, and Chuck. It is otherwise only known that she has confessed her middle name is Lisa. Chuck stated she was 28 years old before he met her father for the first time, and later Gertrude Verbanski had a dossier on her stating she was born in May 1982. Her father was a con artist she introduced to Chuck as "Jack Burton," and much of her youth was spent moving from city to city under a series of aliases as part of his ongoing schemes. She attended at least her senior year of high school—and graduated in 1998—under the alias of Jenny Burton.

As a child, Sarah was not only aware of her father's activities, but actively participated in them. One of their scams was the "Lichtenstein," 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. Christmases were spent scamming the Salvation Army. "Chuck Versus the Wedding Planner" reveals that Sarah spent at least some of the ten years between 1988 and 1998 in the care of her grandmother, who did not think much of her father.

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 cache that she was first approached by CIA Director Graham. He took her in as a protege after remarking on her many aliases 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.

It has been revealed that the relationship between her parents began to fall apart after her father's disastrous proposal attempt. Additionally, "Chuck Versus the Wedding Planner" shows that Sarah and her father were largely on their own at least as early as 1988.

Sarah has an adopted 5 year old sister named Molly, whom Sarah saved as a baby in Hungary. At first, her job was to deliver the child to her handler, Kieran Ryker, but Sarah discovered he was corrupt and left the baby with her mother, whom no one at the CIA knew existed. Upon dropping Molly off, Sarah tells her mother that they can never see or speak to each other again in order to protect them and to make sure the baby grows up having the normal life Sarah never got. However, when Ryker resurfaces and finds out that Sarah's mother has the child, Sarah saves them from him and is reunited with her mother and Molly for the first time in 5 years where she is introduced to Molly as her sister.

According to NBC.com's Spy Dossiers she was (officially) recruited out of Harvard University. She also spent a year with the Secret Service.

Sarah's earliest known assignment after being recruited was with the C.A.T. (Clandestine Attack Team) Squad, a team of female spies that also included Sarah's DEA friend, Carina Miller. The team eventually broke up in 2003, when Sarah discovered a bug indicating one of the members, Zondra, was a traitor. Although Zondra was cleared by a government inquiry, their relationship was strained.

Later, 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.

Also beginning in 2005 Sarah was partnered with Chuck's former friend and college roommate Bryce Larkin. Their professional relationship eventually evolved into an intimate one. After Bryce went rogue, Sarah was assigned to Budapest under the handleship of Kieran Ryker. Ryker requested Sarah because her file screamed loner and knew she would keep secrets. After leaving the baby with her mother, Director Graham sent her to Burbank to investigate why Larkin sent an email to Chuck Bartowski.