 The episode revolves around a hostage crisis and is largely presented as an homage to the film Die Hard . On Christmas Eve , an amateur criminal on the run from the police crashes into the Buy More and takes Chuck Bartowski , Ellie Bartowski , Devon Woodcomb , and the Buy More employees hostage . In order to protect Chuck 's cover and the safety of the other hostages , Sarah Walker and John Casey secretly go into the store to remove Chuck , but the mission quickly falls apart when Chuck refuses to leave his friends and family behind . 
