diff --git a/src/pages/createStore.ts b/src/pages/createStore.ts
index e795f1faa7..34ea0779e8 100644
--- a/src/pages/createStore.ts
+++ b/src/pages/createStore.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,12 @@ import { throttle } from 'lodash-es';
 import createSagaMiddleware from 'redux-saga';
 import type { SourceActionType } from 'src/commons/utils/ActionsHelper';
 
-import { defaultState, type OverallState } from '../commons/application/ApplicationTypes';
+import {
+  ALL_LANGUAGES,
+  defaultLanguageConfig,
+  defaultState,
+  type OverallState,
+} from '../commons/application/ApplicationTypes';
 import rootReducer from '../commons/application/reducers/RootReducer';
 import MainSaga from '../commons/sagas/MainSaga';
 import { generateOctokitInstance } from '../commons/utils/GitHubPersistenceHelper';
@@ -79,15 +84,25 @@ function loadStore(loadedStore: SavedState | undefined) {
         externalLibrary: loadedStore.playgroundExternalLibrary
           ? loadedStore.playgroundExternalLibrary
           : defaultState.workspaces.playground.externalLibrary,
-        context: {
-          ...defaultState.workspaces.playground.context,
-          chapter: loadedStore.playgroundSourceChapter
+        context: (() => {
+          const chapter = loadedStore.playgroundSourceChapter
             ? loadedStore.playgroundSourceChapter
-            : defaultState.workspaces.playground.context.chapter,
-          variant: loadedStore.playgroundSourceVariant
+            : defaultState.workspaces.playground.context.chapter;
+          const variant = loadedStore.playgroundSourceVariant
             ? loadedStore.playgroundSourceVariant
-            : defaultState.workspaces.playground.context.variant,
-        },
+            : defaultState.workspaces.playground.context.variant;
+          const validCombination = ALL_LANGUAGES.some(
+            lang => lang.chapter === chapter && lang.variant === variant,
+          );
+          // Invalid stored combinations (e.g. chapter 1 + explicit-control, which can be
+          // persisted when toggling feature flags) would crash on load, so fall back to
+          // the default language config as a coherent, always-valid pair.
+          return {
+            ...defaultState.workspaces.playground.context,
+            chapter: validCombination ? chapter : defaultLanguageConfig.chapter,
+            variant: validCombination ? variant : defaultLanguageConfig.variant,
+          };
+        })(),
       },
     },
   };