If you loved the finale, this post won’t bother you, offend you, or insult your taste. I’ve tried to keep a balance. If the ending disappointed you, maybe this will be cathartic for you as well.

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Here’s what I know. Chuck and Sarah have suffered incalculable loss. They have also found inextinguishable hope.

Here’s what I feel. I feel the overwhelming sadness of a grief I can’t measure, and the warmth of a hope I can’t ignore.

Here’s what I believe. I believe in Chuck and Sarah. I believe in their journey. I believe in their future. And I believe in their love.

Those last words were my conclusion after Bo. They have taken on a different significance but retain their meaning. Chuck and Sarah’s journey is different than what I imagined, and the details of their future less certain. But I still believe in the reality of both. Their love, though reduced to embers, will blaze again.

It’s an odd mix of grief and hope that I feel from the finale. So, join me as I try to sort out what’s going on inside this last leg of Chuck and Sarah’s journey and how I feel about it. 

Disclaimer: My first reaction was good episodes — terrible finale. The heartache of the Chuck and Sarah relationship that hangs over both episodes diminished my enjoyability of what is truly a great episode. It gets better with time. It is an engaging story, a good use of all the characters, and the acting is off the charts fantastic. Yvonne and Zach are their most amazing yet. I have come to see it as a satisfying finale. The finale left enough breadcrumbs and Easter eggs to make my faith reasonable, but not enough to make it unnecessary. One of the objectives of this post is to trace the breadcrumbs and find the Easter eggs.

Personally, I will always cherish the intimate memory of Chuck and Sarah propped up in the sleeper compartment, quietly talking and sketching their dream. It is the last such memory we have before tragedy strikes. It is how I imagine they will be again.

Here’s where I left off with Bullet Train.

Here we bid a crushing farewell to the Bartowski’s.

What is my hope that we will see them again and that they will finish the journey together?

Love. The unrelenting love of a husband, who will do anything to help his wife … and the unquenchable love, somewhere inside his wife, that only he can stir.

With Chuck, it’s never just a matter of gray matter. It’s a matter of the heart.

This is exactly what plays out in the finale. There is the grief of what was lost and the hope of what will be. The story in between is one of amazing, enduring love.

I. A GRIEF OBSERVED
Sarah Walker and Don’t Forget It … Sarah Who?

It’s easy for us to know what Chuck is thinking and feeling. He’s the same guy. Nobody wiped his memory and he wears his heart on his sleeve … never more so than in the finale. Sarah is not as easy to read.

Here’s the deal. Sarah is the key to the finale … and Chuck is the key to Sarah.

As the story opens, we know more about what happened to Sarah than Chuck does, but we still don’t know this Sarah or what to expect. Transparent, self-assured Sarah Bartowski, communicator extraordinaire, is trapped somewhere inside a pre-Chuck Sarah Walker, along with her suppressed memories.

At first I thought this Sarah was a total stranger, but I’ve come to think of her as a fragmented Sarah. Let’s think of her as a mix of the Sarah Walker we saw in Baby, the Sarah we know from S1 and S2, with a hint of wild-card-enforcer and gentle tugs of Sarah Bartowski. Remember that she has absolutely no context in which to understand or assess her situation, and the information she’s been given is false. Had memory-wiped Sarah awakened to Chuck instead of Quinn, the story would have been totally different.

So, we have to carefully read Sarah Walker and really watch her and listen to her. If we do that we’ll see that Sarah is always consistent with who she has been at one time or another. She is just not consistent as to which of those Sarah’s she is being consistent with.

First, what does Sarah know? Nothing … except what Quinn tells her. I love our girl who questions him and hurls him out the window. I love our girl who doesn’t let him fall. She doesn’t know he’s evil, but she doesn’t trust him. He gives her some evidence in her own voice that Bartowski was her assignment and conveniently adds false information. When she asks to speak to the only two people she can trust and is told they are dead, presumably at Chuck’s hand, well somehow she buys it. With nothing else to go on, she must at least consider it, because she’s pretty vulnerable at this point, with no memories.

Quinn is so many layers of evil, I can’t count them, and when he rests a consoling hand on Sarah’s shoulder, I can taste the bile and anger.

In the pilot Chuck got behind Sarah’s defenses immediately and connected with the real Sarah, the inner girl who hadn’t gotten much of a chance to develop her identity because of the con life and the spy life. Chuck saw and loved that girl, the real Sarah Walker. Sarah responded to Chuck, to his love. In relationship with Chuck over 5 years, she blossomed into S5 Sarah Bartowski. It’s a story of redemption and transforming love. It’s the most beautiful story I have ever seen on television.

This time around it’s the same, only different. It’s different for Agent Walker, because this isn’t an observe-the-nerd mission. It’s a kill-a-traitor/assassin mission, the traitor that killed her partner and her boss, so Sarah is more guarded. Second, Chuck is different. Chuck is the man he became because of Sarah. Likewise Sarah’s inner girl is different. Now the real, inner Sarah is Sarah Bartowski, the woman the inner girl became because of Chuck. She is in there, just as surely as the real Sarah was in there in the pilot. Sarah is still essentially Sarah. I have to believe that Chuck can connect with her again, or there’s no story here.

So, Sarah thinks Chuck is a dangerous killer. Absurd, right? Yeah, to us, but not to her. Her life depends on her keeping her guard up, and with Quinn in her head, it’s hard for her to sort it out, especially when she finds just enough evidence that seems to validate Quinn’s story, like the Intersect glasses and overhearing Chuck talking about destroying the Intersect. So I have to cut her some slack.

First Contact. The homecoming, forgetting how tragic Sarah’s situation is, churns out a great mix of humor, fear, and creepiness, all in the same moment, like spy-Sarah’s version of domesticity as she hacks up the chicken with a meat cleaver. It would take a meat cleaver to cut the tension.

Sarah’s search for the Intersect glasses turns up some unsettling things … not spy things, personal things, like the picture. The picture doesn’t line up with Quinn’s story, but neither can she reconcile it with her memory of herself.

Sarah being caught with her hand in the helmet … priceless. Yvonne is perfect here. Tension and humor invade the bedroom. Sarah, in full blown agent mode, busts the door open like she’s expecting hostile gunfire, only to find the uniquely charming and humorous Chuck (the one that Sarah Bartowski openly adores) and his imaginary spa. Sarah is suspicious and cautious and pretty confused. Who is this guy? What’s his game? I can feel her fear, fueled by Agent Creepy continually telling her Chuck is a murderer. When Chuck wants to crack her neck, she is truly afraid.

Chuck’s behavior is inconsistent with what she has been told. If not breaching her walls, he is at least putting cracks in Quinn’s story.

First Connection. Chuck talks with Ellie to try to figure out what’s up with Sarah. Sarah thinks Chuck is onto her. Come to find out he’s worried about his wife’s reluctance to let him warm her cold feet. With that small conversation, Chuck connects with his Sarah. Poignant. The moment vanishes, as Sarah keeps getting chatter from Agent Paranoid. She slips back into spy mode, including some kinda creepy fake cuddling.

This dance is familiar to us. In seasons 1 and 2, we got glimpses of Sarah’s walls crumbling in response to Chuck. Then the mission or her sense of professionalism would snatch it away. This time it’s Quinn that keeps snatching it away.

First Doubts. Before the mission to destroy the Intersect, Chuck finds the glasses in Sarah’s bag. He doesn’t want to believe the evidence, but deep down he knows something is wrong. By contrast, Sarah has believed Quinn’s lies on very little evidence, even though deep down, something seem off.

Sarah’s betrayal hits hard, “Now I have the Intersect, and you can’t destroy it, and you can’t hurt anybody else with it. … I know about you. I know what you’ve done, all of you.”

Chuck talks her down. He’s calm, offers an explanation for her memory loss, and appeals to their relationship. He gets through to his Sarah once more. She sees something in him, something honest and good, and she can’t pull the trigger. She begins to doubt the kill order. Quinn snaps her back to the twilight zone, and she leaves with the glasses. Chuck is devastated.

Sarah still can’t push the button to kill Chuck. This is a combination of the Sarah from Baby who couldn’t go along with Ryker and our Sarah who couldn’t bunker Chuck. Quinn pushes the button, and suffers Sarah’s wrath. Chalk one up for Sarah Walker.

Sarah is beginning to sort out the good guys from the bad guys, until she finds out that Chuck switched the glasses. That plus a few more manipulative words from Quinn, and Sarah is thoroughly convinced that Chuck is the rogue agent/traitor/killer Quinn says he is. This is exactly the Sarah we saw in the pilot, who felt betrayed by Bryce and was determined to make things right. So, Graham’s Wild Card Enforcer goes off to fix things. Sarah Walker (even the domesticated Bartowski version) does not like to lose or be betrayed.

First Fight. This is the coldest Sarah we see and the harshest sequence of the episode. She is the Sarah who’s different without Chuck, but she’s forgotten that she doesn’t like it.

Chuck is out of his mind crazy about what’s happened to his wife. While everyone else thinks she is too far gone and wants to just take her out, Chuck will. not. give. up. His love is breathtaking throughout the entire episode, but nowhere more than when he takes her to “their” house and pleads with his wife to remember him and offers her a chance to start over with him.

Sarah insists that the relationship was a cover and he was only an assignment. Chuck will not back away. He tells her the truth, “I was an assignment, but you fell in love with me.” She says that’s her job to fool him, that lying is what she does best. Chuck unnerves her when he tells her that she’s not as good a liar as she thinks she is. That someone would know her so well is not possible. He puts his heart and soul into telling her how she fell in love with him. He pleads with her to remember him, to remember their dream, and to remember that a nerdy guy like him could make her happy. Whoa there’s a twist. He just wants to make her happy. He’s probably the first man whose goal was her happiness.

He has gotten behind her defenses in a huge way. She sees his passion and feels his love for her, but she still has no context for accepting what she is hearing and feeling. It’s not that she doesn’t believe him, but that she can’t believe it of herself. She cannot imagine any scenario in which Sarah Walker would fall in love with an assignment (cardinal rule of spying and all). She is moved, but not believing. I think there’s a bit of genuine remorse on her part for the pain she caused him because she did her job too well.

The fight is heartbreaking. Sarah pounds on Chuck, but he refuses to hurt her. Even at gun point he won’t lift a finger against her. “You can kill me. I will never hurt you.” But she can’t. She can’t kill him.

First Recognition. Sarah glances to the right, once, twice, and her eyes linger on the carving. “Sarah + Chuck.” She looks at Chuck with new eyes, “I wrote that.” She recognizes the carving. A memory stirs. Whether she remembers the actual event or not, she knows the carving. She softens a little, because suddenly Chuck may be telling the truth.

Quinn, with his knack for interrupting breakthrough moments, strides into the house and takes the glasses from a bewildered Sarah. Chuck confronts Quinn, angry that Quinn lied to Sarah and used her. As Quinn confesses, Sarah keeps looking from Quinn to Chuck, in shock as the ramifications of Quinn’s deception hit her.

When Chuck takes the bullet that was meant for her, Sarah, the Sarah we know, rushes to help him. She kneels over him with her right hand on his chest, and he holds her hand with his, wedding ring on top. Though he is the one who is shot, he still thinks only of her when he tells her to run. She leaves, but only reluctantly. Chuck Bartowski has connected with his Sarah.

She now fully believes one true thing — Chuck is the good guy. Of course he is. But she still doesn’t know how to accept the rest of it. She has to rethink everything and get to the bottom of it, but who can she believe?

First Witness. In a beautiful call back to American Hero, Casey brings Sarah the information she needs, the truth about Chuck. He tells her that Bartowski made them both soft, that they changed, became friends.

She remembers nothing of Project Bartowski. The subject in question, a total stranger to her, told her that she fell in love with him and married him, for real. That’s crazy. … Isn’t it? Yet he obviously loves her in a way that completely redefines the concept. While she made herself his enemy, he spoke only of making her happy and keeping her feet warm. He would die rather than hurt her. He is angry with Quinn, not for his own sake, but for what Quinn did to her. Then while she still has her gun on Chuck, he takes a bullet for her and tells her to run. Extraordinary.

Sarah has gotten new intel from people who seem to know her, yet she feels completely disconnected from the person that everyone else knows her to be.

Sarah sits spellbound as she watches testimony from the only witness that would be able to persuade her of the truth … Sarah Walker. She is hungry for the truth, the truth about Chuck Bartowski, the truth about her missing 5 years, but most of all the truth about herself.

This is one of the jewels of the series. Sarah never had a confidant (like Chuck did in Morgan and Ellie). Therefore, we were rarely knew her thoughts, except through Yvonne’s amazing ability to communicate with her face and eyes. In this scene, we get the whole package: we hear Sarah’s thoughts in her own words and see her facial expressions as she tells them, while simultaneously seeing the reactions of present-day Sarah through her facial expressions as she learns about herself from herself.

Sarah watches herself progress from hardened agent to completely compromised woman-in-love. Day 56, the bomb story gets the first big reaction from Sarah. Chuck was telling the truth. She kissed him. Sarah, just like her older self, can hardly believe it. Day 564. Listening to her own confession of love, Sarah begins to feel again. “I love him. I’m in love with Chuck Bartowski, and I don’t know what to do about it.” Chuck was telling the truth. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she never would have believed it.

It’s a big step toward healing. She believes Chuck. But it’s not enough.

Remember, it’s not just a matter of gray matter. It’s a matter of the heart.

At this point, Sarah knows a lot, and she does feel, but the feelings aren’t attached to anything real. Though she knows a lot about Chuck and their relationship, she doesn’t know Chuck or the Sarah she was when she was with him. She feels anger and grief over what was taken from her … and from Chuck. But in her current frame of mind what she saw — the love and vulnerability and what they became — scares her, just like it did on day 564.

The love that she once had is like the ache of a phantom limb, and she doesn’t know what to do about it, so she turns her focus to finding the man who stole her life.

First Goodbye. Sarah could have just run. The fact that she comes to apologize and say goodbye tells me that on a visceral level, her connection with Chuck is still there, still pulling her back to him. She never could leave him, and she still can’t.

The goodbye is absolutely heartshattering. Would Sarah have been open to something more from Chuck? Don’t know, but I do think, whether consciously or not, she wants a reason to stay. She didn’t hurry off. She was soft and open about things. I see some Sarah Bartowski mixed with the Sarah who fears relationships.

Chuck has given his all to reach her. He thinks he failed. Her words confirm it. If only he knew just how much he did get through to her, and that he is the key — the only key — to helping her.

II. A HOPE RETAINED
You are a Bartowski, Chuck. Start acting like one.

First Rays. After two weeks, it’s time for an intervention. Chuck’s friend and family want him to get his wife back, preferably before another phase of cheese balls and The View.

Ellie throws open the curtain and lets in a ray of hope. “Out of bed Chuck. You are getting Sarah back today.” Everyone agrees, even Clara. “Chuck, it’s clear that we can’t force Sarah to remember, but emotions, feelings those are powerful things. And maybe if you can find Sarah, you can spark some of these memories. She fell in love with you before Chuck. You can do it again. She’ll remember.”

It’s not just a matter of gray matter. It’s a matter of the heart.

Sometimes I think a character gives us a promise. I think Ellie just did (like Sarah did when she carved her name in the doorframe).

This wonderful Bartowski scene warms my heart.

And the intercut scenes — golden. Chuck ties his Nerd Herd tie, “I’m a very impressive spy for hire.” Sarah don’t-mess-with-me Walker slo-moes onto the beach in a catsuit. “I mean she may be the best spy in the world, but I’m Chuck Bartowski. It’s not like she’s out of my league.” No, but son! You’ve got your work cut out for you.

First Plans. Ellie’s plan … Find Sarah. Be yourself. Morgan’s plan … Kiss her. “I firmly believe, with all my heart, that one magical kiss from you could unlock all of Sarah’s memories.”

OK, off to get a bead on a big, blonde bird. Fantastic throwaway scene from Jeff and Lester and their Perv Herd.

First Memories. Sarah returns to the Buymore … looking for Chuck. Granted she’s not there to ask him out, like the last time she rang the bell. It’s just a spy need, but she still comes to Chuck. She is drawn to him on a non-conscious level.

Sarah’s wondering whether or not to ring the bell … another memory stirs.

Chuck has been looking for her, races out to see her, but can’t come up with a proper greeting. What are you doing here? *facepalm* Sarah looks hurt. If there were no connection, no feelings, she wouldn’t look hurt. Good to know.

Is it just me or does Sarah look around Castle with an emotional familiarity? She automatically grabs the right weapons case from the armory like she’s been doing it for years. Oh, wait …

Sarah Bartowski, the feelings, the memories … they’re all in there.

Does Morgan’s passing-the-torch speech (one he gave Sarah twice before) touch her? I think it does … on an emotional level … one she probably couldn’t even define. (Great Morgan/Sarah scene.)

Despite all that we see in Sarah: the connection that keeps pulling her toward Chuck, the way she looks at him, her apparent desire (on some level) for a reason to stay, she won’t stay. Why? … Because:

I can’t be here. I don’t know how to be the woman you remember me as. All I remember is being a spy, a good one. It’s all I know how to do.

Interesting. That was always Sarah’s barrier. She didn’t have a clue how to do normal and didn’t think she could be the normal girl she thought Chuck wanted. In my journeys post I said that Sarah knew that Chuck had something to offer, but didn’t think she could be the normal girl he wanted. What she needed was to know that if she made the leap to his world, he would catch her and help her do normal. She made that leap at Ellie’s beach wedding, because she knew she could trust Chuck to catch her.

The obstacle is the same. She doesn’t know how to be the woman Chuck remembers … the one she thinks he wants. If only she knew that regardless of the external expression, he loves her, because though she doesn’t know it, he knows who she is.

Chuck is the key to Sarah, but she’s not ready to make the leap, because she hasn’t reconnected with her love for him. He has to win her back, make her fall for him again.

See you in Berlin.

First Mission. Sarah agrees to bring TeamB to find Renny Deutch, though she has reservations about Chuck’s spy skills.

Chuck and Morgan have a sub-mission. Make Sarah fall in love with Chuck. Fate lends a hand with locations, hand picked to jog Sarah’s memory.

A Mexican restaurant just like their first date. Chuck can’t help talking about it. It just flows out of him. She listens, and somewhere along the way his love touches her. It’s too much, too awkward. She calls him back to the mission at hand. (All in all, a pretty typical mission for our Chuck and Sarah.)

Next up, a consulate dance, just like the Costa Gravan one. Chuck compliments her and earns a smile. She can’t help straightening his tie, a familiar gesture. Back to awkward. The dance gets Sarah into more familiar territory … with Chuck. Um-hmm, she’s done this before, and she is definitely attracted to him. They are both breathless … and not from dancing. Sizzle.

And what trip down memory lane would be complete without a stop at the Wienerliscious? It turns out to be an important stop. Sarah somehow knows the cups are out of order. It’s a memory, and Sarah wants to remember more, but Buzz-kill Quinn shows up. The evening ends in disaster as Chuck brings down Casey’s helicopter. Not the best impression to make on the world’s greatest spy. But it’s part of who he is.

The mission lands Chuck and Sarah in separate cells (in his own spy base, harsh) talking through a wall (I would have preferred a call back to Colonel with them in one cell). As they talk, Sarah learns that part of the reason Chuck doesn’t pull the trigger is because of her, that it was part of what she loved about him, that she didn’t want him to be any other spy than the one he is.

As important as it is for Sarah to get to know Chuck, it’s just as important for her to get to know who she was with him, that she was different with him.

Before Sarah can escape (to protect Chuck from getting himself killed and avoid the guilt she would feel?) she meets her mother-in-law (it’s about like the first time), and it’s all a lot to take in, Mary the grandma/spy, a baby in the spy base. What a confusing visual. Sarah looks like she just went down a rabbit hole. Chuck just gives her an adoring reassuring smile. This was her life? Her family?

Mary briefs the family, and Sarah learns that the Intersect is this family’s family business. (I wonder how much of that she knew from files and how much was new information.)

See you at the concert.

First Family Outing. Most families go to a concert to for the music. Not the Bartowski’s. They go for the bombs.

What a fantastic scene: the tension, the Intersect glasses, chasing Quinn, the fading music, Jeffster saving the day. Chuck makes the hard decision. Sarah’s hopes bloom and die.

Up on the roof, Quinn is dead. Chuck holds the glasses and tells Sarah about his plan to use the Intersect to help her get her memories back. She asks if it will work, and her face shows us that she wants to get them back … and that she trusts Chuck. She sees his heart breaking as he tells her he has to use the last upload to save all those people, that he can’t help her get her memories back. Her face shows disappointment, but also understanding. She would make the same decision, because it’s the right thing to do. Heartwrenching. (Whether the glasses would have been a great way or a creepy way to restore her memories is moot, though I think I prefer the magical kiss.)

No time to dwell. They charge down the steps and join Casey. The original trio stand in front of a bomb with scant seconds to save a crowd of people. Seems like old times. Sarah’s memory of Irene Demova not only saves the day, but adds another entry to the growing list of awakened memories.

First Hope. Sarah has experienced some spontaneous memories, triggered by familiar situations. Many involved a task or something physical she did, like ringing the bell or arranging the cups. Some were mission related, like grabbing the weapons case in Castle or suggesting Irene Demova. Some had a personal connection to Chuck, like the doorframe carving and straightening his tie.

She is getting to know Chuck. At the restaurant she hears his pure heart and open adoration as he describes their first date. Dancing with him, she feels the rightness of them. She feels the attraction. At the Wienerliscious, she discovers that for better or worse, he doesn’t kill people. Though he is unlike any other spy, she discovers that this unassuming, gentle nerd, who loves her more than life itself, is a true hero.

His family and team are unlike anything she has ever known, but they pull together and work together and get the job done. Chuck easily assumes the role of leader and his team follows him and trusts him. By the end of the day she had learned to trust him, too.

Through Chuck’s eyes Sarah has seen a different side of herself. She became a different person in those missing 5 years. She can’t describe it, but deep down she knows it’s true. Sarah Walker had become more than just a spy. Sarah Bartowski is a part of her … a part of herself that she doesn’t know, but wants to discover.

If she is going to be honest with herself (a Sarah Bartowski trait) Sarah can’t just run off and be a spy. She can’t disappear forever. She needs — wants — to go find herself, the person Chuck knows. It’s a good sign.

The original band shares a last moment, before Casey gets up to go. Then Casey hugs Chuck goodbye. Who’d'a thunk? Very emotional.

Sarah seems at a loss. She witnesses an intimate moment with her team of 5 years, yet feels like an intruder. Very poignant. Casey doesn’t hug her, but he transmits his friendship with a warm handshake and a wink.

Sarah turns down Chuck’s subtle offer of a new beginning, saying she needs time to think and be alone. That’s what her words say, but her eyes are begging for a reason to stay. Chuck calls her back and almost goes with Morgan’s kiss theory. The hope in her eyes when he calls her back turns to sadness when he lets her go. Deep down she knows that going isn’t the answer to finding herself. Staying with Chuck is where she’ll find herself, but she doesn’t know how to make that leap, without his help.

After a flurry of farewells — Casey and Alex, Ellie and Chuck, Jeffster and the Buymore — Chuck sits at the fountain with Morgan, his faithful wingman. Morgan gives Chuck a push to listen to his heart and go to his wife.

First Kiss. Sarah can’t get very far from Chuck, can she? She goes to find herself and ends up at the beach where she first found Chuck.

As she once did for him, he finds her and offers her the help she needs to move forward, “I was hoping you would be here.”

She welcomes his company and his words, “This place is important isn’t it.”

“Yeah, yeah, very much. This is actually where you told me I was going to be ok. That I could trust you. And that’s exactly what I’m doing now. I’m asking you to trust me.”

She feels comfortable here with him … safe.

“Sarah, I don’t want anything from you. I just need you to know that wherever you go I’ll always be there to help you.”

She knows it’s true. He is the only one who has been there for her in these past weeks … thinking only of her, helping her, risking his life for her, not pushing her … loving her.

“Someone you can call, whenever.”

Right now, his love is more certain than anything else. And she knows she loves him.

“Trust me, Sarah. I’m here for you … always.”

And she does. Just like she did in another life on a different beach, she makes the leap from fear to trust, “Chuck, tell me our story.”

The story captivates her. As he weaves her their story, she begins to feel whole. Her heart expands, and she begins to feel “them” again. This is where she belongs.  Chuck is the man she wants.

They share a laugh about Morgan’s theory of the memory-restoring, magical kiss. Whether it will work or not, Sarah is ready to rekindle their love and reclaim her life.

“Chuck … Kiss me.”

~ Thinkling

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Last Impressions

Here’s what I know. I know Sarah trusts Chuck. She is open and vulnerable with him on the beach. I know she wants to find herself and get her life back with him. TELL ME OUR STORY CHUCK. I know Sarah loves Chuck. It’s in her eyes so often throughout the finale. It’s in the fact that she always comes back to him. And it’s in the kiss.

Here’s what I feel. Happiness mixed with sorrow. The beauty of the final scene, as sweet and stunningly beautiful as it was, doesn’t offset the loss of 5 years worth of memories. The romance of the beach scene, as romantic as it was, doesn’t compare with that of the cozy married couple wrapped in their love and sketching their dream that was 5 years in the making. Sarah losing 5 years and all the memories of the man who is her life and the people who are most important to her is tragic. Without more certainty that she will get that back, I can’t feel that the payoff was worth it.

Here’s what I believe. I believe Chuck and Sarah will be OK. I believe Sarah will get her essential memories back. I also believe that Sarah Bartowski, the one that Chuck made the best person she could ever hope to be, with or without all of her memories, is still there. In relationship with Chuck, as she did before, she will emerge again as beautiful as ever.

Quibble: That’s a lot to have to take by faith for me, personally, to call it a satisfying ending. The writers showed too little and left too much to my imagination. I know they like that, but it leaves me wanting. Besides the fact that I think tearing down 5 years of growth for the sake of nostalgia and one more redux of wt/wt is a horrible way to end the show. I know some people think it’s brilliant, and I have no problem at all with that. It’s a matter of taste. I might find it brilliant if we had another episode or arc or even a proper epilogue that let me actually see Sarah’s memories returning and Chuck and Sarah back to normal. You see my conflicting thoughts on this.

The episode gave me some great Chuck and Sarah scenes and a beautifully romantic beach scene. How could I not love that beach scene, and it was wonderfully done by Zach and Yvonne. That moment was enough to give me real hope. Plus, I have a pretty good imagination.

In that imagination, Chuck and Sarah Bartowski get back to who they were, do great things together, and build their dream.

Parting Thoughts

I can’t praise Yvonne enough for her portrayal of a conflicted Sarah. Her range with that character is fantastic, her emotional resonance was stunning, and as always her facial expressions were utterly amazing.

Zach turned in his best ever performance. He, too, was absolutely amazing at giving us an emotional Chuck.

Morgan was the best wingman he has ever been. Great Morgan episode.

This is the first Jeffster performance I have actually really liked. Great performance and send off for tham.

Casey (after he got over wanting to kill Sarah) was great. And in a complete turn around he was particularly sensitive to Sarah.

Very strong episodes in so many ways, just not a good note to end on (for me).

I hate to see Chuck end. (I always said I would watch until Chuck got hair plugs and Sarah got orthopedic shoes.) I’ve never loved a television shows or fictitious characters the way I have Chuck, nor do I expect to again. Huge thanks to all who made it possible.
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^Many of you know that I like C.S. Lewis. I timidly and reverently borrow the title of one of his books.

My deepest hope, is that by the time I post this, no one will actually still be reading our site… (kidding!)

I want to start with the good. There was plenty here I liked and am even enthused about.  No doubt the starring performances were brilliant.  Zach was incredible in bringing us Chuck’s pain and grief.  Yvonne’s performance was more complex and subtle; we not only had a throw back to Graham’s enforcer in 5.12 and a somewhat confused, off-balance character in most of 5.13; but we also saw some stages of her affection for Chuck in the personal logs and the final happy scene as she gave in to what she was feeling.  The rest of the cast gave the excellent performances we’ve come to expect.

I thought 5.12 was particularly well written and at every step I could believe Sarah’s actions and the conclusions she seemed to be drawing.  She always seemed to have just a hint of doubt; which I took to be a combination of missing five years (knowing she didn’t have the whole story) and her deep seated feelings for Chuck.  Yet just as in early S1, Sarah could control these feelings and follow orders.

At this point I have to add I was most disappointed in the characters of Ellie and Casey.  They gave up on partner and sister-in-law far too easily.  Shame on them.  But it did make Chuck look good, he would try anything to get his wife back.  The house scene was painful yet well constructed.  The conceit of Chuck suddenly being alone in trying save Sarah leaves him isolated with no other option than talking to her.  Well the talking part didn’t work, but the house itself provided a bit of a clue.  Of course Quinn spills the beans quickly enough and there’s now no doubt that Sarah has been used and had her memories stolen.

Overall I thought this episode was well thought out and clever.  The only real problems I had were the previously mentioned character abandonments and then Chuck not at least offering to accompany his wife in her quest to get the man who tried to steal their future. And Sarah would have understood the offer; she might not have “felt” it yet, but she knew Chuck was her husband.  I believe Sarah at this point would have refused the offer, but Chuck should have made it.

I’m less enthused with 5.13.  The idea was clever enough, and some of the call backs were a lot of fun.  I laughed out loud at the return of Weinerlicious, Chuck accidentally downing Casey’s chopper, and of course Jeffster!  But I needed more of Sarah falling for Chuck again.  What we saw was too subtle by far, and the hiccups along the way seemed more pronounced than the “falling for” part.  We know it was supposed to be there; writers and Yvonne have all mentioned it, but the hints need to be more clear.  Perhaps this will be better in the extended cut we’re supposed to see when the discs come out.  I hope so, this struck me as a pretty serious deficiency.

I also didn’t care for Ellie and Devon’s farewell scene.  Nothing wrong in itself; but the undercurrent was all messed up.  Let’s see; the little brother Ellie raised just sold his company and is professionally finished, oh and it seems his wife just left him.  But hey, we’re heading to that mythical land where the pizza is really good so… see yah!

Which leads to the beach scene.  You know what, I thought this was the best scene of the night.  Beautiful, well acted and well conceived.  This was the moment. Sarah had left Chuck with the comment she needed to find herself.  So she wound up on their beach and was ready to open herself up to Chuck when he approached her.  We’ll never be sure how much she might have remembered at this point; but she knew she’d lost something with her husband and she wanted it back.  I think she already knew she loved him, for pretty much the same reason she fell for him the first time way back in the Pilot.  Remember she admitted this in Other Guy?  ”I fell for you between fixing my cell phone and disabling bombs with a computer virus.” So Sarah fell for Chuck in the same time frame again.  Even a slightly different, more mature Chuck.  Maybe it wasn’t fully developed love yet, but she could feel the pain of what she’d lost.  So Sarah asks Chuck to tell her their story.  And she loves the story.  She was moved to tears and joy during the telling.  Clearly she feels it now.  So she believes that Chuck is her husband, and now she feels it too.  When Chuck brings up the idea of Morgan’s magic kiss she clutches at the opportunity.  She wants those memories back.  We can see she liked the kiss too.  It was sweet and tender, and showed no signs of letting up at the 15 second mark.

Did the magic kiss work?  Well we don’t really know.  In a way it doesn’t matter to me.  I’d been saying all week my irreducible minimum was Chuck and Sarah together and happy about it.  We certainly got that.  Of course “irreducible minimum” means at least a “D” not an “F”.  So it was a D or better.  The scene was well done in its own right.  And I am firmly in the camp with those who say Sarah did get her memories back (eventually).  We had seen her having a little recall all along; Morgan got of his memories back in time; and Schwedak clearly said in post-show interviews that her memories were coming back!  The question or ambiguity of the last scene was never even meant to be one of if, only when.  This is clearly meant to be a happy ending; Sarah’s memories come back, they’re out of the spy business, they presumably have enough capital from the sale of the Buy More to buy that dream house, and maybe start Chuck’s dream computer company.  That is actually a very happy ending.

But it still didn’t feel like enough.  Sure I may have a big bias.  Calling anything the end of Chuck is going to make me a little grumpy.  But I really needed to see a little of that happily ever after.  Maybe just Sarah suddenly remembering a little something during the kiss (some little thing like the proposal or wedding vows!); or saying “take me home Chuck” as the credits roll.  Even better a flash forward of them moving into the dream house; or standing in the front yard a year later with a little bundle in Sarah’s arms. I needed something more.  Like Sarah after watching her video logs, I believe they got their happy ending, but I don’t feel it.  I can’t give this ending better than a C-.  It was beautiful for what it was.  But what it was wasn’t enough.

The Big Picture

So now that I’ve considered particular ups and downs in this finale what is my final judgement of this arc?  Well I think it was a huge mistake and a slap in the face for many fans.  Yeah those fans who bought sandwiches and wrote letters and voted in surveys and celebrated or cried all over the internet for this show every week for five years.  The writers told the story they wanted to tell, which in my experience is rarely a good thing.  I have certain harsh feelings towards Schwedak that have only intensified as a result of this. I find this ironic because I loved so much of their product.

A funny thing about this show and these characters; the first two seasons I strongly related to Chuck.  It was through his eyes that I saw these amazing adventures. I think I was smitten with Sarah as soon as Chuck was; but for two seasons I was Chuck and he was my identity in this world.  But that changed for me at “Guys, I know Kung Fu.”  I never really related so easily to Chuck again.  Don’t get me wrong, he was still a likable guy and a good character; but he wasn’t really me anymore.  For much of the third season I didn’t even like Chuck, and Sarah was often nearly invisible; for me the show lost its heart entirely and if I didn’t have hope that the next arc would be better I likely would have quit at that point.  But that changed at Other Guy.  When something new and wonderful happened.  When Chuck quit feeling sorry for himself, and Sarah became his partner in multiple senses of the word.  I felt excited and enthused for this show again. But Sarah became my clear favorite character at this point.  Especially when whiny insecure Chuck made his occasional reappearances.  But watching Sarah’s growth over the course of S3.5, through S4 and S5 has simply been the most awesome television experience I’ve ever seen. That was magic and special.

So TPTB chose a finale story that took this fully mature Sarah Bartowski out of the picture for two full episodes, and they weren’t even completely clear about her recovery/prognosis.  I feel ripped off.  Again, I don’t buy for a second that they “killed” her or any such thing.  They only “killed” her appearance in the last two episodes.  Which I might point out they pretty much did in every climactic mid or season finale action sequence from 2.22 on.  That alone makes me grumpy enough.  And that leads me to conclude that these show runners categorically do not understand me.  ”So What?” you say.  Well at this moment I have zero interest in any future projects they might do.  I appreciate the cast very much, and I think some of the staff writers are brilliant.  And I’m not going to say anything stupid like”I’ll never watch a Schwedak show again…”  I might, if they come up with an interesting enough idea; or if they team with Zach or Yvonne somewhere down the line.  But this will remain a huge strike against them to me.

Final Thoughts

I hate to end on such a bitter note.  In spite of some complaints and reservations, Chuck has been the most completely satisfying show I’ve ever seen.  Only a few other shows have ever held much of a place in my heart when I wasn’t actually watching them: Rockford Files, Star Trek: TNG; Babylon 5; SG-1; Firefly.  Chuck is now at the absolute top of that list.  Don’t be fooled by any of my whining;  I loved this show, and my biggest disappointment is that it ever had to end.  My first reaction to the finale episode was pretty strong disappointment.  That may even fade in time.  But I strongly believe we got a happy ending, and Chuck and Sarah are more in love than ever and fully appreciate what they almost lost.

 ~ Dave

The Last Dance

OK Chucksters, it’s all over but the passionate yet polite shouting, and we’ve got probably all the Chuck we’ll ever have, minus a delightful bit of news from Schwedak that the DVD/BR will feature a longer cut of the finale.  So now is when we usually look back on the season past and see where we started and where we ended.  For starters it’s my long established tradition to torture our readers by making them pick their favorite episodes, thus ranking the episodes based on a sample of our readers favorites.  In addition, lately I’ve expanded my polling to allow episodes to be rated individually, compared to your average Chuck episode (as if such a thing exists… OK, so there was Curse, or Alma Mater… or Family Volkoff).  In any case, have at it in the polls and comments, after the jump.

First up is the poll where I torture you by making you pick 4, and only 4 episodes that you think were the best 4 of the season.  I’m going to do 4 because I’m going to try to keep Chuck Versus Sarah and Chuck Versus Goodbye as individual episodes, even though a lot of us will probably always think of them as one, like Subway/Ring II.

Next, if you’re like me, you need to alleviate the pain of excluding that 5th (or 6th, or 13th) pick.  Rate the episodes by clicking on the slider box at the bottom right, or click here if that doesn’t work.

At the end of the day, I believe that Sarah regained her memories because I want it to be true. If you haven’t read Mo Ryan’s review of the episode, I recommend a read, it is quite honestly the best sentiment I could give but I digress. See the thing about Chuck from the get go is…it’s a leap of faith. Love is a leap of faith. Against all odds, you had to believe that Chuck Bartowski could get the leggy Valkyrie who was so very much out of his league; you had to believe that through all the roadblocks and the covers that what they felt was real, that the love was real, that it would survive. Even when they tried to tell you it’s over, even when they tried to end it, you had to believe. You had to because you fell in love with them, in much the same way they fell for each other. This situation is no different. You have to believe that Sarah regained her memories because there’s not even remotely any other way possible that she didn’t, that she doesn’t. They gave you just enough for you to believe that if you wanted. At the end of the day it was your choice, your decision, just like it was Sarah’s. At the end of the day it was your choice to trust the love, or not. To “listen to [our] heart[s] because our brains only screw things up.”

There’s such a thing as implicit and explicit memory. Implicit memory is also known as “non-declarative” memory because you can’t verbalize what those memories are; but you know them, somewhere in there you know it. They usually involve “specific step by step procedures,” or “specific feelings or emotions.” Explicit memory is something you can verbalize, it can be declared. Sarah showed that her implicit memories were intact when she moved the cups in Wienerlicious the way they’re supposed to be (step-by-step procedures),

Sarah: “They’re in the wrong order. It’s not how it should be.”
Chuck: “Sarah you know this place?”
Sarah: “No, no I don’t.”

…when she knew that the beach was an important place to her,”This place is important, isn’t it?” She doesn’t know why those things are important, she doesn’t know why she felt she needed to go to the beach to clear her head, but she did. Somewhere in her implicit memory banks she knows these things and feels these emotions but she doesn’t have the explicit memory to be able to explain them, to be able to really know who she is. BUT something’s missing, she knows something’s missing.

The romantic in me wants to believe that that something missing in her was the other half to her whole, her Chuck. She doesn’t know that she loves him, she doesn’t even know that she’s missing him but some part of her knows that something’s missing (obviously something more than just her memories). That part of her seems to gravitate to all the places and all the activities that begs for an awakening. Irene Demova? Why not fruit juice? I think it’s because she fell for Chuck a long, long time ago, after he fixed her phone and before he “started diffusing bombs with computer viruses.” That memory stuck with her, just not the details, “I am, not really sure what that meant.”

Earlier she was compelled to make sure he was okay because…? If there was nothing there, then why? Yes he did just take a bullet for her, and yes she just found out that she’s been betrayed but why? She doesn’t feel what he feels, right? Casey said it best, “funny, when we first met they said the same thing about you [that they said about me].” That she was “unfriendly, unforgiving, unquestioning about her orders.” And yet she hesitated, even after being freed. She, just for a moment, wanted to believe his words, “This is real? You really love me?” She wanted to believe his love, that is until training kicked in. She even recognized the carving, “I wrote that.” So is it really all gone? Never to be recovered? No, it’s not. They showed that. They showed that she retains her implicit memories, and it’s growing by the moment.

Now, how to prime those implicit memories to spark explicit memories. Priming is a way to cue a memory by using a stimulus. Ellie and Morgan had suggestions for priming. Ellie: feelings; Morgan: magical kiss. “It’s clear we can’t force Sarah to remember but emotions, feelings those are powerful things and if you can find Sarah, maybe you can spark some of these memories.” Logically if seeing the carving primed her memory of having carved it, then Chuck should be able to prime her memories with his feelings, with his lips. Their solutions weren’t trivial, they were essential. And it works, to a point. She fixed his tie, that was curious. Agent Walker who has just been betrayed felt the need to…trust Chuck with her mission? Even after seeing the video and all that he’s lost, and all that she has (essentially) taken away from him, she knew she could count on him. Curiouser and curiouser. So Sarah Walker trusts Chuck with the mission, progress.

Sarah: “I just want to tell you that I believe you, I believe everything that you told me about us. But the truth is Chuck, I-I don’t feel it. Everything that you told me about us and our story, I don’t feel it.”
Chuck: “Right. Right of course, I-ah-I don’t know what I was expecting.”
Sarah: “Well, I wanted to say sorry about everything that has happened today but most of all, I just wanted to say goodbye.”

All of this after seeing her video logs. More on the most poignantly devastating event in Chuck history, later. So Sarah felt the need to say goodbye and apologize. She’s changed in these last 5 years and it’s apparent, even to her. Suppressed memories cannot undo that. Now you’re probably yelling, see? Faith? See! She doesn’t feel it, it’s gone! My response? It’s not gone, she does feel, she shows in that very moment that she does feel. Sarah goes out of her way to break his heart, to crush his dreams, why? It’s less cruel than letting him dream. Whatever she feels or doesn’t feel, she still felt the need to say goodbye. What we have here isn’t a lack of emotion like she said, it’s a lack of trust. She doesn’t trust what she feels for him, and she doesn’t trust their love.

Back to the solution. Chuck’s mission is a tall order but it’s got two benefits. One, maybe she falls in love with him again, just by being just who he is, and two he unconsciously primes her with all of his feelings and all that they meant to each other. Fate even helped out with some fortuitous locations. So maybe, just maybe something will spark the flood of memories. But it’s never that easy, is it? Because as mentioned, she still doesn’t trust. She hasn’t fallen for him (again), yet. Not yet.

So what’s the difference between when she tells him not to talk about their life together in the eerily familiar Mexican restaurant, and the beach scene where she asks him to tell her? What took place between those two moments apart from just the mission, apart from just people telling her they’re in love? She fell for him, all over again (but not really again). Seeing the hero that would put the world before himself (remember Sarah Walker has spent a lifetime with men that only looked out for number one, even her father put himself over her)–seeing the guy that wouldn’t take a life in a new light, “you must think I was weak or scared but you taught me to be a spy Sarah…after when we fell in love, you stood up for me. You didn’t want me to be any other spy, you didn’t want me to change.”–those are just two reasons that made her fall in love (again). It’s also important to note that after Chuck told her about her old self standing up for the “Chuck” she loved, she did it again this time. “I heard your pep talk, I think I’m better off finding Quinn on my own. I’m leaving.” The pep-talk part leads me to assume that it was more than just, “Chuck can’t handle killing Quinn, he won’t back me up so I’ll go alone.” Then there’s the fact that Chuck is the kind of guy that would be there for her, assure her that even when painful for him he would be there for her, be someone she can call and do it without strings. So I assume she fell in love with him all over again (you don’t have to buy into it, but there it is) but things aren’t fixed, the problem isn’t solved. Sarah still doesn’t (fully) remember and she still doesn’t trust.

Chuck: “Maybe it’s a fresh start, a new beginning.”
Sarah: “I need some time to think. To be alone. I’m sorry.”

Enter Chuck and the beach. Chuck just knew where she was, and she knew just where to be. That’s love, sometimes it cannot be explained (even though I have tried with implicit memories for Sarah).

Chuck: “I was hoping you’d be here.”
Sarah: “This place is important, isn’t it?”
Chuck: “Yeah, this is actually where you told me that I was going to be ok. That I can trust you. That’s what I’m doing now, asking you to trust me. Sarah, I don’t want anything from you. I just need you to know that wherever you go, I’ll always be there to help you. Someone you can call, whenever. Trust me, Sarah. I’m here for you always”
Sarah: “Tell me our story.”

So what’s changed that she suddenly wants to know their story? She trusts.

I like to think that as Chuck tells her their story–as we relive their journey–she remembers some things, though not others. Nevertheless, Ellie’s plan is in motion: he’s reminding her with his feelings. As she laughs and cries about the last 5 years, maybe she falls in love with him even deeper and remembers. But that’s just one part of the plan, the other part is that magical kiss. Is it Disney-ish? Is it so ridiculous to think that she could remember with just a kiss, as if it were a fairytale? Or is it ridiculous to think that a kiss wouldn’t help her regain her memories, after all of this? I pick the latter, I pick it because to me Chuck has always been a fairytale in some form or another. Chuck was the Frog, and she always saw the Prince. This time, Chuck was kissing Sleeping Beauty, and she had to awaken. She wanted so much to remember, how could we not want it for her?

Sarah: “Chuck, kiss me.”

A steamy kiss that continues, during sunset. To me there is no way that she doesn’t [remember]. And there’s no better way to end it. In the beach, where it all began.

Other notes: I couldn’t have imagined a more emotionally resonant episode than this (note: In my mind vs. Sarah and Goodbye are one). Chuck begging, and urging her to remember…so sad and yet so lovely. I quite literally felt my heart break in that moment. I fell for him in that moment just as my heart was breaking. Zachary Levi shined in this episode, and none more so than in that moment. Completely bare and totally vulnerable, great call. But the crowning glory of all things emotional were the video logs. Yvonne Strahovski and the content of the logs, completely did me in.

Day 1: My mission is simple, find out what he knows, gain his trust, monitor his actions until the agency decides what to do with him.
Day 21: Chuck came over to my hotel room today and brought me a pizza. Vegetarian, no olives. I think he’s making it his mission to get to know me. It’s sweet.
Day 49: Chuck broke up with me today. Well, uh, fake-fake broke up with me. Technically.
Day 56: Chuck and I were defusing a bomb today and there was a moment where we were sure we were going to die. He closed his eyes, and I kissed him. I kissed him.
Day 564: Things are calm for once. No missions, nothing really to report, except I still find myself sitting here, talking to myself because… Because I love him. I love Chuck Bartowski and (voice breaks) I don’t know what to do about it.

More than the clips, more than Sarah falling in love with Chuck all over again, more than all the callbacks, the video log was my love letter from the show. It’s a letter I cherish, and one that means just as much in that moment (believing that all is lost) than it does in the last 5 years, because of the last 5 years. It’s very rare for TV Shows to delve into the mind of its characters, it’s just not an easy thing to do but they did it, with Sarah. Breathtaking. Every reaction, ever emotion, just magnificent.

Casey picking a life with Gertrude over his career, and in some ways his daughter just felt right. Alex has grown up, he has to let go, and as he has grown as well, Alex has to let him go. She’s got Morgan now.

The Woodcombs and their affluent future in the Midwest also felt right. Ellie needed to let go, she’s been protecting and taking care of Chuck for far too long, Chuck’s all grown up…he doesn’t need her anymore, he needs Sarah.

Jeffster riding off into the sunset, all the way to a record deal? Couldn’t have ended any better. Subway as the Buy More though? Pure laugh.

I can’t think of any actor that didn’t act their heart out in this one. From Bonita to Adam, to Sarah Lancaster and Linda Hamilton, they all brought their A game and it was, if not their finest performances (definitely Linda Hamilton’s finest performance), it was close to it. Even the Buy Morians had lines!

In the end, it was to me, a fitting conclusion to a memorable and lovable series called Chuck. Full of heart, drama and laughs. Yes I will admit that it would have been nice, preferable really, for them to make it explicitly clear that she regained her memories before fading out but I don’t need it. They showed me, as indicated, in many ways why I should believe what I believe. They showed me, why it’s a given. They showed me 5 years of love in 87 minutes. They showed me two people falling in love in 87 minutes. They showed me exactly why I should and have been trusting that love. Love is after all, a leap of faith. Even more amazing, they made me feel it. All of it, every single one. Thank you for the lifetime of memories Chuck (TPTB), and especially this finale. Now how about that movie…

I’ve deliberately kept myself from the spoiler I see everyone is talking about, and I think I’m glad.

Morgan: I’m over-thinking this, aren’t I?
Chuck: Yeah. Yeah, you are. Go with your heart, buddy. Our brains only screw things up.

If I can recommend any one thing, it’s time to relax, remove all expectations/preconceptions and just enjoy the evening. There’s no other way to approach something that’s meant this much to us for so long.

Did It Haz Style?

Skip Johnson aka Michael Kawczynski haz style

Then, after you’ve seen it, I’d really like to know what you thought. I mean, I know what the critics have been saying, and I know what the fans have been speculating, but now that you’ve seen it, what did you think?

Fernando aka Jesse Heiman haz style

Oh – and then I have a favor to ask. Come back again tomorrow or the next day, and tell me again what you think about it after having slept on it.

As for us, we’re not going away yet, and I’m sure that there’ll be plenty we want to add to the discussion.

After all, Our Style Is Da Bomb!

digi bom di deng di deng digigi!

So…this is it. The beginning of the end. The story is to be concluded, and with it our friends, our “Chuck” family.

Thinkling said something to me earlier, she said “Crazy huh? This is just a TV Show for cry-sake out loud.” She meant it in the sense that she’s feeling all sorts of emotions about all of these when in a Chuck-less world, she wouldn’t be this emotional, but she is, we are. These are our friends leaving us, our “Chuck” family. Hopefully they’re leaving for greener pastures but we won’t know for sure until the 27th.

In a little less than 3 days, we won’t be able to laugh at something Jeffster’s done, or marvel at the number of messages that can be transmitted with one grunt, or even feel our hearts grow seeing a once in lifetime kind of love between Chuck and Sarah. We will no longer feel the connection between Chuck and Ellie, we won’t be privy to Clara growing up, we won’t get to see Casey and Gertrude celebrate the love that shall not be named. All we will have will be our memories. We saw these amazing people (both in front of the camera and out of it) grow before our eyes. They welcomed us into their lives (again both in front of and away from the camera) in a really special way, the likes of which we may never see again.

Those memories (and our DVDs, mp3s and memorabilia), and the feelings we take away from it will be all that we have left to keep us warm on those cold, cold nights because like all good things, it has to come to an end. But take heart, this is one of those once in a lifetime moments where you can only feel the sadness and the joy that is uniquely, goodbye.

So we shall. In true Chuck fashion, we’re saying goodbye with a song. Well more specifically, we’re saying goodbye by choosing the most fitting Chuck goodbye song there is.

There were many in contention. We gathered some suggestions from across the globe. And these are what they chose:

• Time of Your Life – Green Day

Name a graduating class that didn’t have this song as its class song in the last 15 years, probably aren’t a lot.

• Sarah McLachlan – I Will Remember You

Just emanates melancholy.

• I’ve Had the Time of my Life – Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes

Nobody puts Chuck-er Baby in the corner, still true to this day!

• Boyz II Men – It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye
• Band of Horses – The End’s Not Near

A bit of an indie feel with BoH. Typical Chuck band.

• Beatles – Hello Goodbye

There are 2 intended versions of this song, the mellower version fits.

The “world” chose well. Each one uniquely fits Chuck’s final goodbye, but there’s still something missing.

Amy and I also had our own pow-wow. And even more selections cropped up:

• “When All Is Said and Done” by Abba.

This is Amy’s pick and her reasoning? It’s a love song to the characters. Very old school.

• “Pictures of You” by the Cure
• “Don’t Blink” by Kenny Chesney.

Also Amy’s pick, because “the last 5 seasons have gone by in a blink.”

• “I’ll Remember” by Madonna

Cheesy

• “These Are Days” by 10,000 Maniacs.
• “Really Gonna Miss You” by Smokey Robinson

Smokey Robinson’s my (Faith) pick. Why? It’s a deeply emotional song that can only be delivered via soul. Plus it feels like a song that would fit with C/S’s “Feeling Good” mix.

• “Never gonna give you up” by Rick Astley

Because I (Faith) love the 90s.

• Thelma Houston – Don’t Leave Me This Way

Another classic. I also feel like telling “Chuck” that.

Again, nice selections but nothing really rang true. Not the world’s selections, nor ours. Chuck’s goodbye song has to effectively send Chuck’s farewell message, and ours (as fans). There is a message in the song, after all. A tall order to be sure.

Then Amy suggested, David Hodges’ “Hard to Believe.”

The opening line says it all…”Stay, tell me the story again.” I’m one of the few that welcomed this goodbye. I felt that 5 years have treated us well, and if we must say goodbye this is the way to do it but as the day nears, I find myself, like the songs says, “finding it hard to believe.” If I could pause time, I would pause it in this moment and relive the last 5 years, “stay, tell me the story again.”

Story wise, with all that’s happening in the world of Chuck–the chaos, the uncertainty–there’s a bit of truth in this:

“Faith, it’s easier said then done
When it’s so hard to trust anyone
And maybe it’s just a place inside, that you can hide.

Wait, I can see you slipping away
Just stay with me
When the whole world brings you down
(when the whole world brings you down,)

Bit of a dual meaning there. The show is slipping away from us, and for Chuck, so is Sarah…

“When stars fall, and ground breaks,
You’re sinking, ’cause it’s too late,
I’m right here, I’m right here
Just stay with me”

“Even though you’re, finding it hard to believe
(in the darkest of nights I will be there)
Even though you’re, finding it hard to believe,
(when you’re lost, I will guide you home)
Even though you’re, finding it hard to believe
(in the darkest of nights I will be there)
Even though you’re, finding it hard to believe
(when you’re lost, I will guide you home)
When the whole world brings you down.”

For my money, there couldn’t possibly be a more fitting song. Thanks for the memories. Goodbye, Chuck and with your farewell, I will guide you home.

Joe Has To Sing Along!

It’s hard for me not to. I’ll second your notion about being emotional, Faith. I don’t think many would see it in my face or hear it in my voice. Despite my persona here, I’m really not publicly gushy like that. Still, there’s going to be many times when I’ll be hit by a memory of a scene or a quote or a song from this show and it will just lay me low for a while.

It’ll last just a little while though, because I’ll remember that Chuck has been a bit like me. At the end, all in all, it turns out just a bit better than he could ever have imagined.

Despite all the times I’ve mentioned the music here, there really isn’t much I’d add that isn’t included in your list already, Faith. One song that was never used, but always makes me think of Chuck is Wonderwall by Oasis.

Today is gonna be the day
That they’re gonna throw it back to you
By now you should’ve somehow
Realized what you gotta do
I don’t believe that anybody
Feels the way I do
About you now

That almost seems to be about Chuck on the day we met him, on the day Sarah met him.

It’s almost funny how the Gallagher brothers had the prescience to know how Chuck and Sarah felt about each other from the beginning.

Because maybe
You’re gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You’re my wonderwall

But this is about the ending and about lessons learned, not by the characters, but by us in the time we’ve spent. So, with that in mind, my choice for Chuck’s good-bye song is Bette Midler’s The Rose.

When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long.

And you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong.

Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun’s love, in the spring, becomes
The Rose.

Amy’s 2 Cents.

Faith and I have been working on this for a long time, and I’m flattered she is enjoying David Hodges (his stuff is awesome and I really enjoy his band, Trading Yesterday-check it out!). I wanted to share with you what Chuck has meant to me over these last years. I have been struggling to find the words, to be as articulate a schnook as my peers here on the blog. I have found myself pulling away a bit, very much in the style of our own John Casey, not ready for the journey to end.

Most of you know I’m in the Army and I’ve had the opportunity to deploy a lot, these last few years in particular. This show has been with me. On my laptop, on my iPod, on DVD. Gotta have it all because most of these lovely garden spots lacks decent internet. And forget about streaming! Yikes. This show and these characters have been with me when I’m homesick, tired, hot, scared, as well as happy, busy, in love and out. They have helped me with my personal journey as I’ve enjoyed theirs. I have watched characters grow and change. We’ve watched marriages, challenges, baby births, plywood (sorry, can’t resist!) and all sorts of action/mayhem. The relationships so wonderfully portrayed on screen are probably what I’ll miss the most. This show has put together a cast and a cast of characters that is unlike anything else I’ve seen.

This show also has brought me lifelong friends with my blog partners and a community of fans that I will always appreciate. This article, to me, is as much about you as it is the show we all love. A community that pulls together in a meaningful way to help others through the Have A Heart campaign with the American Heart Association. Chuck fans give back while making their point to the network. We have shown a passion and dedication, despite things we don’t like or when we disagree amongst ourselves. Healthy discourse is always good. A community of highly intelligent and creative people who think outside the box in approaching renewal fights. To quote Devon: “AWESOME!”

To the fans of Chuck and the cast and crew: Thank you for making my life journey better with a laugh and for warming my heart!

iOS links for Hard To Believe and The Rose

Not so long ago Chuck and Sarah boarded a train with nothing but a ticket and the determination to be together. It was the start of their journey, the genesis of dreams they had yet to imagine.

Two outstanding episodes, Honeymooners and Bullet Train, bookend the greatest journey ever. I’ve found no other characters so compelling, no other journey so gratifying, no other love story so heartwarming.

Ride the rails with me and enjoy the journey from the slow train to the Bullet Train … the final ride. 

Their Journey Begins

That first train was verrry different from the last one. For starters it was a lot slower … the slowest train ride in history if meal trays are any indication. I prefer to think of it as a moment out of time when Chuck and Sarah are lost in each other and oblivious as time and the rest of the world pass by.

Ultimately, they have to come up with a plan, because the world is knocking — or calling — and they must answer. Or not. The priority of being together is absolute. So they throw caution and iphones to the wind and decide to run away together.

One last mission (I knew that sounded familiar) draws them back into the spy game and changes their course. At the end of the day, after thinking and rethinking their decision, they return to Burbank to carve out a space between two worlds and pursue the ultimate dream … being spies together.

Amidst the all the revision of plans and second guessing, one constant was established:

Whatever else they want in life, they want each other more; and nothing else matters as long as they are together.

That constant is the north star that guides their journey.

Journey for Two

From the very beginning, one of the laws of the Chuckverse is that the spy world invariably intrudes on Chuck’s real world. Its corollary is that operating in both worlds, while trying to keep them separate, is a constant source of tension and often a source of danger.

So why not leave spying behind and pursue that normal life? Besides the obvious, that there would be no more Chuck, Chuck and Sarah want both. This is their dream. Not only do they want both, but for now they need both. It’s in the balance of their worlds that they help each other grow. Chuck and Sarah come from polar worlds. Each needs the home world to help stabilize the transition and the other world to catalyze growth.

That’s the journey from Honeymooners through Cliffhanger … Chuck and Sarah living their dream and rounding out their personal growth as they grow together toward marriage. Though Sarah’s journey to an emotionally transparent woman-in-love is nothing less than stunning, Chuck’s growth in confidence as a man and a hero is cheer-worthy.

Journey As One

I have loved Chuck’s and Sarah’s journeys. More than that, I have loved their journey, but perhaps most of all I have loved this leg of their journey. It’s the same people on the same journey, but since they’re married, it’s different somehow. Different/good. Different/great. Different … fantastic. It’s what I’ve wanted for them all along, and I am so grateful we got a S5 to see it.

They are still living the dream, albeit a slightly different version. The CIA kicked them to the curb, but Hartley tossed them a fortune, so they started their own spies-for-hire biz … and they own the Buymore.

Almost immediately we notice a new dynamic in their relationship. The role reversal is beginning to shift or rather Chuck and Sarah are beginning to mesh in new and wonderful ways. Chuck has taken the reigns of the professional, spy side of things. He is the leader that makes Carmichael Industries work. Sarah is his first mate and partner in every way. They are the consummate power spy-couple.

Sarah, who only last year was more comfortable in the spy world and applied her spy brain and spy talents to solve every-day, real-world problems, is now very comfortable in the normal/relationship/communication area. These were always Chuck’s forte, where he did all the heavy lifting. Now Sarah carries her own weight and gradually takes the lead more and more.

They have rubbed off one each other, and it’s stunning. We see it in Chuck tagging the Viper and thinking like a spy in Business Trip and in Sarah giving Casey, then Verbanski relationship advice. In Frosted Tips, Sarah is sensitive to Chuck’s friendship with Morgan, while Chuck worries more about CI’s bottom line. This new dynamic adds fun and balance and beauty to their marriage.

As clients and missions come and go, their dream begins to change. They find a dream house and begin to think about having real friends, more taco nights and fewer evil cabals.

As their dream changes, though, one thing doesn’t change — the threat of the spy world hanging over their normal world. How much longer can they defeat the dangers and avert disaster?

Chuck views the invitation to rejoin the CIA through his new business-colored glasses. Sarah knows that going back means never having control over their own lives. So they kick the CIA to the curb and take charge of their future.

A possible pregnancy turns their thoughts toward babies, and their dream expands. The expanded dream brings the certain conviction that parenting and spying don’t go together.

Wonderful moments.

This journey is about to end. Two years ago they chose to be spies together rather than run away together. It was the right choice. Now, though, is the right time to quit the spy-life and pursue a new dream. And that’s exactly what they are about to do, but the same thing that kept them from running away before, delays their pursuit of new dreams.

One last mission.

The one last mission turns into the mission that just won’t end, and its latest chapter lands them on a bullet train in Japan.

The end is in sight. In an hour and a half, at the next station, they can turn the bad guy over to the authorities (where have I heard that before), get the Intersect out of Sarah’s head, and get on with their new dream.

The Journey Ends

Chuck and Sarah’s journey draws to a close in the same way it began … on a train. The last train is a LOT different from the first. Just the visual of the bullet train snaking around the curves and eating up track at 200 mph is a shocking contrast from that of the first train rocking through the French countryside. How about that modern sleeper compartment (how cool was that) compared to its Victorian counterpart on the first train. Finally, the dining car is not nearly as friendly a place on the bullet train, and the bad guys on this train are very real.

With Chuck and Sarah, like the train, a lot of things are different, but some things are still the same. They are still very much in love and haven’t forgotten how to take advantage of their private compartment, although their time is considerably more rushed. (It is a bullet train, after all.)

As happy as I was to see Chuck and Sarah as a new couple, crazy in love; as much as it made me smile to watch real happiness blossom in Sarah for the first time, I have a deeper contentment and satisfaction as I observe them two years later. Their love is stronger, deeper, more mature. It has been tested and has triumphed again and again. And again. Sarah’s happiness isn’t new and giddy, but normal and comfortable. It has settled into her heart and her features, making her even more beautiful than before.

This time they board their train under very different circumstances from their first train trip. The same constant guides their journey, but now they have well formed dreams and a plan for their future.

Our favorite couple are not only in love, but also in big trouble. If the bad guys onboard weren’t enough, Sarah has the Intersect … and not the good version, but the mind melting one. Chuck doesn’t take the news very well. All he wants is to be rid of the Intersect, and now his wife has it in her head.

Once Sarah explains, all is forgiven. What follows is one of the most romantic sequences of the series. The initial awkwardness from the Intersect situation, gives way to increasingly intimate moments between Chuck and Sarah as friends, as a couple, as lovers.

Their bonding over the Intersect was fun, humorous, and oddly heartwarming. All this time he couldn’t really explain the Intersect to the person he was closest to, because all this time she couldn’t really understand what he went through when he flashed or what it felt like to use the Intersect. Their candor about the Intersect leads them to verify their dream one last time:

C: You ready to say goodbye to all of it — the guns, the bullets, the hard core?
S: I don’t want to live my life in danger any more. I’m ready to retire and start a family. Our future is exciting enough.

All that tender couple talk about starting a family leads to suggestive talk about needing practice, which leads the Bartowski’s to try out some other options of their sleeper compartment (minus the sleep part). Later we find them blissfully huddled together, quietly talking and sketcing their dream. I rate this as one of the most intimate Chuck and Sarah moments of the series.

Savour the moment.

It will have to satisfy them and us for a while, because moments later, Bullet Train goes south and never changes course.

Why did I say Chuck and Sarah’s journey ends on the bullet train? Two reasons.

First of all, the end is so near they can taste it. They want that house and dog and baby. Obviously there will be another journey, but this one is only meters from its destination. Chuck and Sarah no longer need the spy life. They are ready for the normal life they have always wanted and deserved. It’s all over but signing the mortgage and painting the nursery. Oh, and lots of practice.

So close they can taste it. Getting the house and the dog and the baby … that’s how this journey was supposed to end.

The journey does end, just not in the way we wanted.

In a few short minutes my assessment of Nicolas Quinn goes from scuzzy-loser-bad-guy to Chuck’s most evil villain ever. What he does to Sarah (and by extension, to Chuck) is the cruelest, most gut wrenching scene of Chuck … ever. (Wow, kudos to Yvonne.)

Here we bid a crushing farewell to the Bartowski’s.

Chuck is left to journey alone, because Quinn stole his wife by stealing her memories. The Sarah Walker that we have grown to know and love over the past 5 years, the Sarah Bartowski we have delighted in this year is suppressed somewhere in the head of a Sarah Walker we don’t know.

Well, as the saying goes, it ain’t over ’til the Jeffster sings.

I believe we’ll see the Bartowski’s again, but I will really miss them until we get them back (only to say goodbye again *snif*).

What is my hope that we will see them again and that they will finish the journey together?

Love.

The love of family and friends who will do whatever it takes to help Chuck and Sarah. Friends who will fight to stop the bad-guy. A sister-in-law neurologist who will work on the Intersect/memory problem.

The unrelenting love of a husband, who will do anything to save his wife … and the unquenchable love, somewhere inside his wife, that only he can stir.

With Chuck, it’s never just a matter of gray matter. It’s a matter of the heart.

~ Thinkling

The World's Coolest Nerd

I’ll let you in on a little not so secret secret.  Chris Fedak knows bullet trains probably don’t have air ducts or crawl spaces large enough for a full-grown woman to crawl through and thus drop down through a suspiciously large vent on unsuspecting bad guys in the nick of time.  He just doesn’t care.  I don’t either.  He also knows there’s no such thing as an instantly disabling tranq gun, an intersect, and that 6″ spike heels aren’t the most practical tactical footwear.  But man all those things are cool.    (OK Ladies, I get it, but Yvonne makes them look cool.)

There’s a well-known TV trope called “The Rule of Cool”.  The definition, according to tvtropes.org is:

The limit of the willing suspension of disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to the element’s awesomeness.

In other words, if the result is cool enough, funny enough, or epic enough you can get away with almost anything.  Hong Kong wire work, impossible car chases and the entire Die Hard franchise are all pretty much built on this trope.  Chuck regularly lives and dies by The Rule of Cool.  Last Friday night the Sarasect wiped the floor with the rule of cool.

This post initially started, as a few have, as a reply to one of our readers.  At some point the reply was abandoned, but the ideas stuck around in my virtual scratchpad.  I do this because you never know when they might apply.  Some of this also comes out of a few BTS conversations with Faith and Joe last summer about the nature of Chuck and the way it’s presented.  See Faith thinks I should be willing to be more critical, that I shouldn’t gloss over the occasional (or frequent depending on your POV) stupid stick moments or plot holes.  They seriously don’t bother me, but I get her point, it makes it look as if I can’t be critical of the show, that I can’t see these problems at all.  Or to the commenter who revived all this for me, Big Kev, it looks like rather than ignoring or accepting the flaws I’m defending them.  I don’t think I am, though I do believe in the generous application of the rule of cool, especially when it comes to Chuck, but this bears some looking into, and I thought there was no better opportunity than while discussing Chuck Versus The Bullet Train.  Oh, and since I brought it up this is what Kev had to say:

In general, I think there’s a difference between accepting the flaws of the show (which I try to do) and defending them (which I can’t do). Your defense that “the mythology has always been poor” is true – but it’s not a strong defence [sic]. And once you’re 5 seasons in, cracks build upon cracks and the mental gymnastics required to hold things up becomes harder.

The quick reply, I think there is a distinction to be made between the strengths and weaknesses of the show and actual flaws and who sees what as which.  This is also something to consider about how we watch the show.  And if I may briefly quibble with Kev (in the friendly traditional forensic manner) you’ve enclosed in quotes something I did not say, nit-picky grammar, I know,  and mischaracterized my point, my fault I suppose since I didn’t clarify sufficiently, but my point was that what you call lapses (and in some cases I agree) and what I call an intentional decision not to bog the show down in unnecessary ways has been a part of the show since it’s beginning, and what has been forgiven in the past, and has been present throughout the series tells me that it is more about the paths TPTB have taken not returning enough “cool” to some of the fans for the rule of cool to apply anymore than any decline in quality.  And that’s fine, for what it is, enjoyment is a personal emotional response, but if you want to be an honest critic you need to recognize your own biases.  Calling strikes in the 9th inning that were balls in the first isn’t fair in my opinion.  Your disagreement and contention that it’s a cumulative thing (no quotes) is noted.

To me one of Chuck’s great strengths is its broad multi-genre appeal.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it, but it comes at a cost.  For example, in Chuck the actors need to move between comedy and drama, sometimes the broader sillier comedic characterization or performance clashes with the dramatic appeal others like, so in any given episode the exact thing one fan likes will be the thing that annoys another.  That’s just sort of a caveat for the rest of the discussion.  It applies a lot.  With each of the strengths that someone likes, the broadly outlined and intentionally ambiguous mythology allowing us to use our imaginations and allowing the show to stay nimble and move in unexpected directions, comes an inherent danger, the tendency of viewers to fill in a more detailed mythology that then may conflict, violently, with some future story or where the relationship between the old and new mythology becomes strained beyond the return for redefining the context of what we’ve seen in the past.  Some fans will see something as a strength, others as a flaw.

Chuck Versus The Bullet Train, to me was the perfect time to examine this, before the finale.  Just about any scene you want to point to starts with some TV trope or overused plot device.  But here’s the funny thing.  I don’t think that’s an accident.

Chuck is written by TV nerds for TV nerds, and they expect, even want us to pick up on the homages, references, the meta-humor, and the irony that infuses all of their uses of these conventions.  While honoring them, for all the great fun they brought us, they also ever so subtly mock them for the obvious contrivances that detail obsessed nerds see them as.  But they also deliver the awesome, and in doing so invite us to recover that innocence and that joy of experiencing the awesome for the first time.  We may be watching Die Hard or Memento again via Chuck, but Chuck delivers on the emotional impact, even on re-watch, and that feeling is real every time.  Not many of us get a second chance at virginity.

On the bullet train, Sarah and Casey, freed from their coffins pursue the “big bad” (qfe).  Everything seems to go easier with the intersect, and thank goodness a real spy has it now.  Sarah, the consummate professional, understands the potential and the proper use of the intersect.  It isn’t for partying in Vail or thwarting convenience store holdups, it’s for missions, critical missions, important missions, like rescuing Chuck.  There is no more important mission.

Bullet trains have crawl spaces and large vents, and Sarah apparently insisted Chuck’s wedding ring include something special, but Sarah is a show-me kind of girl, so instead of an engraving, it’s something from the heart.  A custom lock picking feature.  Considering their relationship, it seems oddly appropriate that “custom” wedding rings weren’t ready and twist ties had to suffice.  Oh, but those rings are still special.

Don’t ever take Sarah Walker’s man away from her.  This is reinforced in more ways than one.  The baddies get an A** whooping with a capital A for doing so, and Chuck get’s a … OK, no better way to say it, a simultaneously slightly disturbing yet oddly satisfying lap dance from his wife.  Oh, and for the record, I think TPTB played out the consequences of this scene perfectly.   Those consequences being #sexytimes.  After initially dispatching the bad guy of course.  All made easier by the intersect.

Chuck and Sarah are ready to move on, no matter how awesome the intersect is.  But Casey is vulnerable in a way he has never been before.  The characters, who they are, and who they’ve become, that story drives the plot, and the characters and their lives take center stage.  Who are you John Casey?  Faced with an impossible decision, your team-family or your blood-family what do you do?

Well apparently, as best you can, you let them know that while you’d shoot them if you had to, you want them to help you avoid that scenario.  Casey’s betrayal is played perfectly.  Totally believable, totally acceptable in the world our heroes live.  Protect the ones you love.  When in conflict, protect those who can’t protect themselves first.

The team is together, and all Casey needs is to know he has time and his team on his side.  Loyalty was never the question, timing and opportunity was.  But we also see the change in priorities in the aftermath.  No blame is assigned, no recriminations, but each member of the team now concentrates on their priorities, understanding they don’t always match, realizing the others will help in any way they can, but that each member needs to protect their own first.  There is a new entry in “God – country – duty – Corps”.

As most of you know the plot holds far less interest to me than the characters and the story.  To me it is largely there to move from situation to situation where they can create a series of scenes that connect the audience emotionally to the characters and their story.  When the plot and the story can connect, it’s magic, but not always happy magic.  I like dramatic magic too.

So through a dramatic event we find that the tantalizingly close future is further than we thought.  Sarah has downloaded a toxic intersect, she can’t control the flashes, and it could kill her.  The time she thought she had doesn’t exist, it’s already run out.  The explanation for the difference between Sarah and Morgan’s rate of deterioration is both simple and elegant, and well established from the Morgansect arc.

Casey has reconnected with his daughter, but it has made her a target and him a potential traitor.  Sometimes character growth has a downside for the happily ever after, and considering the world they live in, kudos to TPTB (who made that world) for not ignoring that.

You don’t get out unscathed.  This world will extract it’s price somehow before it is all over.

The intersect, and it’s legend is spreading.  In no small part thanks to Morgan.  But we’ve known this for some time.  As early as the first season “The Intersect” was a widely known phenomenon amongst the top spies.  By the second season it was actively sought and there were attempts to reproduce it by rivals.  By the beginning of the third season, it was established, even if imperfect technology.  By the end of the third season, it’d been hacked and reproduced.  By the fourth season it had become government policy to deploy a beta version, complete with a more brain friendly architecture, courtesy of one Ellie Bartowski-Woodcomb,  and tools for suppression and/or removal, and by the 5^th season it is being bootlegged.

Seems about right for new technology.

But that’s just the technology side.  We’ve seen before that the intersect offers something more.  While I hesitate to call it a shortcut, the original version clearly wasn’t, it offers something very tempting and seductive.  Call it the easy path, the dark side, it tempts and sways those who do, or could poses it.  Is it the one ring, the dark side, or is it the sword of truth?  Is it conceived by and created for evil, is it an ill-conceived shortcut, or is it something meant for “the one” to wield?

At this point my money’s on one of the first two.  In a pivot that started with Chuck Versus Bo it seems that the last “big bad” will in fact be the intersect, the Bartowski family’s own Frankenstein, or ring of power.  I now believe Chuck’s last heroic act is likely to be destroying the intersect.  Quinn’s role, I think,  is more that of Golum than Sauron.  The intersect itself being unleashed on the world may be the biggest bad guy we get.

For now Sarah has the intersect, and Sarah won’t stay in the car.  Did we ever think she would, any more than Chuck would?  Once again we are treated to a glimpse of what it is that unites our heroes.  And of how it can go wrong.  Who these people are, the world they inhabit, the world they seek to escape, that is the source of the drama.  It is a remarkably tragic and moving scene, to see both Chuck and Sarah watching the future that was so close torn from them, the longing and despair is palpable.

And it rests on the premise that a super-spy can be instantly disabled by a tranq in a moment of bravado.

In a way, somewhat appropriately, the Chuck crew creates memories and inserts them into the audience.  They do this visually with the way the scenes are shot and they use music to heighten the emotional impact, and the ever-present musical montage helps to inform the audience what the characters are feeling, not just what they are saying in dialog or doing on the screen.  When we think back on our lives or experiences we don’t see a continuous narrative flow, we see scenes and events, experience emotions and remember songs, places and what it felt like to be there, doing what you were doing.  And if you think back on previous seasons or episodes of Chuck you likely see it the same way.  It is a brilliant device, one I don’t think I can recall experiencing before.  For all I know it isn’t even intentional, just a byproduct of the chemistry and the way they shoot, but it is why I think people will remember and re-watch Chuck long after other shows fade to obscurity.  Does Chuck sometimes have problems with some shaky plots?  Of course.  I still think American Hero is a terrible episode largely because, while I eventually saw what they were trying to do, it was so poorly plotted and presented that it seemed like they were trying to tell us that Shaw had suddenly become the leading man and deserved the happy life with Sarah and she with him.  Shaw was the true hero and Chuck would never measure up.  The only way for Chuck and Sarah to be together was for Shaw, the self-sacrificing hero, to gracefully bow out, as the bigger man he was.  So yes, it can go wrong and skew your ability to see the larger story.  But it has it’s strengths when it works, as noted above, if you allow it.

Why didn’t Sarah just close her eyes?  Well, they did present a premise, that once she started flashing she couldn’t control her body if the intersect kept flashing, and that what Quinn had was an intersect stimulant.  A thin premise, but a premise nonetheless.  But why not for the first flash?  Well the bad guy was explaining for our benefit, not hers, so Sarah seems to hold the stupid stick, agreed, but an exposition weakness, not a character one, and something that should be familiar to fanboy-nerds.  The bad guy always reveals his devious plot.  Also I think it helps to ask what would addressing those complaints cost?  What would having Sarah immobilized with her eyes taped open have cost that scene?  First of all it violates Chuck’s third law, Sarah can not be made to look ugly, and taping open her eyes is at the very least unattractive.  Second, we’ve seen Sarah tied to a chair and beaten a few times recently, but this time, with her life being ripped away while suffering agonizing pain, is clearly the worst and that has to be shown physically with her reaction.  You lose the impact of the scene if she can’t react.  For Yvonne, selling a scene means using her face and letting the emotion pour out.

It is the reverse of the rule of cool.  When details and plot drag you down and destroy the impact, especially the emotional impact that a show like Chuck is built on, is it worth the cost?  Isn’t the point, the story, worth it?  It’s a personal decision, but I like to think they can take us to amazing places, both highs and lows, if we let them.

It’s for us to decide, on our own.  But a bit of respect and deference among the fandom couldn’t hurt.

So the plot has holes and the stupid stick gets passed around on occasion, these are things that are largely the writers fault, I agree.  The audience however, particularly the fans, also have a responsibility.  Let them tell their story. Don’t force your preconceptions or desires or expectations into the story they are telling a priori.  Watch, and then decide if it fulfills your desires, meets or exceeds your expectations or gives you something delightful or unexpected. If it does, great, go from there.  If it doesn’t, fine, its a weekly contract.  That’s just my personal take on how to go with the Chuck flow, others may not see it that way.  But we have occasional flare-ups in the fandom with both the conflicting visions of what constitutes Chuck’s strengths and weaknesses, and when fans from the myriad factions start to attach objective quality or moral standing to their preferences for the show or it’s direction.  OK,  I think their loss, but a personal decision, but sometimes they are preventing both themselves and others from being able to enjoy the story, and not even intentionally, but just from their perspective that the backstory is as they’ve imagined or filled in, regardless of how sparse the canon is.  So here is where the fan responsibility comes in, and points to what I’ve always thought one of my roles as a blogger was.

Don’t create problems where they don’t exist.

We do this constantly.  I’ll give a few examples, from memory, so I’m not going after anyone personally if I use a pet theory or peeve as an example.  As has become my habit, apologies in advance.  I’m guessing this is where I get accused of defending the show’s flaws or weaknesses, and it’s probably partly my fault, but what I see myself doing is correcting misconceptions.

Let’s take the infamous Red Test as the first example.  I recall a lot of discussion of how it destroyed Sarah’s timeline because she’d been a spy longer than 5 years, then when CAT Squad came out it was destroyed again because suddenly she wasn’t Bryce’s partner and she been a spy for two years before her Red Test.  Contained in both those complaints is an assumption about the Red Test, that it’s a universal spy entrance exam.  That assumption is the problem, not canon.  The assumption doesn’t even survive the Red Test’s conceptual introduction.  Sarah is shocked when Shaw tells her that Chuck is being given a Red Test as his final exam.  If it is universal, where is the shock coming from, and why would Shaw need to keep it secret?  She’d know it was coming, wouldn’t she?  But Chuck isn’t a regular spy, he’s being fast tracked for the leader of an autonomous team.  His training isn’t the normal path, it was decided upon by Shaw and Beckman.  In the next episode we’re filled in on Sarah’s red test, and the concept is fleshed out.  Take in to consideration the world Chuck’s spy world pays homage to, and subtly mocks.  Casey is a public menace without a license to kill.  Bond anyone?  This is the elite of the spy world, trained assassins.  Any good soldier or policeman can fire a weapon to defend themselves or others, or even snipe at an opponent who is a combatant in a war.  It is a very different thing to kill on the basis of nothing more than an order to pull the trigger on someone you know nothing about, other than someone wants them to die and you are the weapon of choice.  The Red Test isn’t the spy entrance exam, it’s the 00 entrance exam.  If they’re going to give you a license to kill they want to make sure you’ll do so when ordered.  In cold blood.  It has the added benefit of sending a message to potential traitors and of eliminating the need to try to prosecute someone with government secrets as part of the evidence.

With one assumption you create problems with what is on the screen and canon, with the other it all makes sense.  This is how I think you judge TPTB intent.  Now granted, some of these skate pretty close to the edge and are not without basis called retcon, but I think the viewer needs to be willing remove their assumptions from show canon and to accept at some level the premise TPTB present before decrying the sloppy production and mythology.  In any case you aren’t required to like it, but I think to be a fair critic you have to at least attempt to accept the premises TPTB lay out.

I’m not trying to defend problems, I’m trying to clarify what I see as the intent.  I’m not trying to tell anyone they should or shouldn’t enjoy the show, I’m showing how I do.  I’m not saying there aren’t problems if you are looking for a tightly plotted show with a detailed mythology, I’m just saying I don’t think that’s where they put their emphasis, and so I think it’s easier to enjoy when we don’t either.  I look for the emotional connection and the characters and their journeys because that’s where I think TPTB put their efforts, and where I think the big payoff is to be found.  I understand that’s my Chuck and my take, and it won’t be universal, but while the fandom is still alive and Chuck has an episode left to air I wanted to share my love for the show and what it delivers with the greatest fans in the world.  So in parting I’ll just say this.

Let them tell their story.

Don’t create problems where they don’t exist.

Be awesome to each other.

Have Faith   that the journey and the destination are both worth the wait.

Here at Chuckthis, we don’t have that kind of pull, but we do have a little bit of preview ourselves courtesy of SWFG’s @MrsHekmi and TVFanatic (BTW you can read the entire interviews thing there). As mentioned these won’t be the entire on-set interviews from the second to last day on set on Chuck, but just the snippets that I felt important enough to highlight.

Be warned this will be spoiler-ific (well not really, these guys really tried to stay mum), so if you’re phobic, avert your eyes.

As Chuck fans, we kind of have a motto that says, “never say die,” now granted this season it was repeatedly emphasized that this would be it, but I know some Chuck fans still wondered. So with that in mind, definitive statement here: this is definitely it. And to be honest, I’m thankful for it:

Zac: “It’s gnarly, it’s really, really surreal [having to say goodbye]. I don’t feel like we were cut short, as much, as difficult as it is to have to kind of close the last chapter on this journey. I don’t feel like we’ve been shorted. I think that 5 seasons is actually a really good amount of time. I think that often times in network television, you’re left with more than what you really wanted. 22 episodes seasons, 24 episodes seasons at 7-8, 9, 10 years, can-eventually you kind of go like, “all right we get it. We got…” The sitcoms you can kind of stretch that out a little more because you’re really just tuning in for fun jokes every week but for something like this that’s definitely with story arcs and serial you know, how many bad guys and missions can you go on before you feel like you’re repeating the same thing. So I feel like we gotten a really perfect amount of time together. And it’s been special from day 1.”

Not that I would turn away filler episodes, filler seasons but I agree. It’s very rare that a show has a definitive end, how many of us have had our hearts broken? So for Chuck to end on its own note, that’s a gift.

Fedak: “We kind of knew pretty early, we knew as the show kind of came out that this will probably/most likely be the final season…NBC’s been very up front on that front. With 13 episodes. So we kind of designed the season to answer a lot of questions and to tell a final story. It’s kind of different from seasons past where we have a hole in our back pocket, or a secret door where I can kind of push the story through and finally tells the tale. This is very much…we’re closing the ‘Chuck’ story. We’re telling a big, epic finale. It’s a little different this season. Now some of you are saying we’re trying to do a Chuck movie or something, that would be awesome but for the most part this season, from the get go has been designed as The Finale.”

As for what that finale will entail?

Fedak: “We have essentially blown it out. We have multiple units going on each day, we have set pieces that we…we were over at Universal last night shooting, “Berlin.” We’ve gone a little international. For the most of the season we’ve actually kept it pretty domestic. We like that idea, we like bringing Chuck back to the States, making the show a little bit smaller. Now we’re blowing it out. We’re going back to the big tradition of Berlin, and Japanese Bullet Trains, but also in our second to last episode, it’s very much an intimate thriller. There’s a lot of very exciting things happening just in our core, usual, home bases…It’s very callback. It’s very much an episode haunted by previous seasons. You’re going to find a lot of echoes. The first half of the night, episode 12, is very much a contained thriller. Then episode 13, every act will have echoes of past seasons and it will make…you’ll see how we’ll fold into the story and the narrative will make a lot of sense. But there is something about it…as we were working on the episode, breaking it in the writers’ room, we wanted something that was a play through the entire show, not just this season.”

In looking back (call back and all), this is how the cast feels about the show, their characters and the end:

Yvonne: “I mean overall, I’m really happy with the journey that Sarah Walker has had from the sort of the emotional stunted spy who didn’t know how to express herself going into somebody who was more emotional and being able to express that. And then getting more into the comedy stuff of the show. And she fell into a ‘normal’ relationship, as normal as you can get with somebody when you’re a spy. It’s been a really nice evolution.”

As are we all!

Scott: “I’m really, really excited. I think they wrote an amazing ending. It’s going to be-I think it’s going to be very satisfying for the fans. For my character and just the show in general, I think for anyone who’s been there from the beginning, I think it’s going to really tie up in a really, really nice way.”

Vik: “it’s a really big chapter to close and it’s very, very, very emotional. You know I’ve been the guy who’s been a little itchy, a little edgy to bite into other things and now that this is happening it’s very, very heartbreaking in a way…You know it’s funny being on this show because it’s such a–I don’t know if the word is honor, to be a part of a show where the fans were so behind it–coz it’s so mysterious, it’s so illusive how things connect with fans because you can kind of take all the pieces of why it should and put it together and it often doesn’t. So that kind of alchemy between the show and the fans is stunning, it’s what’s allowed the producers and whatnot to create the show that they’ve created. And so it’s just something I’ve never experience before and it’s so moving and I don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance to feel that kind of…that kind of back and forth again.”

Gomez: I don’t know if–it’s [the end] one of those things I think also where you kind of go, “I don’t know if I can ever be happy.” There are so many different ways, I mean I saw myself…I guess I shouldn’t say. Who knows if it could happen, but you know I just saw myself falling out in a hell of gunfire. So anyway, you have all these things of how you could go out and I don’t know if any of them are entirely satisfying. Something’s coming an end, that you kind of care about, that you’ve grown to, it’s grown to be a part of you, it’s a part of you. But yeah, it’s totally cool and it’s ‘Chuck’ man, so you–I think the fans are going to dig it and that’s the most important thing. Who cares what I think, as long as the fans dig it.

In looking back, it was lovely to read this from Zac:

Zac: I love that the people who have played my parents in this show, have both kind of been that. Linda’s like a mom on set, Scott was like a dad on set. He and I have–I felt in a lot of the conversations we had, over our time together–had a lot in common. He imparted a lot of wisdom to me. His journey on Quantum Leap was similar to mine here and that it was like all day everyday go, go, go, crazy hours but a great family. He was so supportive of me from day 1. Yeah, just an excellent guy.

Now here’s a little something for Ernie:

Zac: ” I think that in the next 5 years we’re going to see really incredible steps as far as what social networking and the impact of that will have. Not just reading tweets and people hashtagging and trending things, I’m talking about offering fans, offering the public the opportunity to have the power. I believe that you need to give them the power back. I believe that if you trust them with it, everyone’s has an understanding that if you believe in whatever this is–don’t steal it, don’t rip it, but buy it. As long as you’re not gouging your audience, that you can build a healthy relationship with them. It can be a consumer driven [market], where you’re not worried as a fan that your show is going to get ripped off the air because of some weird number of live plus and all, and online that nobody–and by the way we’re not even online right now. I don’t understand why we’re not. There’s not even a chance we’re gonna come back for another season so it’s not like driving people to watch it live is going to have—I don’t get it. And I really want to take a lot of those middle men out of the process. I want to go and create my own independent content and entertainment and new models and new ways. Essentially kind of show studios and networks and whoever, that people are good. Consumers and fans will treat something preciously if they’re given the opportunity to do so.”

He expands on that with what he talked about before during my day at the Chuck set:

Zac: “…what’s crazy about it is for the footlong finale, to buy them for that one day I think was genius and smart. I think a lot of people felt like, ‘oh so if I keep on buying sandwiches it’ll keep it on the air,’ but the reality is I don’t think that had any kind of impact at all. However, it should! I think it should. I think Subway, why not? If I were Subway, I’d say…I’d love to be the sole sponsor of this show. Everybody knows, Chuck is brought to you by Subway so if you go and buy Subway sandwiches, and we’ll have a card at the checkout that says, ‘I bought this because of this’? They can monetize it right then and there. They can go ‘oh we’re selling this many more sandwiches because Chuck fans (who might not even like our sandwiches) love this show? Rock and roll. We’re all about it.’ That’s to me, that’s a good step in the right direction. Forget even that, I think iTunes, just sell it per show. Do it. Then people have the choice. They can say, ‘I like this, I’ll buy this.’ I mean how many apps do you have on your phone? Clearly the people of Angry Birds know that they’ve done something well. I want to do that. I really want to create for my own entertainment.”

Chuck’s journey is ending, and so is the show. So about that ending…

Q: “When I was asking John Scheinder about the series ending of Smallville, he told me, ‘when you’re at home watching this, you’re going to stand up and cheer,’ and I did. Will I for Chuck?”

Fedak: “Um, I hope so. But it’s also maybe….I think the ending of Smallville was very, it’s a very specific ending for a show that’s been promising that for quite some time. And it’s awesome, an awesome moment. This is a little different, it’s a little different. Hopefully a cheer worthy moment, but also different than that.”

Q: “You guys have made maybe, 4-5 episodes that could have been series finales but left enough of an open door to come back. Did this one, when you got to the writing of it, now the filming of it, did it–aside from just the knowledge that you know this actually is the end–did it feel different?”

Fedak: It’s different. It’s different. It’s definitely a different type of ending. We wanted to do something a little different. My instinct as a writer, is always to kind of–especially as a television writer–to like, “you’re going to want to see what happens next.” And that’s not the void, it’s not, not a part of this…it’s contracted in a different way, it’s the final moment… The shape of that last scene came about at the end of last season. When we started working on, thinking about season 5, we kind of came up with the pitch of the show, then we had the shape. Then Josh and I went to NBC and Warner Brothers and we pitched them what we wanted to do and this ending, in one shape or another was always the kind of ending (since last season). It was always the kind where we wanted to go. We knew it was going to be our final moment. So it’s been a year to make… It’s always been the heart of the thing.

There you have it, Chuck will end the way it’s supposed to end. This Friday, at 8 pm.