Sarah is seen packing towards the very end of 3.12 American Hero, right after Chuck’s love declaration and before Casey’s visit. Where is she going? Is she going to DC to fulfill her work commitments, as she mentioned to Chuck when he asked her to run away with him? Or is going to Union Station to meet with Chuck? I think Sarah is leaving with Chuck even before Casey’s confession. She’s not conflicted enough (see 1.10 Nemesis) to be going to D.C. after what Chuck did for her.
Let’s consider the sequence of the events:
- Chuck asks her in Castle to go to Rome with him. She flat-out says no and says he knows why: he killed the mole. She does not want to hear any explanation.
- Chuck asks her again at the restaurant. At first, she angrily asks for an explanation and by the end (interruption) of the conversation, she’s already wavering.
- Shaw abandons her and chooses the spy life (death) over being with her.
- Chuck saves Shaw.
- Chuck asks her again in Castle. This time, she doesn’t even mention the train tracks. Here, Chuck, contrary to Shaw, chooses her over the spy life and offers her what she offered him in 3.01 Pink Slip, that is the opportunity to run away and have a real life. In a reversal from Pink Slip, she objects with commitments, as if commitments had stopped her before—she had said no to Bryce during Ellie’s beach wedding in 2.22 Ring.
- Towards the end of that speech, watch her reaction when Chuck asks her to meet him at Union Station and go to Mexico. Her face opens up and she’s subconsciously nodding.
- She’s obviously conflicted. Right before Chuck kisses her, the background song’s lyrics speak for her conflicted heart with the line, “I’ll take a chance on something.“
- In her hotel room, she’s packing with the picture of her and Chuck on the nightstand. It wasn’t there at the end of the previous episode (after Chuck’s red test, when Sarah says she doesn’t love him anymore). Right next to the picture, the clock shows it’s 6:10 pm. Chuck had asked her to meet at the nearby Union Station at 7 pm.
- In the hotel room, before and during Casey’s visit (but before Casey’s revelation), she doesn’t seem particularly conflicted (as I think she would be if she were going to Washington but thinking about Chuck’s sacrificial saving of Shaw, confession of love, and request to leave with him).
- Compare this apparent lack of conflict with the massive amount of conflict she experiences at the end of 1.10 Nemesis, when she has to decide between Chuck and Bryce.
- When Casey visits, Sarah says that if he’s there to plead for Chuck, it’s not really necessary. She doesn’t say he’s wasting his time or that there’s nothing he can say to change her mind. Her tone (in keeping with point 8) is also gentle and non-confrontational.
- Her reaction to Casey’s revelation is serviceable but a bit too short and weak compared to the magnitude of the revelation, regardless of what she had previously decided (Chuck or D.C.); she shows relief but none of the sideways eye-shifting, the sign of one’s brain finally putting things together—Chuck’s lack of haunted guilt after presumably killing his first victim in cold blood, the honor behind his reticence to tell her the truth (in order to protect Casey at the risk of losing her), his selflessness and bravery in saving Shaw—so I don’t take it as conclusive one way or the other.
The big ones for me are points 4 and 9. Chuck saves Shaw. Sarah does not show the massive conflict she showed at the end of 1.10 Nemesis.
The magnitude of Chuck’s selfless act under point 4 is huge. I don’t think it’s emphasized in the show but it should have been. He risks his own life to save the very man Sarah will be leaving Chuck for. Chuck makes here the ultimate self-sacrifice. All for Sarah.
If we really want to push it, we can even compare Chuck’s gesture to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. As Christ was in the belly of the earth for three days, Chuck is in the belly of the building for three minutes before the airstrike. As Christ resurrected from death, Chuck resurrects (with Shaw) from (perceived) death before Sarah’s own eyes.
Even Sarah cannot fail to notice the nobility of Chuck’s ultimate sacrifice, despite the utterly confused mess she’s in (she actually thinks that Shaw’s foolish desire to meet the Ring director is an act of self-sacrifice instead of the pursuit of his personal obsession to avenge his wife’s death).
If that sacrifice is not enough to convince Sarah to have (some) faith in Chuck, that means that a sacrifice that is in many ways similar to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is not able to elicit enough faith in Sarah, Chuck’s most loyal supporter.
If that gesture is not enough, no words Chuck could say would be enough. But if Chuck’s words at the restaurant (before his sacrifice) are enough to make her waver, shouldn’t his sacrifice accomplish much more? Maybe not fully answer what happened at the train tracks but speak of Chuck’s moral fiber and trustworthiness?
Yes, Sarah is so engulfed in pain and guilt about her responsibility in Chuck’s red test that she utterly fails to notice the obvious clue of the lack of guilt in Chuck’s behavior after his supposed red test (while she’s still haunted by her own red test five years later) but she cannot possibly fail to notice Chuck’s self-sacrifice for Shaw.
And what’s even more important, one of the purposes of season 3 is to knock both Chuck and Sarah down a peg so that they can accept each other for who they are, even if they have fallen from the pedestal they had put each other on in the first two seasons. Thus, Chuck chooses Sarah even though she’s not always the goddess who can do anything (Chuck to Sarah in 1.13 Marlin) and Sarah chooses Chuck even though he’s lost a bit of his innocence (3.05 through 3.08 and, as she mistakenly thinks, in 3.11 by executing the mole), so that their relationship can be a real relationship, not one built on unrealistic expectations.
You are correct.
It was a surprise when Shaw showed up at Sarah’s hotel room because he was in the hospital recovering. If Sarah was not packing to go with Chuck, why would she leave Shaw’s side.
I suppose that those who believe she was packing for DC would say that Shaw would fly to DC by himself once he recovered since he was not her boyfriend but merely her spy partner with benefits.
I think it’s easier to believe that if she was planning to be with Shaw in DC she would have stayed at his bedside until he woke up. Packing wouldn’t have been a priority and their plans would have been on hold until he was out of the hospital.
I agree but it’s not a super-tight argument that is going to convince those who think she was packing for DC. They would say that she and Shaw were not boyfriend/girlfriend and that she was flying to DC by herself since Beckman had wished her a safe flight, while Shaw would have joined her upon his recovery.
I watched the episode again. This is my read. At this point of the story, Sarah and Shaw had three things Sarah and Chuck never had: (1) Sex, (2) Emotional honesty (Bonding over each other’s pain), and (3) Commitment to start a future together. No other person in Sarah’s life had 2 & 3. The only thing Chuck had was the fact that she was in love with him.
There was no urgent need for Sarah to be in DC. Sarah was expected but not urgently. People that travel often know that it’s easy to catch a later flight. The good bye kiss between Sarah and Shaw was real. Sarah cared for Shaw. It’s also clear they are not in love with each other. They both accepted they were in love with other people. If Sarah was planning to stay with Shaw after her encounter with Chuck, she would have been with Shaw in the hospital until he woke up. That’s basic human nature. Knowing that Shaw was going to be okay provided Sarah the opportunity to choose between the two men. Her packing indicates her choice. The picture by the bed doubles down on that choice. The joy indicates the knowing that Chuck remained true to himself.
I agree, perhaps with the possible exception of #3. Shaw did toast to a future together with Sarah at the restaurant but he reneged on that promise the very next day when he chose the spy death over being with her. He was for the long haul, if feasible, but still put being a spy first. The thing that Chuck did that was different in his love declaration is that he finally put her first, even before the spy life.
The commitment Shaw spoke to was a future together without baggage. Meaning Sarah needed to let go of Chuck and Shaw needed to let go of his dead wife. Both were incapable of doing so. It was only 5 minutes later the Sarah was exploring her options with Chuck. Up to this point, Chuck was only offering a work assignment. In the restaurant, she was not happy but accepted on faith Chuck’s explanation of the Red test. She wanted to hear the rest of what Chuck had to offer her. That is why I don’t assign a lot a value to Shaw’s toast. It was wishful thinking on both their parts. Yes, Shaw reneged first. But given the opportunity it would have been Sarah.
Let’s say Sarah did move to DC with Shaw. It’s easy to imagine that after a few months Sarah would have found her way back to Chuck. Sarah was not ready to move on. She knew that Chuck was special and when she was with him she became special. Chuck made her a better person and she knew it. The door was always going to be open to Chuck.
This is true but, playing devil’s advocate, Beckman had wished Sarah a safe flight and Shaw fully assumed Sarah was packed and ready to go to DC without him when he stormed into her hotel room, and he thought nothing of the fact that she was presumably leaving without him (although the fact he thought nothing of it was also due to the fact that he was now mad at her and couldn’t care less).
Sarah REJECTS Chuck!
I am changing my mind based on the prior scene
Background: Sarah believes that Chuck has changed. The man that she fell in love with is gone now that he is a spy. She told Chuck she did not believe him about not killing the mole and Chuck can’t supply a straight answer to what happened. Chuck learned to lie while becoming a spy, Sarah no longer has faith in Chuck’s words.
Chuck just had his hero moment demonstrating that he is a far better spy than Shaw. Shaw sacrifices people for the mission, Chuck saves people and finds a way to complete the mission.
It’s important to know that Shaw is the booby prize for Sarah not being with Chuck. The issue for Sarah is Chuck; not Shaw.
• The scene opened and Beckman says have a safe flight to DC
• Sarah looks to the Right – Yes
• Sarah turns and faces Chuck and smiles – Shows respect and gratitude
• Chuck says “Shaw would have done the same for me.”
• Sarah’s eyes says “no that’s not true” – in 3×9 Shaw wanted to sacrifice Chuck
• The music starts
• Chuck says “I love you”
• Sarah responds lovingly
• Sarah says “You don’t have to” i.e. “You don’t have to do this Chuck, I know what you are going to say”
• Chuck pleads his case
• Sarah says “I have commitments”
• Chuck continues to plead his case
• Sarah responds lovingly
• Chuck says “Don’t answer now”
• Sarah answers with her eyes – No
• They kiss
• For Sarah the kiss was a goodbye
• The music leaves with Chuck – The music was for Chuck only
• Sarah looks to the Right – Nothing has changed – She is still going to DC
Sarah loves Chuck but she can’t accept a version of him that lost his innocence. Sarah also feels immense guilt for helping to make Chuck a spy.
You might ask why is Shaw acceptable and Chuck is not. It’s because Sarah has no plans to share her heart with Shaw. She is retrograding into past relationship patterns.
I feel good, I finally got it. I won’t be posting after this. Thank you for letting me work this out with you.
Dean,
After Beckman wishes Sarah a safe flight, Sarah looks to the right with a grimace. It’s the third straight episode where she’s invited or assigned to DC, and all three times she expresses a negative facial reaction (conflict at the end of 3.10, sad glances at Chuck at the beginning of 3.11, sadness here in 3.12). Looking to the right is usually a sign of lying.
When Chuck says that Shaw would also have saved him, Sarah smiles. Many viewers think Sarah silently disagrees, thinking back about 3.09, but I don’t see that reaction in her facial expression. She doesn’t look down and away (her typical sign of lying) but just smiles and looks straight at Chuck. Based on what Shaw said in 3.05, when Chuck was in trouble on the plane, his people are never alone and he will do anything he can to save them, and if Chuck had been in the same situation in 3.12, Shaw would have done his best to save him. The scene about Shaw being willing to sacrifice Chuck in 3.09 serves a different purpose; it’s there to show that even Shaw, the closest thing to Chuck in the spy world, still chooses the mission (spy life) over people when those are the only two options, whereas Chuck chooses people over the mission (spy life) in the very next episode. The two episodes (3.09 and 3.10) are there to contrast Shaw and Chuck in Sarah’s eyes.
Going back to Chuck’s love declaration, Sarah doesn’t even bring up the mole as an objection. She only brings up commitments, an obvious counterpoint to Chuck’s comment about commitments (the facility in Prague) in 3.01 Pink Slip.
The song then starts as soon as Chuck says the first “I love you.” The song is obviously a counterpoint to My Backwards Walk, the song in 3.01 Pink Slip. As My Backwards Walk was entirely about Chuck and his internal conflict, Dawn River is entirely about Sarah’s. The lyrics speak for her heart.
These are the lyrics during Chuck’s love declaration and kiss.
Finally
We have seen some things
Some awfully nice
Some dreadfully bad
But we will sing
Wash the blood off our knees
‘Cause our love breaks
Through rough seas, our ship will sail it
I don’t understand
How this world will work
‘Cause time will tell us nothing
I’ll take a chance on something
Fill them up
Fill them
This time take you
Down river
Down river
Down river
Down…
Walk these stairs
Put the pieces back together
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Now go…
These lyrics are all about hope and taking a leap of faith (the theme of the show). I’ve bolded the lyrics that rise to the foreground as Chuck starts kissing her because they speak for Sarah’s heart, “Time will tell us nothing. I’ll take a chance on something.” She’ll take a chance on Chuck because DC is nothing.
After Chuck leaves, Sarah looks to the left, which means she’s recollecting the past and having a self-conversation. She’s conflicted but she’ll take a chance on something with Chuck.
In her very next scene, she’s packing and the scene starts by purposefully framing their picture on the nightstand before panning up to her face. When Casey reveals the truth about the mole, the song reprises by stressing her resolve now that her conflict has been dissipated.
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Now go…
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Now go…
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Go, don’t stop
Now go…
Even without mentioning the deeper fact that season 3 is about Chuck and Sarah accepting each other as they are, even if they are knocked off their pedestal, otherwise their love is not real, these two scenes alone (castle and hotel room) give strong clues about Sarah’s decision pre-Casey. Yes, Sarah thinks Chuck might have slipped with the mole but he’s willing to quit the spy life and be with her, and topped it off by saving Shaw for her sake. That’s not a person who has changed.
The story starts and ends with Sarah not accepting Chuck if he changes. Once you accept that, everything else falls into place.
Then the only thing left to discuss is Hanna and Shaw in the bigger picture of what the government was trying to do to Chuck. Once, I understood this, the whole story revealed itself. It’s dark; much darker then I originally thought. Sarah, Chuck, Hanna, and Shaw now all makes sense.
It took some time, but I understand it now. It’s not what I thought it was. It’s a brilliant piece of work. But, if no one gets it, it’s a waste. It just goes over people’s heads.
I’m sorry, I can’t help you anymore. I think you are too locked into a particular perspective that won’t allow you to see it.
I can assure you, there is a solution for this puzzle. All the pieces are there.
Good Luck, Dean
It’s funny because the perspective that now makes sense to you is the perspective I and many other viewers had after first watching the show and could never make any sense of it because that perspective gets us this.
Besides, we do see that Sarah loves Chuck in spite of the fact that he’s changing between 3.05 and 3.08 because, in 3.08, she’s devastated when she sees Chuck and Hannah at the dinner table. And we do see that she’s ready to accept Chuck during the interrupted dinner in 3.12, even though she thinks he killed the mole.
In my view, the point of season 3 is not to show that Sarah can only accept Chuck if he doesn’t change. You don’t want to date a girl like that because you constantly have to walk on eggshells. I’ve seen a marriage like that and it didn’t end well. The point of season 3 is to show that Chuck and Sarah accept and love each other in spite of their faults and are then rewarded with the best version of the other.
There’s an interview with Schwartz and Fedak, in which they specifically say that the purpose of season 3 is to turn Chuck into a man, in which he has to lose a bit of his innocence because he’s joining a men’s world and be worthy of Sarah’s love.
In other words, he needs to turn from her boy-toy into a man. So, losing his innocence (becoming a man) is not the obstacle but actually an essential step in getting him with Sarah.
The story is not what you think it is. Here is a hint: The villain is never identified and is never held accountable.
Think out of the box, see the bigger picture, and don’t follow other people’s logic. If you do, you will be barking up the wrong tree in the wrong forest. All I can say is, I was blown away once I figured it out.
The clues that you are on the right path are: (1) All the open questions are answered and (2) The integrity of the characters remains intact
I kind of wish I could trade places with you so I could figure it out all over again.
Good Luck!
In my view, the integrity of the main characters does remain intact. They are both selfless, loving, and duty-bound. On the other hand, if Sarah’s still packing for DC after Chuck saves Shaw and asks her to run away with him because he agrees that she was right in Prague, she’s not really being loving or forgiving.
Can you outline your view?
This is real simple. In Chuck 4×9, Sarah says she does not like herself without Chuck.
Sarah is not a good person. She is a ruthless killer. She manipulates people for a living. She lived a hard and fast life knowing that death was a real possibility. She has no hope for home, family, and friends.
Sarah needs Chuck’s humanity to become a better person. This is her deepest inner desire.
In Sarah’s eyes, Chuck surrendered his humanity to become a spy.
Sarah no longer believes she can be a better person with Chuck – The man she fell for is gone.
Love – does not matter (She loves him deeply- picture on the nightstand)
Better Spy – does not matter
Hero – does not matter
Surrendering Chuck’s dreams of being a spy – does not matter
What matters to Sarah is Chuck’s humanity! She won’t take Chuck at his word about what happened because spy’s lie and Chuck is not willing to put the whole truth on the table. He has never held back the truth from her before.
Sarah does not care about Shaw’s humanity because she does not plan to share her heart with him. She is resigned to reverting to the person she was before, a ruthless killer that manipulates people for a living.
That kiss was her letting go of Chuck (Her baggage).
Now, this is a very small piece of what’s going on. When or if you see the bigger picture, this will all be confirmed.
I would love to read about the bigger picture as you see it but, although I agree that Sarah’s a different person without Chuck (and so is Casey), that does not mean that she’s a ruthless killer. We see this again and again in all the seasons. In season 1, she balks at Graham’s suggestion of killing Chuck if he runs. She’s different than Carina, as noted by Chuck in 1.04 Wookiee. She hesitates to kill the bad guys in 5.08 Baby until Ryker tells her they mercilessly killed the couple in the house. She fights Ryker to protect the baby. In 5.12 Sarah, she hesitates to blow up Chuck at the DARPA building, even though she thinks he’s responsible for Bryce’s and Graham’s deaths. She does have a moral compass.
In other words, Sarah does not need Chuck to be a good person. She needs Chuck to be more than a spy, to have a home, to reconnect to her dreams of a normal life. If she needed Chuck to be a good person, she wouldn’t even feel remorse for killing Eve in her red test.
Furthermore, if Sarah can only love Chuck if he remains perfect, we have the problem that she doesn’t really love Chuck but the “idea” of Chuck and Chuck would always have to walk on eggshells in fear of losing her love, which is not even love but a pathological need of Chuck’s idealized perfection. She would basically suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder and shouldn’t be with anyone, and Chuck would be infinitely better off with Hannah.
Sarah would also apply a hypocritical double standard. She was able to forgive herself for killing Eve in her red test but is unwilling to forgive Chuck for the same lapse with Perry, even though he tells her that the spy life is not worth it and is willing to quit it all and be with her. Which would make things even worse if she doesn’t take him up on his offer since he would presumably remain a spy and kill even more people, which then would still be on her conscience.
It seems to me that this interpretation makes Sarah a much worse person rather than one with more integrity.
I do look forward to your view on the bigger picture in order to see how it encompasses this partial view of Sarah’s love for Chuck.
Sarah is not a psychopath(1). She is a ruthless killer. She kills people for a living. She was told in the pilot she might need to kill Chuck. She stated numerous times that she was a trained assassin.
As for the rest, I just need to stop. You are never going to get it. You don’t understand Sarah. You have lost the plot. I can’t help you.
(1) A person who engages repeatedly in criminal and antisocial behavior without remorse or empathy for those victimized
I would still like to read about your bigger view but I don’t see the difference between a ruthless trained assassin and a psychopath. I don’t think I’ve used the word psychopath for pre-Chuck Sarah but the definition you gave for psychopaths could describe pre-Chuck Casey, not Sarah. Even pre-Chuck Sarah was not a ruthless killer and she did have empathy, as we can see in 5.08 and 5.12 and 1.01.
I’m not buying the ruthless killer thing. There’s plenty of evidence that the life she was leading was weighing on her morally as far back as high school, after her red test, in the rescue of Molly, and in her immediate protection of Chuck.
By Dean’s take, anyone with combat experience is a ruthless killer without remorse and not a good person. Circumstances force people to compromise themselves in ways that often inflict damage that is difficult to repair without help. Chuck was her lifeline.
She didn’t like who she was without Chuck because she had the ability to compromise herself in ways that she didn’t like in order to preserve what was important to her. She was willing to compromise herself in order to protect Chuck because she had already done that to preserve her own life in the job and once you do that, although you never want to be that person, you are capable of being that person. It’s a form of self-sacrifice in order to prevent someone else from suffering or becoming that person. Better my suffering than their suffering.
Otter nonsense – Once Sarha was order to kill someone or she determined someone had to die she was ruthless about it. It does not mean she did’nt suffer from it.
Ruthless – Unmodified or unrestrained by pity; marked by unfaltering rigor; relentless; merciless
Ruthless means “without compassion for others.” But Sarah does have compassion. She shows compassion towards Chuck in 1.01 when Graham tells her to kill him if he runs. She shows compassion for Molly in 5.08. Any soldier in any war is then ruthless once they determine the enemy has to die.
Dean, I think it would be best if you could present your view in a cohesive way. Taken in isolation, this partial view of Sarah doesn’t seem to fit what we see on screen.
I stand by the word ruthless to describe Sarha when she is in the act of killing someone.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ruthless
Synonyms
affectless, callous, case-hardened, cold-blooded, compassionless, desensitized, hard, hard-boiled, hard-hearted, heartless, indurate, inhuman, inhumane, insensate, insensitive, ironhearted, merciless, obdurate, pachydermatous, pitiless, remorseless, slash-and-burn, soulless, stony (also stoney), stonyhearted, take-no-prisoners, thick skinned, uncharitable, unfeeling, unmerciful, unsparing, unsympathetic
Yes – soldiers in war should be ruthless once they determine the enemy has to die. To do otherwise can get you killed. This is what we are trained to do! We kill them hard and fast without mercy!
Reflextion come latter after the danger is over.
Dean, it’s really not much of an argument when you assume someone just doesn’t have the capability to understand by saying things like “But, if no one gets it, it’s a waste. It just goes over people’s heads.” or dismiss someone’s personal experience as “otter (sp) utter nonsense”.
Francesco has corrected your imprecise definition of ruthless which is how I responded. “ruth” which means to have compassion, comes from the word “rue” which means to feel or regret. Ruthless means to not feel or regret… without regret/feeling/compassion.
You are entitled to your opinion but gaslighting people for having differing opinions isn’t the most constructive method to make a point. Have a good day and I hope in the future, you choose your words more wisely.