This open comment thread the place where you can ask any questions or post any thoughts about Chuck. Possible topics are the Intersect, Chuck and Sarah’s relationship, the best and worst villains, the series finale, the Chuck movie, favorite guest stars, favorite scenes, favorite and least favorite episodes or story arcs, favorite secondary characters, and anything under the sun in the Chuckverse.
The Intersect
Do you like the fact that people other than Chuck got the Intersect? Was Chuck too powerful with the Intersect? Did you like the Morgansect arc? Would you have liked to see a longer arc with an Intersected Sarah?
Chuck and Sarah
Was the relationship developed the right way? Did you like the other love interests? Would you change anything in their relationship or its development?
The Villains
Who are the best and worst villains and why? Who was the villain that got under Chuck’s or Sarah’s skin?
The Characters
Who are your favorite characters in the show and why? Who are your favorite guest stars? What was the best idea the creative team had about a character development?
Seasons, Arcs, and Episodes
Favorite and least favorite seasons, arcs, or episodes? What makes a season good for you? What is the most rewarding or disappointing season? What are your favorite lines of dialogue or the funniest one-liners?
Open up about Chuck in the open comment thread below.
If you could rewrite season 3 what would you change to make the story tighter/flow better with the caveat that you did not know whether the show would be picked up for another season? Would any of these change if you knew that Chuck would run for 5 seasons?
I would write and edit the story in a way that avoids all the confusing interpretations about Chuck’s and Sarah’s behavior. I would also change the A story of 3.17 Chuck Versus the Living Dead since it contradicts the first 12 episodes of the season and casts both Chuck and Sarah in a bad light.
Hello! Congrats for your website! I discovered it recently through your posts on Reddit. I also discovered the series not long ago, still in 2023, as it became available on Prime Video in my country. The most amazing thing is that I had never heard about before. By far the coolest series I’ve ever seen, it’s able to rise a very strong emotional connection with us viewers. And I have to admit, I had an instant crush on both Sarah Walker character and Yvonne Strahovski actress. I became a huge fan of her. I strongly wish for a continuation either by film or one more season. With that sad finale, I think the story was incomplete.
My question for you and others is of course about the Sarah Walker’s character. Her development in the series is amazing and very touching, I believe that this development even catches the viewers attention more than the growth of the Chuck character. However, we clearly see an attempt by the writers to “hide” or disfigure the character during several moments of the show – in the first half of S3, S4 (mainly in her near death at the finale) and in S5 with a somewhat silly Sarah until she became the worst villain the show could have, without giving her time to recover as a character for the audience. What do you think about it? Do you know if there was any kind of conflict between the writers? I ask because there seem to be two lines for Sarah, one placing her as an equally or even more important character than Chuck and the other trying to diminish her at any cost.
Hi Endres. Thank you for the kind words and for your comment. I also discovered Chuck recently (in January 2020, right before the pandemic) and had never heard of it before.
I also love Sarah’s character. It’s one of my favorite female characters alongside Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and Lady Oscar in The Rose of Versailles.
Because Sarah’s behavior can seem strange, some viewers have speculated that the creators resented her for becoming more popular than Chuck, and thus made her do things in S3 and S5 (the final arc) that “knocked her down a peg or two.”
When I first watched the show and did not understand the story they were telling us, I could have understood that sentiment.
Having rewatched the show, I now have a different take. I think that, given the story they told us, a complicated story between two different characters who are nevertheless perfect for each other, what they do with Sarah throughout the show makes perfect sense, with the exception of 3.17 Chuck Versus the Living Dead.
In season 3, Chuck and Sarah swap roles. The creators make them see things from each other perspective so that they can come together in Paris having fully understood what the other went through in the first two seasons. My episode-by-episode analysis of season 3 on this blog charts the course of season 3 in great detail.
At the end of season 5, we have the greatest challenge to Chuck and Sarah’s relationship but also their greatest triumph. If we think about the story they are telling us, a Sydney Bristow from Alias who falls in love with a Jim Halpert from The Office, it makes sense that we see their relationship being questioned time and time again, by Bryce, Cole, Zondra, heck, even Chuck himself. So, when Quinn brings it up again at the end of 5.10 Chuck Versus Bo, the final arc of season 5 answers back and shows that you could but Chuck and Sarah in the worst possible scenario (Sarah turned into Chuck’s terminator), and she will still fall in love with him instead because he’s awesome and they are soulmates. Once that point is made clear, she can (and will) get her memories back.
The writers and creators of the show love Sarah’s character. There is an interview with Chris Fedak on Chuck Versus the Podcast (maybe the final episode), where Fedak mentions that he and Chuck writer Lauren LeFranc were talking to a female NBC executive towards the end of season 5, and the executive was going on and on about Sarah’s character and how fascinating and mysterious it was, and Lauren LeFranc said, “Yes, she’s the best.”
Right, right, right! ; )
But don’t you think Sarah was kind of silly in season 5 til she becomes the worst villain in the entire show? And about the 2 last episodes, what would you change?
Even with all the hints shown, for me there’s a feeling that she didn’t remember anything, maybe because of her attitudes during E13 (after literally everyone said and proved to her that she really loves Chuck), her lack of emotion when Chuck finds her on the beach or she didn’t touching Chuck during the entire kiss. Could it be that it was a failure in the execution and not in the script?
The few people I spoke to about also think she didn’t recover her memories. That’s why the feeling of loss left by the show finale:
What scenes or episodes make you say that Sarah is silly before the final arc? From what I remember, she is her usual professional self but with a heavy dose of humanity since season 5 completes her journey from “nothing but a spy” to a woman in love and in want of a family. She does have some comic lines here and there, but the writers have to be very careful with that because, as Fedak said, Sarah is the dramatic anchor of the story. If she turns into a comedic character, Chuck loses its gravitas.
Some viewers have this uneasy feeling that Sarah does not recover her memories, but I don’t share this feeling. It seems clear to me that she regains her memories. It’s in the narrative structure of the final arc and of the final episode. It’s also confirmed by Fedak in post-series interviews because, otherwise, half the journey (Sarah’s half) is all for naught.
This is Fedak’s interview with Sepinwall.
The final episode was shot so that people can reach one of two conclusions, entirely based on their preference:
We can also see that the last episode is a mirror of the first episode. The way Sarah looks at Chuck when he shows up on that beach is the same way he looked at her in the pilot when she showed up on that beach. And by that time, they were both in love. And their kiss mimics the almost-kiss during the stakeout in 3.11 Chuck Versus the Final Exam. And they were very much in love then. I think viewers sometimes focus on the wrong aspects when interpreting enigmatic Sarah. What we need to focus on is the 5-act structure of the episode.
Fedak wants the viewers to remember and fall in love with Chuck as Sarah remembers and falls in love with Chuck.
This, if I understand anything about fiction, is what we need to focus on.
Right, right, right… But if it needs that much explanation, something must be wrong, right? That shouldn’t be a Sartre book.
Do you think there’s any possibility of a movie or another season of Chuck in the near future?
Another season? No.
A movie? Maybe, but it’s a long stretch.
Unlike many other viewers, I do not need a movie. The show is good as is for me.
That’s what makes it fun.
Gray Jones (one of the hosts of Chuck Versus the Podcast) said something very interesting during the last episode of the Chuck Rewind podcast, which aired last year. He said that the show Buffy, the Vampire Slayer has a cult following just like Chuck if not greater. Its finale, though, is not as controversial as Chuck‘s, and no one talks about it, while we are still talking about Chuck’s finale over 10 years later.
Chuck’s finale is hauntingly beautiful, it prompted Kelly Dean Jolley to write his excellent Chuck book. It sparks countless online conversations on social media, years after the airing of the final episode.
Nice. I didn’t know there was a book by a philosopher about Chuck. The book is good? I already got it and I’m going to read.
Thanks for letting me know.
Yes, the book is available here.
https://kellydeanjolley.com/the-chuck-book/
I find it excellent. It’s a great exploration of the theme of reality vs appearance and other themes of the show.
I already did the download, thanks again.
And about the actors, especially Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski, do you think they achieved the success they deserved after Chuck? I think they deserved to have achieved more. However, maybe this is the opportunity for a Chcuk sequel.
I don’t know how is the Handsmale ratings, but I couldn’t watch it despite Yvonne.
I’m not sure why YS hasn’t become a bigger star. I haven’t watched anything else she has done besides Chuck, but she’s very talented. I hear she’s doing a fantastic job with The Handmaid’s Tale, even though it’s taking a psychological toll on her from what I have read.
I haven’t watched anything else with ZL either besides hearing his voice in the movie Tangled (that was before I discovered Chuck). I think he’s had pretty good success and recognition with the Shazam franchise, but that’s all I know.
Thanks again for all your insight on this great series. I followed the link but there’s nothing there to download. Would love any help to find a version that I can download. PLEASE? LOL…frustrated…*sigh*
I was very hesitant to watch Handmaid’s tale but summoned the courage to watch because I wanted to witness her performance. Truth be told, I focused on her scenes while just watching enough of the rest to understand context. Yvonne’s performance is spectacular. The nuance of her acting is that much better because of her experience since Chuck. When I was finished I was dumbfounded by one question, how the heck had she not received any major award recognition for her performance. It is that good!! You may not like the premise of the show but Yvonne’s performance was the gem that hooked me from start to finish.
I have no doubts her performance is spectacular, and I’m very happy it is. I had read somewhere that some people in the showbiz (maybe even in the HMT cast) were initially disparaging her casting because she was “that girl from Chuck” and then read that many viewers consider her the star of the show. I’m really not into shows like that, though. I even started watching The Mentalist and dropped it after a couple of episodes into season 1. It was a bit too dark for my taste.
Who knows, but perhaps we’ll be lucky enough to have a Chuck sequel. 2023 seems to be a decisive year: practically all actors are free (HT is finishing) and Warner Bros is launching a new streaming service that demand new content.
It would be really fantastic! But please no parallels, circular stories and just after (or in the middle of) a good moment a bad, bad moment. Oh… and the show could be called Chuck & Sarah to put them definitly on the same level. Would it be dreaming too much? I hope not!
I am reading Jolley’s book and was struck by several statements. I would like to get your thoughts on this one. Sorry but this could be the first of many. On pg 237, chapter 12 Speaking about season 4 Jolley writes, Sarah is anxious about the reality of her commitment to Chuck, about whether she has changed enough to choose Chuck and stick to that choice. How does her doubt manifest itself in the show. I never noticed Sarah questioning her choice of chuck in season 4. I see a lot of trying to figure out how to be together but never contemplating another choice.
Sarah does question her doubt in 4.03 Chuck Versus the Cubic Z. In fact, the episode’s very title introduces Sarah’s introspection. Cubic Zirconia is a diamond lookalike, a fake diamond. The symbolism of the episode is that Heather sows doubts in Sarah’s mind that Sarah’s affection for Chuck is not real (a real diamond) but fake (like cubic zirconia), and Sarah will have to do a gut check in the guts of the buildings (the labyrinthine ducts) to realize that, even though she once was like Heather, she is now different, and her love for Chuck is the real deal (a diamond).
In the next episode, she will wrestle with the meaning of her choice in a philosophical quandary between Parmenidean being (her “Why can’t we just be?”) and Heraclitean change (Chuck’s “Change is unavoidable”) and Chuck’s Aristotelic harmonization between change and being (“No matter what the changes are, is the love still there?”), finally accepted by Sarah (“That love that you had in the cave? That does not have to change”) in a double conversation that Chuck and Sarah have with the premier and his wife and with each other that echoes the conversation about feelings they had in the courtyard with Karl and Carina in 3.02 Chuck Versus the Three Words.
See. I knew you would clear the clouds and help me see and understand what was right in front of me all along.
What do you think are the key events that transform Sarah’s character throughout the series. We see her struggle with many feelings and events but what are the ones that take her from Sarah in 1.1 to Sarah before 5.10. Are the relationships with Bryce, Cole and Shaw key in this journey or are they events that help clarify Sarah’s options.
That’s a very good question that probably deserves multiple posts, likely one per season. I would say that what transforms Sarah’s character is being around Chuck. From the beginning, he awakens in her the desire for a home, a family, and kids. She has to balance love and duty for years and makes some very important decisions that change her life and define her character.
I think that Bryce (in 1.10 Nemesis) forces a choice in Sarah between the familiar past that she can emotionally handle and a the hope of a future (with Chuck) that she cannot emotionally handle. She decides to stay and that forces her to deal with her feelings. That’s huge for her.
Cole is more of a test for Chuck than for Sarah, but he does tempt her to give up on the relationship and take the easy way out, just as Chuck did at the beginning of 2.15 Beefcake. It’s a testament to her love for Chuck and her character that she doesn’t yield to the temptation.
Shaw is just a rebound. It’s Sarah’s version of Lou + Jill for Chuck. We saw in season one that Chuck really wanted Sarah, but she turned him down, so he tried to have a real relationship with Lou. The moment Chuck found out Sarah’s true feelings for him, Lou was history. And he tried to have a real relationship with Jill for the same reason, and Jill betrayed his trust. The same happens with Shaw and Sarah in season 3. Even before Shaw’s betrayal, there is a lesson for Sarah: she realizes that she can’t go back to the type of relationship she had with Bryce. In her own words, “It’s different.” She has been chuckfied, and even James Bond (Shaw), who was a temptation in S2 (Cole) is now nothing compared to Chuck. Shaw is never a true temptation for Sarah; she just resigns to a relationship with him since she can’t be with Chuck. The moment Chuck asks for her back, Shaw is history.
Other moments of character growth for Sarah are peppered through the rest of the show: moving in with Chuck, saying, “I love you,” deciding to marry him, and finally quitting the spy life and having kids. Those are all moments that define her character.
Thanks for your this. For the I love you, we have the Yes 3.13 but not saying it and then the actually saying it a few episodes later in 3.16. Does she have doubts still after 3.13. What is it that finally gives her the courage to state the words in 3.16.
Oh, I think she has definitely loved Chuck since the beginning. It’s just that she has been trained by her father to guard her feelings and then by the CIA to deny them, so she has a great barrier to knock down and actually say the words. We can see her progression through the show—she won’t admit to her feelings even unto herself in S1, but will show her feelings in S2, finally confess them in 3.13 (but notice it takes her 20 seconds to say the first “yes”), say the three words in 3.16, and say them easily and publicly in 4.18 in front of the GRETAs after Chuck disarms the nuclear bomb.
I was able to find good info from your articles.
I have seen many references that state that 3.13 was supposed to be the final episode of that season. How did we end up with the additional episodes. Were the additional episodes already planned I.e. would be part of season 4 or were they ad hoc I.e we need to come up with new arcs.
They got a backorder of six episodes while they were shooting 3.10 Tic Tac and writing the last three episodes (3.11 to 3.13), so they scaled back 3.12 and 3.13. Originally, 3.13 was supposed to have an epic fight between Chuck and Shaw on the Tour Eiffel. I think Shaw was supposed to be Intersected by then, but they scaled all that back once they got the additional episode order and put some of that in the back six.
The thing I found interesting about the café fight is that Chuck is easily overpowered by Shaw and during the fight it looks like Chuck is trying to get Shaw’s watch. As in the governor. This now makes more sense. As always, thank you for your insight
Yes, Chuck is overpowered by Shaw in that fight, even though he just flashed. I think it’s all part of the overarching theme of feelings as a liability or an asset for spies. In this fight, Shaw wins and tells Chuck that his (Chuck’s) feelings are a liability, but a few moments later on the bridge, the opposite will take place: Chuck offers Shaw one last chance (like Harry Potter with Voldemort before their final fight), Shaw almost takes it, but then his feelings for his wife have the best of him, and Chuck’s feelings for Sarah will prompt him to shoot Shaw. This is the realization of Chuck’s prophecy to Shaw at the end of 3.04 Operation Awesome.
This is also important to show that it’s not the Intersect that wins against Shaw (in fact, the Intersect loses to Shaw in the cafe fight), but Chuck. On that bridge, it’s all Chuck.