Some viewers think the Cole arc is unnecessary because Chuck and Sarah’s relationship is starting to go around in circles. I disagree. It’s true that Chuck breaks up with Sarah at the beginning of 2.15 Beefcake because he thinks they will never be really together, but this instance is not exactly like the ones before.
During their first break-up at the end of 1.08 Truth, Chuck broke up with with Sarah because he thought her feelings for him were not real, and so he sought a real relationship with Lou. During the second break-up at the end of 2.03 Break-Up, Chuck broke up with Sarah to protect her personally and professionally since her real feelings for him were putting her life in danger.
But in 2.15 Beefcake, Chuck breaks up with Sarah because, even though their mutual feelings are real, he thinks they will never be able to be together, and so he stops trying. He whines about it and quits.
Enter Cole. Like, right away, in the very next scene.
Cole is hot. Cole is heroic. Cole is Bond, James Bond.
And Cole wants Sarah as his Bond girl.
Oh yes, he’s James Bond who tempts Sarah to take the easy way out of a complicated relationship right after Chuck does by breaking up with her. Cole tempts Sarah to go on a steamy vacation to Fiji with him, no bags (no baggage), no goodbyes, so that she can forget about her worries.
But Cole’s role is way more layered than just a Bond-type spy pursuing Sarah.
First, he sincerely mentors Chuck and shows him what a man and a spy looks like.
He is also Chuck’s role model. Cole’s relationship with Sarah, in fact, symbolizes Chuck’s own relationship with Sarah but shows Chuck how a man reacts in those circumstances. Let’s see what Cole has in common with Chuck:
- He is a mark she is attracted to (just like Chuck).
- The mark turns out to be a good guy (just like Chuck).
- The mark defuses a sticky situation, and on a rooftop, no less (just like Chuck in the pilot).
- Sarah is tempted under the surface (for real) but rejects the feeling on the surface (just like with Chuck during their relationship but also in the Suburbs episode that precedes Beefcake).
But while Chuck quits like a child when when Sarah keeps shutting him down and things get hard for him (his lacking manhood is symbolized by Sarah chopping up a phallic symbol at the beginning of Beefcake), Cole is a man who acts, who never quits, never stops pursuing Sarah, no matter how many times she shuts him down (symbolized by his dropping his towel by Sarah and impressing even Casey with his manhood), and when the fake approach fails (“do these lines usually work?”), he switches to the real one (“ok, change of tactic”), which works better with Sarah precisely because she likes real.
Cole takes a bullet for Sarah more than once, endures torture to protect Chuck’s Intersect identity on Sarah’s silent and grateful pleas, and leads Casey to taunt Chuck that Cole’s methods are working.
Chuck learns this lesson and does a 180 at the end of 2.16 Lethal Weapon. Whereas at the beginning of 2.15 Beefcake, he quit and chose the easy way out of a complicated relationship when things got tough, here he decides to act and take control of his destiny; he decides to stick with the girl he loves, just as Sarah decided to stick with him even when things got tough under Cole’s relentless pursuit. She’s a woman who acts. She wants a man who acts. Cole inspires Chuck to be that man.
That’s the reason Barker brings Bartowski and Walker together. He teaches Chuck to man up and never say never.
By the end of season 3, Chuck will be James Bond and more—he will save the day and James Bond (Shaw) and win the girl from him, and even have a very James Bond-like scene in Paris with his Bond girl at the end of 3.13 Other Guy. And by the end of season 5, Chuck will be Cole and more, even without the Intersect—he will jump off buildings and walk through fire to save the day, withstand torture with aplomb, take a bullet for Sarah, and relentlessly pursue her no matter how many times she shuts him down, until she is his.
Thank you for the article! Even in 2022 this show lives on.
I though Sarah was into Cole more than chuck.
When do you think she decide to stay with Chuck?
WHAT POINT IN THE COLE ARC DID YOU THINK SARAH DECIDED TO STAY WITH CHUCK
The whole time. I think the purpose of the Cole arc is twofold: for Chuck, it’s to make him man up through Cole’s example and to let him see that things are difficult for Sarah, too, not just for him. for Sarah, it’s to confirm that her love for Chuck is “as good as it gets.” This is reinforced through the B story in 2.16 with Morgan and Anna, which informs the A story: Just as Anna loves Morgan despite his ridiculous quirks (her words), Sarah loves Chuck despite his ridiculous quirks—she chooses Chuck at his childish worst over Cole at his manly best because her love for Chuck is “as good as it gets,” despite being tempted by the sexiest man in the world. This is her final answer to Morgan’s line at the end of Best Friend.
what about the way Sarah kissed Cole and the way she looked at him?
I think I briefly mention it in my bullet points in the original post above, and I will need to expand on it once I write my review of 2.15 Beefcake and 2.16 Lethal Weapon, but I think the point of the Cole arc is to show that Cole is a manly representation of Chuck. He’s a mark that turns out to be a good guy, that she rejects on the surface but likes under the surface. But unlike Chuck, who childishly quits when things get tough, Cole never quits in his pursuit of Sarah and teaches Chuck to never take no for an answer.
Cole is supposed to be the sexiest man in the world, Sarah’s type, and she’s attracted to him but she resists the temptation. The kiss is initiated by Cole and Chuck is made to witness it (just as he witnesses other stuff with Cole and Sarah) because the purpose of 2.15 Beefcake is to metaphorically roast Chuck alive for his cowardly giving up on the relationship at the beginning of Beefcake (the writers symbolize this by having Sarah chop up a banana, a phallic symbol). Chuck nows sees that (a) things are tough for Sarah, too, not just for him and (b) that he’s a child compared to Cole. This is made obvious in the scene right after he witnesses Cole kiss Sarah. He walks into the Buy More and meets Morgan, who says he’s a basically a child with the same Tron poster in his bedroom since he was 12. This is obviously the B story informing the A story because we can see that Morgan’s words really hit Chuck hard, who just witnessed his girl being pursued by a real man, and he tells Morgan to move in together (to man up).
This is reinforced at the end of the next episode, when Cole tells Chuck to never take no for an answer on something he wants. Watch the screenshot in the post above. When Cole tells that to Chuck, he’s ostensibly referring to Chuck wanting to remove the Intersect, but what he’s really talking about is wanting the woman that is purposefully framed between the two men. You see the visual symbolism there?
So why is Sarah attracted to Cole and why does she kiss him when he grabs her? Because she has a type and Cole fits that type to a T. She likes men who act (her words). So, she is tempted, Cole is the last temptation of Sarah and the manly version of Chuck, but she decides to stick with Chuck in both Cole episodes because her cover relationship with Chuck is real to her. That’s why she tells Chuck at the end of Beefcake that she’s really going to miss it. And at the end of Lethal Weapon, Cole himself understands that her love for Chuck is not just a cover.
But if Chuck gets metaphorically roasted alive in the Cole arc, he will get his revenge in the next season. If Sarah sticks witch a childish Chuck in the Cole arc but is tempted by James Bond Cole, in the next season, she is so in love with manly hero Chuck that even James Bond Shaw will be nothing to her. In fact, Chuck will save James Bond Shaw and then win the girl from him.
Thank you,I understand finally.
I guess I’m kind of late to join this discussion but recently I’ve been thinking about something while watching the episodes with both Bryce and Cole in them. So my question is is it just me or Sarah never kissed Chuck like she kissed Bryce or Cole, maybe I’m wrong but that’s how I see it. Don’t get me wrong I love Chuck and Sarah so much but whenever I’m watching the episodes with Bryce or Cole in them she always kisses then with a real passion and hunger but she only kissed Chuck like that like maybe 3 times, what do xou think about that.
I would say that the following Charah kisses are very hot:
Their kisses in season 3, during their respective love declaration scenes in 3.12 and 3.13, are more tender kisses, which I think are appropriate for the occasion.
In seasons 4 and 5, their kisses are more subdued, and that’s fine by me, given the context.
It’s also possible that something happened relationship-wise with the actors in their real life that called for more restrained kisses.
I noticed the same thing.