Without Bryce’s intervention, Sarah might have met Chuck during the Omaha operation. She meets Bryce instead, and they have their romance. But Bryce then sends the Intersect to Chuck in a chain of events that ends up putting Chuck and Sarah together anyway.
In the movie Casablanca, when Rick says to his former lover Ilsa: “We’ll always have Paris,” he is referring to their brief romance on the eve of World War II. When he speaks those words to Ilsa in the movie’s final scene, Rick has accepted that he and Ilsa will never be reunited.
Similarly, when Bryce says to his former lover Sarah, “We’ll always have Omaha,” he is referring to their (brief?) romance on the eve of the Intersect war with Fulcrum. When he speaks those words to Sarah at the end of 1.10 Nemesis, Bryce is giving her a code phrase to reunite with him, but he’ll have to accept instead that he and Sarah will never be reunited.
And Sarah’s torn between two men at the end of Nemesis just as Ilsa is torn between two men at the end of Casablanca. But just like Rick for Ilsa, Bryce is for Sarah the ever-living ghost of what once was.
Does Sarah leave with Bryce if Chuck doesn’t call? Is the relationship between Chuck and Sarah strong enough at this point? Thoughts? There could have been a scenario/plot line where she leaves but then comes back (in order to keep the series moving forward).
That’s the implication, yes. She’s set to leave with Bryce but she’s very conflicted, as shown by the visual symbolism in the scene.
How do you think the Shaw arc is written if it were Bryce instead of Shaw. Does the fact that Bryce already had a relationship with Sarah change the dynamic or any of her choices in the first half of season 3? She almost left with him here. If Chuck is now unavailable in the mid-section of season 3, can she make the decision to be with Bryce? It is her old comfort zone.
On the one hand, Bryce instead of Shaw would make it easier for viewers to accept Sarah’s choice given their history. On the other hand, it makes it hard to envision how the writers would end that arc. The idea of a Bryce who turns to the Ring like Shaw doesn’t work, and I don’t think anyone would like to see Chuck shoot Bryce to save Sarah.