Note: Do not read on if you have not seen Season 5, Episode 12 of "Chuck," entitled "Chuck Versus Sarah," or Season 5, Episode 13 (the series finale) of "Chuck," entitled "Chuck Versus the Goodbye" on NBC.
"Chuck, tell me our story."
Wasn't the answer Sarah got so much better than an upload from Intersect glasses?
I'll go on record right away as saying that I was very pleased with the "Chuck" finale, and I think the last 30 minutes of the final episode rank up there with the absolute best the show has ever done. It got dusty in my house many times during those last two hours, and as a sustained, well-earned sentimental farewell, the finale was everything I could have hoped for.
I needed to be convinced, however. When last week's episode ended with Sarah's memories gone, I was alarmed (even though I thought "Chuck Versus the Bullet Train" was a good episode). We've spent five years investing in the relationship of these crazy kids, and right here at the end, they were going to take that away from us? That was a hell of a risk to take in the show's final hours.
But you know what? I think that risk paid off, for a few reasons.
The "recovering Sarah's memory" story gave real stakes to the finale because we are that invested in Chuck and Sarah's hard-won happiness. There was part of me that wanted the gang to have one last victory lap, in which they would defeat some amusing or mildly scary villain and then ride off into the sunset; but at its best, "Chuck" has woven real emotions and real consequences into its best spy stories.
Sure, Quinn was another in a long line of bragging villains with eeevil intentions, but he was a mere device to get us to care about whether Chuck and Sarah would rebuild their relationship. On some level, I knew they would get back together by the end of the series finale, but the show gave me two hours of a broken-hearted Chuck, and Zachary Levi plays that so well that I was very much invested in his quest to win Sarah back. I knew in my logical brain that the quest would be successful, but damn it, in my heart and in the non-logical parts of my head (which are vast), I was rooting like hell for the good guys to win and for the couple I love to be happy again.
And that was really the key to why the "recovering Sarah's memory" story worked -- Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski played the hell out of every single scene they were given. In the hands of lesser actors, the whole memory-wipe story might have played out like a sci-fi cliche; but they gave us so many levels and layers of pain, hope and heartbreak. Sarah's face as she watched the video files, recounting her relationship with Charles Irving Bartowski; Chuck's face as he sat in their dream home, talking about the first time they really kissed; the two of them as they sat on that beach at the end, talking and laughing and crying and just being so right together -- that all worked like gangbusters.
Just as Sarah got to fall in love with Chuck all over again, we got to fall in love with their relationship once more, and revisit all its highs and lows in so many different ways. There were Sarah's videos, Chuck's recollections and at the end, a calvacade of glimpses into their most memorable moments (dual Weinerlicious uniforms!). The quest to get Sarah to recall everything that they'd been through allowed "Chuck" to stroll down memory lane, and this show took full advantage of it. It was risky to take that path, but when the show ended with those two kissing on the beach as The Head and the Heart's "Rivers and Roads" played, it was incredibly romantic, and this is a show that does intense romance very, very well.
So, sure, I can understand if you found it hard to see Chuck so heartbroken for parts of the finale, and if you found it hard to find Chuck and Sarah out of sync for so much of it, but there was a deeper reason that the finale worked for me. Throughout the two hours, we saw how Sarah literally couldn't pull the trigger on Chuck. Something lingered in her, some emotions and undercurrents that she couldn't account for. No memory wipe can take away how people change you, and Chuck had changed Sarah. And, of course, vice versa.
And that was the lovely subtext of the finale: The people we love have an effect on our lives, an effect that nothing can ever take away, not even super-complex spy devices.
Throughout the finale, Sarah's memories were slowly returning -- and I believe they would have returned in full over time, because I want to believe that. Bt what really happened in that last hour is that Sarah came to understand in her heart, head and soul how much that Nerd Herder had affected her.
Everyone had changed so much over five seasons. Think about these things in the context of who these people were at the start of Season 1: In the finale, John Casey was wearing a World's Greatest Dad apron and scrubbing the kitchen floor that his roommate Morgan Grimes had dirtied ("You really think I've changed?"); Morgan Guillermo Grimes got a great scene in which he, the Bearded One, challenged Casey's go-it-alone, tough-guy rationale; hell, even Jeff and Lester had changed. Jeff is now disturbingly clean and sober, and Lester is... well, still Lester; but good Lord, he can really hit those high notes these days. As for Big Mike, he's still Big Mike, finally in on the spy secret, but completely unwilling to believe it and happy to continue to eat fresh at Subway. (OK, so maybe not everyone changed -- but maybe some people didn't need to.)
Not that Zac and Yvonne didn't own the finale, but there were so many other great scenes for the rest of the cast, all of which paid tribute to the special bonds these characters shared (and I'll briefly mention just a few of my favorite moments in the bullet-point list below). And in terms of just plain old "Chuck"-tastic goodness, I just loved, loved, loved the Jeffster sequence at the concert hall. Not only did the band get to have one last big moment, one last scene of epic keytar greatness, but they also got to save the day.
That's why that finale worked so well for me: It had all the goofy humor, the brisk action and the well-acted heart that this show brings to the table when it's at its best. A really fun Jeffster scene, preceded by a Wienerlicious scene, featuring Chuck and Sarah going full badass? An embassy scene and Gen. Beckman invoking "old Casey"? Ellie telling Chuck that he's "aces" and Mama Bartowski flashing a firearm in front of her granddaughter? Zac and Yvonne doing some of their best work (and that's saying something)? How could I resist any of that?
Hot damn, I'm going to miss what this show did when it was really cooking with gas, which it was on its final Friday night.
So here's where we left the "Chuck" characters: Chuck and Sarah were back together and falling in love again (and presumably returning to Carmichael Industries, with Chuck re-Intersected); Casey was turning down an espionage job in favor of reconnecting with his old flame, Gertrude Verbanski; Awesome, Ellie and baby Clara were moving to Chicago (Ryan McPartlin's real hometown), a move I strongly approve of, because it's also my hometown; Gen. Beckman was continuing to be an awesome leader of men and women; Jeff and Lester as German pop stars were freely indulging in "women ... and men"; Big Mike was continuing to work at the Buy More with a smile on his face and a sandwich in his hand; and Morgan Grimes was moving in with Alex and probably getting married himself some time soon.
Before going on that last mission to reconnect with Sarah, Chuck Bartowski once again turned off a beeping alarm clock and tried to figure out how he would deal with his day. But this time, he was surrounded by friends and family who knew his secret, knew his strengths and wouldn't let him give up on the girl of his dreams, the girl who, when the show began, was way, way out of his league.
With the help and support of those who had changed him and whom he had changed, he got out of bed, got a plan together and eventually got the girl. Again. And he even believed he deserved her. By the end, they deserved each other, in the best possible way.
Also in the end, Morgan was right: "Grab this woman and kiss her." I firmly believe, with all my heart, that it worked.
Here is bullet list of some favorite or otherwise notable moments from the finale:
I love that this fandom didn't just help save the show (and it's worth reading NPR critic Linda Holmes on that subject) you also put your collective power to work doing good in the world. Four children will now get much-needed operations because of you. That is indisputably awesome.
Thanks not just for communing with those of us in the media during five years of ups and downs (and more ups than downs, I'd say); but thank you also for several years of delightful Comic-Con and C2E2 panels, for lots of good give-and-take on Twitter and for always being frisky and smart in comment areas. I hope we experience much awesomeness together in future.
Follow Maureen Ryan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/moryan
this is only my opinion and idea that i got in my dream,,
1.Ellie Bartowski felt sorry for chuck and trying to help Sarah and Chuck.so she decided to make a research about the effect of the Intersect and about the memory lost.After all,she is Bartowski's right?so,of course she can solve it by using resources from agent x brain information.
2.Chuck and Sarah still together and every day,Chuck will bring Sarah to every single memory about them.This will continue maybe until Chuck birthday.Chuck family make a suprise for him,and also there is morgan,alex,devon,ellie,big mike,jeff and lester.And guest what is the present from ellie to chuck,it is device that can stimulate the lost memory.so,sarah will remember and for sure there is lot of crying,
3.this device maybe fall into badguy and the badguy make some readjustment on this device.so,this device become something that is dangerous to the world or something,,
4.then i woke up from my sleep..thats all my dream for 4 nights.maybe if the producer of Chuck reading this,or if any of you reading this,tell the producer about my idea.
thanx a lot!
I don’t think the ending needed to be spelled out. The fact was that it didn’t even matter whether Sarah got her memories back. She clearly wanted to have her memories back because she wanted to remember how she fell in love with him - that’s why she watched the video Casey gave her, that’s why she hesitated to kill Chuck, that’s why she asked Chuck to tell her their story, and that’s why she told Chuck to kiss her. And that was the last line of the series.
The ending of the show would be bittersweet regardless and one of the points of the show was that the nerd, the nice guy, got the girl because he was who he was, and the thought of him winning her over twice may be an even sweeter way to end the story.
While my inner sap/geek (actually I have no idea which part of me wanted a change), but something a little more emphatic like “shut up and kiss me already” might have been even more effective at telling us that she was falling in love with Chuck again, but now I’m just nitpicking …
In the end, these deep complexities did not fit this series. After all, we're talking about a show that had titles like "Chuck vs. Tooth", "Chuck vs. the Aisle of Terror", and "Chuck vs. the Frosted Tips", not an hour that would've been described as deep and complex for almost 5 seasons.
"Chuck" ended as if it was a different show from the previous 89 episodes. At this point, fans had certain expectations set up over 5 years by the producers, and these were not met.
“…in my heart and in the non-logical parts of my head (which are vast), I was rooting like hell for the good guys to win and for the couple I love to be happy again.” And that’s exactly how the series has always played out – except for this finale.
“…they gave us so many levels and layers of pain, hope and heartbreak.” These are not words someone, who watched a few episodes for the first time, would use to describe this show. You are talking about a show with episodes titled “Chuck vs. the Gobbler” and “Chuck vs. the Bearded Bandit”. This is not a series that has expressed many levels of pain, hope, and heartbreak.
“So, sure, I can understand if you found it hard to see Chuck so heartbroken for the finale, and if you found it hard to find Chuck and Sarah out of sync in it..” An experience felt before by the loyal fan base during the Shaw story arc – and, if you look at the official message board covering those episodes, you can see just how the fans felt about seeing such dark emotions on the screen. The fans hated it so the producers didn’t go back to that tone – until the end.
(Cont.)
I'm sorry to see it go, but glad it lasted as long as it did.
Just those couple of weeks made me a fan. And then to find out I became a fan too late. So sad.
We were subjected to one scene after another of Chuck doing everything he could to revive Sarah's love for him and she just kept giving him this blank stare and saying in effect, "nope, ain't feeling it." Chuck's sobbing over the loss of what he and Sarah once had was gut wrenching to watch - and the best acting that Zach Levi has done in the series.
Sometimes ending a series on a note of clarity is the best way to go and I think it would have been in this case. A true "fairy tale ending" would have been to add one more scene to the one on the beach when Sarah asked Chuck to kiss her, as a last resort to awaken the love she had once had for him. The final scene would have have taken place two years later in the front yard of Chuck and Sarah's dream home. As they lay on the lawn in each others arms they begin to laugh as they watch their toddler son - named after Chuck's dad -chase after the family dog. The camera pans back as the Chuck theme song increases in volume. Now THAT is what I would call a fairy tale