Writer: Allison Adler
Director: Patrick Norris
Originally Aired: 10/20/2008
Grade: A-
I loved the little role reversal between Chuck and Sarah in this episode, with him being the reassuring and protective one and her the anxious and insecure one. It wasn't too over-the-top or patronizing, but rather just enough to make me go "Awww." He was quite dapper at the reunion, too—I like Chuck pretty much any way he's served up, but his confidence here was quite appealing.
I'm not sure I like Sarah's backstory, though... It felt like they wrote it to be kind of shallow and campy, and Yvonne managed to give it some pathos anyway. I really wish they hadn't made her so ridiculously dorky, because it kind of undermined her character for me somehow. Usually this show can twist a cliché into something cool, but it just didn't work for me in this instance. I understand that the bit at the end where we find out that Jenny Burton was herself an alias for whoever _____ Lisa _____ really is was their attempt at subverting the cliché, and it does add another layer to Sarah. Still, I ended up feeling like they took too long getting there so they could have their campy fun. I did laugh, and I loved the moment where Chuck first saw her high school portrait, but part of me was thinking, "Great, so we know she had braces and frizzy hair and liked Chumbawumba. How fascinating." And even those aspects could've been, if it wasn't played in quite a such a silly way, but they were counting on the end reveal too much to even bother with saving the other part. The execution was just off, at least for me personally. (And it wasn't Yvonne, because I think she did even more with it than was probably expected.)
Honestly, it will probably grow on me, because I do see the potential, and I see what they were trying to do. It makes her more relatable to the audience, and it makes her affection for Chuck make even more sense, because alias or not, she was still an awkward outcast and it obviously had a negative impact on her. Also, they didn’t really hit on it, but it sort of relates back to Sarah and Bryce. For one thing, it’s easy to see how she fell for him the way she did, after being awkward and ostracized as a teen. I’d also venture that Bryce has never seen that high school photo.
I can get over my issues with her backstory, but the mystery of Sarah needs to get unraveled a little bit more, for the audience, if not for Chuck. If we can see Casey sitting down to his can of tuna or trimming his bonsai, I think we can see a little more of what Sarah does when she's alone. It would also work to have her and Chuck build a friendship where they occasionally do normal stuff like watch TV together. Yvonne is lovely and talented, but I don't think Sarah can remain such a mysterious (but highly emotional!) blank for the entire series, and I'm not sure this episode accomplished much in terms of getting to know who she is now. Chuck may know some of her idiosyncrasies, and he may "get" her in a big-picture way, but he needs to get to know her in a more grounded, down-to-earth way, and so do we (or I, at least).
Nicole Ritchie wasn't perfect, but I thought she was far better than Pita Girl from last season. Also, Levi’s delivery of “Whatever…” to Sarah’s admonishments early in the episode is why he makes the big bucks. He’s so perfect for this role.
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