Writers: Phil Klemmer
Grade: C-
This is, without a doubt, the worst episode of Chuck I have ever seen. I’ve loved this show from the start, and I try to stick with it and just have fun, but this episode managed to repeat so many past mistakes with the relationship plots that I was rolling my eyes practically nonstop for the entire hour.
1. Every time Chuck gets a new brunette love interest, the girl is threatened by Sarah, so Chuck tells her that Sarah’s not his girlfriend, or that she was but things are over with her. Then the new love interest seemingly catches him in the lie, so he fumbles to explain his relationship with Sarah, fails, and the girl dumps him for being a skeevy liar. Then he does something really sweet or really brave and wins back the new girl’s affection. It’s happened exactly like that with every love interest. The thing is, at least with Lou and Jill, the events were spread out over two or three episodes. This episode crammed the entire repetitive relationship arc into one hour!
2. This is also the umpteenth time that Chuck and Sarah have had the “We can just be friends/No, I don’t mind your new love interest because you deserve to be happy” talk. And we all know they’re lying to themselves and to each other, that they will continue eying each other when they think the other one isn’t looking, looking hurt or jealous for the close-up, having yet another conversation about their feelings for each other within a couple of episodes, and ultimately hurting their new love interests (assuming they’re not both spies/double agents).
So far, the romantic aspects of this season are following the same path they used in the first two seasons, with perhaps minor variations in detail. I could have watched this episode on mute and still been able to understand what was happening, because I’ve seen it all before. That wasn’t “interesting and compelling and creatively fresh,” to quote Schwartz.
A couple more quotes from Schwartz:
“Those kind of shows, they just exist on the relationships that people are invested in. It's what they drive on week in and week out. As you stated yesterday in your blog, Chuck and Sarah is but an element of our show. There's a lot of other storytelling imperatives that are driving how these episodes unfold.”
“We're not arbitrary about it, we don't do it to drive conflict, We're not just going, ‘How do we keep them apart?’ Part of your job as a storyteller, part of the writer's jobs here on the show is to mine all of these characters for maximum conflict and drama.”
I call bullshit on both of those statements. Are there other things going on in the Chuck-verse besides Chuck and Sarah? Absolutely, but I still feel like I’m having Chuck and Sarah relationship angst shoved down my throat every other episode. It’s laughably phony for the showrunners to repeatedly put Chuck and Sarah’s relationship in the spotlight, writing-wise, for two-plus seasons, and then act surprised and disappointed when it turns out that a large and vocal percentage of the fanbase sees it as the shows biggest attraction (or failure).
The romance is still way too large a chunk of the story if Schwartz and Fedak want viewers to invest their emotions and curiosity elsewhere. For me, the poorly constructed Fulcrum/Circle story and the oft-neglected secondary characters are not worth tuning in for unless the writers step up their game.
And if they really care about trying to mine all of the characters for maximum drama, they might want to try not doing the same thing over and over. And over. It’s all repetitive, formulaic, and utterly predictable, and I can’t bring myself to care anymore. I like Chuck and Sarah individually, but I cannot stand watching them and their love interests plugged into the same formula again and again.
I’m not pissed off that Chuck and Sarah can’t be together, I’m pissed that I don't care if they get together, and I'm pissed that the writing sucks because they keep using the same formula to keep them apart. I am so sick of Chuck and Sarah at this point that I may very well stop watching if the writers can’t go at least four episodes without hitting the Chuck/Sarah relationship nerve again. I have seen every single episode—I’m not going to forget that Chuck and Sarah are crazy about each other if they don’t give me a reminder every other episode. If Chuck and Sarah can’t be together because the writers can’t figure out how to write an actual, functional relationship, then let them have some breathing room, because I’m tired of the relationship whiplash and the endless repetition.
As for other repetitive aspects of this episode, we also got the “Chuck is too spazzy and stupid to think of a remotely reasonable explanation for Sarah’s presence” trope. Why can’t Sarah just like cultural events and be into history and art? He couldn’t have just told Hannah that he didn’t know Sarah was going to be there, but he should have, because she’s a total museum junkie?
And there was also the “even though Chuck is supposed to have a new love interest, he’s still jealous of Sarah’s interaction with her new love interest” trope.
Other stuff that sucked:
1. I didn’t think watching Chuck and Sarah prepare for their “dates” with their respective new love interests was cute because I can figure out that Chuck and Sarah have new love interests without some trite, anvilicious mission preparation sequence that screams, “Look, couples!!! Aren’t they cute?!!!!” I usually find the show's use of cliché charming, but this felt forced and condescending.
2. It felt inorganic to have Hannah and Shaw putting the moves on Chuck and Sarah in the same episode, especially considering how little buildup either pairing has been given thus far. They could have gone easier on the budget if they’d just used labeled mannequins for Shaw and Hannah, and I don’t mean that as an insult to the actors—the writers are putting no effort into writing thoughtful, believable alternate relationships for Chuck and Sarah that the audience can invest in. Chuck and Hannah have some nice chemistry, sure, but Hannah and Shaw both have flashing neon signs over their heads that say “Don’t get too attached, y’all!” Thus I don’t care a whit for either of them, because I feel like I can see the hand the writers are playing.
3. Shaw and his sexual harassment-esque neck nuzzling really rubbed me the wrong way. Sarah made it very clear that she wasn’t comfortable and wanted to keep their interaction at a “We’re on our second date” level, and Shaw abused his authority to skeeve on her. It might have played a bit differently if they actually had some chemistry, but they don’t, and it was gross. I thought I was going to puke later when Shaw admitted to hitting on her and Sarah backed off on her previous stance by not only handwaving his behavior, but also telling him she actually liked it. She should have continued to rip him a new one for being a creep, but instead she condoned him forcing himself on her. And I know Sarah was supposed to be drugged and dying at that point, but Strahovski played that scene with so little conviction that I wondered if even she’s irritated with all the relationship BS.
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