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Chuck -2x17 -"Chuck vs. The Predator"-Discuss/Grade <SPOILERS>

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I don't think the premise is "Chuck loves Sarah" at all. That's more of a complication than the premise. It's also a reason for Chuck working with the government, but they can introduce any number of other reasons.
Chuck Loves Sarah is the premise now. If the premise is limiting the story possibilities (and I agree - it's a very limiting premise) then it's not "against the rules" to change the premise. It would be unusual, and risky (viewers might bail out of annoyance; assuming you'd get new viewers because of the new premise is very dubious, shows don't really gain viewers anymore) but not impossible.

Given the ratings, Chuck probably has one more season in it. Giving a good wrapup to the Chuck Loves Sarah premise could fill a whole season.

And I'm skeptical that this show is radical enough for a change in premise. Look at the Xmas episode where it seemed like Chuck was going to be permanently on the outs with Sarah when she reveals herself capable of cold-blooded murder. What happens when Chuck's sense of morality conflicts with his love for Sarah? That's interesting, meaty stuff but the writers ditched it almost immediately. If they wanted to change the premise, there was their chance.

Including Chuck accepting what happened to him. If anything, Sarah is the obstacle to that happening; he's far more interested in getting that information out of his head because he thinks that will let him be with her.
He can't accept what happened to him because it puts his life in continual danger. The CIA/NSA could remove the threat he poses by killing him or locking him up; they don't only because he's more useful as an agent than a prisoner or a corpse. For now. But when the Intersect is rebuilt, then he'll be a prisoner or a corpse because he has the Intersect.

He's in an untenable situation made tolerable only through the distraction that Sarah represents and the hope that the Intersect can be removed. Really, that's the premise - Chuck Needs To Have Intersect Removed. But that's an even worse premise than Chuck Loves Sarah, because it's the Gilligan's Island problem - every week they try to get off the island and every week they fail.

How's that for boring? Chuck will try to have the Intersect removed and succeed only in the final episode. Might as well turn it off now and tune back in for the series finale.
 
Why can't he accept what happened to him?

By accepting it, he can choose to become a full-blown agent or even continue doing what he's doing now if, for some reason, becoming an agent isn't possible. If shit happens to you, you don't just deal with it by fawning over some unobtainable girl: You either accept it and deal with it, or you become a pathetic joke. Chuck is quickly turning into a pathetic joke.

If Sarah were shot in the head next episode, the premise of the show will not have changed. The premise is still basically "Chuck gets turned into a spy computer and has to help the government as a result." It has since the beginning as far as I know, and that's still the premise today. Chuck's infatuation with Sarah is a complication and an incentive for the premise, but it is most definitely not the premise.

He also doesn't have to have the Intersect removed. He wants it removed, especially because he thinks it'll allow him to be with Sarah, but he doesn't have to have it removed. This is another complication to the premise, not the premise.

In essence, he's basically been conscripted into the spy game. It's little different than if the government just decided to force someone to become a spy for any other number of reasons. He can easily choose to accept what's happened to him and move on, continuing what he's doing not only out of a sense of acceptance, but out of a a sense of duty or patriotism. Learning that the Intersect can be removed and thus returning to a life he wants rather than one forced upon him is a source of hope, just as much as having a life with Sarah is. Or any other number of possibilities. But neither of those two are the only possibilities, nor a requirement for the show.

Yvonne is nice to look at, so I'm glad she's not going to get a cap in her ass. But I vehemently disagree that she's a requirement for the show any more than Casey, Morgan, Jeffster, or anyone else in the show is aside from Chuck himself.

Hell, he could even be abducted and forced to become a part of Fulcrum and the show could keep going on. It's all about him and what happens to him. Everything else revolves around that.
 
General Beckman should sleep with him.

Show him what a real woman can do, and he'll forget all about that blonde lumberjack.
 
Why can't he accept what happened to him? He also doesn't have to have the Intersect removed. He wants it removed, especially because he thinks it'll allow him to be with Sarah, but he doesn't have to have it removed.

Of course he does. The information and the effect of its storage is for a mechanical repository, not an organic one. Chuck also "blacks out" when he flashes. There's a definite physical danger to Chuck retaining all this information and recognizing it the way he does.

And he's really not into killing people and jeopardizing himself, his family and friends, you know? So this "acceptance" thing is ridiculous.

--Ted
 
If he can't get it out of his head, then he should level the playing field and make everyone else on the planet an Intersect once he captures the Fulcrum unit... Y'Know like how 200,000 Kryptonians just showed up on Earth after the Bottle City of Kandor was expanded to regular size.

Last Son no more.
 
Why can't he accept what happened to him?
Because sooner or later, the CIA/NSA will murder him. Or maybe you mean he should accept his inevitable demise and be content with dying for the greater good? Hey, Chuck's never been the selfish type but I don't want him to become downright masochistic. :rommie: Even that doormat Jason Bourne fought back.
The premise is still basically "Chuck gets turned into a spy computer and has to help the government as a result."
The premise is "Chuck gets turned into a spy computer and has to help the government as a result so they don't murder him."

His only means of survival is to get the Intersect out of his head, and he knows it.

Hell, he could even be abducted and forced to become a part of Fulcrum and the show could keep going on.
For a while - but that will get old, too. I hope they do that, it would be different. The show will be lucky to last another season and they could have Chuck kidnapped by Fulcrum in the game-changing season finale and spend half a season on that. Then half a season for a good wrap up to his story.
General Beckman should sleep with him.

If he can't get it out of his head, then he should level the playing field and make everyone else on the planet an Intersect once he captures the Fulcrum unit... Y'Know like how 200,000 Kryptonians just showed up on Earth after the Bottle City of Kandor was expanded to regular size.

Now there's a man who thinks outside the box. Game changers indeed! :rommie: Beckmen obviously is too tightly wound and would treat Chuck better if he were "nice" to her - hey, given the alternative, it's worth a try?
 
Why do you think the CIA/NSA will murder him? Every time it's been mentioned that I've seen, it's been mentioned as a contingency plan and it's a contingency he has no idea about. Aside as a threat for not working with them.

And what happened to Sarah being an integral part of the premise? :P Now you're saying that he has to get the Intersect out of his head or he gets murdered. Nevermind that it's yet another complication to the premise, and not the premise itself. :P
 
Why do you think the CIA/NSA will murder him? Every time it's been mentioned that I've seen, it's been mentioned as a contingency plan and it's a contingency he has no idea about.

He's been threatened many times as to what would happen if he doesn't play along. If he doesn't work for the government, they HAVE to kill him. He has too much information in him.. Basic premise. He knows that.

--Ted
 
Yes, but it's not a foregone conclusion that he must die if he doesn't get the Intersect out of him. Especially if he accepts what happened and volunteers to become, you know, a real agent for them. It doesn't even have to be as a field agent; he's proven that the flashes work through video and even audio feeds, afterall.

But he's never been told, "hey Chuck, we're going to kill you just for being the Intersect. Oh, and even if you do get it out of your head, we can't take the chance that you might remember something. So QQ the pew pew."
 
Chuck getting kidnapped by Fulcrum should happen around the same time all his friends find out he's a spy. Then Sarah, Casey, and the entire Buy More gang could get together to rescue him! I could totally see that arc spanning at least 4-5 episodes.
 
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