Re: Chuck -3x03 -"Chuck vs. the Angel de la Muer"-Discuss/Grade <SPOIL
Well, for one, I think that the trust that Sarah and Chuck had for each other has been rocked quite a bit.
Then the writers should deal with
that.
I think that they are, frankly. The first part of that was re-establishing their sense of
professional trust -- the arch in "Chuck Versus the Pink Slip," where Sarah goes from being convinced that Chuck's going to screw up any operation he's involved with to saying to him, in Mexico, as they need to zip-line off of the roof, "I trust you."
"Chuck Versus the Three Words" was essentially about Sarah being forced to confront the fact that Chuck did
not refuse to run away with her because his feelings for her had changed or because he didn't want to be with her, as she had apparently talked herself into thinking. So that lays the groundwork in establishing that Chuck did
not intentionally hurt her or emotionally withdraw from her.
One of the most interesting lines in "Chuck Versus the Angel de la Muer" was towards the very end. Chuck and Sarah, discussing their cover (but in reality discussing themselves at that point) are discussing whether they're going to be friends or not. Sarah pauses. "So what do friends do?"
I think that's interesting, because, really, Chuck and Sarah haven't developed a basis for their relationship outside of Unresolved Longing and spy stuff. They haven't really established a solid basis of what they have in common, what they like to do, how they relate to each other other than as professional partners or potential lovers. While they care about each other, they haven't established a real
friendship upon which they can build a real relationship. So I think that that will make Season Three an interesting thing to watch.
Now, having said that, I'll be disappointed if the Season Three finale comes and Chuck and Sarah haven't finally hooked up. The writers should spend the rest of this season developing a better basis of the Chuck/Sarah relationship, and the characters should hook up by the finale. If they don't, then I'll agree that it's an unnatural development. I think that the current situation makes sense and is a natural outgrowth of their characters, but I think that if they aren't together once they've put this behind them, it won't seem like a natural outgrowth of their character arcs at all.
It's funny how people bitch about Noah & Claire's see-saw on Heroes. Or the way the writers can't decide whether Sylar is good or bad. So why is a see-saw on Chuck okay? It's the same problem - we know what's coming and it never goes anywhere.
I don't watch
Heroes and don't give a shit what they're doing over there.
And, besides all that -- do you really think the NSA/CIA are going to allow Chuck and Sarah to be together?
Why not? The military alllows servicepeople to marry, and soldiers need to be "under control" just as much as spies do. Both groups are valuable if well disciplined and dangerous if they go off the reservation. I doubt the real-life CIA demands all their agents be celibate. They probably have normal home lives just like the military, meaning as normal as can be expected when one spouse is often deployed overseas.
Again, the CIA and NSA in this series are a great deal more sinister than their real counterparts. Seems to me that they deliberately recruited Sarah because she was a young woman who was alienated from society, had no family once her father was in jail, and had no real loyalties or direction. They took her in because they knew that they could make themselves her primary loyalty. I don't think they like the idea of agents having loyalties to anything other than the government in this series.