...it made even less sense than usual. And for a show like this? That's really saying something!
**SPOILER ALERT** (Annie, that means you, Miss I'd Rather Be In Ireland...) :)
Honestly, I can usually gloss over the bits that don't make a damn bit of sense, but last night, the WTF? moments were just too frequent to ignore. On top of that, the glaring illogicals made the more minor offenses seem more obvious.
To quote my mother as Chuck and the entire armed forces descend upon that weird, abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere (more on that later), "Wait, how did t
hey get there so fast?" I would have generally responded with something like, "Seriously? On a show where the base concept is that a geeky nobody had a couple of databases downloaded into his brain so that he knows everything, including Kung Fu, and that's your major quibble? 'How did they get there so fast?'" But, after last night's parade of "Wait, what?" I had to concede the point.Before I go too far down the rabbit hole, I have to make it clear that I really did enjoy last night's episode. I'll espouse the virtues later on, but for now, on with the absurd!
Okay, first thing, I understand that the writers were trying to build suspense for the audience and keep us guessing as to whether Shaw was a baddie or not, but the characters in the show should have been asking a lot of the same questions we were.
First off: I'm sorry, why the hell did Shaw have that video of his wife getting Red Tested set up in some bizarre warehousy something or other in the middle of nowhere? I get that he was
trying to convince Sarah that he had tracked down the Ring director and that that was their base, or whatever, but why? It just seemed like way too elaborate a ploy if he didn't really intend to kill her at that point. Why not just show the recovered video? Was this all a big elaborate escapade to convince Beckmann to send them to Paris? Again, that seems totally unnecessary. There would have been a dozen easier, more logical ways of getting this done.Off that same point: Why the hell didn't Sarah find it odd that Shaw was pointing a gun at her for the better part of the warehouse incident? If this really was just some sort of gambit to get
Sarah to see the footage (which Chuck already knew about and which Shaw could have told her about), then why was he acting all suspicious? If I were trying to convince Sarah that I was still on her side, I probably wouldn't be pointing my gun at her... I guess this was all a ruse to convince his cohorts that he wasn't a Ring operative, but again, probably shouldn't be treating Sarah like a hostile and overall being creepy and wei
rd. He's supposed to be a badass agent who should really lie a lot better than that. He was acting weird enough that Sarah activated her tracking signal. That equals crappy spywork. Oh, and furthermore, was Shaw trying to pretend that he hadn't seen the footage? Because he certainly didn't come across as such. He obviously already knew about it, so why are we in a warehouse in the middle of the desert again?!Second, er, Third: Is there some reason Shaw simply has to do everything the insanely hard way? He takes Sarah all the way to Paris so that he can kill her and send a message to the CIA. Fine. Whatever. Trying to exact some poetic justice. Got it. But
why exactly does this murder plot involve drugging her with some magical paralytic, sitting in a cafe while he monologues ("You sly dog! You caught me monologuing!"), and then going to drown her in the river? Shaw, my man, this job doesn't need to be this hard. Or protracted. I understand building suspense and taking creative license (this is a pseudo spy thriller, after all), but couldn't it at least kind of make sense? He explains all this stuff to Sarah about his reasons, and I guess he just wanted her to know why he was doing what he was doing, but a lot of that information was intended to be heard by CIA ears, I have to assume. Well, that message is going to be pretty hard to relay, 
what with the messenger at the bottom of the Seine. If he really wanted to send a message to the CIA about his wife's death, he should have shot Sarah in the exact same location (or at least I would have). With her drowning in the river, who's to say the CIA would even put two and two together? Poetic, they ain't... and apparently, neither are you... Besides, with the whole reason Chuck was able to find them based on the location where his wife was shot, why wasn't the plan to kill her there? What's with the cafe? And the river?! Was he aiming for this to be a particularly cruel death for Sarah? If so, why? He's pissed at her for killing his wife (ridiculously), but he says that the paralytic will ease the pain and seems to sincerely want this to be easy on her. Then why the hell didn't he just shoot her in the head (in the right 
Parisian location) and end things instantly?! It doesn't make any sense. Is this all so that Chuck could take the time to dress up like a waiter in order to sneak up on Shaw? Because, once again, seriously?! He took the time to play dress up while her life was hanging in the balance? Uh, sure... Why not... (I'm guessing from a logistical standpoint the production team didn't have a choice for whatever reason, but if you have to cut corners, do it better than this, please...)Fourth, I believe: And yes, I realize I've already been annoyed by this, but why is he blaming Sarah in the first place? Sarah's almost as much a victim in all this as he is. It was the worst day of both their lives. She was carrying out orders she didn't want to and thought his wife was
pulling a gun on her. He knows all this. And yet, in order to get back at the CIA, he kills her? I guess he's trying to be symmetrical and poetic here, but wouldn't it have sent a much more powerful message to the CIA to have killed Chuck instead? I'm pretty sure the CIA would have taken Sarah's death in stride (agents get killed all the time, right?), but Chuck? The intersect?! MUCH bigger deal. That's the angle I would have taken, but Shaw is the mastermind here... apparently... so who am I to argue?There are a lot more issues I had with this episode, but I grow weary of asking dozens of questions to which I don't anticipate ever getting any answers. I enjoyed the episode, but all the awesomeness was somewhat marred by the ubiquity of "Wait, why is he doing that?!" Who knows, maybe I'm just burned out and am seeing plot holes where none really exist, but my family was equally annoyed, so it doesn't appear to just be me. Having worked myself into a right dither, I think I'd best turn to the good things this episode had to offer...
Most important? Chuck, it appears, can be the same guy he's always been and be a spy. In a previous post, I noted what a game-changer it would have been for Chuck to k
ill a guy in cold blood, based on orders. I stand by that. But he just shot Shaw to death! you say? Completely different. The writers found a way to make shooting someone completely in line with Chuck's fundamentals. At the end of the day, he hates guns and isn't real keen on killing people, but there isn't anything he wouldn't do for the people he loves. It was really nice to see after that three seasons, Chuck has become a man. So much of the first two seasons was prefaced on Chuck feeling lost, insecure, ineffective, useless, impotent, and needy. Now, when push comes to shove and its truly life and death, he comes through. So often Chuck has dropped the ball in the past, screwed things up, and let Sarah down. Now, when it matters the most, he was able to step up and save the day. It was a really nice moment. (Even if it means that Superman's easy-to-look-atishness won't be on the show anymore...)On that note, as much as I actually enjoyed Sarah and Shaw as a pairing, I'm glad that storyline is over. As is evidenced by the points enumerated above, the writers didn't quite seem to know exactly where to go with all this... So, even though it was wrapped up less successfully than I would have hoped, at least it done with. From an overarching narrative standpoint, it's really quite fitting that in order for Chuck to become the guy he wants to be, he has to take down the one-time emblem of everything he aspired to. After all the crazy boils down, being Shaw does not equal being the perfect spy or the perfect lover. Which brings me to Sarah... and Chuck...
So yeah, Chuck manned-up, saved the day, and got the girl. Where exactly do we go from here? Although I've never been much of a Shucker, it was a admittedly satisfying
to see Chuck and Sarah finally get together. Quite frankly, the sexual tension this season hasn't exactly had me on the edge of my seat, so really, I don't think there's too much threat of losing the basic appeal of the show (unlike on Gossip Girl). This really does change things for the show going forward, however... It will be interesting to see how the new dynamic changes the show. Chuck is a real spy now. Sarah and Casey are more like partners than keepers. Morgan is... on the team now... or something... but has to keep cover at the Buy More... or whatever... (I know this section is about to be about good things, but once again, that didn't make a ton of sense.) I assume Morgan is the means by which they'll keep the Buy More as part of the show. It hasn't made any sense for Chuck to be there for a good long while, so at least they're getting him out of there. I really hope Morgan isn't going to act as a reboot for the geek-thrown-into-the-spy-world trope that started the show. I love Morgan and all, but I 
don't think I need that much of him.I really hope that as the show continues the writers will really embrace a new direction, even if some of the motifs and themes remain. The show is necessarily different now and I don't think there's any going back. As I'm writing this, it is curiously apparent how season/series finaleish the last episode was... After doing a little digging, it turns out that yes, indeed, this was designed as a season (or heaven forbid, series) finale, but thanks to NBC's crazy-ass scheduling and the Jay Leno event, it was turned into just another episode. It's weird to think that it'll be back in a couple of weeks with new episodes for the current season. Anyway, I'm hoping that the show really looks at how Chuck and Sarah work as actual teammates. We've seen glimpses of the awesomeness of her pairing with Bryce and it should be interesting to see how she fares with Chuck. I'm not sure how Casey will fit into everything, but at least he has his post back. I just don't know. Having Chuck be competent throws a major wrench into the entire conceit of the show. It'll be interesting to see how the writers handle that. I'm excited, but admittedly apprehensive.
Here's hoping we get a season 4 so that we can find out if they pull it all off. From what I'm hearing, it'll get picked up. It's most recent numbers haven't been great, but they're consistent and have gone up a tick from the low of a couple of weeks ago. NBC doesn't have a whole lot of other candidates (although I hear The Marriage Ref has been renewed--please contain your excitement), so hopefully Chuck will get a break. It's in better position this year than it was last, so theoretically, it should make it.
My fingers are crossed, just in case.
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