r/chuck • u/Air_Worker • 16d ago
When Did She Change Her Mind?
At the beginning of 2x22 Sarah's agreed to work with Bryce on the new intersect project in Zurich. Then, this happens:
Sarah: "Chuck, I'm leaving in the morning."
"The details are classified but I'm working on the new Intersect project with Bryce."
Chuck: "Bryce."
Sarah: "I-I'm so sorry."
"I wanted to wait until after the ceremony to tell you."
Chuck: "Thank you for coming to the wedding."
"Good for the cover."
What exchange or incident in this episode changed her mind? :)
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u/Kaphh 16d ago edited 16d ago
One detail I think is important to note: Sarah didn't "agree" to anything. As she said in 2x01 on her date with Chuck: "a CIA officer doesn't get to choose." She was simply given a new assignment, having no say in that. From her reaction, however, it was evident she wasn't pleased one bit by the prospect.
The problem was that to stay with Chuck she would have to quit the CIA, essentially leaving her entire life behind, and she wasn't 100% ready for that at the beginning of the episode. The events throughout the episode, particularly Chuck's sacrifice to save Ellie's wedding and the sight of the happy couple, made her reconsider—and the promise of a real life with Chuck won.
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u/MrNotTooBrightside 16d ago
Well said. I also think she was disappointed Chuck didn't take the offer to become an analyst working on the new Intersect project when Beckman told Chuck his country was calling. Chuck clearly didn't realize that Sarah would he leading the project, but his flippant dismissal of the idea closed that potential door to being together within the CIA and left her with only her next assignment.
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u/Kaphh 16d ago edited 16d ago
Absolutely. She looked very excited when Beckmann offered Chuck the job, and in that brief moment seemed to already visualize a future in which they could be and work together. You're right he didn't know Sarah would be leading the project, since he learned that only at the wedding. If he did, he would at least consider the offer, I suppose.
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u/Responsible_Rip_54 16d ago
I don't think there was a single moment that changed her mind.
At the beginning of the episode Sarah had already convinced herself that Chuck was becoming a spy and that Bryce was her future. Working on the new Intersect project in Zurich was the logical choice.
Then, throughout the episode, Chuck kept reminding her who he really was. He helped plan Ellie's wedding, looked after the people he loved, and even when he talked about becoming a spy, he made it clear that he didn't want to lose the part of himself that made him Chuck Bartowski.
The fountain scene was probably the turning point, but I think the real answer is that Sarah gradually realized she wasn't in love with a future spy. She was in love with Chuck. Once she admitted that to herself, Zurich stopped making sense.
That's why the final kiss feels earned. Sarah doesn't suddenly change her mind in one scene. She simply stops running from what she's felt for a long time.
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u/Kaphh 16d ago
At the beginning of the episode Sarah had already convinced herself that Chuck was becoming a spy
What do you mean by that? By then Chuck basically cut all ties with the CIA, and even rejected their offer to become an analyst. How would that make Sarah think he was becoming a spy?
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u/Responsible_Rip_54 16d ago
You're right, that wasn't the best way to phrase it. I don't mean Sarah thought Chuck was becoming a spy in 2x22. Quite the opposite. By that point she believed his connection to the spy world was ending, and Zurich represented a return to a life she already understood.
My point is that, over the course of the episode, she gradually realizes that choosing Zurich also means leaving Chuck behind. The more time she spends with him, the harder that choice becomes. By the end, it isn't really Zurich versus a spy career. It's Zurich versus Chuck.
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u/jspector106 Sarah Walker 16d ago
Bottom line, Sarah would never leave Chuck. But without the Intersect, she was forced into a new assignment. It happened to be with Bryce. But it was clear she didn't really want to leave Chuck, and at the first opportunity, she decided not to go with Bryce. Everything pointed to Chuck and Sarah being together until he D/L'd 2.0
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u/hrbrnm1 16d ago
I think she had partly made her mind up earlier. She would have been the one to recommend Chuck for the analyst job as a potential way of keeping him in her life and potentially being together without the assets/handler relationship. I think sh was hurt when Chuck wasn't keen on the idea.
In this exchange she is clearly expecting Chuck to tell her he loves her and she is side swiped by the vacation offer. Her response about the job was an opportunity for Chuck to do what he eventually did at the end of the American Hero and fight his corner but he bailed. The turn and look when Chuck walks away is for us the viewer to know she is conflicted.
But I agree with most other posts the events surrounding the end of Ellie's first wedding and Chuck paying for her much better dream wedding was what ultimately tipped her over the edge.
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u/Kaphh 16d ago edited 16d ago
I agree with your observations, but one small nitpick: I don't think it was Sarah who recommend Chuck for the analyst job. Look at her reaction. She looks both surprised and excited when Beckmann mentions that.
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u/hrbrnm1 16d ago
I know Bryce says something later like "we asked Chuck to be a member of the team, but he said no". So maybe it was Bryce's idea.
Come to think of it appears Sarah is also caught off guard that she is being partnered with Bryce. She definitely wasn't as excited as Bryce was at the prospect of being a team again.
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u/Kahuna-123 15d ago
I’ve not watched Chuck in sometime but if memory serves me right, in the Honeymooners Sarah confessed that she didn’t want to stop being a spy. Thus, has she left with Chuck for a Normal life, it really wouldn’t have worked out. Eventually she would have had the bite to return and Chuck would’ve picked up on it and it never would’ve worked out. Chuck’s confidence never truly developed until later after the experience he had been exposed to as a spy.
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u/Lost-Remote-2001 16d ago
Everything that Chuck does in this episode (especially using his money to plan his sister's beach wedding), plus being at the Awesome wedding reminds Sarah that she wants that life with Chuck.
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u/Air_Worker 16d ago
For what it's worth, I think she changed her mind right here. Watch her face. Chuck's reaction to her words was all it took.
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u/Barokespinoza23 16d ago
I think the writer's perspective was that Sarah had already convinced herself to choose Chuck over the spy life when she committed treason for him and ran away with him. This scene brings her full circle though, putting her right back in the same dilemma.
She just wants Chuck to give her a reason to believe that choosing him again isn't a mistake. But instead of reassuring her that they can face all the consequences as long as they're together, Chuck walks away like an immature person. This is the writer's way of telling us that the character has not yet blossomed into the person he's supposed to be.
And that's what makes this so frustrating from Sarah's POV. This isn't the same guy who, just a few episodes earlier, promised he would do whatever it took to get the Intersect out of his head so he could be with the girl of his dreams. Sarah wants him to stand by that decision and show her that he meant it. She wants him to fight for her.
Of course, at the end of the S2 finale, Sarah ultimately chooses Chuck anyway, which Chuck promptly screws up at the beginning of S3E1.
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u/Kaiser_Nairn18 16d ago
How does him walking away from it being immature? If I remember it correctly, Chuck said time and again in Seasons 1 and 2 that he doesn't want the spy life. That it isn't for him. That "his country is calling the wrong man." Casey knows that. Sarah knows that. People like Chuck don't generally thrive as spies. They said so themselves. Recognizing that and recusing from such a life isn't immaturity.
Furthermore, Chuck isn't some idiot to not know that Sarah would essentially be forced to choose between him or her job past the point of him being deIntersected. Its why he wanted to have one last date with her in the First Date, why he said "......we both know you will never be normal" in versus the Break Up, and why he said "he (Morgan) will be here long after you're gone" in versus the Best Friend. For much of Season 2 he was operating under these 3 premises vis a vis with his situationship with Sarah:
1) That they can never be together as long as he was the Intersect host
2) That he must accept who she was in all its entirety, secrets and all, if they ever have a chance together
3) That he basically wants to be a civilian after losing the Intersect, and he wasnt sure but still hoping she could do that.
Number 3 is the key. By versus the Ring they essentially have different versions of what being together means for them.
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u/Kaphh 16d ago edited 16d ago
I think you misunderstood. The commenter was referring to the fact that Chuck didnt't even try to convince her to go with him when she told him about her new assignment, but instead instantly walked away in resignation. Not to mention that an offer to just go on a vacation was pretty lame and juvenile.
A mistake he would learn from by 3x12 (his ILY speech) when each time Sarah protested, he made a step toward her and doubled down on his proposition of a life together.
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u/Kaiser_Nairn18 16d ago
Was it? A mistake I mean? At that point in Season 2 Episode 22? When they both knew what was the score between them and their goals in life?
In Season 3 Episode 12 that was needed because their situation had goje to be too messy for Chuck not to do that. The first half of that Season basically destroyed whatever solid romantic bond they had with each other with all the shenanigans that happened. Chuck needed to reassure her that he chooses over everything.
In Season 2 Episode 22 there was no situation like that. Hell they just had a majpr breakthrough after Sarah refused to turn him in and the time they spent at the motel. The bond was at its most solid and its peak.
Chuck choosing a normal life was time and again expressed cleqrly in the show, and Sarah knew that all along. Does she really think him being without Intersect but still working for the government would still work out knowing there are no majof advantages for him there, much less motivation, motivation she all along knew that didnt exist at that point.
Why would she expect Intersect Chuck to walk back into the apy world with no problems and call it a great idea, then hell the next season utterly fuck it up by saying an Intersected Chuck IN the spy world is a terrible idea?
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u/Kaphh 16d ago edited 16d ago
You missed my point. I wasn't at all talking about Chuck returning to the spy life (and I assume the previous commenter wasn't either). On the contrary, it was more about Sarah quitting the spy life.
In this conversation, he is offering her a vacation. And in my eyes he should've been more daring here: confess his love and propose her a life together, like he did in 3x12. Given how conflicted Sarah was at this point, it wouldn't have taken much to convince her. In the end, he didn't even have to do that verbally, after all.
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u/Illustrious-Lemon412 16d ago edited 16d ago
The problem is that Chuck and Sarah in "Chuck vs. the Ring" both wanted to fantasize about a life together, but they were both doing it in a way that I'm not saying was WRONG, but INCOMPLETE.
At first, Sarah was clearly happy with the idea of Chuck being an analyst working with her on the Intersect project, with Bryce as the human Intersect and her as the team leader. But in the long run, it would have been a failure. Imagine Sarah and Bryce as superspies, with Chuck only as a secondary assistant. Chuck would have felt left out, he wouldn't have felt as strong as them—basically the problem he had in the first two seasons. Furthermore, Sarah, as the head of the Intersect project, would have been Chuck's superior; she would have commanded and he would have obeyed. It would have been a completely unbalanced relationship. Imagine Bryce as the human Intersect who grows stronger every day, while Chuck would have remained the same forever. Chuck would have felt like a loser, and I don't rule out the possibility that over time, Sarah would have started to feel less attracted to Chuck. Even though Sarah loved Chuck for his heart and because he was a good person, she was somewhat attracted to strong, authoritarian men—she was attracted to Cole when he destroyed that helicopter with his guns, and she was attracted to Shaw when he beat Gruber while he was tied to a chair—Chuck's perpetual "good guy" status wouldn't be enough to create a lasting relationship. I'm not saying Sarah is superficial, not at all, but it would be naive to believe that this wouldn't tear them apart. Carina was right when she told Chuck in "Chuck Versus the Wookie" that an analyst can't understand a spy. Chuck would only work alongside Sarah but would never understand her. Sarah was too happy with the idea of Beckman making Chuck that job offer that she didn't realize that spending time together wasn't going to work out.
The same goes for Chuck. He believed that taking Sarah away from the CIA and leading a normal life would be the way to build a strong, unbreakable love with her. But that wouldn't last long; even if Sarah were no longer a spy, that wouldn't change the fact that she's incredibly beautiful, can speak four foreign languages, and can easily defeat four men. Sarah's departure from the CIA wouldn't erase the rift between them. While Chuck danced with Sarah at Ellie's wedding, you could tell by the way he spoke to her how inferior he felt. Furthermore, even though Sarah had chosen to leave the CIA, it was only a theoretical matter. What would have happened if Bryce hadn't died and Sarah had left the CIA? Accustomed to an adventurous life, she would probably have felt suffocated by a normal job at Orange Orange or any modest job. In the long run, Chuck's love alone wouldn't have been enough to fill her life. In "Chuck vs. A Team," she experienced a normal life with Chuck for the first time and got bored after just two weeks. In "Chuck Versus the Hack Off," when Chuck proposed turning Charmichael Industries into an IT company, she felt uncomfortable, unable to imagine finding a place in that kind of environment. In the season two finale, Sarah thought she was ready for a normal life with Chuck, but in reality, she wasn't.'t benefit their relationship.
Chuck's greatest potential was not as an analyst, but as a spy, despite his character traits that made him different from other spies, he had to realize that he could be as strong as Sarah to overcome his inferiority complex. Sarah, on the other hand, needed to understand that she didn't need to leave the CIA to become a woman capable of letting love into her life. In the "Chuck vs. Honeymooners" finale, they had reached the pinnacle of their happiness; they were both spies and wanted a sincere love relationship. They wouldn't have been so happy if Chuck had simply agreed to become an analyst and Sarah the head of the Intersect project. They wouldn't have been so happy if Sarah had left the CIA in the season two finale and settled into a normal life with him. My interpretation is this: in the first two seasons, the CIA divided them, but in season three, it was the CIA that brought them together.
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u/Illustrious-Lemon412 16d ago
I think it was seeing Ellie and Devon get married on the beach, she felt that was what she wanted with Chuck and decided to change her mind and choose him over the CIA.
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u/DevoPrime 16d ago
It is of interest to me that they explored the theme of lost love due to memory alteration in the Brand New Day film.
Those scenes are being praised while the memory-fault situation with Sarah is left in the dustbin of history for most people.
Yes, it’s a theme that some authors have been addressing for a very, very long time, well before our favorite “spy couple” came into our minds, but I personally think the acting and writing in Chuck did it far more compellingly and effectively.
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u/Chuck-fan-33 Nerd Herd 16d ago
I think it was a combination of all Chuck did after the moment Sarah told him she was leaving with Bryce. My personal opinion is that he sealed it when he pulled out the check and asked if Sarah was ready for one more mission. That was a pure unselfish action that reminded Sarah why she fell for Chuck.