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Five years ago this Friday, on Jan. 27, 2012, NBC’s Chuck left viewers with a goodbye kiss — but was it “magical,” or a miss?
To recap, on this Throwback Thursday: Sarah entered the two-hour series ender (titled “Chuck Versus Sarah” and “Chuck Versus the Goodbye”) with amnesia, having briefly hosted the Intersect. And her husband’s initial efforts to reconstitute her memories and rekindle their romance came up empty.
The action-comedy’s very final scene (literally) mirrored one from its pilot, as Chuck, on a beach, implored Sarah to let him help her. To that end, Sarah asked Chuck to tell her their story — and he launched into a flashback-filled, “Rivers and Roads”-scored revisiting of the unlikely romance between Buy More nerd and bombshell spy. Chuck then shared BFF Morgan’s idea that with “one magical kiss,” he might be able to give Sarah’s memory the reboot it needs. “Kiss me,” she responded, smiling, leaving us with a liplock that either restored the pair’s “happily ever after”… or didn’t.
But it probably did. Officially, series creators Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz declined to confirm the outcome, telling TVLine that night, “The ending has a bit of magic to it. People should believe in how they wanted it to end.” Series lead Zachary Levi, however, has been more bullish.
“So many fans were apoplectic,” Chuck’s portrayer notes in the TVLine video below, at the 6:30 mark. “The show for so long was about this romance… and for there to be even an outside chance that they were not [together in the end], people were really, really bummed. But I’ve always interpreted it as, ‘Absolutely Chuck and Sarah end up together.’ They’re on their way to falling in love again.”
TVLine readers gave the series finale at the time an average grade of “B+.” Ratings-wise, the two-hour farewell averaged 4.2 million total viewers and a 1.3 demo rating, rising week-to-week to season highs.
Rewatch the final scene above, then tell us how you, five years later, remember Chuck’s beach buss?
It was a good episode. OF COURSE they had a happily ever after.
Also people keep missing what to me is the most important point: She *wanted* him to kiss her. Doesn’t that kinda tell you everything you need to know?
But I gotta say, for my money, the best scene of the entire finale was Jeffster! performing “Take on Me.” You can’t argue with true art.
Jeffster was amazing! And all the little things that were for the fans (like the porn virus) was great.
I know right?! I turned my daughter on to Chuck a year ago, and we watched them all together but I admit, the finale was special – I could not WAIT for her to see that sequence, as she turned out to be as big a Jeffster fan as I was – we even got matching Jeffster! t-shirts, like the dorky mother-daughter duo we are.
I hope Jeffster is closing each show in Reno (or Reneaux!) with that number. I still miss this show so much!!
Bwahahahaha! I always imagined they had a great tour but then got chased out of Germany due to an unfortunate incident involving the daughters of mid-level bureaucrats, a llama, and a stolen Porsche.
Jeffster had the best ending for any of the characters. And as much as I love them, thats just wrong.
Oh I think it’s exactly right. But I don’t think the other characters had bad endings, frankly. I loved the finale. It was perfection – left somewhere to go, but hopeful and bright.
It’s time they pick up this show once more, I’ll take a made-for-TV movie even. It would be lovely to see the whole gang back together again and certainly better than most junk on TV today!
Y’know, I started to reject this notion but then I thought … wait, I actually kinda wanna see that. I think Chuck, more than most old(er) shows, would lend itself pretty darn well to a reboot/reunion.
The series was great in season 1 and 2 when he was just a normal guy…and relatable. After they retooled the show it was kinda bad.
I kind of hated season one and two. Very procedural and by the numbers.
I liked the evolution. Going from the guy who spends two years getting into the game hiding under tables, to the guy who suddenly does it all and is still very unsure of himself. It just worked exceptionnally well, in my view.
It was one of the weird benefits of being constantly on the bubble, it really pushed them. I recall early on the said Chuck wouldn’t hold a gun until season 7.
I still mantain season 2 of Chuck was fantastic. About as perfect a season of television ive ever seen
I have to agree. The show started him out as a nerd who worked in an electronic store. Then a couple seasons later, he dropped the nerd role and started acting like a bad a**. The nerd role is what made his character.
Of course they’re in love. And that kiss was magical. Disney movies as Morgan would say.
This ending still leaves me really bitter. I cannot get what the execs were thinking. Chuck was always such a cheerful and fun show so to leave it on a bittersweet note was just bizarre. Was there anyone wanting who wanted the cynical ending where Chuck and Sarah were not together. If not, then why even entertain that possibility. Anyways, still miss the show like crazy. Zachary, Yvonne, Adam, Josh etc… created magic.
Ditto. Don’t try for a “clever” ending. Just tie everything up in a bow and make the viewers who supported you happy. It really isn’t that hard.
Totally agree … I would have loved to end show with Sarah vs chuck right after DVD that Casey gave her . Made no sense for her to wipe at dvd then say she doesn’t feel it !!!
We had that ending:
Chuck vs the Baby
Chuck and Sarah’s story is officially done, the only thing left is a baby and a house and while the fans wont get to see it, they are optimistic about the future, we know they will have those things. Morgan and Alex are back together and her relationship with Casey has never been stronger and we finally have the last piece of the Sarah Walker puzzle in place, her mom and why she’s been missing all this time. The show should have ended there!
Although so many are happy to believe that everything would be ok for Chuck and Sarah, the whole premise that, after taking so many years to really be together, cheered on by a loyal fan base, that we would consider it to be a “love letter” to us to erase all that and let them start again, is beyond weird. As an analogy, imagine I spent 5 years painstakingly building the most wonderful model railway, would I be delighted if someone stomped all over it, destroying it and then saying “well, you should thank me. What fun for you, you can enjoy building that all over again”. I don’t think so.
I feel like they tried for a happy ending every other time they were almost cancelled, and when they finally got a great ending and it was official, they decided to throw the happy ending out the window. Still mad.
That’s how I feel…well, maybe not bitter, but very disappointed. Despite the fact that Chuck was my favorite show ever, I’ve not rewatched any of season 5 since this finale. I just can’t.
I have not and will not ever watch season 5 again even though this is one of my favorite shows ever. I cannot believe they would leave ANY doubt after all they had to go through to get there. It left SO much to be desired. People loved rooting for them. But it turned out your team made it to the Super Bowl only to get destroyed and embarrassed, leaving a pit in the bottom of your stomach. I may have misspoke earlier. I will watch season 5 again IF they bring the show back and we find that Sarah regained her memories. Otherwise, don’t bother. As for Yvonne – She is absolutely amazing! Never has anyone suck me in and made me feel so much emotion in a TV show. I cannot get over how well she “sold” everything she did! The rest of the cast was fantastic too. The cast is a huge reason that show is so good. They all had amazing chemistry!
Yeah it was a great show until that Sopranos style bitter taste in your mouth, slap to the face ending
I’m late to this and to Chuck; only watched the finale last night, seven years late. I feel exactly the same. Utterly deflated :-(
I know no-one will read this but I just feel the need to vent!!
Omg I’ve literally just watched the finale tonight myself after spending the last few weeks binge watching and neglecting my family lol.
I love and hate the ending. I love how it got completely turned upside down one last time and Sarah going back to be full on spy but think the writers missed a trick. So many things Chuck knew about Sarah pre-Chuck that he could have used to win her trust earlier (her name, her parents, the baby she saved) things she never told anyone but would have still remembered. The pic they drew never resurfaced either. I thought that would have all been tied in somehow. And it was just so sad that potentially she wouldn’t have remembered any of it. I am disappointed to not get the tied up happy ending I was hoping for. Feels like it’s unfinished.
Dang just finished watching final episode. Wow!!! Wish there was another 5 seasons waiting, or anything really. Even my wife liked it. Feel like it was one of the last good shows out there.
I read your comment! I watched the first four seasons faithfully when they were on the air, and really loved the show, but when they switched to Friday nights for the last season we were often out when it aired and missed most of it. We didn’t have a DVR at the time. So I bought the DVDs (all 5 seasons) over the course of time since the show ended its run (for a while we were sans Netflix – if I’d have known it was on there for a while I might have re-subscribed rather than buying the DVDs), but of course by then I hadn’t watched the 1st season in like 8 years so started watching from the first season all over again.
Not sure why it took so long to finally get to the last season but…I finally finished it via Amazon Prime (which is more convenient than popping DVD/Blu Ray disks in the player) and I liked the final episodes and am really sad to see the show go.
Chuck was indeed a great show. Other networks have tried the superteam (Scorpion, Whisky Cavalier more recently, and there have been other examples in the intervening years) and they never last, or produce as much fun, action and romance as Chuck did. Was the ending perfect? I won’t say it was perfect, but it was good, I was satisfied, I’m not going to pick it apart. Even the worst episode of Chuck was pretty good and the best were just fantastic. The finale was far from the worst episode even if it maybe didn’t reach the heights of the very best the show was capable of. Would love to see them get the team back together for a made for streaming movie or something.
I’m in the same place in June, 2020. I loved the show, particularly the obvious if initially unacknowledged love between Chuck and Sarah. Yvonne Strahovski (sic?) had these great micro expressions that were perfect for the frequent mixed emotions her role required, and she had the look of love down without it ever appearing practiced. To have all that history cast into doubt in the final scene hurt in an almost personal way. And to be responding emotionally a decade after the rest of the world moved on is a little haunting. So it was nice to see your comment, Colin.
That’s what I thought, all that character progression wiped out. I have since watched the last episode again and I did enjoy it much more second time around. It was much more obvious they would keep going but still. The memories mostly gone is sad. I also thought she would have trusted Chuck a lot quicker and Sarah always wanted to do good. She showed that going against her handler with the baby so why would she automatically trust Quinn? If a Chuck perhaps shared info he knew about her life she may have come round quicker but he only stuck to a few facts. But we love it enough to feel strongly about it so they did a good job in the end.
I think Sarah’s growth from the series is still starting to show through there by the end. The old Sarah Walker wouldn’t have asked for that kiss. The show featured multiple episodes where characters lose their memories but in the end retain their inherent personalities or have those memories restored (Chuck in Chuck vs Phase 3, Morgan lost some pop-culture references but he didn’t lose his memory of his friendship with Chuck, or his feelings for Alex, and Alexi Volkoff – the Intersect wiped out all his memories and his entire personality, but it all got restored to the point where his identity reverted to that of Hartley Winterbottom).
The main theme of the series – underlying the humor and action – is that loyalty/fidelity and love for friends and family can come with some costs if you are a spy – but in the end that triumphs, time and again. Did the kiss work like magic? It wouldn’t be outside the ethos of the show to believe it did. Even if it didn’t, I’m inclined to believe it worked at least partially. This show which was, at its core, a fun, joyous romp of a comedy action series, with maybe a smidge more heart/shmaltz/sappiness than the cynic in you would normally tolerate – but somehow they made it work – no one will convince me that it ended on a bummer.
It’s nice to still have people talking about this show at this late date. Anyone who likes it should check out the Amazon original series The Tick – it’s got a similar fish out of water hero (Arthur) and a similar mix of action, comedy and heart. I’m talking the Amazon show starring Peter Serafinowicz and Griffin Newman, not the one Fox made years ago with Patrick Warburton (who played David Puddy on Seinfeld). Unfortunately Amazon’s The Tick only lasted two seasons so it’s good but short. All I’m saying is it might help fill the void a little.
Great thanks will give it a go. I do like a bit of everything in a TV show.
You asked why she would trust Quinn. But look at her season one boyfriend and then the guy Chuck killed twice. Clearly she like bad boys and in the second case, (Cole?) didn’t mind ignoring her clear feelings for Chuck, when she apparently slept with the other guy in Washington. Which reminds me of two questions. Why did she give her real name to that agent after a couple of days, yet make Chuck wait until he found a name out on his own?
Finally, in season 4 why would she set up a voluntary, dangerous mission of weeks to months and a fake imprisonment for treason without warning him and on a night when she expected him to propose. I think I would have looked up Kristen Kreuk and have been long gone when she returned. It was never an equal relationship.
The scene was depressing because the pattern of the entire series was to raise a problem and have the two of them work it out and remain very much in love. This was like a tune that fails to resolve on the note you expect. Dissonant. Plus, it was hard work for them to get past Sarah’s thick shell. Why think it would happen again. I think there must be a special hell for writers that come up with endings like this.
I’m watching Chuck for the first time and am 2 episodes from the end, now I do not want to watch –feeling sad
I loved the ending. They clearly are going to get back together. Go for it!
Totally agree. What a devastating ending to their love story. Wish I had never invested time in the show.
where does Chuck stream? Think it would be nice to have it on in the background! Such a good show!
It used to be on Netflix, I guess they removed it a few months ago. Hopefully it will come back or move to Hulu.
Noooooooo! I was counting on Chuck to take me to my happy place again. I’ve gotten so used to streaming, will have to go back to archaic DVDs.
Install the app “terrarium tv”.
U can find it on Facebook & install it from there 😀 Exactly the same as Netflix but free!
It’s on Amazon Prime now.
I remember myself back then. Sat behind my PC as tears covered my face. I couldn’t believe it.. it took me some time to understand what happened.
I would be so happy if Chuck were to come back. They would have to upgrade some things but I’m sure it would still be epic. One can dream
Always a great show. I’d love a reunion movie, but I have NO doubt Chuck and Sarah and happily together in their house
One (1) user name per IP address, thank you so much! —Mgmt.
5 years later and it is still one of the worst endings of a show ever. They completely wiped out 5 years of progress of Sarah’s character and started over. Horrible ending.
Still better than dexter
Agreed, far worse. How I Met Your Mother’s was atrocious, as well.
That one was the worst ever! Chuck’s ending hasn’t spoiled watching the show for me, there’s at least a chance for a happy ever after, but I can’t watch HMYM knowing how it ends.
Agreed. It was a total disservice to both Sarah and Yvonne who gave such a fantastic performance over 5 seasons.
Just because she couldn’t remember doesn’t mean it never happened…
EVER? Not even close to being a horrible ending. It left me feeling that these 2 would always know that they were meant to be and that she would be lucky enough to fall for him all over again. Loved the ending!
Totally agree
Well, Sarah did show signs of her memory returning, including remembering how she did her undercover job at Wienerlicious, and she also remembered the Irene Demova virus from the very first episode.
It seems to me like you can look at it one of two different ways:
either A) They kiss, the memories come flooding back, and they pick up where they left off;
or B) They kiss, sparks fly, and they get to fall in love all over again.
Seems pretty romantic in either case.
Case B) seems bad when you look in terms of Chuck. He has to try and win over his wife from scratch. Eventually he would succeed but given that they were on the verge of starting a family, it seems sad for Chuck.
Only if you look at wooing as work. And it’s not really like he has to win her over – she asks for the kiss. She wants to get there with him; the only question is whether they get to take the shortcut or have to go the long way around.
It’s not work but it is painful. Imagine basically being a complete stranger to your wife and having to rebreak those walls that she had when you first got to know her. It’s definitely not a romantic experience for him.
I’m with @Wordsmith: it is still an epic romance, and they get to rediscover each other again. Of course, I still sob through the entire episode, but I did look at it optimistically after reviewing it a couple of times.
But she also lost her personal growth over the 5 years, as well as her friendships with Casey, Ellie and Awesome. Only Chuck, Morgan, and Alex would have been around while Sarah recovered. That’s the saddest and most frustrating part of the finale to me (how little Sarah seemed to matter to anyone other than Chuck).
It’s not that she didn’t matter to everybody except Chuck I just think everybody knew that if anybody could bring back her memories it would be Chuck. And besides, we all know the kiss brought them back.
This is what I thought at first. But then I realized that #1 there are other intersect glasses and the Intersect can play on any screen, #2 there are still backups since the laptop was not confirmed destroyed, and #3 if Ellie can program a suppression device in a span of a half hour while team B was on a bullet train, then she can 100% reconstruct the restoration Intersect. Besides, by 2012 most email was on IMAP instead of POP3 so anything being sent by email has copies somewhere. A couple hours is so unbelievably fast for any coding project, let alone one with grave consequences, that to do this she has to be the world’s expert at it. So it’s pretty clear that, if experience serves us well, the technological challenge can be overcome, Awesome and Ellie are not going to be able to escape to total life normalcy anytime soon or at all, and all Chuck has to do is get Sarah on board to want to recover her past, and it seems like he succeeded. For any outcome other than Sarah regaining most of her memories to happen, it would have to be that moving to Chicago made Ellie stop obsessively hovering over Chuck and stop being fascinated by the tech, and we know that that’s completely out of character.
It was a good series finale. I miss Chuck so much. Hope a reunion movie will happen someday.
Not a fan of building something up (a key romantic relationship), then in the last season to be “smart” and “interesting” tearing it down, only to in the finale give a teeny tiny bit of hope to the audience as you end the entire series.
.
It hasn’t happened so it won’t happen but the show critically needed a made-for-TV-movie (like how Sam Axe got one from Burn Notice on USA) where we skipped forward ~5 years and Chuck and Sarah are married with at least one kid.
I concur
The story of Chuck and Sarah continues happily ever after! Never has a show fused action, comedy, romance, music, and relevant pop culture in such a mesmerizing magical concoction. The memories are returning to Sarah as the screen fades to black…there is no doubt in my mind.
Worst ending in recent memory to one of my favorite shows. I felt like they took away everyone’s happiness at the end. Bad final couple episodes, to be honest.
Nope. How I Met Your Mother.
Dexter
Fair, HIMYM might be the one worse one. Chuck is still up there as one of the worst though!
Ironic, that the mentioned series were also among my favorites, and also got lousy endings. Totally agree.
Worst ending for a series in my opinion was Medium. Why they took a happy, loving couple & had to kill him off is beyond me. Plus she always had these visions of when something bad was going to happen so why not before Joe got on that plane?
Totally agree. The last few episodes almost wiped out the first 4 1/2 years of the best TV EVER! Still trying to get over it 5 years later. Which means that the writers did a great job to get me to care enough about fictional characters so much. Great job. But I still hate the endings.
one lil “i’m getting my memories back” montage would have salvaged the whole show! i still feel bitter. that was 90ish episodes of support!
Watch the fan made happy ending, on youtube.
Her asking him to kiss her said that. To me at least.
I miss this show. So. Much.
Why you going to do me like this Matt, and bring up all the feels from that show and its finale. I still miss Chuck it was such a great show. I agree with Zach i think they probably rekindled their love affair. TV movie Please, or a limited series. If 24 gets one Chuck should too. same goes for Fringe.
Fringe ended perfectly, the only way you could do a good fringe revival is if we see more of the invasion before the time jump for season 5. I would love to see more of Olivia and peter together we never really got much time to see peter with real Olivia. Never mind in writing this I changed my own mind give me a fringe revival!!!
Wait… Someone commenting about Chuck AND Fringe? You are awesome!
Two of my favorite Tv-Shows of all time…
Yay for a Chuck and a Fringe revival!
I hope someday have a a new season or a “tv movie”. Chuck is the best serie ever!! Netflix buy chuck for us LOL
This show needs to have a revival!!!! It was a F-U-N show. It never took itself to seriously. A TON of today’s shows could take a note on THAT.
So many things to love about that show. Best for me was that they didn’t string out the will-they-won’t-they until it became who-gives-a-frak. We had plenty of time to really invest in Chuck and Sarah as a committed couple. Without that time, this ending, love it or hate it, wouldn’t have mattered to anybody
“So many fans were apoplectic,”
Check.
Best two hours of TV I wish I’d never seen.
Sarah Walker was killed off in Bullet Train and never returned.
Then did Chuck end up with Kristin Kreuk?
We don’t know.
I’m still trying to figure out why Chuck was never told Sarah’s real name and told her he knew it cause he heard her say it to Brandon Routh’s character but never him. Or why her parents always had no problem just calling her Sarah.
Though the last episodes were great performances by the actors, especially Yvonne, the ending has ALWAYS felt incomplete and a big disservice to the amazing Sarah Walker character. Like the writers were trying to be too cute for their and loyal viewers own good. An amnesia plot could be a great season finale but not a series finale unless you take the time to give the viewer the ending the characters deserved after 5 great seasons and they didn’t do that. I’ve mellowed a little bit on the ending but I will always be disappointed that I never got that moment where I could say goodbye to these characters that meant so much to me and know they were happy. All things being equal the finale was a big miss IMO.
The finale reduced Sarah to nothing more than Chuck’s love interest, who was a prize to be won. Sarah’s memory loss seemed to only effect Chuck and no one else, with Ellie packing her bags and leaving. The finale portrayed Chuck as Sarah’s only important relationship, when she had made so many friends. So as a Sarah/Yvonne fan, it’s the most disappointing series finale ever.
Incorrect. Ellie told Sarah “you were in my wedding. you were at the hospital when my baby was born. we’re family”. it clearly affected her as well. as a yvonne fan, you should love it as she did.