chuck 3x07
Feb. 8th, 2010 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndnickersonso, a few things.
i like a very specific scenario when it comes to tonight, that is definitely not the way they played it, but yeah. i'm going to go with that when i fix it.
things that bothered me.
. so shaw has been bringing casey and sarah coffee and sarah only noticed that she was getting coffee. because it's all about sarah. which it kind of is, but still.
. chuck just needs to accept that "i still have feelings for my ex that i'm trying to get over" or "sarah's kind of a bitch because we're broken up and she still asks me for favors and i'm such a pushover that i go for it" are better covers than "we have a complicated relationship," because for everyone on the outside, you really don't.
. so casey has been SCRUPULOUSLY CAREFUL to only open suspect containers in a plastic shield, but shaw and sarah totally forget that and end up poisoned, which, well, i would have accepted "it was on a timer we didn't know about" more readily.
. i would also much rather accept "and the poison was also alien sex pollen" than "you are behaving in an entirely unprofessional way and you need to LOCK THAT SHIT DOWN" turning into "oh so backrub OH CAN WE GO DO IT IN THE BACK ROOM OF CASTLE."
[there's this whole amazing theory from lois & clark that, when lex was given miranda's perfume, he fixated on lois instead of miranda, and that explains how an otherwise ruthless and cold sociopath could suddenly fall so ridiculously in love with lois. and that, to me, somehow fits here, because it's like sarah did this total 180 with zero provocation other than "OH WE ARE ABOUT TO DIE AND ALSO YOU'RE KINDA HOT," that somehow extends to AFTER the alien sex pollen situation was over with.]
. let's just go with hannah was oxygen deprived and anyone standing over her asking if she was all right was going to get the "oh you saved me!" outburst.
. hannah presumably has an apartment or hotel room or something. even if she didn't want to bring chuck back to it, as that might be a bit more presumptuous than she wanted to be, still, THE HOME THEATER ROOM? where morgan and anna totally did it all the time and jeff sleeps a lot and there's a portal to castle? i mean, come on.
. speaking of, if i met someone on a transatlantic flight and gave them my card and they showed up at my place of work like 24 hours later asking for a job, my STALKER ALERT lights would be going off. and maybe this is intentionally illogical, and maybe hannah is indeed trying to cultivate chuck as her asset because the people she works for want to know what's going on at the buy more. she just comes off as SLIGHTLY too earnest for me.
. i blame the "80s music video" look of the ring board of directors room on the fact that, well, fulcrum is a part of them, so they just swap out the banners and they can all hold their monthly tribunals and/or recipe swaps. that didn't bug me too much. (the entire design of the room does, though. i'd much rather it be some anonymous conference room with only the speaker lit, although chuck does like to go for large sweeping images rather than the tiny mundane pictures of spy life. the way archer does. i'd better not get off on that tangent.)
. i still say that shaw was more impervious to the poison because he's superman. so there.
. apparently all it would've taken for chuck to get sarah was to kiss her neck on a mission. which wasn't AT ALL a total sleazeball move (SHAW). and she DEFINITELY wouldn't have elbowed him in the pit of the stomach. oh, wait, she would have.
. i did really dig sarah's genuine smile when she and chuck were partnered on the mission. which immediately turned to snarking once they were alone, natch.
. i went along with "we can't be together because you're my asset and i'm an agent and i would be taken off your case." thus the premise for the first two seasons as to why they couldn't be together. now they're both agents and sarah has clearly had at least one affair with a fellow agent that wasn't punished career-wise. it's also clear that emotional turmoil makes it difficult for chuck to use the intersect 2.0. now, for my own nefarious purposes, it rocks so much harder if sarah takes those two facts and concludes that chuck would be more stable if she allowed the romantic relationship he's (and she's) wanted for so long. however, if we go along with "you really hurt me in prague, you fucking bastard," that sarah hasn't yet really forgiven him for it and her jealousy is earned because she offered to go away with him and he turned her down (and there's a whole other can of worms in that scenario)... it just seems incredibly ridiculous for her to say "oh, i'm going to go with it, with shaw, even though it's dangerous [how so, exactly, sarah, except that by getting emotions involved when he is technically your boss and is a bit of an unknown element] and I USED THAT SAME LOGIC ON CHUCK, IDIOT." some people would say that she's so skittish with chuck because she knows that she could fall in love with him, and she's not ready for that, and she doesn't feel anything like love for shaw, she's only attracted to his looks and his skill as an agent. but it still DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. it really doesn't. chuck and sarah keep having the "is it okay if i date x" "sure, that's fine" conversation, lou/bryce, jill/beefcake, and now hannah/shaw. it rings more and more false every time. and i really can't wait for chuck to totally PUNCH SHAW IN THE FACE.
don't get me wrong. i get masochistic people. my OTP, for God's sake, is nancy/ned, in the files, and ned is totally emotionally socked by nancy and her constant flirtation and commitment issues in every other book. and there's this whole "i want a normal life with you"/"being a spy means you can't have a normal life" thing that nancy and ned also go through. i do adore angst, but at some point it just gets out of hand. i just think it would make a lot more sense for chuck and sarah to try it, to just try out a relationship for a while, and be torn apart by their conflicting ideas for what their lives mean, and then try to work it out, than do this whole halfassed "oh we shouldn't be together although honestly there's absolutely no reason why not anymore." news flash, chuck: if sarah is snarking about the fact that you smell like hannah's perfume, she cares. and you should call her on it. it's like those first few episodes, when the main character of the week kept telling chuck "hey, she acts like that because she's in love with you," didn't happen. [and when carina said it it sounded borderline like spousal abuse. "she's so cold because she loves you." heh.]
. this is all to say that... with the arc they've been following, barring a sudden sex change, they HAVE to get together. the writing has been pointing that way. and, as other reviewers have been pointing out, the writers will kill the show if they put artificial barriers in the way of that. this sure as hell felt like an artificial barrier. i do genuinely believe that chuck is attracted to hannah, although it does seem a bit cold for him to hook up with hannah knowing that sarah very nearly threw her career away to be with him and even now is feeling the repercussions for that. i don't buy that sarah's attracted to shaw, though. (shaw, well, hell, he'd be a fool not to be attracted to sarah.) i buy that sarah is jealous of chuck being with hannah, and she's lonely, and she fully expected that they would be roasting on a caribbean beach by now, and shaw obviously likes her, and why not, but i don't buy this whole "oh hey we're friends and it's okay if we date other people and if it had to be someone else, i'm glad it's x."
. SO. fanfic will be written, dammit.
i like a very specific scenario when it comes to tonight, that is definitely not the way they played it, but yeah. i'm going to go with that when i fix it.
things that bothered me.
. so shaw has been bringing casey and sarah coffee and sarah only noticed that she was getting coffee. because it's all about sarah. which it kind of is, but still.
. chuck just needs to accept that "i still have feelings for my ex that i'm trying to get over" or "sarah's kind of a bitch because we're broken up and she still asks me for favors and i'm such a pushover that i go for it" are better covers than "we have a complicated relationship," because for everyone on the outside, you really don't.
. so casey has been SCRUPULOUSLY CAREFUL to only open suspect containers in a plastic shield, but shaw and sarah totally forget that and end up poisoned, which, well, i would have accepted "it was on a timer we didn't know about" more readily.
. i would also much rather accept "and the poison was also alien sex pollen" than "you are behaving in an entirely unprofessional way and you need to LOCK THAT SHIT DOWN" turning into "oh so backrub OH CAN WE GO DO IT IN THE BACK ROOM OF CASTLE."
[there's this whole amazing theory from lois & clark that, when lex was given miranda's perfume, he fixated on lois instead of miranda, and that explains how an otherwise ruthless and cold sociopath could suddenly fall so ridiculously in love with lois. and that, to me, somehow fits here, because it's like sarah did this total 180 with zero provocation other than "OH WE ARE ABOUT TO DIE AND ALSO YOU'RE KINDA HOT," that somehow extends to AFTER the alien sex pollen situation was over with.]
. let's just go with hannah was oxygen deprived and anyone standing over her asking if she was all right was going to get the "oh you saved me!" outburst.
. hannah presumably has an apartment or hotel room or something. even if she didn't want to bring chuck back to it, as that might be a bit more presumptuous than she wanted to be, still, THE HOME THEATER ROOM? where morgan and anna totally did it all the time and jeff sleeps a lot and there's a portal to castle? i mean, come on.
. speaking of, if i met someone on a transatlantic flight and gave them my card and they showed up at my place of work like 24 hours later asking for a job, my STALKER ALERT lights would be going off. and maybe this is intentionally illogical, and maybe hannah is indeed trying to cultivate chuck as her asset because the people she works for want to know what's going on at the buy more. she just comes off as SLIGHTLY too earnest for me.
. i blame the "80s music video" look of the ring board of directors room on the fact that, well, fulcrum is a part of them, so they just swap out the banners and they can all hold their monthly tribunals and/or recipe swaps. that didn't bug me too much. (the entire design of the room does, though. i'd much rather it be some anonymous conference room with only the speaker lit, although chuck does like to go for large sweeping images rather than the tiny mundane pictures of spy life. the way archer does. i'd better not get off on that tangent.)
. i still say that shaw was more impervious to the poison because he's superman. so there.
. apparently all it would've taken for chuck to get sarah was to kiss her neck on a mission. which wasn't AT ALL a total sleazeball move (SHAW). and she DEFINITELY wouldn't have elbowed him in the pit of the stomach. oh, wait, she would have.
. i did really dig sarah's genuine smile when she and chuck were partnered on the mission. which immediately turned to snarking once they were alone, natch.
. i went along with "we can't be together because you're my asset and i'm an agent and i would be taken off your case." thus the premise for the first two seasons as to why they couldn't be together. now they're both agents and sarah has clearly had at least one affair with a fellow agent that wasn't punished career-wise. it's also clear that emotional turmoil makes it difficult for chuck to use the intersect 2.0. now, for my own nefarious purposes, it rocks so much harder if sarah takes those two facts and concludes that chuck would be more stable if she allowed the romantic relationship he's (and she's) wanted for so long. however, if we go along with "you really hurt me in prague, you fucking bastard," that sarah hasn't yet really forgiven him for it and her jealousy is earned because she offered to go away with him and he turned her down (and there's a whole other can of worms in that scenario)... it just seems incredibly ridiculous for her to say "oh, i'm going to go with it, with shaw, even though it's dangerous [how so, exactly, sarah, except that by getting emotions involved when he is technically your boss and is a bit of an unknown element] and I USED THAT SAME LOGIC ON CHUCK, IDIOT." some people would say that she's so skittish with chuck because she knows that she could fall in love with him, and she's not ready for that, and she doesn't feel anything like love for shaw, she's only attracted to his looks and his skill as an agent. but it still DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. it really doesn't. chuck and sarah keep having the "is it okay if i date x" "sure, that's fine" conversation, lou/bryce, jill/beefcake, and now hannah/shaw. it rings more and more false every time. and i really can't wait for chuck to totally PUNCH SHAW IN THE FACE.
don't get me wrong. i get masochistic people. my OTP, for God's sake, is nancy/ned, in the files, and ned is totally emotionally socked by nancy and her constant flirtation and commitment issues in every other book. and there's this whole "i want a normal life with you"/"being a spy means you can't have a normal life" thing that nancy and ned also go through. i do adore angst, but at some point it just gets out of hand. i just think it would make a lot more sense for chuck and sarah to try it, to just try out a relationship for a while, and be torn apart by their conflicting ideas for what their lives mean, and then try to work it out, than do this whole halfassed "oh we shouldn't be together although honestly there's absolutely no reason why not anymore." news flash, chuck: if sarah is snarking about the fact that you smell like hannah's perfume, she cares. and you should call her on it. it's like those first few episodes, when the main character of the week kept telling chuck "hey, she acts like that because she's in love with you," didn't happen. [and when carina said it it sounded borderline like spousal abuse. "she's so cold because she loves you." heh.]
. this is all to say that... with the arc they've been following, barring a sudden sex change, they HAVE to get together. the writing has been pointing that way. and, as other reviewers have been pointing out, the writers will kill the show if they put artificial barriers in the way of that. this sure as hell felt like an artificial barrier. i do genuinely believe that chuck is attracted to hannah, although it does seem a bit cold for him to hook up with hannah knowing that sarah very nearly threw her career away to be with him and even now is feeling the repercussions for that. i don't buy that sarah's attracted to shaw, though. (shaw, well, hell, he'd be a fool not to be attracted to sarah.) i buy that sarah is jealous of chuck being with hannah, and she's lonely, and she fully expected that they would be roasting on a caribbean beach by now, and shaw obviously likes her, and why not, but i don't buy this whole "oh hey we're friends and it's okay if we date other people and if it had to be someone else, i'm glad it's x."
. SO. fanfic will be written, dammit.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-09 05:01 pm (UTC)Have you been reading the chucktv.net series? (Part 1, Part 2) I think they have it right. I hope they do, anyway. And with some of the later S3 spoilers, I'm not so worried.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-09 07:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-09 08:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-09 09:59 pm (UTC)"and the poison was also alien sex pollen" - there was most definitely something extra about that gas. All they needed was porn music to go along with the very realistic romantic setup (yeah right that was just total nonsense)... now if somehow shaw and chuck could switch places in castle I would be soooooo on board with the idea. But no. No. No. It was just silly. And annoying.
I know they can't just get them together and do a GOB style half hearted "ta-da" but they could at least keep everyone in character and let the arc progress naturally.
I'm sooooo mad this was the last episode before the break. This means I'm gonna be pissed off for 3 weeks. It really is that serious (lol).
Oh and yeah - the home theatre room?? Seriously?? What the flying fuck was that about?? That's just nasty. Morgan wasn't even home so they could've gone there.
OK I just calmed down slightly because I know in reality the writers are not dumb enough to continue too far down this road (they better not) and I can see people typing better versions of this episode that I can use to erase the real episode from my brain.
/rant
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-10 01:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-10 01:40 am (UTC)I agree with EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. YOU HAVE WRITTEN. And it's pissing me off that people are like "oh the poor shippers are so mad because Chuck and Sarah aren't together!" IF IT WAS REMOTELY BELIEVABLE I WOULD BE FINE WITH IT. I know that they're going to be together eventually (and I am like 99% sure it's going to be by episode 13), but this makes no fucking sense.
It just makes me SUPER annoyed. Please write fic to make it better! I NEEDS IT.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-11 09:08 pm (UTC)UGH.
like you said. if it had been believable, the angst value would have been even richer and more chocolatey! but no! we have the alien sex pollen rationalization!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-17 04:50 pm (UTC)I agree with you re the need for a proper (admittedly little would be fine) story arc for Sarah and Shaw so it's not just sex-pollen-back-rub *zwooomph* Sarah/Shaw. Unless I'm remembering it wrong, Cole saved her life (and really did, not just let Chuck do it and take the credit) and she barely blinked. And Cole>Shaw imo. (Lou also > Hannah, just for the record).
I'll admit that I was irrationally mad over FF.net adding Hannah and Shaw to the list of characters.
It's been nearly 10 day... I need to stop ranting...
OK I just remembered why I was here... AP Sarah thinks you're the biggest shipper!! heheheheheee