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Mel’s Note: She Said reviewer Cay is stepping in for the Friday Five this week with some Things We Want To Know.
We are only 4 episodes into Chuck season 4 “back 11†and many new questions have begun to emerge since the midseason finale wrapped up a lot of plot points. I can’t complain because I’ve always been someone who likes to re-watch all the episodes ad nauseum and then analyze every minor plot point looking for answers. Judging by the message boards and live chat, I’m certainly not alone. So, to start/continue the analysis, here are my questions so far:
- Is Vivian good or evil? At first I was sure she was evil, now I think she is good, but she might be headed for evil…and I have a feeling that it’s going to be a while before we know for sure. Bonus question: What was with the pictures and other mementos of her life Volkoff kept – more than meets the eye, or was he planning that far ahead to manipulate her?
- How does Volkoff’s lawyer seem to know *everything* that goes on with Vivian? He’s starting to remind me of Q from ST:TNG – he sees all and knows all, and is happy to use his knowledge to manipulate people.
- What the heck are they building in the new secret tunnel in Castle? Obviously something big that they are being surprisingly un-clandestine about. Whatever the TR476 is, it must be important to Casey to keep it secret if he’s willing to have Morgan move in to protect the secret. (Morgan and Casey as roommates = comedic gold)
- What international event is going to interrupt Chuck and Sarah’s wedding? You know that it just can’t go smoothly, especially after Ellie’s disaster first attempt and the rocky courtship of our beloved leads. Maybe our favorite Russian supervillain will escape custody in time to play wedding crasher? We can only hope!
- When will Ellie finally realize that Chuck is still with the CIA? In 4.14, Ellie basically forgave Mama B and gave Mama B her blessing to continue her life’s work with the CIA. In 4.16, when Sarah gets carried away with the wedding plans, Chuck reminds Ellie that he still works at the Buy More (which also serves to remind us that she still doesn’t know the truth). It’s once again starting to get painful to have Ellie in the dark. How long can it last, especially with her spending more time with Sarah?
What do you guys think? Do you have other questions, or do you want to speculate on the answers to these? Let me know in the comments!
Another Question: Sarah’s Mom. Why is Sarah’s relationship with her “complicated”? Are we going to meet her this season?
What about the rest of her family? Is it true that Sarah has got a sister? (at the beginning of “Wookie” she talked about her…)
In ” Wookie” Chuck and Sarah were on a cover date with Devon and Ellie, at the time it seemed
to me that Sarah was making ” cover ” small talk about her family. No mention of this supposed
Sibling has been heard since. I don’t think she exists, but that’s only my opinion.
Yeah, probably, but I like the idea someone suggested on another about getting Jewel Staite to play Sarah’s sister.
I was always of the mind that the “sister” comment during that game with the future Awesomes and Morgan was just a spur of the moment blowing of smoke to make it sound like she had a normal life. I never really entertained the thought of her having a real life sister. And there hasn’t been a mention of anything like that since. That’s just my take on it.
Great minds think alike.
Yeah, I could go either way on that, but I love the idea of bringing Jewel Staite to the show.
My top questions revolve around Sarah’s backstory. Who is her mom? Where did her mom and dad know each other from? How long was mom around? What caused the split? What does mom do? They will probably trickle the info out at a rate so as to keep us interested, so I don’t hold out hope that we’ll learn too much too soon.
I too am very interested in Sarah’s backstory. I also think the information will be revealed slowly, as you say, but I would be surprised if we don’t learn more about Sarah’s mom this season. We may not actually meet the mom, but I think we will know more about her.
I am also holding out hope that Sarah has a sibling, perhaps a sister, as was mentioned in a post above.
As far as a wedding goes, it’s hard to imagine the level of craziness that will surely surround this event. I am hoping that it will be more fun than painful, and that at some point “I do’s” will occur.
Who is Vivian Mom?
maybe shes not a half sister of chuck but a hidden full blooded sister
In that scenario, she would have to be the product of clandestine conjugal visits between Steven and Mary Bartowski, some time after Mary left home. Which means that Mary was operating undercover as a Volkoff operative whilst pregnant, and gave birth whilst undercover. Vivian wasn’t born prior to that because Chuck and Ellie clearly never knew of her. Now, if Mary left sometime after Novermber 1990 (“Leftovers”) and Vivian is say, 20 or 21, then the timeline works. If Vivian is elder than that, then it doesn’t.
I’m pretty sure she’s older than that, and she’d have to be 19-20 instead to account for the 9 months of Mary’s pregnancy.
After watching “Bank of Evil” again, I realised that she cannot be Chuck’s sibling. Vivian put her hand down on a pad that electronically did a finger prick and DNA test to verify that she has some of Alexei Volkoff’s DNA, which Chuck does not.
I only know one thing for certain related to question 4. No Bartowski wedding on this show can possibly go off without a major glitch. It’s just a rule. The writers are just as like as not to allow Shaw and Volkoff to escape prison and it comes down to Viv and Mama B to save the day. How crazy would it be if I’m even a little bit right?
I think you’re a lotta bit right, Christina.
What is Mama B. up to since Push Mix and will we get to see her and Chuck team up together on a mission? Is Jane Bentley, director of the National Clandestine Service, good or bad? Will Alex get to unleash her self-defense skills to save either Morgan or her dad? Will Papa B. send another message to Chuck, this time an indication that he is somehow still alive? After all we have never seen any of the family visiting his grave.
I’m thinking they allowed her a few weeks off (since we saw her in Seduction Impossible) and then started subjecting her to the world’s longest debreifing (since it covered 20 years) .
Hi all.
I may be going a little off track with this comment and i’m new to this posting thing so forgive me. I just had a thought regarding the whole wedding thing. We know Sarah’s real name is not Sarah but we assume Samantha, Lisa. At least as far as we know. So if Chuck marries Sarah is it legal? If it was me I would want to marry the real person and not the cover identity. Yet the proposal was to Sarah, the invitations and wedding plans are all for Chuck n Sarah. It seems the writers have either forgotten or looked over the fact Sarah is not actually Sarah. I can only assume that legally she has changed her name to Sarah and everyone knows about it. Sorry, was just thinking our loud.
I’ve wondered about that little matter since season 2. My guess is that a legal name change, while complicated for me, would not involve a judge and a courtroom for a federal employee such as a CIA agent. The CIA can make things happen, like conjure up a Halloween costume out of thin air, and get you 12 credits toward a college degree. It can turn Samantha into Sarah with the stroke of a pen.
My question is more pedestrian myself: what’s Sarah’s *real* surname?
Everybody knows that– it’s Strahovski.
If you want to play that card, do it well:
Strzechowski
(Strahovski is not her *real* surname, it a simplied version of a her real familyname she uses as an actress/artist since she came to the USA)
True, but that’s the name she chose to work under in Hollywood. Shall we start calling
Him Zachary Levi Pugh, his real name?
No. But you were the one starting about *real* names. IMO if you do you have to go all the way. I don’t care about real names.
An BTW, the whole real name issue will very probably not come up again in Chuck. Sarah Walker is her real name of the person she is now and that is all that matters. In her old life she had a different name, sure, but she is not that person anymore.
That’s a good question. The marriage has to be under her legal name and I think that should be brought up.
What about Kathleen? Will she ever find out the truth about what happened to her fiance? How will she reactwhen she learns that her daughter ‘s been hiding the truth from her? Will she forgive Casey?
hi, i am in the middle of re-watching chuck and im currently on ‘Chuck vs the fat lady’ and theres a van that keeps appearing with the name ‘Tuttle electronic’ on the side and it has me thinking was Volkoff was invloved sooner so does this mean he was running fulcrum?
I’m thinking coincidence. That was just way too early for them to think that far ahead.
I find myself on the other side of the wedding fence. I want it to go smoothly. No hitches, no chance that it won’t actually happen. Can’t handle the wedding drama!
This. Ellie and Devon’s wedding already got interrupted by their enemies. To do the same to Chuck and Sarah would feel like a rehash. Been there, done that!
That said… this is TV, and it hardly ever works out nicely for the heroes, so I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if there were complications. 🙁
I could definitely see Volkoff and his agents crashing the wedding just so that he could force Mama B. to marry him. Still there’s always the chance that in the end Casey and Kathleen could join Chuck and Sarah at the altar.
1.I think Vivian is Good.Why would Vivian listen to anything Riley has to say given he threatened to kill her?
2.Volkoff put a chip in Vivian after she was born so Riley is tracking her.
3.They are building a new Intersect.
4.Not only will Volkoff break out to crash the wedding but so will Shaw and they will locate Jill,Anna and Hannah.
5.Ellie will be in the dark untill ep 4.23.
Vivian is playing Riley. Keep your friends close but your foes closer.
A good list, but one burning question I have is will we see any of Sarah’s family at the wedding?
If not Mom and Dad how about an Uncle, Aunt, or cousin. Does the sister mentioned in wookie really exist and if so will she come to the wedding?
Family there or not, I would like to see Casey walk Sarah down the aisle…
It’ll be Papa B (as in Jack Burton)… he’s already signed up.
A few people above mentioned Sarah’s family, particularly her sister. Here’s my theory: she does have a sister (or half sister) and the name of that sister is Carina. Both the sister and Carina were introduced in “Wookie.”
At the end of the fight in Sarah’s apartment they knew each other but had to introduce the cover names each was using, possibly implying a relationship predating Sarah joining the CIA.
I think that was just a bit of a contradiction, CAT squad was before season one, and all members know Sarah as Sarah Walker. Introducing her self to Carina in “vs the Wookiee”, as Sarah would have been odd. So yeah im guessing it was just forgotten about during season 4.
And if the creators were going to make Carina her sister or something, im sure now they would have changed their minds.
MUCH MORE IMPORTANT QUESTION THAN ANY POSTED SO FAR:
What will Beckman wear to the wedding?
Good question, if that happends some how I don’t think she’ll be wearing her general uniform.
And will she officiate the wedding?
Where’s Mama B now? Why isn’t she able to help handle Vivian?
On a beach somewhere getting some well earned R&R.
I. Chuck and Sarah’s wedding will probably go smoothly knowing there will be world-class spies there (The C.A.T.S, Casey, Mama B ect.), Volkoff would be mad to crash the party :P.
II. Vivian is probably bad, think about it, the first time we met volkoff he was very good at acting good too. I think vivian knows het stuff & has the right genes.
III. I think they are building a command centre in castle 🙂 the engineer said the only TR476 he ever installed before was in Langley 😉 nuff said ! Langley: It is the successor of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formed during World War II to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for the branches of the United States Armed Forces. (Wikipedia)
All good questions and of course everybody will be thinking of Chuck and Sarahs wedding, her backstory, her parents, and her family. Over the last 4 years we have realized the true beginnings of Chuck and “His” world many people are curious about Sarah and her past/present/future in the chuckverse.
The Tr476 the guy was referring to is the computer of papa B’s, just saw the episode the other day and figured it out, you know the Government always having to put a number on everything
I was thinking that maybe Mama B. is Vivian’s mom and Volkoff her dad. The hug she gave to Chuck seemed to me to indicate that maybe there is a connection unbeknownst to them. She has the same coloring as Mama B. I also hope that the wedding is the last episode like in season 2 to go into season 5 (Becsuse I think they are solid enough on NBC to have a season 5!!) I would love love love to have Zachary Levi sing at the wedding!!! They have tried to fit him in singing in an episode. Wouldn’t that be a great episode????
Personally I wouldn’t bring jewel staite to the show she doesn’t resemble Sarah too much but I bet there is somebody out there perfect for the job also I think that sarahs mother is dead. I think this because Sarah never mentions her mother and her mother was never in any flashbacks either she’s dead or in prison or possibly a con woman! My POV is that Vivian knew about volkoff but chose to stay away until chuck and his team approached her about it, also volkoffs lawyer seems a bit fishy to me, I think he might have an angle he’s working…hmmmm we shall see