Among the most subtle props used on the show is the action of brushing an object off a character\u2019s person to imply that character\u2019s difficulty in ridding himself of emotional residue\/entanglement. Chuck\u2019s decision to return to Stanford proves a struggle for him given the hurtful memories he still carries from his tenure there: Bryce Larkin getting him expelled from school and Jill dumping him to be with Bryce. When starting out on the Chuck Bartowski Memorial Tour with Sarah, Chuck pointedly swipes away a leaf that falls on his shoulder even as he admits, \u201cThis is really freaking me out. It\u2019s like nothing has changed.\u201d When Sarah asks whether that\u2019s good or bad, Chuck proves so internally discombobulated that he can\u2019t manage an answer beyond, \u201cIt\u2019s a\u2026it\u2019s a\u2026yeah.\u201d By the end of the episode, however, he finds himself able to brush off the past and retrieve the frat photo with Bryce out of the garbage.<\/p>\n
In a similar image (\u201cAisle of Terror\u201d), Chuck walks through a faux spider\u2019s web in the Buy More, part of the Halloween d\u00e9cor, and carries a cottony remnant on his shoulder for a few paces before picking it off and tossing it to the side. It is no coincidence that the episode focuses on Chuck\u2019s internal entanglement re: the reappearance of his delinquent mother, who has just shot him in the chest in the preceding scene. Thus, the prop serves as the metaphorical equivalent of Chuck\u2019s attempt to shed his emotional turmoil and move forward, which proves no easy task.<\/p>\n
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