From Media Village

CHUCK
CHUCK VERSUS THE BREAK-UP
10-13-2008 8:00PM

MIXED EMOTIONS--former New York Giants star Michael Strahan guest-stars as the intimidating bully Mitt. Chuck (Zachary Levi) is overcome with jealousy when his nemesis Bryce Larkin (Matthew Bomer) -- and Sarah’s (Yvonne Strahovski) ex-lover and partner -- makes an unexpected return. Chuck and Sarah’s growing feelings for each other are tested when their latest mission requires Sarah and Bryce to pose as an extremely affectionate couple. Meanwhile, Morgan (Joshua Gomez) faces his own challenge at Buy More when he must deal with a gang of bullies, from a neighboring sporting goods store in the strip mall called, the Mighty Jocks led by the fearful Mitt. Adam Baldwin, Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin, Scott Krinsky, Vik Sahay, Julia Ling and Mark Christopher Lawrence also star.

Show Cast: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Joshua Gomez, Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Vik Sahay, Scott Krinsky, Julia Ling

looks really interesting...can't wait...monday's can't come soon enough anymore...lol...

One episode a week just isn't enough =[

Words can't say how much I hate Bryce. I know it needs to happen so Chuck and Sarah can move on past him but still. 6 days and 22 hours till the next episode!!!!

can't wait to find out what the diamond ring is about...hmm...

^ I was thinking the same thing. I am hoping its just for the cover

i think i read somewhere that their cover was to be a married cover, but i am not sure at all.

I can only assume it's for cover. I mean, they risk alienating a huge proportion of fans if turns out to be real. At this point I'm wondering what Chuck might have done or said to motivate Sarah to make him jealous.

can't wait for this episode, I think the stuff in the preview we saw e.g the kissing the ring is just a cover, but even if chuck knows that, I don't think that will stop him from being jealous.
I hope this week goes quickly

I agree 100 percent!!!

The obvious question for this thread is who or what is going to be the "Break-Up"?

Chuck/Sarah?
Chuck/Bryce?
Sarah/Bryce?
Ellie/Awesome?
none of the above, or some combination?

I think we might see a "hard" breakup between Sarah and Bryce, and a "soft" breakup between Chuck and Sarah.

I love the idea of Morgan v. bullies. The adventures at buy more are a great part of the show and should be brought out more. This drama w/ Bryce might induce a much needed heart to heart between Chuck and Sarah, which might allow the show to build up other elements beyond Chuck and Sarah's relationship.

On a side note, perhaps this is good writing or I'm just a softy, but they need to give Chuck a victory some time. Zach Levi has perfected the 'someone just kicked my dog and stole my ice cream cone' look...maybe we could see him work on the 'wow, things are going my way' look for a change.

I think it might be that Chuck and Sarah publicly break-up their fake relationship for the mission that Bryce and Sarah go on. It seems like the mission calls for Sarah and Bryce to pose as a couple.

What if this is a move to bring Bryce on as a part of Team Chuck? Personally, I'd hurl if that happened. Actually, now that I think about it…none of that could work since everyone, Ellie, Morgan and Awesome, all think he is dead, which would compromise his cover. Though to be honest since this show pays very little homage to genuine covert tactics I wouldn’t entirely rule it out.

None of the breakup's make sense aside from Morgan and Anna. But I'm not sure that their breaking up warrants an episode title. Chuck and Sarah can't break-up because they are not really together. Ellie and Awesome won't because... well they just won't. Sarah and Bryce is a possibility... seeing as they never officially end it.

Tex you may be on to something with the "Hard and soft" breakups.

It is most likely Morgan and Anna breaking up, with an undertone of Bryce/Sarah and Chara.

As much analysis as everyone understandably want to do to wrap their heads around what is coming in this episode, I believe the bottom line is that the producers have come to a fork in the road with this show: They will either satisfy their viewers or alienate them completely. Josh Schwartz et al. restarted the moment of the Chuck/Sarah romance in "Seduction" (to end with that 'brain stamp' as Awesome would put it), and now we'll just have to see where they'll take it with "The Break-Up." I, personally, have no interest in being yanked back and forth. I don't want to, but will walk away from this show because I choose not to be an emotional punching bag. So, the producers are at a proverbial fork in the road now.

I think that's the whole point of the show. Chuck is an innocent, nerdy and selfless individual that people walk on all the time. Hence he should never survive in espionage, a world of deceit and treachery. Yet he is. That's why the audience roots for him.

That's where I'm betting my money: Morgan and Anna break up, and Sarah and Bryce officially break up.

I'm betting the diamond ring is a real engagement ring, bought by Bryce for Sarah, but at the end of the episode she breaks up with him, thus returning the ring and making it clear to Bryce they are over for good. Chuck overhears, is overjoyed, then she tells him she can only be his protector, not his girlfriend. Then we get to see Chuck's hurt puppy look again...

I agree Chuck and Sarah cannot really "breakup", as they are not a real couple yet, so any talk like that would be too stalkerish for the show...

One, people have different tastes. What you think when you watch an episode isn't what everyone else thinks.

This going back and forth hasn't gotten that bad, I think. It provides tension; you can't deny that. And in the way they present it in Chuck, it is realistic.

Man, Monday can't come soon enough! I think the break-up refers to Sarah and Bryce, and I want to see that!

I agree it is very realistic... They can't just put them together and live happily ever after. There are too many obstacles for them to overcome... and if you have noticed, they are slowly overcoming some of those... The big one will ultimately be Sarah's job however.

I would also love to see Sarah tell Bryce she loves Chuck and end it with him. That would make my week. lol

The "rose" will be an interesting subject of conversation won't it? Chuck could say, "Oh Hi Bryce, good to see you, here this is for you."...and then give Sarah a stare and try to walk away. Of course, she'll stop him and say Bryce is there for a mission, they need his help, yadda, yadda. Or he could try to play it as cool as he can and not show any jealousy over Sarah and place the rose on a table, then have them "professionally" go over the reason for Bryce being there and the upcoming mission, and as the meeting wraps up have Chuck say, "Well, I'm sure you guys have some catching up to do, but I'm going to go home and get some sleep. See you tomorrow." Then, as he's leaving, he picks the rose up off the table and takes it back with him. Sarah sees this of course, so now what does she do? Ignore it?...go after him?

Tension of this sort to keep people on the edge of their seats gets very old very quickly, and we just change channels. It's cheap as we know exactly what they're trying to accomplish. How long to wait before Chuck and Sarah get together. We get tired of the hurdles. If you want to know good tension when it is written, watch a few episodes of "The Sopranos". If you enjoy this type of blatant manipulation, enjoy. And, yes people do have different tastes, but watch what happens to "Chuck" in the ratings if this type of tension continues too long. You may just find yourself in the minority. We'll see.

As for the "rose", you never know, maybe Bryce may think it's for him. However, I think the writers would be clever enough to write Bryce as knowing the rose is for Sarah and have Bryce react jealously.

Unfortunately, I'm more inclined to think that Bryce believes it's comical for Sarah and Chuck to hook up for "real". He'll probably make a joke or be sarcastic about it. Being jealous of Chuck isn't in his makeup because he's a pretty boy and has always gotten the great girls.

After seeing the ending of vs the Seduction, since Sarah was so uncomfortable with Chuck presenting her the rose in front of Bryce, I think she might have been secretly in contact with Bryce since vs the Nemesis. After seeing the NBC promo, I think Bryce came with the intention of proposing to Sarah. Therefore, I don't think Bryce will laugh it off this time around. Besides which, most guys wouldn't laugh off a situation where another guy hit on their girlfriend, especially one as hot as Sarah, and more so if they planned on proposing to her.

I don't think he is proposing to her, their cover on the mission will be newly weds, or something like that.

Doesn't matter in the grand scheme because she will obviously turn him down. Could make for a very interesting episode though... we will see what happens... anythings possible

I agree strongly with DN1 in the fact that they need to resolve this, at least temporarily, and soon. They can't just keep throwing obstacle after obstacle at them, and then every time they get real close. HERESSSSSSSS BRYCE! I think they realize this, and I think this will happen in the next episode. However, it will probably not be the resolution that everyone (including me) wants. I've made it clear already what I think will happen, so I won't get into it again.

Next Monday is going to be epic! the days can't go by fast enough!

Even if I'm proven wrong, I'll stand by my hypothesis that Bryce will be "really" proposing marriage to Sarah, and that the break up in the episode name refers to Sarah breaking up with Bryce and Anna breaking up with Morgan.

Looking back on the promo I think you may be right... This should be interesting...

I don't know if anyone else notice this but, not only was Bryce on bended knee when he slides the ring on Sarah's finger but she's wearing her Orange Orange uniform. My question is why doesn't he just hand her the ring if it's a part of their cover? Unless there's a joke in the scene about him doing it this way and what we saw in the preview is completely out of context, in which case that's pure manipulation on the part of the producers or editors. This episode could be the death knell of "Chuck" because, if Chuck is emotionally beaten up again this coming Monday night, and only a mere 6 episodes after Bryce interrupted things before, a lot of us may feel this type of torture of a nice guy just isn't worth watching any longer. The one positive is I think Kristin of E News saw the first 3 episodes and loved them, and she wants the Chuck/Sarah romance.

Some marketing execs would argue that the tone of your post indicates you'll continue watching until somehow Chuck and Sarah get together...hahahaha...they might interpret your post as saying you are emotionally committed to the tension...

I'm sure Bryce is really proposing to Sarah. We never saw in vs the Nemesis if Sarah answered any call or not. Maybe Bryce was in secret contact with her afterwards, in violation of his deep cover rules, but based on a lesson learned from breaching Sarah's trust in the past. Maybe Sarah was manipulating Chuck all along while repairing her relationship with Bryce in secret, to avoid CIA disapproval. Now that Sarah seems cool with Bryce again, maybe Bryce decided to pop the question while he was there on a spy mission? If the ring was just for a mission, he would have passed it to Sarah in private instead of making it a public spectacle, thus compromising her cover as Chuck's girlfriend. I'm sure Bryce knows Chuck wants Sarah, since he saw Chuck with the rose, so now that he wants to keep Sarah for himself, he gives her the diamond ring in public to get rid of Chuck. That will give Sarah the chance to break up with Bryce, hence the episode title.

All i know is Bryce isnt winning over any of us fans Of Chuck.I think Sarah has alot on her plate and i dont just mean her job.She seems like a cool person when she doesnt dawn the badge.But i think poor chuck is going to get more messed up after this episode because of this and who is to blame thats Bryce again.I swear Bryce is going to haunt Chuck till the new intersect is up and running.Im a nice guy and i know how it feels when getting the short end of the deal and it sucks.I think Casey might actually some how make sure Chuck doesnt go all to peices after this episode.But im ready to see the episode and everyone and anyone lets get viewers back show your friends the dvd set.Direct them to hulu and nbc to watch the episodes and websodes.Lets get the veiwers back.


Travis Furness

Okay, how about this...Bryce and Sarah work together on their mission with their cover being a romantic couple. During the mission, Bryce mistakes Sarah's role-playing as legitimate affection. He decides after the mission is complete to propose to her (explaining the Orange Orange uniform). She tells him "no," hence the title Chuck vs the Break Up (of Sarah and Bryce).

Um, 'captain', nope. As obnoxious as you seem to enjoy being, I'm not interested in being jerked around so this next episode could be my last. And, 'mariosmom', I hope your theory plays out but my question is, why did Sarah accept the ring in the preview? In the preview to "Seduction", Chuck says, "abort the mission in response to Montgomery's remark about him being in danger and, we all know now those clips were from two different scenes.

After re-watching episodes and promo's...

I posted a version of this in the other thread, but realized it might be out of place.

All he did was show her the ring and slide it on her finger in the promo... Not very romantic. Do you think it could be them in the new CIA "digs" in the back of the store, and they are just going over mission details? Bryce proposing and Sarah accepting at this point just doesn't make sense. Not after the last 2 episodes. If it is a real proposal, at the very least Sarah would be conflicted enough not to immediately accept like it appears she does. I would say there is a possibility that it is a real proposal if it wasn't for the fact that it shows him sliding the ring on immediately.

My opinion hasn't changed from earlier, the ring, the dance, and the kiss are all a part of the mission and the episode is centered around Chuck's jealousy causing issues with the mission, and as a result the heartfelt talk at the end is Sarah telling him they can't be together while he is the intersect because it could cause more serious problems with future missions, ETC.

We'll never know what the clips are about until the episode is shown. Who knows, they may make last minute edits and cut out the Bryce giving Sarah the ring scene entirely...

Bottom line is, I'm just speculating with the limited intelligence I have. Although it seems weird for Bryce to suddenly pop up and propose to Sarah, this is TV, so anything can happen. Even in vs the Nemesis, despite the presumably lengthy amount of time Sarah was separated from Bryce, she couldn't help but return his kisses. Despite the First Date episode which showed Sarah leaning in to kiss Chuck, she still hasn't really gotten together with him yet. Also, the producers already stated that every return of Bryce would always mean trouble for Chuck and Sarah. Finally, adding some drama is one way of getting the ratings up, though this time it may not help, since Dancing with the Stars seems to be sucking up all the viewership lately...

I in no way mean to offend anyone. I'm just standing by my theory: Bryce will propose to Sarah but she will officially break up with him for good then. When Chuck finds out, he'll be overjoyed only to be pushed away later by Sarah. And finally, Anna will dump Morgan.

I think that the reason that Sarah looked uncomfortable when she saw Chuck with the rose was not because she didn't want Bryce to see Chuck trying to give a rose to her, but because she was worried about how Chuck was going to react with when he saw Bryce in her room. I don't think that Sarah and Bryce have been in contact because they made a point of Casey telling Chuck that Bryce would be out of contact at the end of the Nemesis. I think that he showed up to ask Sarah and team Chuck for some help in a mission although he may have hoped for more. I think that the title of the episode is in reference to Sarah letting him and Chuck both know without any doubt that she is choosing to be with Chuck for personal reasons and not the job. Although most of us have already come to this conclusion because of the way that the Nemesis episode ending, both Chuck and Bryce may have had their doubts since Sarah didn't explain her decision to either one of them.

Well, the episode ending was weird: Chuck looked to Sarah for an explanation and she just looked to Bryce.

Although this is inconclusive, I would think that if Sarah was worried about Chuck's reaction upon seeing Bryce in her room, she would quickly explain to Chuck his reason for being there. Maybe this will happen in the upcoming episode. Of course, I'm sure Bryce had romantic intentions in his mind...

Here's my 2 cents...

When Bryce pulled the door and stood next to Sarah I raised my fist not in anger but in that you writers are clever to bring in the one person Chuck fans did not want to see.

Anyways I agree with Rick on this that when Sarah opened the door she had that look of concern because she knew the shiznit was about to hit the fan ei Bryce's appearance. He shows up still exuding that smug look we love to hate and yet we have to remind ourselves he, as well as, the appearance of Jill in later episodes are essential to the Charah relationship. I think we can all agree that in her heart Sarah has chosen Chuck despite the unresolved feelings she has for Bryce which may be resolved in The Break Up. When I saw the preview of next week's episode, I too think the cover is as couple bewteen Bryce and Sarah but I don't think its a real marriage proposal. In the preview, Bryce walks in likes he owns the place and informs them of a mission leading Bryce him to take out a ring and place it on her finger, which possibly happens early on in the episode. From what I see I didn't see Bryce get down on one knee which tells me its for cover and not real marriage because Bryce is married to the spy life which he finds thrilling.

In any case, if anyone noticed there was a scene where Sarah was either shot or hit with a car leading to Chuck coming to her aid. This is just speculation here but maybe Bryce takes off after those responisble knowing Sarah will be okay and Chuck staying back by her side possibly holding her hand in her hospital room. Later Bryce comes to her side, there's an altercation between Chuck and Bryce, Sarah tells Chuck to leave so she can talk to Bryce, Bryce in all in his glory thinks this is a good thing, leading Sarah to officially break it off with him.

That's just my take on it.

He probably does have romantic intentions and why wouldn't he?

I think we are loosing site of one thing here. Bryce really isn't a bad guy... Yes he got Chuck booted from Stanford, but for what he thought was good reason... Yes he is constantly a speed bump in the Chara relationship... but really he doesn't even know that they have anything going on... You can't really blame him for wanting his Gorgeous girlfriend back.

I think the Captain's hypothesis has some merit. But an argument against it is that the "ring" scene appears to take place at the OO. That's kind of an odd place to pop the question is it not? So, it could be a fake engagement. Difficult to say, there are legitimate views from both sides.

I watched it and it does apparently take place at OO, but in the new digs with Chuck in attendance. He'll probably say something that gets at Chuck, tell Sarah about the mission, place the ring on her finger. I doubt he's going to be getting down on one knee...unless the writers put in the script.

Man its good to be back talking about Chuck again.

or he could be like oh look what times it is i got to go to buymore and then Sarah probably just look at him walk away. that would be kinda not so awkward but it totally would be if she saw him at the beach drinking the vine. But i think that chuck and sarah will have lots of awkward moments next episode

Not sure if Chuck will stay with Sarah while she's being hospitalized because in the comic con promo it shows Sarah beating a thug dressed as a doctor without Chuck present...but this could be after Sarah recovers...who knows...

Okay...I watched the video again for the 100th time and its not Sarah who gets hit by the car it could be Bryce leading both Bryce and Sarah to possibly be in the hospital where the talk between both of them occurs. Who knows...I'm going to watch it again.

This is what I anticipate Chuck's behaviour to be. To sulk and get discouraged by Bryce. That's typical of Chuck...

That's why I'm guessing the writers will have Bryce really propose to Sarah, to get Chuck into a sulky and jealous hurt puppy. Then when Sarah breaks up with Bryce for good at the end, it will cheer Chuck up for a brief moment until she sets the ground rules with him...

I don't see Chuck and Sarah breaking up their cover relationship, because they'll need that for all the missions they have to go on, like Sarah's high school reunion which is coming right up. Based on the preview of Sarah getting injured in this episode, I'm going to guess that Chuck will realize that he and Sarah need to emotionally distance themselves from each other for now. And Chuck knows it will not be forever. Beckman, in her last briefing to Team Chuck in episode 2, said that with the Cipher's retrieval the government could now build another Intersect and Chuck's nightmare would soon be over. So I think both Chuck and Sarah will agree to chill. Before this, I believe Sarah will have her closure with Bryce, but Bryce won't have his closure with her, just because the show wants to bring him back in the future to try Chuck's soul.

I don't believe that Sarah will become engaged to Bryce if for no other reason than it she did Chuck would never trust her again. Not after what happened with Jill and not after Sarah had more or less let him believe that she was interested in him. If he thought that if Bryce ever returned Sarah would drop him to go running back to Bryce then Chuck would be a fool to have anything to do with her, even as part of a cover. If it happened Chuck should do the same thing that he did with Lou and tell Sarah that their fake relationship was over and this time not change his mind. Also as far as the audience was concerned Sarah would become very unpopular. I can see Bryce having a very hard time believing that Sarah was interested in Chuck and in believing that Sarah would dump him for Chuck, but I don't see Sarah choosing Bryce over Chuck.

i just took a look at next episode's photos...i noticed something during their steamy ballroom dance between sarah and bryce that can change our views about the mission and "possible" proposal:

~ if the dance scene was a mission then why isn't sarah or bryce wearing wedding rings...it's been said by fellow chuckaholics that their cover are newlyweds...

~ since, sarah doesn't have the diamond ring on her finger...it means the scene we saw in the preview may really be a proposal that happens in the underground hide-out?

sorry, i forgot to put the link...here's the pictures: http://chucktv.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=109

It might well be. But if it is, I'll be shopping for a new TV because mine will surely have been broken. (I reserve the right not to break my TV if before the ending something else affecting Chuck and Sarah's relationship happens).

So I have seen a lot of posts about the ring that Bryce gives to Sarah. I would have to think that it is something that does not have to do with the mission because if you look at any promo photos she does not have the ring on when they are dancing at the party. Therefore, Bryce must give it to her before that and she turns him down, or he gives it to her after and she turns him down or dare I say, she takes it? I really hope that she shuts him down hard and chooses firmly Chuck.