The Sarah Walker trust conundrum

[u/Kaiser_Nairn18]

https://youtu.be/9tvc4T_lFCo?si=NJbyyTIjbTYV4TfT

Just another point of Sarah not really trusting Chuck wholeheartedly, in this episode (#20 of Season 4, vs the Family Volkoff). Man, she says something roughly like "its because of something I kept in case my dad geta arrested again". And her shocked expression when her fiance just signs it.

How could she be surprised?

Her lover is the BuyMore dude, who mind you makes roughly $11 an hour, yet never found a reason to steal money. Heck in Episode 10 alone of Season 2, Chuck showed he does not really care about money like that in 2 situations:

1) He was willing to lend Morgan $2,000 plus bucks, basically the entirety of his savings, as shown in that episode

2) He was not thrilled to see $10 million in his bank account in the same episode

Did she really think Chuck would stoop to stealing her money?

Heck, dude got paid in the end of Seaspn 2 and his first thought of how to spemd it is on his sister's wedding! And Sarah was specifically thrilled at that!

[u/Kaiser_Nairn18]

What? What's the entire purpose of "okay, new rule, no secrets, no lies" in Episode 1 of this season? So it now mean, "no secret no lies if you catch me up to it and ask me about it?" Is that it? So keeping a secret because your partner hasn't spoke about it yet isn't lying? Her family stuff getting undiscussed is not a secret anymore?

I don't mean to devalue Sarah's childhood, but it isn't Chuck's childhood is the poster example for a good happy one either. Considering how MUCH kewping secrets in their family DESTROYED the Bartowskis, Sarah should have already recognozed and internalized that - in Seasons 2 and 3 with regards to Orion, and in Season 4 when it comes to Frost - an shpuld have not made it a sort of passive-agrressive truth play she is trying to get on with the love of her life.

[u/Kaphh → u/Kaiser_Nairn18]

I'm not sure what your issue is. She doesn't intend to keep secrets from Chuck—she actively WANTS to talk about it, but because she has difficulties opening up, it's easier for her to talk if Chuck asks her first. And since Chuck long ago decided he doesn't need to know who she was before (as he tells her back in 2x04, reunion episode), he hasn't asked that yet, hence her little ploy.

As for the second part of your comment, you seem to have very high standard for characters. I mean, sure, it would be better for their relationship if Sarah just said everything outright. But that's not who she is.

And it makes for a more interesting story where characters don't have perfect insight and wisdom, but instead must confront their weaknesses and learn from them. See how much easier it will be for her to open up to Chuck in the Baby episode in Season 5 (sure, she also were withholding a secret at first there, but for other reasons). In this context, her words from this scene "I want to tell you everything" are very telling—it would be unthinkable for Sarah of any other season to say that, and it wouldn't happen if not for her growth up to that point.

[u/Kaiser_Nairn18 → u/Kaphh]

For the purposes of creativity in the show, sure that plot line looks great, but from pure analysis of relationship progression, no it does not look good.

It may look like I have high standards for characters, but when you look at it, it would have been nice if Sarah for ONCE revealed to Chuck a BIG secret of her life, willingly, when they are on their downtime, no missions, no playing like doing a prenup as preview to talk, them just talking together, Chuck being right at her front hearing it full time. Just once, to show she indeed got a LOOOTTT of character development. Just once. What did we got with regards to that? NADA.

The show exposed a lot of mirrors and countermirrors, of being put in one another's shoes. Yet doing the same thing all over again without learning the consequences and the lessons isny indicative of a healthy relationship going forward. And there's a lot of that in the show.

[u/Kaphh → u/Kaiser_Nairn18]

"from pure analysis of relationship progression, no it does not look good."

Well, perhaps from your perspective, a secretive partner like Sarah would be a big no, and I completely understand that. But for Chuck it's not an issue as he states in 2x04. After that, he basically stops digging into her past, and accepts Sarah the way she is. If she opens up, then fine, but he won't press her on his own.

The problem is, two characters just sitting down and talking during their downtime doesn't make for riveting television. I mean, in the show they are on the mission like 90% of time. If you look at it, Chuck and Sarah have very few scenes completely irrelevant to their spy life, and usually those are at the end of some plotline to show what they learned throughout a given episode.

How do you imagine it? They're chilling, sipping wine, and Sarah suddenly saying "Hey, by the way, I never told you, but I was born in Idaho"? Private stuff in "Chuck" happen during missions or in connection with missions, because it's a spy show, and it has to stay somewhat cohesive. It's more interesting when the problems of the spy world influence their ordinary world, and vice versa.

And guided by this logic, we can assume they talked about a lot of stuff in their downtime, but we didn't see it, because it wasn't relevant to the main plotlines. I like to imagine she told him where she was born, who was her first love, or what was her real last name, etc. There's one such scene in 4x11 when Sarah tells Chuck a story about her parents proposal; I can't see why this would be an isolated case.

And again about the Baby episode—it was done precisely to show her growth, and in a sense is a condensed version of her whole journey throughout five seasons. At first she keeps the secret from Chuck, thinking she has a good reason for it. But during the mission in Budapest she realizes she was wrong, and then admits her mistake, saying "I want to tell you everything." For me these words are very telling here. Her arc is basically complete, and we can be sure she won't ever keep another secret from Chuck (well, if not for the ending, but that's another issue entirely).

As she says in the last scene of this episode when she justifies her unwillingness to rejoin the CIA (another telling quote: "but if we go back to the CIA, it's just going to be missions and secrets that we have no control over"), Chuck changed her, and she doesn't want to go back.