Most Chuck fans, including myself, felt this episode and the ending ep. ruined the entire arc they'd built over the other four seasons (and a few good ones from season 5). Why? Because Sarah losing her memory and having zero affirmation or more than her remembering how to clean the Weinerlicious is quite a leap to saying that means she'll regain her memories. What do these memories matter? Well, they're basically stripping the main character from knowing and experiencing everything they'd been through from her independent memory, none of which stories can make up for. Many who liked the finale say: "oh, well they get to fall in love all over again."
But wait. Did nothing else Sarah went through and did to evolve as a person and spy - and not to mention with her family - matter a great deal regarding her growth, relationship to her family and the audience? The focus on meeting her little sister Molly and introducing her mother to the show? That was such a heart-warming part of an otherwise daft season 5, but the effect of that episode is self-destructed by what happens in this episode and more specifically, in the finale. So the defense premise of "Aw, well at least Chuck and Sarah get to fall in love again" doesn't justify this terrible, god-awful ending. It only serves to negate the experiences of a beloved character as if they never happened, aside from her love with Chuck.
Anything the writers gave importance to - such as meeting adorable Molly, reconnecting with her dad twice, bonding with Mary, Ellie, Awesome, Morgan, and all the real experiences and people she connected with - were suddenly treated as completely insignificant by the retrospective knowledge this ep. and the ending provide. Even if that last kiss would allegedly bring back her memories with Chuck, the writers and defenders of this self-immolation of an ending would still disregard everything else that happened in Sarah's world outside of Chuck's relationship.
Hence, if you want to enjoy the series, I strongly, strongly suggest - as well as a majority of real Chuck fans that clearly don't vote here - that you stop watching after Chuck vs. The Baby or Chuck vs. The Kept Man. Starting with Chuck vs. Bo, it becomes a real sh*tfest of nonsense and ironic writing that no sane writer would want to end their show with.
The writers: "Hey guys... here's this amazing story of all these moving parts, and poof... last second there's a pointless villain literally no one cares about, Sarah can't remember anything she ever did nor feel any bonds with her closest family and friends, but hey. There's a kiss on the beach that could magically work as well as a memory-restoring intersect; an intersect that we've allowed to show can be re-built by others, turned into sunglasses, and tweaked with many times in the series, but no one (Chuck, for example) can bother trying to "re-engineer" another one for this last, catastrophic memory loss of his wife!"
Jesus. Such lazy, incompetent and confusing writing it takes to effectively make four seasons of magic, and then flush it down the toilet so quickly and broadly. You've made so many viewers not want to re-watch the series because of how unbelievably irrelevant it inevitably becomes. This isn't a novel... it's TV. You don't end a series with "letting the audience imagine the ending". That's just code for "we can't write anymore". And you shouldn't have. It would've been better to have been cancelled after season 4 because season 5 allowed you the room to destroy your own work and our beloved show.
But wait. Did nothing else Sarah went through and did to evolve as a person and spy - and not to mention with her family - matter a great deal regarding her growth, relationship to her family and the audience? The focus on meeting her little sister Molly and introducing her mother to the show? That was such a heart-warming part of an otherwise daft season 5, but the effect of that episode is self-destructed by what happens in this episode and more specifically, in the finale. So the defense premise of "Aw, well at least Chuck and Sarah get to fall in love again" doesn't justify this terrible, god-awful ending. It only serves to negate the experiences of a beloved character as if they never happened, aside from her love with Chuck.
Anything the writers gave importance to - such as meeting adorable Molly, reconnecting with her dad twice, bonding with Mary, Ellie, Awesome, Morgan, and all the real experiences and people she connected with - were suddenly treated as completely insignificant by the retrospective knowledge this ep. and the ending provide. Even if that last kiss would allegedly bring back her memories with Chuck, the writers and defenders of this self-immolation of an ending would still disregard everything else that happened in Sarah's world outside of Chuck's relationship.
Hence, if you want to enjoy the series, I strongly, strongly suggest - as well as a majority of real Chuck fans that clearly don't vote here - that you stop watching after Chuck vs. The Baby or Chuck vs. The Kept Man. Starting with Chuck vs. Bo, it becomes a real sh*tfest of nonsense and ironic writing that no sane writer would want to end their show with.
The writers: "Hey guys... here's this amazing story of all these moving parts, and poof... last second there's a pointless villain literally no one cares about, Sarah can't remember anything she ever did nor feel any bonds with her closest family and friends, but hey. There's a kiss on the beach that could magically work as well as a memory-restoring intersect; an intersect that we've allowed to show can be re-built by others, turned into sunglasses, and tweaked with many times in the series, but no one (Chuck, for example) can bother trying to "re-engineer" another one for this last, catastrophic memory loss of his wife!"
Jesus. Such lazy, incompetent and confusing writing it takes to effectively make four seasons of magic, and then flush it down the toilet so quickly and broadly. You've made so many viewers not want to re-watch the series because of how unbelievably irrelevant it inevitably becomes. This isn't a novel... it's TV. You don't end a series with "letting the audience imagine the ending". That's just code for "we can't write anymore". And you shouldn't have. It would've been better to have been cancelled after season 4 because season 5 allowed you the room to destroy your own work and our beloved show.
- A bitter former fan til the end... which cancels out everything I just wrote. (Thanks for the Dexter-like writers tip).