Goodbye Chuck: 5 reasons I will cry tonight

I can hardly believe that the end is here: Chuck will air its two-hour series finale later tonight and end an epic five seasons (true in ever sense of the word). It’s daunting to even conceive that notion. Chuck has been a weekly staple in my life for only a couple of years, but somehow I feel like it’s the end of a lifelong era for me.

Chuck wasn’t the first show I obsessed over, but it certainly feels like the only show I have ever loved so dearly as I do, the only show I will defend against anything or anyone. And having this be the second time I’ve watched a show knowing that this episode is the last one (the first was when I watched the Friends finale, and in between then and now all of the shows I’ve loved have been cancelled after their last episodes aired and I never got to have any closure) just makes my heart break even more, but in the best way in a sense.

So while I’m watching the last two hours of Chuck tonight, here are the five things I’ll have to say goodbye to (and thus, most likely bawl my eyes out):

The family dinners

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g3_l8sfow0]

Chuck is a spy comedy that is pretty high on life, but some of the best moments are when everyone gathers together in Ellie and Awesome’s apartment (now Chuck and Sarah’s) and just talks. It’s how Chuck can be at times lofty and yet stay so very grounded. If it’s in season one or season five (with Cheryl Ladd as Sarah’s mom), I know that the most tender moments of the show stem from having all the characters in one room.

And most especially, the relationships and the dynamics within the family unit. Chuck and Ellie, Casey and Alex, Sarah and Ellie, on and on… this is a show with so many dynamics within the core group that works so well, it was almost as if the show runners struck gold miraculously. I don’t know how they did it, but I’m very glad they did. And I know that there just has to be a scene like this in the finale — and when it comes, I will cry. Profusely.

The music

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95khZul_W38]

Call it, again, another miraculous striking gold incident, but the music on Chuck is perhaps barnone the best soundtrack on television.

I’ve never watched TV where the music not only is just good, but fits and elevates a scene so perfectly. Take, for example, the scene embedded above from “Chuck vs the Breakup.” So I know that if the writers wrote a scene in which they wanted me to cry, and all things being equal (which is that the cast will perform it amazingly, as per usual so that’s a given), the music they choose will really take the scene and run for it.

And then I will be looking for the Kleenex box.

The community

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDtePZ1MFT0]

Being a part of the Chuck means you were also part of the fandom, and if you were a part of it, you know that it’s one of the best television communities around. While others may feel toxic (I think that’s because there really never was any love interest triangles on the show — at least none that were truly viable), the Chuck community is just loving, supportive, and all-around fantastic.

This is a community that brought a show back from the brink of cancellation not once, not twice, but three times.

Letting go of Chuck means I’ll have to let go of everything that comes along with it off-screen (well not permanently) — the Subway sandwiches (which I will be buying tonight and eating during the show!), the fanfiction, and fanvids, the bloggers, and everyone else. Of course, I won’t actually give all those up, but it’s not going to be constant. And saying goodbye to that is already disheartening.

Chuck and Sarah

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMljKl1CbnE]

The ultimate will they / won’t they couple finally did in the middle of season three — and it was everything we wanted it to be.

I don’t think any couple has had as much chemistry as Chuck (Zachary Levi) and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski), who make it look all too easy to have that spark with someone else on screen. So when the writers put Chuck and Sarah together, thinking it would be the series’ final moment — and then received extra episode orders, including two more seasons, and still kept them together, they proved that stupid Moonlighting curse wrong.

Turns out a show can survive when the two leads get together and relieve the tension… and then move in together… and then get married… and then think about having children and buy a house… and so on. Shows can thrive on stories with couples together, who knew? Thankfully, the show runners thinking they were going to get cancelled all the time got these two together.

And so during tonight’s finale, in which Sarah has forgotten the past five seasons and in which Chuck will have to win her over again will most likely make my heart — and those of all Chuck and Sarah lovers alike — break all over again.

It’s not just a show

Truthfully, Chuck isn’t just a show about spying and families and having the nerd get the girl. It’s so much more. Even then, it’s not just a show. It transcends so many genres and plotlines and has become a facet of my life.

The lowly watched but oft smart, hilarious, heartbreaking, cleverly-written dramedy will forever be a part of why I love television. It showed me that television can be gripping, compelling, something to root for. Television can be artistic, and entertaining just because, and can create relationships with people (and even intangible objects like a show) that are profound.

For some time, I never understood why people were crazy, diehard, passionate fans of something they watch an hour per week, but after Chuck: I get it. I understand. Because television can change you — it can motivate you, it can become a part of you (for better or worse).

And that’s what Chuck is for me.

So, goodbye Chuck. (Though I will review the finale tonight, which will basically be a love letter,) I love you. Thank you to everyone that made this show possible. I can’t even fathom a world in which you’re not on my television weekly. Thank you.