A song of post-CHUCK malaise

Well as awesome as chocolates, bunnies and bilbies are Easter is a time of year that many of us often reflect on what the great sacrifice of the individual for the many. Sacrifice, love, family, fellowship and goodwill you don’t have to be religious to value these concepts and when I reflect on the concepts I often comeback to CHUCK and how the show enshrined these concepts and staying true to them throughout its five season run.

So now is as good of time as any to post again here on “Cheerful Symmetry”; truth is I would have loved to have written more here but I have started back at university some six year after first graduating. It has been non-stop with lectures and assessments plus becoming an uncle for the first time has kept me very busy and has meant I have neglected my blog writing. So I plan to make the most of this window opening up on my schedule and get something written.

I feel horrible for not having written here since the end of CHUCK and I put it down to the post-CHUCK malaise that has engulfed many of us; but whilst I haven’t watch too many episodes of the show since the CHUCK finale I have continued to listen much of the great music we have heard on the show.

I want to talk about one song in particular which I find myself listening to constantly now; probably more now since CHUCK finished than before when I first heard it in Chuck Vs The Third Dimension; that is the amazing track Lost Coastlines by Okkervil River.

The song was used brilliantly towards the end of that episode to describe Chuck’s acceptance of his loss of innocence in seeing Sarah killing Mauser in the previous episode (the seminal Chuck Vs The Santa Claus).  In many ways it was Chuck and Sarah’s Rubicon; Chuck finds the act of killing abhorrent but he recognizes that Sarah will do anything to protect him as he would for her. Even though it scares him he understands there is no turning his back on Agent Walker his future is with the beautiful yet deadly Sarah come what may.

The song is about setting off on a journey being unsure where it would take you… Chuck and Sarah’s journey took us to so many great places on the show. When I listen to the song now (and I have been a lot) it reminds me of a different journey; my journey to a world without CHUCK.

Sometimes the journey is just as important as the destination
(Thanks Liyana for the pic edit)

Let me break down the song, see what you all think…

Lost Coastlines By Okkervil River

Packed and all eyes turned in
No one to see on the quay, no one waving for me
Just the shoreline receding
Ticket in my hand, I'm thinking wish I didn't hand it in
'cause who said sailing is fine?
Leaving behind all the faces that I might
Replace if I tried on that long ride
Looking deep inside but I don't want to look so deep inside yet

This to me is my initial feeling on the ending of the show and the isolation I felt. It is also how CHUCK ended, I have not felt up to watching the past episodes again because as great the finale was it really was a heart-wrenching and draining experience. I feel like I have left a part of life behind but I am not prepared to move on yet.

Sit down, sit down on the prow to wave back
There might not be another stop further on the line
Look out, look out at each town that glides by
And there's another crowd to drown in crying eyes

This reminds me of the shared experience of CHUCK-loss; there were many brilliant Chucksters around that I talked to about the finale and how I felt and to all of you… I humbly and truly thank you all for it.

At the end of the day though, nobody can tell you how to feel; it’s a personal journey and so the sense of isolation  still remains.

And see how that light you love now just won't shine
There might just be another star that's high and far in some other sky
We sing, 'Is that marionette real enough yet to step off of that set
To decide what her dance might be doing?'
Ruining the play, too, and the ensuing melee escape.
We packed up all of our bags, the ship's deck now sags
With the weight of our tracks as we race beneath flags black and battered
Rattling our swords in service of some fated, foreign lords

Coming to the realization that CHUCK is over we now have the opportunity to find a new passion in the knowledge that we have fought had for the cause (with the psychological scars to prove it) and we as Chucksters will move on  in different directions but forever linked by the show.

I would like to think that somewhere down the line we will be rattling our swords in service of a new CHUCK project; because the show just means that much.

We sail out on orders from him but we find
The maps he sent to us don't mention lost coastlines
Where nothing we've actually seen has been mapped or outlined
And we don't recognize the names upon these signs

For me this is the realization that no matter how much we enjoy these new shows or interests, they are not CHUCK… the experience feels different, not better or worse…just different. 

So for me it is a new understanding; it tells me how special CHUCK is and that emotion blend that sets it apart from the rest.  I can’t recognize the heart of CHUCK in any other show, no matter how hard I look.

And every night finds us rocking and rolling on waves wild and wide
Well we have lost our way, but nobody's gonna say it outright
So we just go …. La la, la la la la, la la la la la la la la la la la laaaaa
Oh oh ohhhh….

The acceptance of that feeling of CHUCK-loss, it is the elephant in the room…we may never see it again and my feeling of indifference for anything else TV has to offer. I have come to terms with being lost and I am OK with it and for now I am just going to wallow in it.

I really hope that doesn’t sound too melancholy, it is just that the show has meant so much to me emotionally, creatively and even spiritually that I do feel somewhat lost especially when I think that there will be no new episodes of the show.

There are a lot of good show out there to watch now like Castle, Game of Thrones, How I met Your Mother etc. but in my opinion no other show has the same blend of heart, action, comedy and drama as CHUCK and that is why it will always be special to me.

I hope to be able to talk to you all about a Chuck movie some day; until then please feel free to find me on twitter ready and willing to talk about the show to anyone and everyone.




I will forever by rattling my sword in service of this cast



PS: I hope you have all had a great Easter and all the best to those celebrating Orthodox Easter this weekend.



Georgia the Easter Bunny says Christos Anesti & Happy Easter all!!