2012's Best Episodes: Chuck's Memorable Finale And New Girl's Awesome New Game

2012's Best Episodes: Chuck's Memorable Finale and New Girl's Awesome New Game Seattle Post-Intelligencer Copyright 2012 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Published 3:18 pm, Tuesday, December 25, 2012 From Desperate Housewives' fitting farewell to Fringe's powerful flash-forward, 2012 served up some remarkable hours of television, and we've assembled the top 25 episodes. Fans who've helped the show earn 11th-hour renewals through online devotion and the consumption of Subway footlongs bid adieu with this bittersweet episode that hits all the right notes (literally in the case of Jeffster!'s swan song, a raucous cover of A-ha!'s "Take on Me.") And while Chuck's pals Morgan and Casey find love, the future is less certain for the titular hacker-spy himself. Showing yet again that its whole is greater than the sum of its parts, Parenthood deftly juggles multiple stories - Kristina's health scare, Crosby's money issues, Amber's first love, the end of Julia's dream to make partner - before bringing the Braverman clan together for that shattering final scene when Kristina reveals her breast cancer diagnosis. Mulroney's straitlaced character Russell highlights the roommates' absurdity in "Normal," which teaches us what might be the greatest (and most confusing) drinking game of all time, True American. Suspected of murdering a state trooper, Quarles demands that Limehouse give him the $500,000 he needs to earn his way back to Detroit, but things quickly go awry. In a scene that's as hilarious (Quarles squeals with glee at Limehouse's "piggy bank") as it is violent (Quarles' arm loses its battle with Limehouse's meat cleaver; Raylan later says he "disarmed" him), the show neatly ends a major story line while setting up the next: Louie's daughters open their Christmas presents early so they can go away with their mother and her new man; Louie skips his sister's family trip to Mexico when his odd new love (Parker Posey) suddenly dies. An odd dream sequence, in which Louie's now-adult daughters lament their loner dad, finds the funny in pity.