It may sound strange to call the Bartowski's a functional family, what with both Mama and Papa B running out on their kids, but there exists both a solid foundation and a heavy dose of love between Chuck, Ellie, and their parents. Not to mention their supportive secondary family members.
As we see in flashbacks, at some point Chuck and Ellie had healthy relationships with their parents. They were read stories by mom and dad seemed to have well meaning and thought provoking conversations with his kids. There was apparently pancake time that held some significance (both good and bad).
Problem for the kids was that mom and dad were secretly in the spy game. And eventually mom had to leave to go on an extended deep undercover mission (yes, it is ridiculous but at least it didn't violate canon). Dad stuck around for a bit until he too disappeared while on a pancake run (see? I told you it could go bad).
As we would find out later, both parents abandoned their children in order to protect them. At least they had each other. Ellie became more of a mother to Chuck and the two remained close until the end.
Morgan, with his own personal and perhaps family issues, latched onto Chuck when they were boys and they became fast friends. They two would become as close as brothers and either would give his life for the other.
Ellie would meet her future husband, Devon aka Captain Awesome, in a supply closet in med school and bang him so hard that he would never leave her side (until the writers needed a subplot where we found out they broke up or something at some point, like it matters).
Captain Awesome would become something of a big brother to Chuck, at least until he found out about his spy life, when the two would essentially flip roles.
Eventually, Chuck would find his dad, then his mom (after dad was killed by the evil Daniel Shaw) and find some kind of closure with respect to the wounds of his childhood. But even with the abandonment by his parents, Chuck always had a solid, functional family around him. It made him the man he would later become and defined how he utilized the powers he would eventually be given (or did he take them?).
In the previous article, I talked about how Sarah had a dysfunctional family and how that drove her into Chuck's world. Perhaps part of Chuck's attraction to her, outside of the fact the she is a smokin' hottie, is that he sensed her need for someone like him. Be it subconscious or something he was aware of, the two had a seemingly instant connection.
She needed his stability and dedication to family.
And he needed to be there for someone who needed him.
A perfect combination forged by the actions and sometimes misdeeds of those who loved them.
What say you, fans? Comment below or I shoot the penguin.
