Let's Break Down the Wildly Stressful Season 2 Finale of 'The Bear'
This story contains spoilers for the Season Two finale of The Bear.
The first season of The Bear proved that Jeremy Allen White and co. had the chops to make one of the best shows on television. Their secret sauce? Making every second feel entirely unhinged. The Bear depicted a bunch of personalities—who presumably made minimum wage—screaming at each in an Italian beef shop as if it was a three-star Michelin restaurant. It was so absurd that no one knew whether to label it as a drama or a comedy. But we loved it—even if our time at The Beef made us lose sleep.
In Season Two, it's almost like we're watching a different show. That intensity is still there, sure, but The Beef leans into quieter moments—showing us the inner lives of the group we met in Season One. After The Beef closed in the prior season, Season Two could've jumped ahead to the opening of Carmy and Sydney's new restaurant, The Bear. But Season Two chose to really live in the renovation of The Beef's old digs. It provides time for each individual character to not only have their own anime-esque training arcs, but to also feel the pressure of working in a real, fine dining establishment. Gone are the days of having a panic attack over a hoagie order. Now, the chaos of a full-scale restaurant makeover dominates their lives. HGTV, you make it look so easy!
When we finally get to Episode 10—AKA the series finale—it's "Family and Friends" night at The Bear. The gang seems ready for what is essentially a dress rehearsal... but that doesn't mean they aren't nervous as all hell. There's also, of course, a multitude of problems that the crew doesn't handle all too well. With so much going on over the course of the episode, it's difficult to keep track of all the storylines—so, we broke them down for you. Ready, chef?
A Marcus and Sydney Romance?!
On today of all days? Marcus seemingly asks Sydney out after she compliments his dessert lineup for the night—and her response isn't the best. She didn't think Marcus was serious, but the look on his face says it all. Early in the night, the awkward tension evolves into Sydney just ignoring his requests for the number of dessert orders that have to go out. Eventually, Marcus blows up at her, asking if she's mad at him in front of the whole staff. Carmy breaks it up, and the kitchen goes back to business as usual. At the end of the episode, we see that Marcus received six missed calls from his mother's nurse. Good news or bad? We'll have to wait and see.
Kitchen Nightmares
Not only does the kitchen runs out of forks, but Sugar and Fak also have a broken toilet on their hands. One of the new hires, Josh, also goes missing. What was he doing, you ask? Marcus finds him smoking meth in the alley behind The Bear—and he's basically fired on the spot. (RIP to Alex Moffat having a full arc in Season Three of The Bear.) At the end of the night, Sydney throws up in that same alley—but she's comforted by her father, who finally seems to recognize the true worth of her work.
Mama Berzatto, Where Did You Go?
Carmy and Sugar's mom, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, isn't able to come to Family and Friends night. Well, she does come—but she doesn't go into the restaurant. "I don't deserve to see how good this it," she says. Only Sugar's fiancé knows that she shows up. He does his best to persuade her to come in, but she refuses. This scene continues to show the Berzatto family trauma we glimpsed in the Seven Fishes episode. Since that fateful dinner, it seems as if Mama Berzatto has developed a little more self-awareness of how her alcoholism impacted her children. Ultimately, the shame is too much. Hopefully, this moment hints that the Berzatto matriarch may very well be grappling with her relationship with Carmy and Sugar—and Season Three could see her begin to repair it.
Nobody Puts Carmy in the Fridge! (Except For Carmy.)
As the orders stack up, Carmy begins to have a panic attack in the kitchen. It mirrors the end of Season One, when he destroyed the kitchen over an influx of takeout orders. After visiting Claire's table, he accidentally locks himself in the fridge—the same fridge he forgot to fix. He's stuck there for the rest of the night. Ritchie uses his newfound knowledge to run point at The Bear, with Sydney taking over as head chef. Miraculously, the gang pulls it off, all without Carmy. As far as we know, everyone eating in the restaurant was completely oblivious to the shit going on in the kitchen.
This season, while everyone was out training and bettering themselves, the same can't really be said for Carmy. Sure, he got a girlfriend (maybe), but the man left most of The Bear's responsibilities to his sister, Sydney, and his chefs. He didn't do much to get his mind right before stepping in a high-stress kitchen environment again—and it showed immediately. "I think I did this to myself," Carmy tells Tina. "I failed you guys." Screaming at himself in the fridge, Carmy has flashbacks to the Joel McHale-played Noma chef, who's telling him that he's worthless.
"Maybe I'm just not built for this," he continues, thinking he's still talking to Tina through the fridge door—but he's (unknowingly) talking to Claire instead. "What the fuck was I thinking? Like I was gonna be in a relationship? I'm a fucking psycho. That's why I'm good at what I do." Like a robot, Carmy declares that he doesn't need any joy or love in his life because "no amount of good is worth how terrible this feels." Claire, hearing everything, responds that she's "really sorry" he feels that way. She walks away, crying. Carm and Ritchie proceed to have a screaming match—as they do!—because the cousin is angry that Carm won't allow anything good into his life. "Someone's gotta tell you this shit," Ritchie says, before storming away.
We'll have to wait for Season Three to see how Carmy handles the nightmare scenario for his big opening night. To start? He has a lot of apologizing to do. Not only will Carmy have to reckon with his own emotions, but he hurt nearly everyone he loves once again. He's stuck in a box—both physically and mentally—and he'll need help to cut his way out.
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