Season 3 of The Bear is still the elevated television experience one has come to associate with the show thus far. Despite a terrifyingly brilliant second season, The Bear manages to deliver perfection without hesitation. Every episode of the third season is a banger, yet there are some that definitely stand out. The first is one, but 6 (they do love this number) and 8 are both emotional powerhouses. But with that said, I won’t waste any more of your time, let’s jump straight into everything that happened in season 3.
Spoiler Alert
Episode 1: Tomorrow
Episode 1 of season 3 is a nightmare of an episode, solely because of how calming it is with minimal dialogue and a non-linear format. I guess it’s like a deep dive into Carmy’s mind and all the ingredients that went into forming “The Bear,” i.e., Carmy’s alternate personality, not the restaurant version. Here, we also see that Carmy, in fact, did apologize to Richie over the phone, as if simply saying “I love you” would fix everything for them, but unfortunately for him, he’ll soon realize it doesn’t. In the middle of witnessing Carmy’s personality development, we also see him apologize to Sydney for leaving her alone when he needed to be there the most. At the same time, Marcus’ mom unfortunately passed away when he was busy on opening night. There’s a wound on Carmy’s hand that almost looks like a massive gash one could carve out with a knife, and at the beginning of the episode, we see him going at the scabs. I guess we could compare the voices of all the people Carmy worked with, specifically David, to these scabs that you keep going at and making worse. The more you peel, the more disgusting it gets, never to heal.
We see how Carmy moved to New York, and Sugar was worried she’d never see him again. We see him work tremendously hard to become the chef that he is. I guess it is the best way to forget everything else. We get a glimpse of him looking at Claire when his mother drove her car into the house during that Christmas dinner, but he never actually did anything about it. This is literally the inside of Carmy’s mind. But finally, it comes time for him to get the news of Mikey’s death. Carmy, who never picks up his phone, doesn’t answer despite Sugar’s urgency until she finally calls the restaurant. And so, despite making it back home in time, Carmy never attended the funeral because he was hurt. We also see Sydney try out Carmy’s dish, the dish that changed her life forever. And finally, we come to the present day, where Carmy is writing down non-negotiables for the restaurant while preparing a fancy menu, all by himself, without so much as a word with Sydney. With great power comes great self-centeredness. He even stops smoking because it’s a waste of time.
Episode 2: Next
In episode 2, we get to see a little bit more of Syd and her life with her dad, Emanuel. They’re your typical adult child vs. dad duo and can almost never get along. When Sydney gets to work, she learns of the new non-negotiables, which have been printed out by Sugar, though she has nothing to do with them. Bear wants to impress “them,” but Sydney doesn’t know who the “them” are. See, she doesn’t realize that the pressure Carmy feels comes from deep within, because he wants to prove to David and his other mentors that he can actually make something of himself. On the other hand, Richie and Carmy are at their worst. They’re really not getting along, and all they can do is cuss at each other without a care about anybody else around, despite the fact that they’re running a restaurant together. I was reminded of the “I’m not an owl” scene from “Harry Potter,” Sydney being Hermione in this case, of course. While everyone is worried about their own thing, somehow, they’ve all got Claire on their minds, too. Everyone hopes Carmy will talk to her and fix this thing up, but soon we’ll realize that that is not happening this season. Ted Fak is also now helping out at the restaurant, and there’s a running joke about everybody feeling like they’re having a stroke because there’s a tube light that won’t stop blinking.
When Marcus finally walks into the room, everyone finally calms down and gets to work. One of the non-negotiables is “a new menu every day,” along with “no repeating ingredients” (ouch, 5-year-olds to their moms every day, am I right? I kid). At the end of the second episode, Carmy goes up to Marcus and basically tells him that he’s there for him because he knows exactly how he’s feeling. There’s only one thing Marcus cares about now: getting the restaurant to where Carmy wants it to be, and he asks him to take them there.
Episode 3: Doors
Episode 3 of The Bear begins with Marcus’ mom’s funeral. It’s a beautiful moment where Marcus shares how she never let him feel alone. I suppose now it’s the staff of “The Bear” that has to fill that gap. On the other hand, at the restaurant, things are much more tumultuous than ever before. Carmy’s all up in his head and yells every time a dish isn’t perfect. If they want the star, it can’t go out if it’s not impeccable. Because of all the yelling inside, Richie’s having a hard time handling the front. People are not getting their dishes on time, and he’s the one getting yelled at, so now he writes up a list of non-negotiables. The new menu every day is really hard on everybody. Not only is it impossible to do, but it’s also grossly expensive. On the other hand, when they clean up the kitchen together, it is the moment that feels the calmest. It washes away all the grime of the day, not only in the kitchen but also in their minds. Or so I think. On the other hand, Richie’s going to have to accommodate more customers because the math is not adding up, but Carmy isn’t necessarily ready for that.
Under so much pressure, of course Carmy’s mind is crumbling; he can’t stop yelling, and despite Sydney calming him down, he has a massive fight with Richie, one that goes so far that it messes with Sydney’s system (I’d have thrown hands). Now, when you change the menu as often as Sydney changes her earrings, that’s what you get, I guess? It seems only when Sydney tells Carmy that she’s not his babysitter that he really understands how far he’s going. At the end of the episode, Sydney stares down at one of her sheets, which has a footprint on it. It’s closing time, and she’s furious, and she definitely deserves to be. How much longer can she endure Carmy’s tantrums?
Episode 4: Violet
In episode 4, we see a delicate moment between Claire and Carmy from when they were together. In this moment, Carmy tells her that the day he hated the most was Sunday because he’d feel all this anxiety over not doing anything. Claire replies with a story about a girl who came into the ER with her body covered in glass shards all over. She had an allergy that Claire didn’t notice on her file because they were swamped, and it made her feel absolutely horrible. Ultimately, when the girl woke up, she couldn’t stop laughing because it hadn’t started hurting yet. Claire asks Carmy if the wound on his hand feels the same way. He says he’d held a piping hot pot and didn’t even realize it.
On the other hand, Marcus is still trying to get over his mother’s death. He turns on the monitor to hear the beeping sound just to feel like she’s still around. On his way to work, he finds a beautiful violet and is determined to do something inspired by it. At the same time, Sydney’s been offered a partnership for “The Bear.” Apparently, it’ll help her make Carmy better, and vice versa. Her father’s obviously not convinced that this is right for her, and she’s already signed a lease for a new apartment. Finally, a place of her own, a pay raise, and everything that comes with it. In the meantime, we see an adorable interaction between Richie and his daughter, who thinks he’s alone because that’s what her mom told her. This really gets to Richie, because he doesn’t want his daughter to think he’s lonely. At the moment, she can’t really tell the difference. Richie finally removes his wedding ring, because soon enough, Frank and Tiff are going to be married, and he’ll be the third wheel.
Frank apologizes to Richie for proposing without asking him first, but Richie plays the bigger man, and Tiff and his daughter tell the guy it’s all good. All he worries about is if he’s actually the one who needs to step back a little. On the other hand, Syd meets Adam Shapiro outside the subway station, and he congratulates her on “The Bear” and says he sneaked into the restaurant without anyone realizing it. He tells her the food was actually good, but it was different, not the usual “Carmy.” This obviously leaves a mark on Syd; she tells him that’s because it’s both of them together, and we know she’s been feeling left out in the backroom this whole time. In the restaurant, Carmy can’t stop changing the menus even after they’re printed, so Syd tells him that he needs to rethink his communication skills, because he never once told Sugar or her that it wasn’t the final menu.
Sugar and Richie have come so far, and you can really see that in this episode, where they discuss a picture of a Japanese zen garden. Sugar has all of the fun facts thanks to Pete, and it seems Richie and she truly understand each other now. Sugar is worried about being a new mom, and Richie worries he’s taking up too much space in his daughter’s life. She reminds him that his daughter wants him there, that he’s a great father, and that it would, in fact, be weird if he wasn’t a part of her life. At the end of the episode, the staff learn that they’ve been reviewed by the “Tribune.”
Episode 5: Children
We’re hit with the terrible news that Andrea Terry is closing her restaurant. This is quite disheartening to everybody, because “Ever” is such an inspiration, and Carmy has so much tied to it. But additionally, so does Richie, and in turn, “The Bear.” On the other hand, Syd helps Marcus out with some things, like how to offload his mom’s stuff. The photoshoot is set to happen, so everyone is stressed already, and we get another Fak in the building to make the floors shine, i.e., Sammy. So, while Richie struggles to get the Faks to just zip it and clean up, Syd shows Carmy how to make his dish better because they’re a team, and that’s how it should be done, but apparently, he keeps forgetting.
On the other hand, Marcus, who is looking for some old recipes, gets his hands on an old notebook of Carmy’s. He shows some bits to Sugar, who claims Carmy would never show her these wonderful parts of him. They discuss the violet, and Sugar again has a wonderful fact from Pete about how it’s the state flower of Illinois, and says that Marcus’ idea is fantastic.
I suppose Carmy is still struggling with the idea of the restaurant. The episode title is Children because, in a way, he’s still one. In a sweet moment, Carmy asks Ebra if he’s doing this all wrong, but Ebra comforts him in an instant, telling him to keep going. On the other hand, Richie has another existential conversation with Jess from “Ever,” because he can’t believe she’ll be out of a job soon. Somehow, this is the day that “the Computer” is visiting Uncle Jimmy, because they’re down to discuss finances and how things are all messed up. A new menu every day means a wasteful kitchen. Budget cuts, a change of napkins—all of that is in the works. The photographer shows up and needs a duck dish that was served on the day the guy came in for the review. The problem is that nobody knows what that dish was, since it’s an ever-changing menu. Plus, they don’t have duck in the kitchen at the moment, so the only solution is to send Sammy to get it. The Computer even suggests getting rid of Marcus, but Sugar tells him she’ll kill him if he touches the guy (we’re with you, Sugar).
At the end of the episode, Jimmy confesses to Syd that he wishes he’d been there for the kids more all throughout their lives. He feels like he didn’t do enough, but Syd reminds him that he’s here now. While it’s a touching moment, he then reminds her to sign the papers. At this moment, Syd’s earrings look like a lopsided smiley face. It’s almost as if it’s mocking her, and Jimmy, I guess, because she doesn’t really want to sign the papers, no? Finally, the episode ends with Carmy finding some old pictures of his family from when they were kids, I guess back when everything seemed alright.
Episode 6: Napkins
I will admit this is my favorite episode this season because it’s focused on Tina, a character we’ve really come to love. It focuses on how she came to be at “The Beef” and then, of course, eventually at “The Bear.” Tina’s life was going smoothly until one day everything got messed up. The rent went up, and she lost her job, leaving her penniless and fearful. Finding a new job after working at one for 15 years was really unbelievably maddening for Tina, who had the experience but not the fancy college degree. Tina worked desperately everyday to try and get a job, but it seemed she was too old and too underprepared for the new world. Finally, Tina ended up at “The Beef,” where a smiling Richie offered her a black coffee and sandwich, all on the house, simply because that’s the kind of place it was. I suppose it’s the niceness of the guy and the loudness of the place, but as soon as Tina sat down and took a bite out of that sandwich, she started to cry. This is because Tina is overwhelmed by her situation, and it’s Michael who ends up helping her out. It seems Michael really shone as an agony aunt. He immediately knows how to help Tina and gets her to tell him her troubles after he expresses his concerns about the restaurant to her. Michael was already quite troubled but managed to stay lighthearted about it. However, it seemed like the perfect time for Tina to have shown up, almost like fate, because Michael was looking to hire and Tina was looking for a job. It only makes sense why they were like family, because in this one scene, you can see how they connected with each other, but more so, why Carmy always refers to Michael as the life of the party.
Nearing the end of the episode, Michael shows Tina a picture of one of the dishes Carmy made (we’ve seen it before in the first episode), and neither of them knows what it is, but Michael tells Tina that Carmy was always the one who knew exactly what he wanted to do in life. This is how Tina ended up joining the family.
Episode 7: Legacy
Despite “The Bear” being up and running, both Carmy and Richie feel somewhat empty inside. For different reasons, of course. Richie, because he’s now actually alone, and Carmy, because he let a good thing go with Claire because he believes he can’t be the best if he has any “distractions.” While Carmy attends another AA meeting, still thinking about Michael, Syd meets up with Shapiro, who offers her the role of CDC at a new restaurant he plans on opening. When she comes to the restaurant, Marcus and Carmy are discussing legacies, and for Syd, she’s living in the present, so it’s not something she’s thought about, but for Carmy, he wants to leave behind something other than all the panic and anxiety. For Marcus, he wishes to be remembered for the person he is. All very thoughtful answers, if you ask me.
On the other hand, Ted asks Gary about his baseball stint. He was removed from the team because he ended up taking some steroids a couple of times—not even a whole lot of them—and got caught. Gary went down a dark hole because his whole life was turned upside down at the time, but he learned to let it go and stay positive. Richie tells Sugar about the day his wife went into labor because it’s almost time for her. It brings him to a memory of Michael, and Sugar asks him if that moment when he went out with Michael on the night before his wife was due was fun, and he gets all emotional. I suppose, for a moment, we forgot that Richie lost a brother, too. At the end of this episode, Sugar decides to go on a solo adventure to get some C-folds. She decides to go alone, but unsurprisingly, her water breaks after she’s done some heavy lifting.
Episode 8: Ice Chips
Episode 8 of The Bear season 3 is the most hard-hitting one of the series, in my opinion. It certainly peels back all its layers of color but never becomes bland; it’s just as flavorful. Like your favorite home-cooked meal from your mother. While Sugar is driving to the hospital, she tries each and every person at the restaurant, but everyone’s phones are off. She can’t even reach Claire, but finally, without a choice, Sugar ends up calling her mom. Pete’s on a flight somewhere, by the way; that’s why she isn’t able to reach him. It’s been a while since we saw Donna last, but her new self is different. She’s not as angry, and she’s certainly not an alcoholic anymore. At first, it’s your usual Sugar-Donna interaction, but it’s Sugar who is screaming at this moment. Sugar’s got everything for the birth planned out, but her mom’s quite a prick to everyone in the room at first. She’s got one question on her mind: Why didn’t Sugar tell her about the baby? She understands why she wouldn’t, but she needs an answer, too.
You can’t really tell exactly who this is meant to calm down, but Donna tells Sugar how she birthed Michael and Carmy. For Michael, it was as if he didn’t want to come out because he was all twisted up inside. Could she have protected him? I’m not quite sure, but I don’t think Donna was solly responsible for the way he turned out at the end. Sugar finally tells Donna that she didn’t tell her about the baby because she didn’t want all the baggage Donna came with. Donna has scared Sugar all her life, so all she wants is for her baby to have a safe environment. Sugar’s an empath, and because of her mom, she asks people if they’re okay too much and if they feel sick.
This is the moment Sugar can finally tell her mom how she’s really felt all her life. She tells her about how she always puts Donna first and never herself; even now, all she cares about is impressing her, which is exhausting. This is why she didn’t tell her about the baby. I guess in this episode, you could say both mother and daughter are healing. One from the presence of the other and the other from being able to express her feelings.
Finally, Donna tells Sugar that her own birth was the best of the lot. She talks about a dream she calls the “nothing dream,” which she had after going to sleep at 8 p.m. a couple of days before Sugar was due. In the dream, the city was gray, but there was a fish tank in front of Donna with vibrant fish in it. Donna was the only one looking at it, but she noticed after some time that it was about to crack. It didn’t make her scared; it made her happy that everyone would get to see the fish. She then woke up with her water broken. I guess what Donna is trying to tell Sugar here is that she finds her the most beautiful in the whole world, and she’s happy everyone else got to see her in all her glory. Then Uncle Jimmy’s first wife joined Donna because the dad was somewhere else at the time, and she played her the dear song “Baby, I Love You” by the Ronettes. I suppose Sugar finally knows that Donna does, in fact, love her. Finally, Pete shows up, and Donna leaves the room. When he steps out and asks her what he should do, she tells him to just be by Sugar’s side. Finally, Neil and Ted show up and sit with a lonesome Donna, reminding her that she’s going to be a grandmother and telling her that she’s going to do great. Can we all get the Faks in our lives now? Sorry, no, I don’t need a Sammy, but a Neil for sure.
Episode 9: Apologies
The last two episodes of The Bear season 3 are about the magic of making food. In episode 8, Carmy tells Marcus about “sleight of hand,” and he ends up watching a bunch of magic videos for inspiration. The message behind the video is that magic is inherently honest, and I suppose so is cooking, no? On the other hand, Neil and Ted go hard on Carmy for not apologizing to Claire at all for what he did back then. They call it “haunting” when someone’s in someone’s head, and they think Claire’s haunting Carmy.
On the other hand, Carmy and Richie are really not having it with each other, and it would be wonderful if they could wash away their sorrows just as they wash away the grime at the restaurant. When it comes time for Syd to talk to Carmy about her crazy opportunity, she ends up straying because Carmy’s certainly not in the right mind. He then invites her to the funeral dinner. Carmy is still struggling with his menu, his thoughts, and his everything, and so he ends up locking himself in the freezer again. He tries to call Claire from in there, but he just can’t get himself to do it. On the other hand, Syd is struggling with the fact that, despite putting her absolute best foot forward for the restaurant and working day in and day out, as an apparent partner, she’s not been recognized by anyone as an equal to Carmy. Not even Carmy himself. But basically, all that anyone has to say about the restaurant is actually about Carmy, and while everyone else seems to be okay with that because they don’t have goals like Syd, for her, it’s a big problem. It’s all the more reason for her to accept the CDC position.
In the meantime, it seems everyone likes to work on their own stuff on the one day they get off at the restaurant, and Marcus gives Tina a beautiful idea for her new dish, thanks to his trip to Copenhagen. In the meantime, Jimmy shows up to meet Carmy. After they’ve both comforted each other about being absent when the rest of the family needed them, i.e., Carmy telling Jimmy he thinks he could’ve made a difference with Michael, Jimmy finally tells Carmy that if the review they get is bad, he’s going to pull the plug on the restaurant because he’s given them over $850,000 (yowza). But in actuality, Jimmy’s in some really deep crap and might have to pull out either way. On the other hand, Tiff tells Richie to come to her wedding because he’s the only family she’s got left. She also apologizes for calling him a loner. At the end of episode 9, Neil and Ted decide to take matters into their own hands and apologize to Claire on his behalf. There’s a lot of love in this episode, and can I just say I love how everyone’s natural tendency is to want to care for Neil? The boys try really hard to tell Claire that she is the real deal for Carmy, but she’s at work, so she sends them away. I don’t think this chapter is closed just yet. Finally, Syd brings some food to Sugar and Pete’s, and Pete tells her that the partnership deal looks pretty good for her. Later, when Sugar wakes up, she sends a picture of her daughter to her mom, so I guess they are kind of healed, no?
Episode 10: Forever
In the final episode of the show, we see how Carmy started off cooking “family” i.e. staff lunches at “Ever” and then moved upward. A wonderful senior chef told him how to prep the chicken and the story of the pope’s nose. He basically tells him that they cook to nurture people. It seems to me that Carmy’s somewhat forgotten this. We see a montage of famous chefs before the special dinner. Sydney shows up to the dinner, and Carmy takes her to a table with Luca and a bunch of those chefs whose photos we saw earlier. All the chefs speak about their past experiences and what made their traumatic experiences worth it. For Sydney, it’s like an eye-opener, because it seems everyone has gone through what she’s going through with Carmy before. Finally, Carmy sees David Fields, the guy who messed up his brain chemistry, and he tries to talk to him, but all he can do is cuss him out and demand an apology. David obviously doesn’t apologize but instead says, “You’re welcome,” and walks away, leaving Carmy worse off than he was before. On the other hand, when Andrea Terry shows up, Carmy has a completely different response to her. I suppose she was a real mentor to Carmy, and so he looks to her for some advice, but it’s not as simple as that.
Luca and Sydney have an interesting conversation about siblings, and she tells him how she doesn’t really feel the absence of one, but Luca asks her if she has a person with whom she feels like she went to battle together, and Syd doesn’t really get to answer this question, but surely it’s Carmy, isn’t it? They’re interrupted by Andy, who asks to speak to Syd. He then asks her if she’s still interested in the job because things are finally getting serious.
At the end of episode 10, everybody gathers at Syd’s house except for Carmy. But, in the middle of all the partying, she suddenly feels overwhelmed by everything and takes a moment out to have a cry or panic attack. On the other hand, Carmy gets a Google notification for the review for “The Bear,” and it seems like it might’ve been a positive review. In the end, Carmy yells violent profanity into the night sky, and we see the dreadful words “to be continued” come up on the screen.
