Dogs – As the fourth episode of The Bear begins, Marcus (Lionel Boyce) stops by a donut shop in the morning. Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) tries to put a shirt on a blow-up hotdog because it is funny. He is trying to get exposure since the shirt features the name of the restaurant. When Richie says he didn’t want to do this, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) reminds him not to borrow money from Cicero that he can’t pay back. Since Carmy doesn’t want to get his legs broken, they’re going to cater a little kid’s birthday party for Uncle Jimmy. Richie claims he runs a tight ship and needs to get administrative things done. Carmy tells him that the hotdog is not going to fit in the car. As Tina (Liza Colon-Zayas) walks outside, she sees them fighting over the hotdog.

After the hotdog gets popped, Richie calls Carmen a baby and says he’ll get the spare from the basement. Marcus tells Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) he is enjoying not having to do bread anymore as he cuts a slice from the cake. He asks Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) to try it. She does and says it is a great whoa. Sydney asks Tina if she remembers the mashed potatoes since it is a new recipe. Tina tells her to screw off. Sydney doesn’t want to be in her space and is only doing what she was asked to do. Tina reminds her that she was in this kitchen before she was born so she should just back off. On the way to the party, Richie watches a video on his phone and tells Carmy about it.

He claims he is going to lose it if Cicero calls him Rick. Carmen asks him not to bring that up because he wants today to go as smoothly as possible. Once they arrive, Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) argues with Richie who says he is the only one standing up to him. He calls him Rick. Richie says he hates that while Jimmy says he hates when he doesn’t answer his phone. Carmen begins working as Mr. Szorski comes over to say he thought he had killed himself. Carmy corrects him by saying that was his brother. Richie comes out complaining about Jimmy who isn’t even Italian. He is 100% Polish. Carmy reminds him that he isn’t Italian either although he says he is more Italian than that guy. Richie takes the medication he has received for anxiety and dread. Carmy refuses half of the pill before asking about the ketchup.

Richie didn’t bring ketchup because he doesn’t know who puts it on hotdogs. He asks Carmy about the fruit and learns he prepared a homemade Ecto-Cooler. Richie leaves his pill bottle sitting on the table. Marcus and Ebraheim talk about the joy the first bite of a donut brings. Marcus says he just loved looking at them and the texture. He talks about the one donut he used to love that he could never get out of his head. Chester (Carmen Christopher) enters with a sample book for Marcus. Sydney interrupts to remind Ebra to deal with the beef before she is introduced to Marcus’s roommate Chester. She learns that Chester is a designer and was dropping off inspirational materials. Chester has to go because he is meeting with a brand ambassador. Once he leaves, Marcus tells Sydney he was thinking about doing a donut for The Beef on top of his other stuff.

Marcus wants it to be perfect like the plum Carmen was telling them about. Sydney says she is into it if he is. She checks on the others and reminds Neil Fak (Matty Matheson) that he doesn’t work here. Sydney asks Ebra if he tried the new chocolate cake. He confirms he did and she has given Marcus a lot of confidence. Tina and Sydney eyeball one another with neither saying anything as Marcus tries to come up with ideas for his donut. Moments later, he shows Neil the donuts he bought for research. Carmen goes inside where he talks to some of the people he knows. One guy calls him a loser for working in a restaurant so Pete (Chris Witaske) reminds them that he was the chef of the best restaurant in the world. Jimmy steps outside and tells Richie he just wants quiet.

Richie has nothing to say to him except to warn him that Pete is here. Jimmy complains that he dropped off a gift and won’t leave. They agree that he looks like a narc as if he is about to call the cops on them. Phil comes over briefly. Jimmy calls it weird and asks Richie whether he messed up his property too, but Richie doesn’t mess up properties. Sometimes, people think they’re calling Richie to fix a toilet. However, they’ve called someone else. Jimmy reads the text messages with the phone number she called only for Richie to say that was Michael’s number. As Tina pulls the potatoes out of the oven, Sydney asks her to use a salt bed next time. She also shows her how to remove the peel with a knife instead of using gross kitchen towels. Marcus works on the cake. Jimmy, Carmy, and Richie laugh about old times. Things get awkward when Pete joins them. He gets some of the Ecto-Cooler before asking why all the kids are napping.

Pete tries to make things not weird between himself and Carmy while admitting he followed everything he did out there. He doesn’t think most people realize how much work and dedication that took. Natalie (Abby Elliott) was really pumped for him even though she missed him a lot too. Pete confesses that she isn’t really busy at work and instead is pissed at Carmy. He begins getting tired all of a sudden. Once Pete goes inside, Carmy finds the pill bottle in the drink container. When Jimmy comes out with more ketchup, he learns about the Xanax being added to the cooler. Jimmy learns they’re not dead so he is okay with it. At work, Tina learns that she has messed up her dish. She returns and is surprised to see that Sydney has already taken care of it for her.

Carmy asks Cicero about a picture from a party in Grant Park from ’92. Jimmy says he misses him sometimes while Carmy didn’t know him well enough to miss him. He says they had some of the same problems around the same time and were more like friends than family. Cicero talked to him about 20 years ago. They had a gnarly fight that was about a million things. It was mostly about the fact that he insisted on doing stupid stuff all the time. He wanted to be many things until he became a restauranteur. Jimmy asks Carmy if he finds it impossible to be in there 24 hours a day. He starts thinking about bad stuff when he is in there for five minutes. Carmy suggests that is why he likes it so much. They agree that is probably why he wants to fix it too.

Cicero tells him not to be too disappointed if that doesn’t happen, but he knows he isn’t going to sell it to him. Jimmy tells him about a dream he had about his dad. They’re driving in an SUV with the dad in the passenger seat and he couldn’t put on a seatbelt. Suddenly, a kid steps out in front of the SUV causing Cicero to jam on the breaks. Carmy’s dad goes flying through the windshield and never lands. Cicero stood there waving at the kid. Carmy learns that he has knocked 2K off his tab now.  Tina tells Sydney that she has about a minute left on the potatoes. She expects Sydney to call it crappy but is surprised when she says it is great. As Tina returns to her station, she thanks Sydney. Jimmy says goodbye to Carmy and Richie before making them take a sleepy Pete home with them.

On the way back, Pete thanks Richie and Carmen for letting him be a part of this family. Richie and Carmen get back to the restaurant where Marcus gives them all a piece of cake.

 

The Bear Review

This episode of The Bear had some touching moments with Sydney developing relationships with some of the other chefs at The Beef. The child’s party was over-the-top although it did tell us more about Carmen’s father. I’d prefer to see Carmy in the restaurant with the others because more relationship development is needed, but there is plenty of time for that.

By this point, it is obvious that many viewers aren’t going to enjoy the humor if they were actually going for a comedy. Personally, I can’t recall any truly humorous moments that stood out, but others might feel otherwise. Regardless, The Bear proves at times that it has heart. It is only skimmed the surface so far, but I hope this changes before the season is through because there is where it’ll really shine.

While the infantile dialogue is often just annoying and the party wasn’t realistic, the episode shined a light on what it can do in terms of emotion. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of The Bear can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our work at this link.