Braciole – As the finale of The Bear begins, Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) imagines that he has his own cooking television show. He tells the audience that Mikey would cook the dish for them and he was addicted to painkillers. He blew his head off on the State Street bridge without leaving a letter or saying goodbye. He did leave the restaurant to him despite not letting Carmy work there with him. Carmy used to run the best restaurant on planet Earth and it was a lot different from his brother’s crap hole which is barely hanging on by a thread. He wants to cook braciole, but notices that his utensils are disappearing. Carmy begins freaking out, messing up, and apologizing to the audience. He hears Mikey tell him that he is here.

Carmen tells them to stop because he can’t do this. He sees a bear around the teleprompter before he wakes up on the couch and gets a call from Cicero. Carmy begins thinking about everything that happened while Mikey tells him that he is better than this place. Carmy goes to an Al-Anon meeting where he decides to speak to the crowd. He introduces himself and says his brother was an addict. Carmy explains that he would cook with his brother a lot when they were kids. That is when they were closest because food was always their common ground. They even discussed opening a restaurant together. Mikey knew how to make you feel confident in yourself. Carmy says his brother could enter a room and dial the temperature immediately, but he isn’t built like that.

Carmy didn’t have a lot of friends growing up and had a stutter that made him scared to speak half the time. He got bad grades, didn’t get into college, and didn’t have girlfriends. He doesn’t think he is funny. Carmen always thought his brother was his best friend, but everyone thought he was their best friend too. Carmen didn’t know his brother was using drugs and realized he didn’t know anything about him as he got older. His brother cut him off cold by not letting him in the restaurant a few years ago. It hurt. Since they had a connection to food, Carmy decided he was going to work in all the best restaurants in the world. Although it sounds ridiculous now, that is exactly what he did. He got the crap kicked out of him. After a couple of years, he started finding a station for himself.

When someone new came into the kitchen to work, Carmy would look at them like it was a competition and he was going to destroy them. He felt he could speak through the food or communicate through creativity. The confidence was exciting, he was good at something, and he just wanted his brother to know that. As his brother wouldn’t respond or tell him good job, Carmen got deeper into this and got better. His life got quieter as he started cutting more people out of it. He lost track of time because of his work and his brother just died. He left Carmen his restaurant that he has been trying to fix over the last couple of months. Carmen thinks it is clear that him trying to fix the restaurant is him trying to fix whatever happened with his brother.

It may involve fixing the whole family because that restaurant means a lot to many people. It means a lot to him too, but he doesn’t know if it ever meant anything to him. At the restaurant, Tina (Liza Colon-Zayas) tells Gary (Corey Hendrix) that she hasn’t heard anything from Marcus yet. Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) complains to Ebra (Edwin Lee Gibson) that Sydney nearly hit his butthole. Carmen tells everyone to gather around. He reveals they’re going to be having a bachelor party in the front for Cicero this evening. He isn’t sure how many people will be there, but they’re going to try to keep it chill and they’ll bring their own booze. Meanwhile, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) cooks for Marcus (Lionel Boyce). He finds it cool that she didn’t take a day off, but Sydney says she’ll crash if she stops.

Sydney says she feels bad because she hasn’t asked him how he is doing after everything. Marcus says he is okay. He finds it weird, but Sydney says it would be weird to work in a restaurant and not lose your mind. She tells him that she is preparing Chilean sea bass. He asks whether she has eaten at all the restaurants for people she studied. Sydney tells him about her time at the Culinary Institute of America and how she felt like one of the biggest idiots on the planet. She didn’t know half of the people they were talking about and she was broke.

Once the semester finished, she bought a one-way ticket to New York and spent every dollar she had eating. At one of those places, she found the best meal she ever had, but she won’t say which restaurant she is talking about. At the restaurant, Tina checks on Carmy since he isn’t as annoying as he usually is. He asks if she knows anything about KBL Electric, but she doesn’t know with Mikey. He was paying these big pieces out every month and it adds up to the amount that Cicero loaned him. Carmen doesn’t understand why he didn’t just pay the vendors. Tina remembers one month when they didn’t have napkins because Mikey wasn’t paying them on time. When she told him to pay them, he asked what the point was since they weren’t going to be able to pay next month anyway. She remembers because it wasn’t his attitude.

Carmy tells her she can take the night off before Tina tells him how much he loved Mikey. Sydney tells Marcus she had some of his donut and it was really good. She is sorry Carmy destroyed it like a little b!tch. Marcus hasn’t talked to him, but he is going to go and hash it out or not. Sydney isn’t going back to UPS. She says her family didn’t eat out a lot so when they did it felt special. Marcus’s family was the same. For his cousin’s graduation, they went to Michael Jordan’s steakhouse which has the best bacon. Sydney explains that she wants to cook for people and make them happy. She suggests she’ll just get a job at another spot instead of The Beef. She’ll do that until her credit isn’t negative one million. When Marcus asks if she has a dream spot, Sydney says she does and he’ll find out when it is open.

Marcus says it was cool seeing her and Carmy be good at different things so he learned a lot. She eventually confesses that the best meal she ever had was Carmy’s. He is really, really good although he is still a little b!tch. Richie curses Mikey while smoking outside with Carmy. He knows they say that addicts have to help themselves, but he should’ve handcuffed Mikey to the desk. After Carmy asks if he knew he was using, Richie asks how you couldn’t know. Carmen says he never saw him, never talked to him, and Mickey wouldn’t take his calls. Richie never thought he was like that because he was always so loud and obnoxious. He thought he would pull out of it since he was Mikey Bear. They rush inside to break up a fight. Richie hits one of the guys and knocks him to the ground.

They immediately begin worrying about him when he doesn’t respond. At the police station, Richie asks a guard whether there is any word about the victim. He is still in ICU and Richie could be charged with manslaughter if he never wakes up. Richie uses his phone call to call Tiff and tell her everything is good. He was thinking about everything that went down with her dad and what he called him. Richie admits she is right and he was wrong. Later, the guard wakes him up and tells him that he got lucky. He is only getting charged with aggravated assault since the victim woke up. He wakes up Carmy who is sleeping on a bench. In the car, Carmen admits he used their two-week parachute to bail him out of jail. He tells him to get Ballbreaker ready. He checks on Richie who says he is okay. He tells Carmen that he is all he has.

They return to The Beef and begin cleaning up the mess with the others. Carmen sees that Marcus has returned so he apologizes to him. Neil Fak (Matty Matheson) talks to one of the arcade games about being said while Tina asks Carmy when Sydney is coming in. He says he’ll be covering her prep. Tina warns him that she’ll screw him up if he ever tries that stuff with her. Carmen yells that they have the River North Festival today so everyone needs to do a little extra. He finds a little black notebook and begins looking through it before the deliveryman arrives.

Carmen tells him he doesn’t need pork only to be told to take it up with Lu. When he goes to the cooler, he seems to realize something. He tries to light a cigarette using the flame from the stove but causes a bigger fire. He watches it as Gary quickly puts it out. Richie slaps Carmy to see if he is okay. Carmen apologizes and says he is fine. Richie catches up with him near the lockers and retrieves Mikey’s letter. Richie admits he doesn’t know what it is. He didn’t want to give it to Carmen because it meant that Mikey was gone. Carmen takes the letter outside where he texts Sydney. He says his behavior wasn’t correct and her last check is ready whenever she wants it.

He opens the letter which reads, “I love you dude. Let it rip.” Carmen gets emotional as he flips it over and finds the recipe for the family meal spaghetti. At the bottom, it says the smaller tomato cans taste better. Back inside, Ebrah tells Tina that he is the grill master in Somalia. Tina tells him to shut up before Carmen confirms he is on the family meal today. Marcus works on a cake while Fak and Richie try to get the arcade machine to work. Richie tells him that they’re giving him an opportunity to prove himself and put some money in his pocket. Fak admits it was pretty cool and tough that he got stabbed back there and just walked it off. When Carmen pours out the sauce from one of the tomato cans, he finds money in a plastic bag.

They begin checking the other cans immediately. Everyone pulls money out of the tomato sauce. When Sydney shows up, Richie tells her to quit messing around and get a can opener. Carmen and Sydney discuss another option for the restaurant. She asks what they’ll call it. Moments later, Carmen hangs a note in the window saying The Beef is closed. At the bottom, it says The Bear is coming. Then, he joins the others for family dinner.

 

The Bear Review

The Bear’s finale was likely the best episode yet because it dipped below the surface and effectively pulled on the viewer’s heartstrings. It was possibly too easy for Carmen to find all the money to revamp the restaurant, but fans will be happy to overlook that. They’ll also be thrilled at the idea of The Bear returning for another season. The final episode proved that The Bear can be so much more than just loud cursing and arguing.

There is more to the story that needs to be explored and the finale was a good step in the right direction. While the first season was good, The Bear could be a lot better. It could transform into a unique drama capable of delivering a powerful punch. The only issue may be the fact that a lot of people will never make it to the end.

I would’ve liked the show to be a little more complete since it often starts storylines that it just drops midway through. For instance, we never found out whether The Beef managed to fulfill all its orders in episode seven. I’d also like to get to know some of the guests because they could be interesting. The finale scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of The Bear are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our work at this link.