Fishes – As this episode begins, Michael Berzatto (Jon Bernthal) joins Natalie (Abby Elliott) outside to see if she is okay. He suggests people start thinking they’re not okay when they’re asked that. Natalie says she isn’t crazy, but the other woman is. Michael agrees she is out of her mind. Carmen (Jeremy Allen White) interrupts to ask Michael to come inside and deal with these people. Michael tells him he is happy he is home. Carmen asks if it would’ve killed him to pick up the phone. They go inside where Uncle Lee (Bob Odenkirk) is screaming at Stevie and everyone else. Neil (Matt Matheson) and Theodore Fak (Ricky Staffieri) try to convince Uncle Jimmy to give them money.
Neil thinks they can turn $500 into $1,500 in a couple of months. Donna Berzatto (Jamie Lee Curtis) rushes to get everything ready for the guests. Carmen tries to help her while she questions whether someone is gay. Neil and Theodore eventually come in to look for their skateboards. Michael says they’re grown men so he doesn’t know why they’re looking for skateboards. Carmen ends up arguing with Michael and saying this is why he didn’t want to come home. Donna and Michael can’t believe he’d say that. Michael says they’re all very happy he is home. They urge Carmen to say the words and stop being a wimp. Carmen finally relents and says he loves them. Donna gives Carmen instructions for finishing the meal.
Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs) hopes it is okay that she borrowed Donna’s robe because she threw up. Carmen tells Tiffany that he has been in Copenhagen. After Richie comes in, Donna offers to let Tiffany use her bed since she is sick. Carmen thinks he can make Sprite because they don’t have any. Donna says he can because he is a big-time chef. They begin talking about the seven fishes legend as Uncle Lee joins the conversation. Donna screams at Carmen and Richie until Carmen moves the pot for her. Richie and Michael tell Carmen that they ran into the love of his life. They tell him about Claire who is described as being as hot as balls. They ask Stevie (John Mulaney) to come in so he can tell Carmen about Claire.
Stevie can see why Carmen is in love with her. Carmen quickly says he isn’t in love with her and he doesn’t know where they got this. He thinks they’re messing with him. Carmen repeatedly tells Michael to stop touching him until Donna interrupts. Richie checks on Tiffany who claims she is good. Richie gives her the drink Carmen made for her before they agree that he is weird. He tells Tiffany how they’re trying to set Carmen up with Claire. Richie confirms he went to look at the place which he describes as expensive. Tiffany says it is nice and the schools are good. When they begin talking about the baby, Richie asks whether she’ll like them. Tiffany hopes so.
Richie promises to come back and check on her in a few minutes before he leaves. Lee tells Donna that he is going to buy a building and lease it out. The guy doesn’t have a realtor so Lee thought everyone could win. Michael asks if they’re doing this again. Uncle Lee claims he is just cleaning up a mess, but Michael tells him he is a mess. Richie approaches Uncle Jimmy because he wants to talk to him about that thing from earlier. Richie explains he is about to have a child and he doesn’t want to end up wrapping sandwiches for the rest of his life. He feels like he is wasting potential being at The Beef every day. Richie isn’t asking for money. He just wants to learn. Jimmy says he might think about it.
Cousin Michelle (Sarah Paulson) hangs out with Neil and Theodore. Natalie tries to help Donna, but Donna doesn’t want to explain to everyone why she calls her Sugar again. Uncle Jimmy ends up hearing the story since he hasn’t heard it before. Neil and Theodore pitch their baseball card venture to Stevie who has 500 bucks. Stevie is going to give them the money because whatever they do will be very interesting to him. He wants to hear from one of them weekly. Michael confronts Carmen to ask why he is acting like a saltine. Carmen says he thought when he came back that he’d be able to work with him. Michael says he is doing him a favor because the place is a nightmare.
Carmen asks why he is acting nice if he doesn’t give a crap. Michael doesn’t know why he’d say that when he gives a crap. Carmy gives him the present he bought and says Copenhagen is the most beautiful place he has ever seen. He slept on a boat and fed an invisible cat. Michael breaks down when he sees that the gift is a sketch of the restaurant. Carmen believes they can do this. Michelle speaks to Stevie and Richie about having Berzatto as a last name. Michelle tells them about a woman’s friend who knew a lot about bears. Uncle Lee sits down with them. Richie notices that Michael is getting ready for a cigarette. Donna continues struggling to make dinner.
She gets upset and complains that she has to do everything for everyone while no one lifts a finger to help. When Natalie tries to help, Donna tells her to go upstairs and get dad’s gun out of the drawer because she thinks she is going to blow her brains out. Donna doesn’t think anyone would miss her. Stevie gets yelled at and cursed at when he offers to help. Natalie asks Stevie if he’ll hug her and he does. Richie and Michael recount past events. Uncle Lee stops them to say they’ve heard this story a million times. That leads to an argument. Once Uncle Jimmy enters the room, Michael tells him that Lee is just talking crap. Pete (Chris Witaske) enters with a tuna casserole.
Everyone complains about him messing up the seven fishes thing. Carmen tells him to not let Donna see it. Although Pete says he can’t show up empty-handed, Natalie throws it outside and closes the door behind her. Michelle had an idea and wanted to know if Carmen would be open to it. She asks if he wants to come stay with her a few days. Michelle says he can come stay with her any time he wants. Carmen says he’ll try to come and stay with her. Everyone sits down at the dinner table. Tiffany wants to thank Jimmy for giving Richie a chance although he hasn’t actually given him a chance yet. Jimmy explains he gave Richie a job, but he doesn’t want everyone to know he has all of these jobs to give out.
Carmen checks on his mother because she is crying in the kitchen. Donna confesses she doesn’t think she can do this by herself anymore. She doesn’t think anyone out there cares about her and claims she had to beg him to come home. Donna makes beautiful things for them, but no one makes beautiful things for her. She tells Carmen she is good so he can go sit. When he tries to stay, Donna accuses him of treating her like a child. Michael is asked if he wants to say grace. He asks if Uncle Lee is going to cut him off. Lee asks if it’ll be the same Grace they’ve heard repeatedly. Michael asks Neil for his fork.
He throws it and tells Lee what he did. Richie warns him that he is scaring the normal people. Michael says he can throw forks because this is his father’s house. Lee says he can tell the story about how he is living with his mom and borrowing money from her and any other sucker who will listen to his bull crap. When Jimmy tries to shut him up, Lee says he is one of the suckers. Lee tells Michael that he’ll get rocked if he throws another fork at him. Michael gets another fork before everyone pleads with him not to do this. Lee tells him to either throw it or put it down. They continue arguing with Lee tells Michael that he is nothing. They only stop when Donna enters and asks what she missed.
Stevie says grace and praises Donna’s work. He talks about the seven fishes before saying he loves being there. Stevie says they’ve been so kind to him. He doesn’t have a family like this so he is grateful they make space for him. Everyone tries to comfort Donna when she begins crying. Natalie asks if she is okay. That upsets Donna more because she hates when people ask that. He slams a plate to the floor and leaves the room. Michael ends up throwing the fork at Lee who goes after him. Donna drives the car through the wall. Michael bangs on the window and yells for her to open the door.
The Bear Review
Fishes felt more like an authentic episode of The Bear with the overall chaos in nearly every scene, but it was only moderately effective. The episode didn’t need to be an hour since so many scenes were filled with rambling about past events and people that have never been mentioned in the show previously. The most important things happened in the last 10 minutes so it could’ve easily been 20 or 30 minutes like the previous episodes.
The episode didn’t do much to create sympathetic characters out of anyone considering how outlandish their behaviors are. In fact, the characters are probably more unlikeable now than they were previously. The chaos worked well in the kitchen, but it is a little too unrealistic at home with a crazed mom driving her car through the wall and into the home.
It really didn’t make any sense because the characters were just mad to be mad. This would’ve been a good opportunity to gain a better understanding of Michael in particular, but the episode only made the character look bad. What do these characters genuinely have to be psychopathic about when they’re having dinner in a nice house with nice vehicles and nice jobs?
What is the episode trying to achieve? It is hard to know because the episode was such a mess with annoying characters being juvenile. The episode was a missed opportunity to say the least. It scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Bear can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
You clearly do not understand addiction and codependency within a family.
And this episode somehow shows that? It’s a mess with no real meaning and no real purpose. At this point, most people have been impacted by addiction one way or another and this episode didn’t really do enough in that regard. Nice cameos, but no real story or meaning.
Having been a chef that has worked in multiple restaurants over the years ranging from mom and pop to high end , I have thoroughly enjoyed this show up until this episode. I found the chaos, arguing and fighting added nothing to the plot development and did nothing to move the story along. This episode actually gave me a headache. I look forward to getting back to the “meat and potatoes “ and returning to the main plot line of the show.
Same. I really didn’t get the hype for the episode considering it wasn’t even necessary to the story. As I’ve said in my previous reviews, this whole season feels a little pointless since everything will go back to chaos when the episode reopens as it did. The whole renovation thing never really panned out since they were just finished out of the blue.
The Copenhagen episode and the Forks episode were enjoyable and the latter helped develop Richie’s character. Otherwise, I liked the last season a lot more even if I didn’t love it. This season just seemed to drop everything that worked so well and added unnecessary guest appearances just to do it. Thanks for stopping by and providing your thoughts!
I think this episode is hard to understand if you haven’t experienced trauma from childhood in family relations. Clearly the writers of this episode has. JLC, having struggled with alcohol addiction, interpreted the role in a very realistic way.
This episode perfectly explains why Carmy is the way he is. He’s not some master chef, weighted down by his own genius. He is a scared kid dealing with unresolved trauma. This episode explained him, his sister and brother.
I watched this episode over with my siblings, we all felt that it gave voice to our feelings from childhood. Even the car through the house was highly similar to past experiences. Masterpiece
As someone who has gone through stuff during their childhood, this didn’t hit home for me. I thought it was very unrealistic and a bit pointless in the long run, but the whole series besides maybe one or two episodes were. I do agree that a person’s background can change their opinions about a specific show though and even their mood when watching it can.
That’s one of the reasons I loved the 1993 movie This Boy’s Life so much. It hit home and was so hard hitting and authentic. Then again, Carmy had a big house, rich family, and a mostly tightknit family. Things I couldn’t comprehend as a child. That alone makes it hard for me to sympathize with the petty stuff he often sulks about.