Forks – As this episode of The Bear begins, viewers see an interview with Mike Krzyzewski while Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri) cooks. Richard ‘Richie’ Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) gets up early in the morning to head to work. Garrett (Andrew Lopez) tells him to start working on forks. Later, Richie complains about having to shine forks only to find out that he’ll have to do it for an entire week. Garrett asks him to chill out on the swearing. Richie says he’ll do forks because he doesn’t want to give cousin the satisfaction of seeing him come home early.

Garrett tells him that Chef Terry (Olivia Colman) is always watching. Richie goes through the motions for several days. Richie asks if he can do something different. Garrett follows him outside and asks if he thinks this is below him. He admits he really drinks this Kool-Aid because he loves this. Garrett tells him how the restaurant won best restaurant in the world award the same year it opened. They have to have forks without streaks because every day here is the Super Bowl. Garrett needs him to respect the dinners and himself. Richie says he can do respect. Back inside, there is a meeting about the upcoming guests. They’re also asked about the smudge.

During a break, Richie calls Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs) to say he got the Taylor Swift tickets. He got three in case she wants to come. Tiffany reveals that Frank proposed to her, but she says nothing will change between them. Tiffany says he loves her. One day, Garrett tells Richie to get changed because he is trailing. Richie works with Jessica and asks what the colors mean. When she asks how she can do this, she says she makes someone’s day every night. Garrett serves customers while Richie watches from nearby. Richie helps set up a surprise for the guests on table nine. He runs out and picks up a deep dish to give them what they want before they leave.

The chef prepares the pizza before Richie gets permission to take it to the table. The guests are impressed. Later, Richie tries to guess the dishes in a certain period of time. He studies and learns more about the restaurant as well. Richie is happy when he leaves. Then, he hangs out with Garrett who says he is 30. Garrett says he was an alcoholic. Through getting sober, he learned about acts of service. Now, he likes being able to serve others. Richie learns that they’ll have one more shift together tomorrow. Once Richie leaves, he calls Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) who says they failed the fire suppression test. Richie accuses Carmen of sending him there to get rid of him.

Richie says he sent him there to humiliate him. Carmen denies that and acts like he doesn’t know what Richie is talking about. Richie gets up in the morning and cleans his apartment. At work, Jessica asks if he wants to go over staff reviews. Richie isn’t interested. She says they loved having him there. Richie finds Chef Terry and asks what she is making. She shows him how to peel mushrooms so the guests will think someone spent a little time on their dishes. Richie says he is sorry Carmen pulled a favor, but Chef Terry says she doesn’t do favors. When Richie asks why she spends time doing this, Terry argues it is time well spent.

She tells him about her previous wipeout because of the market crash. Terry tells Richie how she ended up running the restaurant. She argues that it is never too late to start over. Terry tells him how she got the money for the restaurant. Jessica interrupts to take Terry away. Before she goes, Terry tells Richie to say hi to Carmen for her. She reveals that Carmen believes in Richie. She knows because he told her. Richie goes after her to say she never told him what her dad signed off each page with. He looks at the sign on the wall that says “every second counts”.

 

The Bear Review

The 7th episode of The Bear was better and allowed the Richie character to develop a little more than usual. It was good to see the character not be such a disaster and nuisance. Other than that, the episode didn’t do much to push the story forward or get us any closer to the reopening of the restaurant.

While it has been fun to see the big-name guest appearances, that money could’ve been put to better use. If the writing was stronger, Richie’s redemption story could easily be the best part of The Bear’s second season. However, there is a good chance that it’ll be barely touched on in the next few episodes.

Again, all of this stuff is going to be wiped away when the restaurant reopens. The episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Bear can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.