Napkins – As this episode of The Bear begins, Tina Marrero (Liza Colon-Zayas) gets up and prepares lunch before she is joined by David Marrero (David Zayas). He discusses the possibility of getting moved up and getting more money. Tina is worried about the rent increase and Louie possibly having to move schools. David urges her not to panic yet. Tina goes to the Long Grove Confectionery to work. Before long, she learns that she’s being let go from her job. In the middle of the night, she tells David that she lost her job. Tina insists she’ll find another job tomorrow and everything will be okay. The next day, she goes out and tries to find a new job. When that doesn’t work out, she tries it again.

She learns that David has two jobs, yet she can’t get one. After two weeks, she complains about not being able to contribute. At one point, she almost gets a job until the employer learns she doesn’t have a BA. Back at home, she learns about an open interview. In the morning, she tells David that she’s feeling good about the interview. Tina goes to the office only to learn the open interview hour has been canceled. They hired someone yesterday. She gets mad and curses at the receptionist. On her way back, she sees The Beef and decides to go in. Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is busy running the shop. Tina gets something and sits down to eat it, but she ends up spitting it out. She begins crying. Michael (Jon Bernthal) asks Richie what he said to her.

Richie says he just gave her a free sandwich. They argue about whether someone should tell her she can’t be crying in there. Michael ends up speaking to her. He tells her about their toilet that keeps exploding and the delivery guy changing their terms. At one point, he says they don’t have enough people working there. Then, Tina tells Michael about her problems. Michael shows her his brother’s dish. He talks about how Carmen knows exactly what he wants to do and he’s good at it. Michael admits his old man opened the restaurant and left a stack of unpaid bills. He goes through the things he likes and the things he doesn’t like about the job. They begin talking about his dream job and other people’s dreams. Michael says that dream stuff wasn’t going to happen to him.

Tina was at her job for 15 years before they fired her. She mentions that she’s applying with kids and they all seem hungry. She wonders if she lost that in herself because she gets anxious about real stuff. Tina admits she’s jealous and would give anything to be one of them. She says she’ll clean a dish and wash the floor. After rambling for a while, Michael says he needs a new line cook. Tina goes home with a t-shirt for The Beef.

 

The Bear Review

The sixth episode of The Bear could easily be described as a throwaway episode proving that this never needed to be ten episodes. Good lord. This episode drug on forever before it finally got to the point, but that didn’t help because we already knew where this was going anyway.

The majority of the episode was Tina running around to different employers trying to get a job. Another three or four minutes were wasted on debating whether she was crying in The Beef. Last season’s standalone episodes were impactful and memorable while this one brought nothing new to the table.

At the very least, Tina’s backstory should’ve been 15 minutes and the rest should’ve been dedicated to the current situation at The Bear. Otherwise, this episode can be skipped without missing anything important. It scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of The Bear can be found on Reel Mockery here.

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