The Bear, Season 3: Second servings please

Here I have documented conversations between characters from the season and a bit of words, in general, about the season.

In silences, in shots of the city, in close-ups of characters who we have grown to like (an essential marker of the show’s likability), The Bear Season 3 opens with an uneasy calm (what is it about dark skies, rain, early morning that makes us feel depressed and out of depth? Yet we keep moving and keep it all in). But as the skies clear and the sun peeks through, we get Carmy Berzatto “Bear” facing his restaurant and getting to work.

Titled ‘Tomorrow,’ the opening of Season 3 is a meditation run of 34 minutes, and here my favourites musical duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s ‘Together’ is played on loop, and after a while you notice that its loop has perfectly blended in with the scenes on the screen. There are not many dialogues, the episode is run on flashes of Carmy’s past and with the current mess he is in as he apologises to his team, and sets his sight on getting the Michelin star.

To that end, his ‘Non-Negotiables’ on a page are his way and learnings over the years to try and instill some sort of order in the chaos.

The episode’s flashbacks with the bits on Mike’s suicide give a peek into Carmy’s flashpoint with Richard.

From Episode 2 onwards, there are conversations among characters that I want to document in this review, because The Bear really hits home with me in these moments between characters and then there’s the music too.

At the end of Episode 2, the conversation between Carmy and Marcus:

Carmy: You said you don’t wanna talk about it, and I get that. But I wanted you to know that some of us here, we, uh… we probably know how you’re feeling.

Marcus: I know. It’s been a weird couple of days.

Carmy: Just maybe, ummm… you know, instead of not dealing with it, try to…

Marcus: Is that what you did?

Carmy: Uh… No…. No. I’m just I’m here, you know. If you need anything, I’m here.

Marcus: I was here when she died.

Carmy: I know that. And, I…uh… feel terrible.

Marcus: No, I mean it as a good thing. I think that’s how it was supposed to be.

Carmy: How do you mean?

Marcus: I don’t know, like she wanted me to be with you all. This is what’s up now. This place has got to work. And I need you to do something for me.

Carmy: Yeah, name it.

Marcus: Take us there, Bear.

Carmy: Yes, chef.

End credits roll, ‘Nice Dream’ plays.

In Episode 3, Marcus’s eulogy to his mother at the beginning is understatedly profound. To just say the things that mattered, that he loved and cherished the most about his mother, their moments together.

“She never let me be scared, like, worried. She kept things moving. Always kept things running. She did it by herself. She was nice to everyone. She was funny. She let me watch R-rated stuff when I was a kid. Like, she let me watch Robocop. She was a good cook. When I was a kid, we ate dinner together a lot. I liked just being in the kitchen, just kind of watching her make dinner. She was really creative, like she sewed a lot. And she loved flowers. Loved, loved flowers. She was really smart. And she loved everyone. I think you can tell, because there’s so many people here. I always felt loved, it didn’t matter what was going on, or if I was in trouble or whatever. I knew she was listening. And she knew I was listening too. She was sick. And even though she couldn’t speak, it almost sometimes felt like that communication was better. Like, we really had to pay attention to each other and look closely at each other. I don’t know what it’s like to be a parent. But I know what it’s like to be a kid and having someone actually really pay attention to you. That was really special.

Thank you everyone for being here.”

Episode 3 has the famous chaos of running the restaurant’s kitchen day in, day out, which The Bear fans will recall from earlier seasons as its key calling.   

In Episode 4, the conversation between Carmy and Claire right at the top.

Carmy: Hey, do you know what day it is?

Claire: It’s… It’s Wednesday. But I really had to think about it.

Carmy: I had no idea. Does that happen to you?

Claire: All the time.

Carmy: Me too. I really liked Wednesdays as a kid.

Claire: Because you’re halfway through the week?

Carmy: Mmm…hmm.

Claire: I’m gonna tell you something. I’ve to be honest. I like Mondays.

Carmy: Mondays?

Claire: Mmm…hmmm.

Carmy: Anything’s possible?

Claire: Exactly.

Claire: Okay. Favourite day?

Carmy: Not Sundays.

Claire: Anxiety for the week?

Carmy: That’s when the restaurant’s closed.

Claire: Explain.

Carmy: So, anxiety that I’ve nothing to do, I guess. You have a hard time turning off, you know, at night. It’s like that buzzing sometimes. It’s just impossible to turn off, you know.

Claire: It’s impossible.

Claire: Your heart’s beating kinda fast. You okay?

Carmy: I’m okay.

Claire: Are you sure?

Carmy: I’m sure. You okay?

Claire: Yeah, I’m okay. Should we ask each other that five more times?

Carmy: Okay

Claire: Okay

Claire: May I ask you a question?

Carmy: Yeah

Claire (Carmy’s deep burn line on the hand) What the fuck is this? What happened?

Carmy: I grabbed a really hot pot.

Claire: You must have really grabbed it, ‘cause it’s really deep.

Carmy: Yeah, I just wasn’t paying attention.

Claire: Did it hurt so much, that it didn’t hurt at all?

Carmy: Yeah.

Claire: This girl came in with like cuts all over her, on the fourth of July. It’s always the worst day. That and fucking Saint Patrick’s Day. What’s the worst time in a restaurant?

Carmy: Saturday at 8.15.

Claire: Well, think about that and multiply it with fucking hell.

Carmy: Okay.

Claire: But this girl came in, and she was so beautiful. She was like 17, and she was at this party, and she was dancing, and it was just, it was really bad.

Carmy: Well, what happened?

Claire: She, um, she tripped and she fell onto a glass table and it ripped through her. And she had cuts all over her arms and her stomach and it was everywhere, and she was bleeding and we couldn’t figure out what the source was and she didn’t know, she didn’t know what happened, she didn’t know where she was. And we were slammed and I read her chart wrong, and she had a penicillin allergy, and she went into a shock and it was fucking terrifying.

Carmy: Shit.

Claire: Yeah so we gave her a shot of epinephrine and I felt, I just felt horrible and she was in surgery forever, and when she got out, she was covered in stitches and skin glue, and she was gonna have scars like all over her body. But when she finally woke up, she couldn’t stop laughing.

Carmy: Why?

Claire: I don’t think it hurt yet.

Natalie and Richard’s conversation at the end:

Natalie: What is that?

Richard: Zen Garden, Kyoto, Philosopher’s Path.

Natalie: Explain.

Richard: Well, this director that I admire, he visited this. And when he got there, he was like, what is this? A bunch of just rocks and combed sand? He didn’t really you know, know what to make of it, but then, slowly he began to realize…

Natalie: Yeah, the rocks are people. And we’re all separated.

Richard: Yeah. Fucking yeah, exactly. And this garden is, in fact, an illustration of human nature, and how we are, all of us, alone in this world. How did you know that?

Natalie: Pete. He’s a Friedkin fan.

Richard: Well, yeah. His movies work on several levels. I’m gonna go there someday.

Natalie: You should take Pete.

Richard: Hmmm. I will get back to you. How’s my niece?

Natalie: She’s almost here…

Richard: What? Hey, what was that? Tell me.

Natalie: I’m just… I’m thinking about how to not let what’s in here… how to not let that get to her.

Richard: Yeah I think about that all the time.

Natalie: You do?

Richard: I got nothing though. You have any luck?

Natalie: I have nothing.

In Episode 5, the conversation betweeen Sydney and Marcus:

Marcus: Thanks again for helping. Ummm. You know, we never really got to talk about…

Sydney: It’s… it’s fine.

Marcus: No, no, I do. I just wanna say I’m really sorry, I made things weird and I’m sorry about that.

Sydney (gestures with her head nod that it’s okay): Ummm, did you talk to your dad yet?

Marcus: No.

Sydney: When was the last time you even…?

Marcus: Hmmm, no idea. Yeah, you know he never really helped with anything. He never really helped her.

Sydney: Like, with illness or…

Marcus: No, nothing, anything at all. I don’t really know him and sometimes it makes me feel bad.

Sydney: Why?

Marcus: ‘Cause I never wanted to know him. I always relied on my mom.

Sydney: It’s scary, like, just relying on a person.

Marcus: You rely on your dad?

Sydney: Yeah.

Marcus: He loves it.

Sydney: How do you know?

Marcus: You could just tell.

Sydney: He’s always like 10 minutes early to everything.

Marcus: Yeah, you’re 10 minutes early.

Sydney: Well, yeah, I mean that makes sense. I’m related to him.

Marcus: chuckles

Sydney: chuckles

Sydney: I’ve tried before to be late. Like, actively, and I… I don’t know what happens. I end up coming earlier.

Marcus: You’re unwell.

Sydney: Well, yes, of course, but you’re also unwell.

Marcus: Yeah. We’re both unwell.

Sydney: And we’re both members of an elite club. Dead Mom Club. Welcome. Have you not gotten your membership in the mail yet?

Marcus: Not yet, but… maybe… maybe it’s coming today. I don’t know.

Sydney: We meet in the dankest church basement possible, just that we can find. And dues are bimonthly, which is really nice.

Marcus: You know a lot. What are you? The president of the Dead Moms Club?

Sydney: No, but I take minutes at the meetings.

Marcus: That tracks.

Sydney: I know. I’m very organized.

Marcus: I wish she got to try the food.

Sydney: She would’ve loved it.

Marcus: How do you know?

Sydney: I can just tell.

(Music cue: Purple heather, Live at the troubadour)

Episode 6 tells the backstory of Tina and her travails of finding a job and running her house and family. It’s one of the most beautiful episodes of the season that ends at how she found The Bear and her bearings back. 

The conversation between Tina and Mike at the end:

Mike: Sandwich really that bad?

Tina:  No, um.. I’m just fine.

Mike: Yeah?

Tina: Yeah.

Mike: I don’t know, ‘cause I saw you before, it looked like you were crying.

Tina: I don’t think I was really crying.

Mike: I don’t know. You looked like you were really crying to me.

Tina: No like sobbing.

Mike: Sobbing. All right, I will give you that. You weren’t sobbing, but I think you were crying.

Tina: Kinda.

Mike: Bad day, huh?

Tina: Worst. You?

Mike: Um, I don’t know. I’d say like, kind of normal, average shitty.

Tina: Yeah. I know it.

Mike: How crazy it would it be, if you like didn’t know it? You know like if that wasn’t the baseline.

Tina: Yeah, then, I wouldn’t be human.

Mike (chuckles): Exactly. Uh… Can I go first?

Tina: Yeah. Please.

Mike: Sit?

Tina: Yeah.

Mike: We got this toilet back there that, like, I mean, the thing’s possessed. It just keeps fucking exploding. It’s like equal parts depressing and disgusting. And, like, all the floor around it is totally rotting. So like that’s a solid number 1. Number 2 is uh… delivery company. The delivery guy, he changed our terms. We went from a net 45 to a net 30, which just like sucks, you know. ‘Cause I was about to ask him if we could move to a net 60. So instead of having that lovely conversation, now we got to talk about a payment plan. And I guess number 3 on just like a sort of a general kinda like macro level we just don’t have enough people working here. So, the people that are here are just kind of getting shitty towards each other because we’re like constantly getting fucking rocked. So, like, I don’t know, the general vibe just sucks. And yeah, I guess that makes me sad. 

Tina: Hmmm. Is there a number 4?

Mike: I can’t remember the last time I went to bed. You know? How about you go?

Tina: Uh… One, my landlord raised our rent, by like a lot, which is problematic. Two, my husband has been waitting for a promotion for years, that’s probably not coming.  Three, I lost my job. Four, I’ve been applying for every job in the city, and I can’t get selected. Five, I’m 46 years old.

Mike: Oh boy.

Tina: Yeah.

Mike: Is there a number 6?

Tina: I also can’t remember the last time I went to bed.

Mike (chuckles): Yeah… All right. Well, you feel better?

Tina: Not really.

Mike: Not even a little fucking bit. Well, we tried right.

Tina: Yeah.

Mike (his phone buzzes) (check a photo) (shows it to Tina, it’s of a food plate): Check that out.

Tina: What the hell is that?

Mike: I have no idea.

Mike: My baby brother. He’s a chef.

Tina: Oh fancy.

Mike: Yeah. He’s the shit.

Tina: Yeah.

Mike: Yeah. You, um, ever know somebody who like, knows exactly what it is in this world they wanna do? Like, fucking knows it, and not only do they know it, but they’re really fucking good at it.

Tina: That sounds like a dream.

Mike: I’m telling you, I genuinely really think that that is the dream.

Tina: This a family business? 

Mike: Eh…You know, my old man, he opened it, he also ran it into the ground, he just like, has a giant stack of unpaid bills, he took one look and he split, you know. He hightailed it, ran for the hills, never came back.

Tina: Mmmm, they will do that.

Mike: What bills?

Tina: Dads.

Mike (scoffs): Yeah. Amen to that.

Tina: So, do you like the work?

Mike: I don’t know. I mean, I like the people. 

Tina: But do you like the work?

Mike: I definitely do not like never not being fucked. You know, I don’t like that you gotta make enough money every single day just to pay for yesterday. I don’t like it, when, you know, shit happens. The oven breaks, or the sewer line backs up. I don’t like when the delivery company forgets fucking onions, you know. But, yeah, no, I like the people, you know.

Tina: Then I guess that’s why people do it.

Mike: Do what?

Tina: Open restaurants.

Mike: I don’t know, I mean, like, I know it sounds like bullshit, but I think that, like, if you really consider, you know, like the the special moments, you know, your life, like celebrations, good times, you know, cheer, I feel like, you know, they always happen around food, you know.

Tina: You believe that?

Mike: Yeah… I think I am starting to.

Tina: Okay.

Mike: Yeah.

Tina: Sure.

Mike: Yeah.

Tina: So, if you could do anything, what would be your dream job?

Mike: Fuck, I don’t know. You?

Tina: I don’t think I have a dream job. I am not that good at anything.

Mike: I think I am pretty good at a lot of things, but not like stellar at any one thing.

Tina: I think that’s most of us.

Mike: Yeah.

Mike: I remember when I was a kid, I went on this field trip. I don’t remember what is was for, but I remember we went into this old building, you know, like beautiful, proper art deco, and every single floor, it was, like, a different business, you know. It was all official. You know, people working in suits and dresses and, like, doing their thing. And I remember thinking this building, it’s like a building of dreams, you know.

Tina: What kind of dreams?

Mike: Well, if you think about, like, every single one of those people, they had like one dream, right, and that led them to that building and then to that floor and then to that job. And it was like… you know?

Tina: So it was inspiring?

Mike: No, I mean, dude, it was totally fucking depressing. I mean, it killed me.

Tina: How come?

Mike: I mean, I, just, don’t know, I am a kid and I am there, and I am like, well that shit ain’t happening to me. You know, I knew, I knew I was gonna get like skipped, you know. Like, I had shit to do, you know. I had people to take care of. And I knew that like, I don’t know like that dream shit… pffft. You know… just wasn’t gonna happen to me. 

Tina: I was there at the place for 15 years. At the place that fired me.

Mike: That’s brutal.

Tina: Mmmm brutal. And when I am applying for all these jobs, it’s all kids right. They look like kids.

Mike: Dude, isn’t that the fucking worst?

Tina: Yeah. But also beautiful, you know.

Mike: Why? How so?

Tina: They seem like, hungry, you know. And I was thinking to myself like, maybe I lost that in myself. Like, I get anxious to pay the rent, like, to pay for groceries, right, real shit, right. And I was thinking it would be real easy for me to get really angry at these kids, like, fuck them kids, they don’t know shit. They haven’t been through nothing, they don’t know real stress. But, I am also like, I would give anything to be one of them motherfuckers.

Mike: Ah dude, so fucking true.

Tina: I am jealous as fuck (laughs loudly)

(Mike laughs loudly).

Tina: It’s comedic, how hard it has been, for me to find anything man. I will clean a dish, I will wash a floor, I will sell some bullshit, you know. I gotta cover this ass, right. I don’t need to be inspired. I don’t need to be impassioned. I don’t need to make magic. I don’t need to save the world, you know. I just wanna feed my kid, you know.

Mike: Amen.

Tina: Just give me a routine. I am in.

Mike: Listen. Okay you might totally throw that fucking sandwich in my face, and like, have at it, all right. ‘Cause I am just gonna say, full disclosure, this place, like, this fucking place, it sucks, Like, it sucks, like you go home, and you fucking smell it, and you know, and it’s insane, and there’s so much fucking yelling here. But, I swear to you, there are days that it is so much fun. Like so much fun. And the pay is shit, right. But there are days we make a rack of fucking tips, and it’s like, it feels fucking good, you know. So… uhhhh…

Tina: What are you asking me?

Mike: I need a new line cook.

Tina: Yeah… I have an actual resume.

Mike: What the fuck am I gonna do with a resume? I will go clean the toilet with the fucking resume. I don’t need a resume, I talked to you.
Uh… thank you… think about it.

Tina: I am Tina Marrero by the way.

Mike: Hey, Michael Berzatto. I appreciated the conversation.

Tina: Me too.

Mike: Alright, enjoy the sandwich.

Tina: I will.

(‘Got this happy feeling’ plays)

Natalie in Ep 7: ‘I have just accepted the fact that I will never be comfortable again.’

Episode 8 is one for the mothers and daughters and their daughters and for us all to get one more instance of The Bear just yanking us out of the kitchen and into the petri dish of emotions, and turning up the notch of heat… this one in the maternity ward.  

In Episode 9, the starting threw me off. I thought did I turn on a movie about the history of magical tricks.By this time, the non-negotiables at the start of the season are fraying. Carmy is missing Claire and wants to amend, but hesitates talking to her. The kitchen and service continue to grind through hell.

The season finale (Episode 10) takes Carmy, Richard and Sydney to New York to celebrate the run of Ever, and it brings the finest chefs together and over food and service, they share their stories and philosophies.

As the season winds down, there’s one final fuck by Carmy as he gets a ping on his phone and it seems the Chicago Tribune’s review of The Bear is out.

For us fans, Every Second Counts from here on in for the Season 4.