WARNING: DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE SECOND SEASON OF THE BEAR. HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD.
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WHEW. What a ride. It was always possible the second season of Hulu’s summer hit The Bear would surpass all expectations, but this Chicago-based meditation on fine dining, following your dreams, and mental health knocked its latest offering out of the park. It started with Italian beef sandwiches, but it’s so much more now.
We got background into the madness of the Berzatto clan with a hold-your-breath tense Christmas dinner episode. I’m still reeling and still woozy over it. We learned more about Sydney’s personal family motivations as she tries to make herself and her father proud. We even received very intimate episodes concerning Tina, Marcus (in Copenhagen, no less!), and Richie becoming the best versions of themselves. Each personal tale was so enriching and so rewarding.
Everything about the second season of The Bear felt bigger and better (and like there was more money thrown around in production). And after that show-stopping finale featuring notes like Carmy being his own worst enemy again and a few pseudo-romances, there remains a lot to unpack for our favorite River North culinary group of friends.
For now, Hulu hasn’t renewed The Bear for a third season. In collaboration with FX Productions, it hasn’t canceled the series outright, either. While it seems unlikely the streaming service would discontinue one of its most popular shows, nothing is guaranteed. That’s especially amidst the Writers Guild of America strike, which is ongoing.
In the event the show does return for Summer 2024, here are some loose story threads we need to see addressed.
1
What happens when Carmy, Natalie, and Donna inevitably reunite and do they reconcile?
There are no two ways about it. Jamie Lee Curtis’s performance as Donna Berzatto during the sixth episode of this season is a tour de force in all the best and unnerving ways. It is an all-time great actress flexing her muscles as a chaotic, extremely tense alcoholic mother in the middle of a Christmas environment.
Within the confines of The Bear’s story, Curtis’s Donna informs why she has such a frayed relationship with her two remaining children. Even if she has all the love in the world for Carmy and Natalie, she can’t possibly express it in a healthy manner, especially after the immeasurable on (and probably off) screen damage she’s done to them both.
And she knows it, too.
We last see Donna hesitating to enter her children’s restaurant during its dress rehearsal night, begging Natalie’s husband, Pete, for permission to leave and try again another time. Given the importance of the role, I highly doubt that was the last we saw of the Berzatto matriarch. Time will only tell what happens when her children do speak to her again. Based on the context we have, I’m not we should necessarily expect sunshine and roses between mother, daughter, and son.
2
Does Carmy reunite with Claire? Does he pursue romantic love again? How does he tackle his mental health?
While The Bear took us on lovely detours with other supporting characters all season, the owner of the eponymous restaurant, Carmy, was tormented by an all-too-relatable struggle — balancing his professional and personal life in a healthy fashion.
While on a routine trip to the corner store, Carmy comes across his high school crush, Claire. What follows is a romance Carmy doesn’t know how to properly tend to while also building the restaurant of his dreams under a time crunch. Given what we know of Carmy in his fragile mental health and trauma, and his capacity (or lack thereof) to deal with chaos, it’s not surprising to see him accidentally break it off with Claire in the dumbest possible fashion.
I mean, seriously. Telling a girl you love you don’t know how to be in a relationship and aren’t sure if one makes you happy while locked in a broken freezer you neglected for three months because you were so distracted is peak Carmy Berzatto. Peak!
The apparent success of The Bear (the restaurant itself) on its opening night makes it seem like Carmy isn’t going to have much of a choice between personal and professional moving forward. But maybe, just maybe, he summons the strength to find Claire and rekindle things like a mature adult. Or he gets into a healthy relationship with anyone else, for that matter.
First, he might want to take some time to deal with his trauma before he can grow and be happy. And that might require significant time away from his restaurant — a set-up I can’t imagine Carmy agreeing to without a firm push.
3
What's the fallout of Carmy and Richie's EXTREMELY personal freezer argument?
After Carmy breaks Claire’s heart, we see Richie rise to the occasion and confront his family friend’s frustrating capacity for self-destruction. Except, he does it while Carmy is still locked in the freezer, creating an incredible juxtaposition of two men who love each other, screaming their ears off while separated by about a foot or two of steel.
Naturally, they scream because Carmy doesn’t take well to Richie’s criticism. He calls him a looser and a leech of his family and probably takes another dizzying dozen or so personal low-blows at one of his closest friends. I don’t know, guys. It was hard to keep track! Richie, for the most part, does the same because he’s simply seen enough of Carmy stepping on rakes on the road to happiness when he doesn’t have to. After Carmy pulled Richie from the abyss, he wanted to return the favor. But I wouldn’t call his approach delicate per se.
We’ve seen Carmy and Richie go toe-to-toe in a war of words before. We’ve seen them engage in arguments that they seemingly forgot the next day. But this one felt different. This one felt like a Grand Canyon-sized schism formed between the beloved “cousins.” I suppose that’s what you should expect from two men who know each other like the back of their hands and come from a family culture of in-fighting.
4
What's the next step in Carmy and Sydney's dynamic?
Look, do whatever you want with your TV-watching time, I’m not here to lecture you.
But I cannot emphasize this enough: there is nothing romantic about Carmy and Sydney’s relationship. Everything about them gives off a pungent vibe of platonic, high-level culinary professionals who complement each other extremely well. And, oh, they happen to run a restaurant together now. Carmy was not conflicted by Claire pulling him away from Sydney in the romantic sense. Carmy was conflicted by Claire pulling him away from Sydney — this person he wants to build his professional dream with, who happens to represent his first love of fine dining.
None of that has to be romantic! This is allowed, ladies and gentlemen!
/End rant.
There’s still a lot of interpersonal growth to be done between the masterminds of Chicago’s latest hopeful dining hit. I know Carmy gifted Sydney a custom restaurant shirt, but they’ve only just begun their mutual restaurant management life together. There’s a lot more conflict to come.
5
What's next for Sydney and Marcus?
I do not necessarily believe that Sydney and Marcus end up together, but it’s clear the showrunners have left behind a bedrock for this idea to rest upon.
Ever since Carmy unjustifiably blew up in rage at both at the end of Season 1, the pair have arguably become the show’s two distinct emotional centers. A talented dreamer, Sydney thought a dramatic early-career failure would define her forever. Marcus is the young patisserie chef who never found a purpose or motivation in life until Sydney (and Carmy) inspired him. It’s entirely believable the two would bond over their similar journeys.
We first saw signs of “Syd-Cus” (or Mar-Ney? We’re starting a thing) when Sydney cooked a lavish meal for Marcus at her dad’s apartment in the Season 1 finale. Then, with Marcus in Copenhagen to learn signature desserts, there’s a strange exchange of chemistry between the two over a video call.
But when Marcus finally works up the nerve to awkwardly ask Sydney out, she rebuffs him. Or she doesn’t know how to respond. Or both. Marcus erupts at Sydney amid opening night mayhem, and it takes a new-hire chef smoking crack in the alley to break them out of their fight or stupor or whatever you’d label that uncomfortable tension after Sydney rejects Marcus.
For now, Sydney and Marcus appear to be OK with each other as friends again. But I’d be pretty surprised if there isn’t another attempt at Syd-Cus in Season 3.
6
How does Natalie's pregnancy come into play?
Natalie Berzatto was the unsung hero of The Bear’s second season. Not only does Carmy’s older sister take up the demanding title of project manager, but she is also pregnant with her and Pete’s baby simultaneously. Imagine running the opening of a new fine-dining restaurant in the heart of Chicago in three months. Hard to even conceive, right? Now, try doing it while pregnant. I can’t even begin to fathom the necessary strength.
Of course, roughly three months pass during the second season of The Bear. That leaves just about 15 months for the crew to meet Uncle Jimmy’s profitability deadline. You better believe we’ll see most of that timeline in an ensuing third season, meaning we’ll likely see Natalie and Pete welcome their child into the world during that time.
With all the strings Natalie pulled as the restaurant’s project manager, it’s difficult to think the staff would be able to stay afloat without her in an understandable extended absence. But then again, she’s a Berzatto. Don’t expect Natalie to stay away for long after giving birth. At least, that’s my prediction.
7
Does The Bear become a successful restaurant?
Look, I understand The Bear is probably more of an optimistic show while tackling some heavy subjects. But I wouldn’t write off the possibility of Carmy and Co.’s restaurant falling short. That or the showrunners forever leave it open-ended by the finale, making us guess the final outcome. Nothing says we are guaranteed a vision of happiness for everyone here. If anything, I’d bet some characters almost certainly fall through the cracks. That fits more with the show’s tone.
Plus, if there is indeed a third season of this wonderful program, I think the 18-month success deadline with Uncle Jimmy would be a natural stopping point — regardless of the outcome. This would be the overarching storyline of another 10-episode slate, and it’d be the perfect conflict for all of us to rest on pins and needles for approximately 10 hours.
