Following that lovely detour into the life of veteran line cook Tina Marrero (Liza Colón-Zayas) last episode, The Bear season 3 guides viewers back into the main plot with episode 7, entitled "Legacy." We're officially in the back-half of this season's episodes, which means that soon we'll see not only The Bear's impact on the Chicago restaurant scene but also the significance this season will have for the future of the show.
Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) is busy dwelling in the past, doing his never-ending navel-gazing about Claire (Molly Gordon) — like, dude, just call her already. And though he acknowledges the future, talking with Marcus (Lionel Boyce) about what kind of legacy, both personal and professional, he wants to leave behind in this life, his wishes are rooted in long-existing fears. The perennially perturbed chef wants something "panic-less," while Marcus simply wants to be remembered as "fun to be around" and "an excellent emergency contact."
Carmy fixating on bygone days won't do him any good, as two key members of The Bear staff are being propelled right into the future, whether they like it or not. First, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) gets a text from Adam Shapiro (played by, uh, Adam Shapiro), the chef de cuisine of the soon-to-close Ever. Over coffee, he reveals he wants to open up his own restaurant and, yes, he wants Sydney as his CDC. Given that she still hasn't signed her partnership agreement despite prodding from everyone at The Bear, Syd is legally open to accept his offer.
And with clear-cut terms — $80,000 starting salary, health benefits, bonus upon review, etc. — we honestly wouldn't blame her for leaving Carmy and co. and their chaos, especially because Carmy still isn't taking her menu ideas seriously and is constantly undercutting her authority in the kitchen. Will she choose to leave the pack?
And then there's Natalie (Abby Elliott), who has been crowdsourcing labor stories from Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Tina in the days leading up to her own birthing journey. Dwelling in his own past life, Richie emotionally recounts how he fed his ex, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), spicy food from the Thai place they loved in the hope of inducing labor while she was pregnant with Eva. And Tina tells Natalie about the panic she felt during her own delivery: would she be a good mother? Could they afford this? "It was heavy... and then he was born," she says. But she admits it didn't change those worries.
Nat will see for herself soon enough: while she's picking up C-fold paper towels at the Restaurant Depot — why the team thought it was a good idea to let a nine-month pregnant woman lift heavy boxes is beyond us — her contractions begin. Well, she did say she needed an adventure!
Given that she'll no doubt need some kind of maternity leave, it's good news, then, that Carmy has already enlisted extra help at the restaurant, rehiring old The Original Beef employees Chi-Chi (Christopher J. Zucchero) and Chuckie (Paulie James) to help Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) out at the sandwich window.
As with Matty Matheson — the real-life chef who's become a show breakout playing Neil Fak — the casting directors struck gold with their returning sandwich pros: Zucchero is the IRL owner of Mr. Beef, the no-frills stand that The Bear is modeled after, and James owns Uncle Paulie's deli in Los Angeles, so the duo is serving up heaps of sandwich-making realism to go along with their considerable comic relief.
And with all of the discord that's sure to happen soon at The Bear — we can't imagine Carmy will be all too happy to hear about Adam trying to poach Syd —it's good to see things harmonious where The Beef window is concerned. You know, just as long as nobody orders mayo on their sandwich.
All 10 episodes of The Bear season 3 are now available to stream on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.
