Yes chef! The hugely successful restaurant drama The Bear is heading back to our screens this week.
The show, which follows Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his attempts to take over his dead brother’s sandwich shop and transform it into a Michelin-star restaurant, has been a massive hit for Disney+, winning Emmy Awards galore and breaking streaming records for season two.
With so many characters to keep track of and storylines to remember, keeping up with the famously frenetic show is a struggle. But fear not, we’re collated the most important points from season two into easily digestible chunks below, perfect for reading and refreshing before season three drops.
The Beef is now the Bear… just about
After a whole season of dealing with mould, finding out that the restaurant’s original business permits had never been filed, and two failed fire suppression tests (which ramped up the tension, 10 days before doors were supposed to open), the Bear is finally a working restaurant!
But for how long? With restaurants in Chicago closing left, right and centre due to the pandemic (Sydney’s friend, who runs a restaurant of his own, has to close towards the end of the season), the new joint is facing a tough financial market. Will it succeed?
Sugar is pregnant
An exciting development from season two was Carmy’s sister Sugar aka Natalie (played by Abby Elliott) revealing she is pregnant.
It’s sure to stir things up for the Berzatto family. Last season also gave us a glimpse into Carmy and Sugar’s dysfunctional background – specifically their relationship with mum Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), who has substance abuse issues.
We see flashbacks into one Christmas where Sugar’s constant questioning causes Donna to have a meltdown and drive her car through the family home.
Sugar’s husband Pete (Chris Witaske) lets news of the pregnancy slip to a shocked Donna at the end of season two. How this will unfold in season three is anybody’s guess.
Things might get difficult for Marcus
Poor Marcus (Lionel Boyce). Despite a life-changing trip to Copenhagen in season two – where he trains to become a master pâtissier at somewhere that looks an awful lot like Noma – he has plenty of problems at home too.
As we find out, his mum is terminally ill, and while he’s at work, a nurse looks after her. This came to a tragic head at the friends and family night, where Marcus checked his phone at the end of the evening to see several missed calls from the nurse. Has she died? We’ll likely find out at the start of season three.
As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also the bubbling subplot concerning his and Sydney’s relationship. Clearly, Marcus has feelings for her, but when he subtly asked her out towards the end of season two, she rebuffed him. Misunderstanding, or flat-out refusal?
Carmy and Claire are on the rocks
While love interest Claire (Molly Gordon) was never a fan favourite, her relationship with Carmy is one of season two’s more tragic arcs. The two longtime friends reconnected after years apart (she was Carmy’s childhood crush) and started going out, only for Carmy to start spending more and more time away from the restaurant at a time it needed him most.
Things came to a head on friends and family night when Carmy is locked in the walk-in freezer by mistake. Furious, he went on a rant about how being with Claire was ruining his focus – only for Claire to be on the other side of the freezer door, listening.
“I’m sorry you feel that way Carm,” she told him, and left. That’s never good – where next for the relationship?
Jimmy is the new investor
Uncle Jimmy has an awful lot of power over Carmy. He initially loaned Mikey (John Bernthal) the money to keep the Beef open, for which Mikey never paid him back. At the end of season one, Carmy discovers that Mikey actually did have the money to do so – but that he’d hidden it in cans of tomatoes, and never had any intention of giving Jimmy what he was due.
Carmy instead chose to invest the money in transforming the Beef into the Bear – but to do so he needed even more money from Jimmy. Good ol’ Jimmy agreed to put up $500,000, but on the condition that he be paid back in 18 months. If not, he gets the restaurant. High stakes.
Sydney might not trust Carmy
Sydney and Carmy are a formidable partnership: she’s organised and gets things done, while he has the reputation and skills to carry the restaurant.
But do they trust each other? While Sydney was researching the new menu (without Carmy, because he was off with Claire) she dropped in on a few chef contacts, and one of them told her about the importance of having a business partner she could trust. Clearly, this stuck with her – and while the two seem to have resolved their differences for now, this issue could well resurface in season three.
Richie has found his calling
Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) underwent something of a transformation alongside the restaurant. To complete his training, he was sent to an upscale restaurant named Ever to train under chef Terry (Olivia Colman).
Though he initially hated this (being forced to polish forks was a low point) Richie soon flourished and learned how to combine great service with anticipating customers’ needs. Richie left Ever a changed man – and given that the season started with him telling Carmy how he didn’t feel like he had a purpose, that made it all the sweeter.
