The Bear doesn’t make working in a restaurant look like much fun, but we’d give anything to hang out with the employees of The Original Beef of Chicagoland (and, later, the fancy place The Bear). After a particularly strong second season, we have thoughts about a storyline we’re dreaming of.
While I want to see Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) and Claire (Molly Gordon) make up, Fak (Matty Matheson) make more hilarious jokes, and Sugar (Abby Elliot) become a mom, there’s something else that absolutely needs to happen in the 10 episodes of The Bear season 3. We’d be so happy if The Bear gave us more of the ingredients that flavored one particularly memorable episode… even though we’re still getting over the intensity.
The Bear season 3 needs to feature this great element of season 2
Before watching The Bear season 2, episode 6, “Fishes,” we had of course heard of The Feast of the Seven Fishes, the Italian holiday tradition of making seven courses of seafood. While Carmy’s mom Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis in a performance no one will forget, ever) cooks amazing food like cannoli and Oysters Rockefeller, the real focus is the intense fighting that happens as everyone sits down to eat.
While we love the show so much we would be happy with literally any storyline, we really think The Bear season 3 should dive deeper into Carmy’s difficult, intense, and emotional family bonds. Gillian Jacobs’s character, Tiff Jerimovich, has an especially great role in the “Fishes” episode of The Bear. While other episodes show the overwhelming stress of restaurant work (so much so that my friend’s fiancé won’t even watch it because he worked in kitchens before), The Bear season 2, episode 6 proves that some families just can’t get along. Or eat Christmas dinner together. Or even be in the same room (the same house? the same city?).
Although some flashback episodes can be totally corny, we knew The Bear wouldn’t steer us wrong. “Fishes” shows us why Carmy and Sugar are so scared of emotional intimacy and getting close to someone new. We learn they grew up with a mom who struggled with her mental health, and that the Berzatto holiday dinners were filled with crying and screaming. While it’s tricky to approach mental health respectfully, The Bear season 2, episode 6 does. It’s clear Carmy’s “found family” at the restaurant means so much to him because of the love he felt he never got.
I definitely want to see another Berzatto family-focused episode in season 3, whether it’s a flashback to another holiday gone wrong or just a super intense, emotional storyline that explores Carmy and Sugar’s grief over losing their brother Mikey (Jon Bernthal). This family background is key to understanding why these characters feel so determined to make their new restaurant work, and why they keep going despite all the problems that keep popping up. (It seriously feels like nothing will ever go right for Carmy and co., … but we’re hopeful they’ll find their way.)
How can The Bear season 3 feature a storyline as great as the “Fishes” episode?
The Bear season 2, episode 6 was perfectly cast — we still can’t believe we were treated to Jamie Lee Curtis in such an impressive dramatic role. We hope she’ll come back for The Bear season 3, not only because we love her, but also because Donna, Carmy, and Sugar have a lot of lost time to make up for. There’s a lot of great unspoken stuff between la famiglia Berzatto, but we definitely need more.
While The Bear seasons 1 and 2 explored grief beautifully, season 3 should dive into the question of whether we can ever repair a broken relationship with our parents once we get older. Since Donna shows up at the restaurant in the season 2 finale but doesn’t go inside, we know she wants to be in touch with her kids, and we hope she and her children can find a way back to each other.
Since Sugar is about to become a parent herself, she’s definitely scared of the pain she’s endured from her own tough relationship with her mom. While most new parents are afraid of sleep deprivation and what to do when their baby cries (and still don’t know the difference between a onesie and a sleeper), Sugar has that added layer of her emotional family background. If Sugar can get the closure that she has wanted for a long time, this will help her make the transition to parenthood herself. Like becoming a parent IRL, it won’t (ever) be easy, but it’s what she needs. Carmy may think she’s setting herself up for disappointment, but we totally get why she wants to feel some connection with Donna.
If Sugar, Carmy, and Donna can have one important scene where they talk about what happened when they were growing up, I’d love it… although I might need to prepare myself first. That would be a particularly emotional conversation full of some harsh truths and painful revelations… but that’s what The Bear does best.
