By Ellie Tompkins, Third Year, English and Philosophy
Created by Christopher Storer, The Bear is a comedy-drama that follows the chaos of the Berzatto family as they transform their humble Chicago sandwich shop into an upscale restaurant, aptly renamed The Bear. The family — whose members extend far beyond the bloodline — use 'bear' as a term of endearment, one of many uniquely charming ways they communicate. Season four focuses on personal growth and evolving communication, a shift from previous seasons, which centred on career progression for many characters.
The Bear (Season 1, 2022) begins with Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), affectionately known as 'Carmy,' taking on the head chef role at the family sandwich shop after his brother, 'Mikey' (Jon Bernthal), tragically dies by suicide. Though Carmy is an experienced fine-dining chef, channelling his grief into running the family business brings a host of new challenges.
A few years have passed, and season four opens with a ticking time bomb: Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) and Uncle Computer (Brian Koppelman) set a timer for 1,440 hours as a 'parachute'. After a comedic detour that exposes Carmy’s spectacularly poor maths skills, the team eventually work out that this gives them two months to transform The Bear before it must close. Meanwhile, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) – the chef de cuisine who admired Carmy’s food from afar before joining the restaurant – grapples with an agonising decision: should she stay at The Bear with her team, which is finally starting to gel, or accept an offer from Chef Adam (Adam Shapiro) to join his new restaurant, promising stability, resources, and equal partnership? These emotional catalysts bring buried feelings to the surface as the season develops.
Whilst previous seasons of The Bear regularly feature screaming matches both in and out of the kitchen, season four highlights characters’ attempts to break destructive patterns by practising more open communication. The Berzattos use an array of idioms and hand signals both as an expression of love and as a crutch to avoid being emotionally vulnerable aloud, for example, signing 'sorry' instead of saying it, but these are relied upon far less as the season unfolds. Another example of a 'Berzatto-ism' is when Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) jokes that Carmy has a 'refrigerator complex,' a witty comment inspired by the final episode of season two, when Carmy gets locked in the walk-in refrigerator and has a breakdown. Unexpected moments of playfulness like this highlight the close interplay between drama and comedy throughout the show, with humour punctuating intense moments.
A positive shift in communication is exemplified during Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs) and Frank’s (Josh Hartnett) wedding, when daughter Eva (Annabelle Toomey) is nervous about dancing and hides under the table. Soon, nearly the whole family join her, sharing their own fears to comfort Eva. This masterclass in emotional vulnerability stands in stark contrast to the volatile responses that were commonplace in previous seasons – cough, cough, like when Donna Berzatto (Jamie Lee Curtis) drove her car into the house during a family dinner…
The wedding episode marks a turning point in season four, with characters finally beginning to communicate the emotions they had long bottled up. Lee (Bob Odenkirk) tells Carmy that Donna has been doing much better, Carmy shares the story behind the scar on his hand with Claire (Molly Gordon), his complicated love interest, and, astonishingly, there is no screaming match for the entire gathering: a Berzatto first! The dancing scene at the end of the episode symbolises emotional resolution between characters — Richie with Sydney, Carmy with Claire, and Frank with Eva — as they choose to prioritise their love for one another rather than dwell on tensions.
My only critique of season four is that some characters are overlooked and receive limited screen time. I would have loved to see more focus on less central figures, like Tina (Liza Colon-Zayas) and Marcus (Lionel Boyce), who can feel slightly lost amid the multiple storylines. But this ultimately doesn’t diminish the show’s raging success.
After a long mental battle, Sydney finally tells Shapiro that she cannot work for him, realising that her bonds at The Bear are too strong. However, she immediately questions her decision when she receives a phone call from Pete (Chris Witaske) in the penultimate episode, informing her that Carmy has stepped back from the partnership agreement and is therefore leaving The Bear…
The focus of the final episode is truth and vulnerability. Sydney admits her anger towards Carmy for leaving The Bear, Carmy tells Sydney that he believes in her more than he has ever believed in himself, and Richie and Carmy confront their confusing feelings of resentment towards one another after Mikey’s death. The timer beeps at the very end, leaving viewers on a cliffhanger: can The Bear survive post-parachute and post-Carmy?
Ultimately, the combination of emotional vulnerability, tense decision-making, and significant character development makes season four of The Bear a must-watch. The show has (thankfully) been confirmed to return for a fifth season, and I can’t bear to wait much longer (pardon the pun) to see the crew burst back onto our screens.
Do you think The Bear can survive without Carmy, or will he inevitably be drawn back into the chaos he’s tried to leave behind?
