Highlights and recap of The Bear season 2, episode 3: Sundae

On the award-winning series from FX, The Bear, the third episode of season two sees Sydney searching for inspiration out in the cuisine land of Chicago, while Carmy reconnects with an old friend.

Carmy is doing a confessional story at one of his AA meetings. He muses that his ability to suspect and expect disappointment after any happy event, is rooted in his childhood trauma where repeated instances of happiness were always followed by a commensurate or even worse turn of events.

At 11 weeks to opening, the deadline rush of the restaurant isn’t exactly doing Carmy’s mental and physical health any favors. Sydney, meanwhile, is either doom scrolling or trawling for cheap gear from restaurants online that the media has reported as closing due to the economic downturn of Covid.

Sometimes, the restos are decades old, mostly it’s the new ones.

The Bear season 2, episode 3 – Claire Bear calling

As Carmy and Sydney continue to experiment with their menu and find their way through a morass of proposed dishes, they decide that both their palates have been pretty off. Possibly resulting in damaging their taste buds.

Looks like they need to roam the city for culinary inspiration. They also agree that their restaurants can’t suck at desserts, so they decide to send Marcus to train in Copenhagen, at one of Carmy’s old stomping grounds.

Claire calls and guilt trips Carmy since he gave her a fake number and yet she still got it. To make amends, Carmy blows off going out with Sydney around town to search for a reset and instead goes out on a “date.”

Hanging out with his daughter, Richie finds out that Tiffany, his baby mama, has gotten a promotion.

The Bear season 2, episode 3 – Kasama and a Chicago food trip

Sydney hangs out at hip Michelin-starred Filipino restaurant Kasama where she and Carmy agreed to meet. When she realizes she’s been stood up, she gets her to roam on her own.

It’s a time to hang out with former colleagues and friends, also a time for revelations as she discovers just how deep and evolved the cuisine around Chicago has become. It’s a sequence replete with old emotions surfacing for Sydney and also plenty of food porn.

I’ve never been to Chicago, but if I ever do then I would now like to eat my way through the Windy City. Sydney makes notes and learns a lot.

On a whim she even tries to snag a few off-duty smoking employees to recruit. She gets chased off by the chef for poaching.

She ends her day with a good ole big banana split sundae. Hence the title.

The Bear season 2, episode 3 – Raccoonies in the walls

When she gets back to the resto Carmy is there and she finds out that they knocked down the interior walls because of rot and dead or alive wildlife, including termites and raccoons. That night she calls in a favor and borrows an off-hours kitchen from her friend.

She tries to execute the recipes she made from her time around the city. From the way her face looks after tasting, it’s pretty clear she failed.

She spits it out and lays her head on the table in frustration. Back to the drawing board, then.

But this is absolutely a great episode for the character development of Sydney, letting the viewer get to know her in different situations and lights, especially the way she needs to control events that usually spiral out of control. It’s a big fear response and she defaults to it unconsciously.

You can stream season 2 of The Bear on Hulu.