Highlights and recap of The Bear season 2, episode 5: Pop

On the award-winning series, The Bear, the fifth episode of season two features plenty of scheduling issues that delay the renovations even further. Meanwhile, Carmy and Claire begin a relationship that is likely very ill-advised considering Carmy has no time to spare.

Tina helps Sydney out with the new dishes she’s planned for the menu. But Sydney always wants to put too much into each dish.

This “chaos menu” is not going well. Richie and Manny are timing Carmy as he mimes preparing a dish at each station.

He just can’t get his prep time down to five seconds. Tina comes in and needs a good knife for school at Kendall College.

Carmy gives Tina his fancy Toledo knife and she is elated.

The Bear season 2, episode 5 – HVAC issues

“Scheduling” problems plague the renovations and Uncle Jimmy Cicero comes by just to see how the Berzattos are pissing his money away. He’s already $550,000 in the hole at this point.

What Natalie does is she charms the old uncle into helping them out. It works.

Uncle Jimmy just wants to feel like he’s needed. Ebra is in the park smoking his butt off with a cigar.

He’s afraid to go back to culinary school and mess up the rest of the semester. Even though he wants to, he’s also afraid he won’t be able to catch up because he’s missed so much of the classes.

At school, Tina calls Ebra and leaves him a voice message. During the day she uses Carmy’s exotic knife and it cuts through everything like butter.

She even gets complimented on it by one of the instructors. The day is going just great for Tina.

To top it off, she even gets invited by her younger classmates to drinks at a bar.

The Bear season 2, episode 5 – Claire and Carmy sitting on a tree

At the restaurant, the food and liquor license arrives and Carmy has to mail it so it’s official. He calls up Claire and they drive up to where the official government postal branch is located.

After they mail the license they get in some quality bonding time. There are definite sparks there, especially with all the history and nostalgia between them.

So they take this momentum to a party of Claire’s friend who just broke up with her boyfriend. The house is packed with people hanging out and drinking beer.

They’ve even spilled out to the outside of the house. It’s one of those messy celebrations with beer pong, spilled snacks, and of course, drunk bro dudes.

Carmy is kind of miserable and out of place, worrying about the renovations at his restaurant but he feels like he owes Claire a legit hang out. After drinking some beer he realizes he really does need this time to relax and not be freaking out about the delays at his resto.

He also has more bonding moments with Claire. Just like his “let it be” realization, he also grasps that he really likes Claire.

They’re about to share their first kiss, but in true American teen romance movie fashion, the police arrive to bust up the gathering.

The Bear season 2, episode 5 – Tina sings the blues

Carmy and Claire decide to go to the resto. Meanwhile, Tina gets to the bar and hangs out with her classmates.

It apparently also has karaoke and Tina is urged to perform. She sings, “Before The Next Teardrop Falls” by Freddy Fender and soon she’s legit enjoying herself with the young students.

What a great arc for Tina’s character development. Seeing her blossom into a sous chef acquiring skills The Bear is going to need, is just a very cool plot point.

The Bear season 2, episode 5 – Stealing power

When Carmy and Claire arrive at the resto Richie is having a fit, arguing with Natalie and Sydney over, well, everything and nothing. Actually, Richie tried to steal power from the neighbors since their own amperage wasn’t enough to power the HVAC.

This in turn blew the neighbor’s fuse, so naturally they were pissed. In the end, Carmy sends them all home.

Neil Fak arrives to pull off the electricity heist with Richie, interrupting the budding lovebirds again. But when they’re really alone, Claire and Carmy finally share their first kiss.

What a rare, feel-good episode in a, so far, very high stress season.

You can stream season 2 of The Bear on Hulu.