The Bear season 4 premiere opened a new can of worms for Carmy and the team. Cicero is planning to close the restaurant in two months if the team can't turn it around and make some money. Carmy has an even bigger goal: getting that Michelin Star.
The Bear season 4 episode 2 opens after a night of service. They have less than 1,000 hours left on the clock, so a decent amount of time has passed since Cicero's ultimatum. Overall, it looks like the team is struggling a little bit. Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) offers Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) some words of encouragement about opportunity. On the other hand, Marcus (Lionel Boyce), who lost his mother in season 3, is still battling. Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) offers him support.
Then, he talks to Carmy and shares how the ever-changing daily menu is killing the team. Carmy is basically going through the motions at this point. He seems like he's running himself into the ground. It looks like that daily menu is killing him, too.
Then, we follow Richie to a bar and then home, where he says a prayer and goes to bed. Finally, we catch up with Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), who is reading a news article about Shapiro's new restaurant.
Everyone is trying to improve their skills. Ebraheim, Sweeps (Corey Hendrix), and Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) are working hard, but there's a big problem. Because of the terms of Cicero's deal and limited budget, they can't order all of the ingredients they need to operate the restaurant. So, after a lot of hilarious misunderstandings with hypothetical situations, Syd and Carmy come up with a plan to simplify the components of each dish to help with the spending issues. Carmy is maybe making progress as a human being.
As Richie and the team try to do better and provide better service, the Beef window is absolutely crushing it. They're selling out every day. So, and I'm not a businessman or anything, and I'm about as good at math as Carmy is, but I don't know, maybe, make more sandwiches instead of all the fancy dishes?
That's not the worst of it, though! Tina asks how Sugar (Abby Elliott) and the baby are doing, and it's revealed that Carmy hasn't even visited Sugar's baby! How is that possible? He's pouring his soul into The Bear for his brother, and himself, and his team, too, but he's neglecting his family? Come on, Carmy.
At least he calls and apologizes for not meeting Sophie yet. It's a great, beautiful conversation between Carmy and Sugar actually. Sugar talks about the spark Carm had when she dropped him at the airport to fly to New York for his new cooking job. Carmy has definitely lost that spark, and Sugar gives him permission to not love it anymore.
I'll have an extra side of this in every episode, please. We've been waiting for this conversation for like three seasons. Deep down, Carmy might just be one of those people who needs to know it's okay to give up the dream. Like, he's gripping this thing so tightly that he hasn't met his niece yet. I feel like this might be the season where we see Carmy make real personal growth, but there are always bumps along the way.
As they prepare for service, Syd walks Sweeps through the menu changes for the night. Syd asks if he wants to go over it, but he says no, shockingly. Is he already giving up control this early? Maybe this growth is happening faster than I expected.
The episode ends with another epic montage with all of the chefs crushing it in the kitchen. We're getting closer to that two-month window ending, but for the first time, it seems like they might actually pull this offer. For the second episode in a row, the episode ends on a high note for Carmy and Co.
Up next, it's The Bear season 4 episode 3 on Hulu!
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