After two great episodes to start the season, The Bear season 4 episode 3 opens with an epic Sydney-throwing-down-montage to "Fast Slow Dance" by St. Vincent. Stylistically, this is The Bear at its best! I love all the arguments as much as the next person, but The Bear does these beautiful montages better than any show on TV right now.
Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) tries the dish Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) just made, and he's in. In fact, he calls it perfect, and he tells her to put it up, meaning it's going on the menu today. While Syd is stoked for the praise, there's something more behind her eyes. It's obviously the guilt of all of those conversations with Shapiro about possibly leaving Carmy and The Bear.
Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) has a phone call with Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs) about their daughter, but when she asks if Richie is coming to the wedding, Richie clams up and claims that he has to take a call. Richie is not over it, clearly.
Then, Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) returns to The Bear, but only briefly! She's with Cicero (Oliver Platt), and I don't really know what they're up to, but it feels important.
Jamie Lee Curtis isn't the only big star in this episode, either. Rob Reiner makes a cameo in this episode as Albert Schur, a businessman who is going to help Ebreheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) learn the ins and outs of business. He pitches Albert on a new business model for a sandwich business.
As the group prepares for service, a special request for a beef from a family visiting the restaurant for the first time. They are visiting Chicago from Los Angeles, and their daughter, who wants to see snow for the first time, just finished treatment for cancer. Richie takes the opportunity to do something nice and put on a show.
Finally, we get a great scene with Carmy and Marcus (Lionel Boyce). While Marcus is dealing with his dad reaching out and not wanting to get back in touch, Carmy offers him some advice about the guilt he's dealing with. Then, they talk about work. Marcus pitches more "firepower" on his team, and Carmy has to think it over. Before they walk away, Marcus asks Carmy if he thinks about his dad. They bond over the feeling of not wanting to go home, but not wanting to feel alone. Carmy offers a really powerful piece of advice. "No one is alone at a restaurant" is the basis of it, and for this group, it's coming true. They're really becoming a big, happy bear family.
That night, Carmy helps out everyone, including Marcus, who is struggling to get his desserts out. He also helps Richie with that beef sandwich. When Richie delivers it, he also makes contact with a customer who has high, high, high praise of Syd's new scallop dish.
For the final course of the evening, the guests are taken outside for hot chocolate and marshmallows with fake snow delivered by the Faks. It's an incredible gesture by Richie and the team at The Bear, and it sure seems like it's going to pay off in a big way.
That's not what it's about, though. Michelin Star or no Michelin Star, the team at The Bear just created a night to remember forever for one family. That's what Carmy's mission was when he pitched this whole idea to his brother at the beginning of the season.
As Carmy leaves for the night and heads, he touches the walk-in handle, the same one that broke off before he broke Claire's (Molly Gordon) heart. Instead of going home, though, Carmy books it through town to Claire's place and knocks on the door.
Claire doesn't answer, but Ted Fak (Richie Staffieri) does. He's been hanging out with Kelly. Ted lies and says Claire isn't there, but she actually is. She meets Carmy on the front steps, but she says that she had a really long day. He almost leaves, but then he asks her for two minutes of her time.
She leaves and goes back inside for a second, and we watch as Claire collects herself. If I'm reading this right, she's clearly not over what happened.
Finally, she comes back outside and sits down with Carmy. She starts crying immediately, but he finally opens up and starts to apologize. He's really bad at it, but then he says that he loves her. Then, they keep talking about their relationship, and it blows up into Carm just yelling, "I'm sorry."
This is one of the best scenes in the whole show, a show with tons of great scenes. I really hope this isn't the last we see of Claire in The Bear season 4, but only time will tell!
For a second, it looks like they might get back together, but then Claire leaves and goes back upstairs. As Carmy walks away, he calls Pete and asks him to "change something in the agreement."
The Bear season 4 episode 4 is up next on Hulu!
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