Jumping back in after the best episode of the season, The Bear season 4 episode 8, "Green," begins with one of our faves really going through it! Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) is having some serious nightmares about failure. In the dream, she's hosting a cooking show when a storm rips through the set. She tries to keep going, but it's a complete and utter failure.
The dream continues, and Sydney is trying to outrun something. Shortly after she wakes up, we find out what it is. She calls Chef Shapiro and officially drops out of the running for the position. It's not the best phone call, but he puts her on blast. He's actually really rude about it, even if he might be right. I don't know. I still think he's a jerk.
Sydney isn't the only one going through it, though. Marcus (Lionel Boyce), who has been struggling with how to handle his relationship with his father after his mother's death, almost meets his father for lunch, but he walks away from the restaurant instead of going inside.
As the clock ticks down, there are only 17 hours remaining, which means this is the last day that the team at The Bear can turn it around before Cicero (Oliver Platt) and Computer (Brian Koppelman) shut it down for good.
With The Bear crew, Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) is still trying to shave time off the pasta orders. Luca (Will Poulter) offers her some advice about learning to live with the pressure and using it. It's all about embracing the pressure until you need it to perform, he says.
As they prepare for service, Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) is bugging Sugar (Abby Elliott) about something about a photo. Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) tells her that it's a photo album that he found. Sugar makes him go home to get it so Donna will stop bothering her.
As Sweeps (Corey Hendrix) continues to work hard on his pairings, Jessica (Sarah Ramos) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) fold napkins and bond. There's definitely something between those two.
Speaking of bonding, Marcus and Luca continue to connect about their family issues. Marcus opens up about why he didn't want to visit his dad. Luca talks about staying in Chicago, his relationship with his sister, and his plan. He doesn't know where he's going to go next. They joke about Luca getting hired at The Bear. Luca shares a theory about their personal lives being a mess and the things that they go through being the reason that they're able to throw down in the kitchen. It's interesting, of course.
On his way to Donna's, Carmy calls Claire while she's at work. They talk about where they grew up, her day at work, and more. When they hang up, she immediately calls back and commends him on going to visit his mom. Carmy stops her and tells her that he thinks she's wonderful. She responds by saying, "Then go find my sweatshirt." God, will those two get a room already? I'm Team Carmy and Claire, but this is getting played out a little too long.
Back at The Bear, Sugar gets a mysterious phone call. She tries some deep breathing after she hangs up. Then, she says that they are "so f*****." That doesn't sound good!
Richie leads the front-of-house team through service, and Neil (Matty Matheson) struggles with fitting in at such a fancy place. Richie gives him an awesome pep talk, builds up his confidence, and sends him on his way. It's amazing to see how far this character has come since the first season.
Computer and Cicero show up to talk numbers with Sugar. Things are looking a lot better, but Computer has a lot of problems with the plan. He asks Sugar why they want to keep going when all they are doing is keeping the doors open. It's obviously about family. The answer is family. It's always the answer in this show. While we can argue if that's getting a little bit repetitive at this point, it's a good message.
The episode ends with Carmy knocking on Donna's door with a box of family photos.
Ultimately, the team at The Bear are out of time. The investment has run out, and now, some big decisions need to be made.
Remember, though, there is something big coming down the pipeline, most likely. While they survived one bad review, what happens when they get a couple good reviews? We'll probably find out in The Bear season 4 episode 8!
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