Did ‘The Bear’ Bounce Back? Sort of, Chef

This recap includes spoilers for all of Season 4 of “The Bear.”

Season 3 of the FX/Hulu series “The Bear” was generally well-received by critics and it will probably pick up plenty of Emmy nominations when they are announced next month. But there was a fair amount of fan grumbling when the season debuted last summer.

The most common complaints were that the season felt unsatisfying and incomplete, with too much left unresolved, and that it heaped too much misery on the characters. There were fewer of the triumphant moments that made the first two seasons so beloved.

It would be a stretch to call Season 4 a comeback because “The Bear” never stopped being top-shelf television — and because the ending of the new season might provoke more howls of frustration. For the most part though, these 10 episodes should give most fans what they want, as our heroes finally start notching some wins again, and, for once, they actually open up to each other.

When Season 3 ended, the Chicago fine-dining restaurant the Bear was in big trouble, thanks largely to its co-founder and head chef, Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), whose emotional unavailability and fussy pursuit of perfection resulted in consistent kitchen chaos.

The Season 4 premiere, “Groundhogs,” is named for the movie “Groundhog Day,” in which a self-centered man repeats the same mistakes until he learns how to be a better person. The episode begins with what ends up being a turning point for Carmy: a mixed-to-negative Chicago Tribune review of the Bear, praising some of its dishes (including the Italian beef sandwiches served at its lunch window) but blasting the overall “culinary dissonance.”

As the season starts, everyone at the Bear is about as low as they can be. To make matters worse, the restaurant’s chief financial backer, “Uncle” Cicero (Oliver Platt) — and his number-cruncher, “the Computer” (Brian Koppelman) — present the kitchen with a large countdown timer. They say the business has enough capital to keep losing money for another two months, but when the clock hits 0:00, if the Bear is not making enough profit to cover costs, it closes.

The premiere resets the tone of this series, bringing back the scrappy underdog spirit of Seasons 1 and 2. The change begins when Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) introduces his latest hires: the skilled front-of-house employees from the recently closed restaurant Ever, including the amazing Jessica (Sarah Ramos). The episode ends on a high, as Jessica immediately begins whipping service into shape, focusing on pushing out food and turning tables.

Most of this season continues chasing that high, and the next two episodes deliver multiple crowd-pleasing scenes. The sandwich window’s manager, Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson), consults with a business mentor, Albert Schnurr (Rob Reiner), about building on his success. Richie dazzles out-of-town customers by recreating a Chicago snowfall for them. Carmy finally apologizes to his never-quite-a-girlfriend Claire (Molly Gordon) for cutting her out of his life at the end of Season 2. The sous-chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) takes more control of the menu, using fewer components in each dish yet still wowing customers.

Episodes 5 and 6 (I’ll circle back to Episode 4 in a moment) carry on the momentum of the first three. Ebraheim’s mentor suggests his efficient, cost-effective and wildly popular sandwich window could be turned into a franchise. The overworked pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce) gets some help when his former mentor Luca (Will Poulter) arrives to pitch in at the Bear. (Luca shows up while the soundtrack is playing Jason Isbell’s yearning, anthemic song “Hope the High Road,” providing one of the season’s emotional peaks.)

Episode 6 mostly concerns Sydney’s reaction to the news that her father Emmanuel (Robert Townsend) has had a heart attack. It appears he will be OK, but the crisis gives Edebiri one of her many standout moments this season, as Sydney breaks down in front of Claire — a medical resident at the hospital — and explains how much she has always taken her dad for granted. Claire commiserates and says that with parents (as with the future of the Bear), “there’s always a clock.”

The way the staff rallies around Sydney complicates her career plans. At the end of Season 3, she received an offer from the restaurateur Adam Shapiro (played by the actor Adam Shapiro) to join him in a new venture to replace Ever. In Episode 4, “Worms,” she decides to go with Shapiro despite his sometimes cringe-worthy attempts to prove he is down with having a Black head chef. (Shapiro plays aggressive hip-hop around the Beethoven-loving Sydney, drops references to the documentary “Good Hair,” and encourages her to “jam” on “those Afro-Caribbean influences.”)

“The Bear” is known for its offbeat stand-alone episodes, like the previous seasons’ fan favorites “Fishes,” “Forks” and “Napkins.” “Worms,” co-written by Edebiri and Boyce (and directed by Janicza Bravo) is one of two such episodes this season, and it’s the one that feels most interested in exploring a character rather than advancing the plot. It follows Sydney on a day off as she gets her hair done by her cousin Chantel (Danielle Deadwyler in a great cameo) and uses Chantel’s daughter, TJ (Arion King), as a sounding board for the Shapiro-versus-Berzatto decision.

Edebiri and Boyce fill the episode with fine slice-of-life detail, as when Sydney teaches TJ how to “elevate” a box of Hamburger Helper by adding tomato paste and grated cheese. It’s also a wonderful showcase for Edebiri as a writer and a performer, particularly in the scene where Sydney spins a kid-friendly metaphor for what it’s like to work for the Bear (like a cozy relative’s house, but with a subtle but inescapable “stink”) versus what it might be like to work for Shapiro (potentially unlimited pizza).

In the end, Sydney admits that making things work with Carmy would be more satisfying for her personally, but for professional reasons she picks Shapiro. That choice — which she does not reveal to her co-workers — hangs over the next few episodes, shadowing even the moments when things seem to be trending up for the restaurant. Then Sydney rethinks things again when she is further convinced of the importance of her work family by a conversation with Carmy’s estranged mother, Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), in Episode 7, the second of this season’s interludes.

Titled “Bears,” it is the season’s longest episode at over 70 minutes. It serves as a happier mirror to Season 2’s harrowing “Fishes,” bringing back much of that episode’s guest cast for a celebration of the wedding between Richie’s ex-wife, Tiff (Gillian Jacobs), and her charming, wealthy fiancé, Frank (Josh Hartnett).

The big drama this time involves Richie’s daughter, Eva (Annabelle Toomey), who hides under a table so she won’t have to dance in public with her new stepfather. One by one, various Berzattos, friends and co-workers slip under the table to reassure Eva that everybody has fears sometimes and that she doesn’t have to dance if she doesn’t want to. It’s all very sweet, and it sets the stage for how the rest of this season will play out.

“Bears” marks the real start of the Carmy apology tour. He runs into Claire again, and they continue the conversation they started at her apartment a few episodes earlier, with him trying to explain more about why he is the way he is. And while Carmy mostly dodges Donna, he does have a long talk with Uncle Lee (Bob Odenkirk), his mother’s occasional boyfriend, who explains how much she has changed since her hard-drinking days.

In Episode 9, “Tonnato,” Carmy gets to see that change firsthand when he drops by the Berzatto house and hears his mother say, at last, how sorry she is for being more of a problem than a solution for her messed-up children. It’s a riveting scene, rooted in what “The Bear” does well, dramatizing how difficult and messy it can be when people try to put their most complicated feelings into words. The conversation doesn’t end with everything hunky dory, nor does it end with Carmy storming out and saying, “Too little, too late.” Instead he thanks Donna, then he cooks her a chicken the way he learned from Thomas Keller at the French Laundry. It’s progress.

If Season 4 had ended there, I think most viewers would have come away with good vibes. Carmy is finally sharing his feelings with people. The Bear’s business is improving. Food & Wine magazine has singled out Marcus as one of the country’s most talented young chefs. The franchising idea is winning over Computer.

But also in that penultimate episode, Sydney — having finally agreed to stay with the Bear as a partner — reads her recently revised paperwork and learns that she and Carmy’s sister, Natalie (Abby Elliott), will own half the business, while Cicero owns the other half. Carmy will own nothing. He is planning to step away. The entirety of the season finale — the ominously titled “Goodbye” — takes place in the alley behind the Bear after service, as Carmy attempts to explain himself.

There are indications throughout this season that Carmy is about to make this choice. The season premiere begins with a flashback to the moment when an optimistic Carmy first broached the idea of opening a restaurant, explaining to his brother, Michael (Jon Bernthal), that restaurants are the kinds of places where even their otherwise miserable father could make good memories. But one episode later, the keen-eyed Natalie tells Carmy that if cooking no longer makes him happy, that’s OK. He doesn’t have to dance if he doesn’t want to dance.

Assuming Carmy sticks to this decision, where does that leave the Bear (and “The Bear”)? Despite its title, “Goodbye” leaves too much up in the air to serve as a series finale. It has a raw, unsettled feel, with only one truly warm moment: when Sydney convinces Carmy to make Richie a partner too. The sustained intensity in just one location is impressive, especially when Carmy and Richie finally talk through their misapprehensions of what each other’s lives have been like. But the aftertaste is strangely sour.

Right now, as strong as Season 4 is, it’s hard to imagine what Season 5 might look like. Is it about the sandwich franchise? Is Carmy still involved? Do Richie and Jessica ever do anything about their obvious attraction to each other?

Perhaps more important: What does a show about last chances do when its characters start getting what they have always wanted?

After hours

I think Carmy made it through the entire third season without once making the apology chest-rub gesture. When he gives one to Sydney the first time he sees her in the Season 4 premiere, she replies, “You’re going to have to be more specific.”
Carmy has a bad habit of trying to speed-run through big conversations, saying he just wants to talk for “a second,” then getting frustrated when people misunderstand what he is trying to say. One of his most repeated phrases, always in a shout, is, “That’s not what this is!”
A nice piece of visual storytelling, involving Carmy’s phone: In the premiere, we get a brief glimpse at his messaging app and see that he has been texting Mikey (and getting “not delivered” notices) since his brother died. Later we get a lighter bit of phone-based characterization when Carmy calls Natalie’s husband, Pete (Chris Witaske), to update the partnership agreement, and the number is under the contact “Sugar’s boyfriend (Pete?).”
We’ve gotten used to “The Bear” using rapid-fire editing, sometimes cut with flashbacks, to convey Carmy’s mental state. But Episode 8 does something new, getting into Sydney’s mind via a parody of a TV morning show, featuring Sydney as a celebrity chef cheerily running through all of the craziness that it takes to make a fine-dining meal.
John Mulaney, one of the “Fishes” guests, returns in the wedding episode as Stevie, a Berzatto relation by marriage who genuinely enjoys spending time with, as Claire puts it, “a lot of people with very specific and unique personalities that feel things very strongly and experience life intensely.” He is entertained especially by the Faks, and he meets a new one in this episode: Francie (Brie Larson), Natalie’s former friend (and lover?) turned bitter enemy. They eventually make up, which reflects the wedding’s prevailing spirit of reconciliation but perhaps disappoints the drama-loving Stevie.
There were also hints in Season 3 that Carmy might quit. That season’s premiere, which compressed his time as a professional chef into a montage of highs and lows, suggested that the industry had gradually drained away his joy. And in the season finale’s farewell party for Ever, when someone asked Carmy if he realized while he worked there that this was someplace special, he had no answer.