The Bear was one of the biggest surprises of last year, having a great first season, creating expectations for season two, and getting everyone to say “Yes, chef!” while cooking at home. The show has made an even better second season, full of heart, digging deeper into the characters and showing the nightmare that opening a restaurant can be. Here is every episode of season two, ranked.
10 Episode 2 - Pasta
The objective to get the restaurant ready in 12 weeks has already started, but this episode is all about its characters. We learn a lot more about Sydney (Ayo Edeberi) and her family, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) opens up about his experiences in three-star Michelin restaurants while deciding what their “chaos menu, but thoughtful” means, and the restaurant has mold.
Having said all that, what might be the most important moment of the episode is when the chef reconnects with Claire (Molly Gordon) when they see each other at the grocery store. They knew each other growing up and for the flirty way she talks to him, it looks like this might be the start of something.
9 Episode 5 - Pop
"Pop" is a transitional episode of the show, as most of the stories of the season keep going along. Sydney is worried, as the menu is nowhere where it should be, Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is doing sketchy Richie things, the restaurant is improving very, very slowly, and Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) makes friends in culinary school through karaoke. This is also the episode where we see Carmy and Claire on an almost-Before Sunrise date, as they start to get to know each other better, reveal more intimate details about themselves, and even go to a party (something the chef has never done before).
8 Episode 8 - Bolognese
"Bolognese" is the fire inspection episode. It has been said again and again that this is the most important moment for the restaurant, as if they don’t pass the inspection, they won’t be able to open the restaurant on the date they need to. The episode delivers, as the moment of the test feels for audiences like a Hail Mary pass, or a love declaration, or the big final battle, creating expectations and tension while also being a scary moment.
Speaking of love declarations, this might be as close as the show will ever get to being a rom-com, with Carmy and Claire as cute and in love as possible. He even dares to say that she’s his girlfriend, and he loves her very much and leaves the restaurant early to make dinner for her, as nobody has ever done so, a fact that he learned in "Pop".
7 Episode 1 - Beef
The first episode tells its audience what the objectives of the season are, opening the new restaurant in three months, so they can start earning money as soon as possible. Everything starts by taking out all the things from the old Beef restaurant (including signed pics by Anthony Bourdain and Paul Rudd), and thinking about the vibe, and especially the menu of the new restaurant. Even with all this mess in their hands, the best scene might be the one between Carmy and Richie, where the “cousin” tells the chef how he feels lost and without purpose, and Carmy reassures him he'll always have a place with him.
6 Episode 9 - Omelette
Everything is starting to get ready for the friends and family night in the season finale, and it’s time to plant some of the seeds of what will happen there. Even then, the most important moment in the whole episode is the conversation between Carmy and Sydney under the table, about how they’re a team, and they wouldn’t want to do this without the other. This talk is as emotionally open and sincere as they come, or at least for two people who aren’t a couple, just friends and co-workers. Also, an omelette on TV has never looked as delicious as the one Sydney cooks for Natalie (Abby Elliott).
5 Episode 3 - Sundae
After Carmy stands her up to hang out with Claire, Sydney goes on a food tour of Chicago, and tries every meal possible, while thinking about her own recipes. This is a great Ayo Edeberi episode; one that tries to illustrate how creativity works, while also planting a seed of distrust between her and Carmy, as most of those incredible cooks she visits warn her about what some bad partners can do to your career and restaurant.
About Sydney in season one, actress Ayo Edebiri admits to Rolling Stone: “I didn’t totally understand [Sydney] as a character. And that was what was interesting to me. I didn’t have my mind made up.”
4 Episode 10 - The Bear
The season finale is where everything we’ve seen comes to fruition as it’s time for the friends and family night, where the crew will see if everything they’ve done, and their cooking works. We finally see some of the food they’ve been working on all season, and the restaurant is ready to receive its first service.
As with any good finale, here are the culminations of most arcs for the characters; from Sydney showing her father this is the thing she has to do, to Richie becoming the best at his job, Marcus making a cannoli called “The Michael”, Carmy getting fridged and coming to the realization love makes him worse at his job, and there’s even a small appearance by Carmy’s mother, Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), who learns in the worst way possible that she’s going to be a grandma. The ending is as sad as they come and is a great way to question the crazy genius that behaves badly, as here Carmy is at his worst ever, mostly because of things that are his fault. His devastation when he hears Claire's message is a tough view, and perfectly acted by Allen White.
3 Episode 4 - Honeydew
Even though we start at the restaurant with Natalie’s revelation that she’s pregnant (it felt pretty obvious she was), this is Marcus’ (Lionel Boyce) episode. Carmy and Sydney sent him to Copenhagen to train with Chef Luca (Will Poulter), and learn everything there is about being a pastry chef in an upscale restaurant. This story is one of the many reasons why the new season lived up to the hype, using this European trip to change rhythms and how the show usually looks and feels, as we’re seeing everything through the character’s eyes, and it’s all very new and exciting. Everything here is great; from Marcus living in a boat with an invisible cat, to his relationship with Luca, and how he explores every pastry and food in the city, getting a foodie dessert education in the process.
The director of the episode, Ramy Youssef told GQ: "It kind of felt like 'character goes overseas' might experience tension, and you are kind of waiting for it to drop, but it never does," Youssef says. "That was kind of the fun thing about the episode: It actually doesn't have to. He got this escape, and he got to expand as a person."
2 Episode 6 - Fishes
This is the episode with all the guest stars, and it’s an hour episode that happens five years before the pilot episode. "Fishes" is the best way to understand why Carmy is the way he is, as we see how toxic his mother and brother could be and how being in Chicago with them made him emotionally unavailable and even more internal and silent than we’ve seen him since the show started.
Jon Bernthal’s performance here is heartbreaking at first, but it’s also a way to show how the charismatic Michael everyone remembers also had his demons and a big temper. And then there’s Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), a woman with mental problems (probably undiagnosed) who has everyone in the family scared for what she might do at any moment, and they’re not wrong as she ends the episode crashing their car into the house.
This episode is as tense as any thriller, as every guest feels like a hostage when Donna or Michael are talking, and it keeps building, and building, and building until all hell breaks loose (twice), making audiences take a deep breath when everything is finally over, and making us understand why Carmy behaves the way he does.
1 Episode 7 - Forks
This is Richie’s episode, as his character stages in the best restaurant in the world for a week to learn how an upscale restaurant is managed. What starts as what he feels is a degrading job cleaning forks by hand, ends up being a revelation. During his week there, he finally understands what a Michelin restaurant can mean to those who go to eat there, and feels valued for the first time in years. So much so, that he even tries to get hired there. The episode ends with a great conversation with the chef, Terry (played by Olivia Colman in a guest role nobody knew about, and who nails her scene as always), and talking with her, Richie learns Carmy believes in him, and every second counts, getting a new look on life. He also wears suits from then on, which is nice.
For most fans, Richie was the least enticing part of the first season, as he was always shouting and being combative, so his change here is even more surprising. This episode shows why Richie is the true MVP of the season, as he starts the season as someone who doesn’t know what his purpose is and ends his arc as being great at his job and saving the day in the finale.