This Detail in ‘The Bear’ Season 2 Is Foreshadowing Future Woes

The Bear is a Cinderella story of chefs turning a struggling sandwich shop into a Michelin-star restaurant. Because the post-COVID world we are being shown is an unkind one to the hospitality industry. The crew at The Bear is stumbling week after week to make the restaurant what the head chefs, Carmen “Carmy” (Jeremy Allen White) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) dream it can be.

The trouble for the staff at The Bear is that the economy is struggling post-lockdown. Many were left unemployed or differently employed in its wake. As a result, they may not be able to stimulate the economy like before. If they can barely afford the basics, they won’t splurge for extras. COVID-19 never really went away either, so when people have a chance to go out, they may be cautious about going to a crowded restaurant.

Likewise, everywhere the characters turn they are being shown restaurants that did not make it. Sydney’s friend’s restaurant closed within weeks of her visit. This is the same friend who gave her a cryptic warning that she had better trust her partner. This was right after several chefs told her of times their unscrupulous partners had run off with money, but then quickly assured themselves and her that it would be ‘different this time.’

The staff are also constantly being shown why restaurants don’t make it, especially in Chicago: there is so much red tape, so many palms to grease, and prices have skyrocketed. Coupled with the paradigm shift post-COVID-19, it is a wonder a restaurant can stay open at all.

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Can The Bear Stay Open Even in This Economy?

The crew has conversations with top chefs who have failed in their businesses. Often due to ego or bad timing, talented chefs have fumbled their passes in the industry. In particular, Marcus (Lionel Boyce) speaks to Luca (Will Poulter) who specifically points to his hubris as the reason he failed at first. Luckily for The Bear Carmy isn’t really guilty of ego though. In fact, if the second season episode titled “Fishes” taught us anything, it is that Carmy is used to navigating others’ needs before his own. Also, the frequent flashbacks of his time served under the terrible New York City chef (Joel McHale) seem to have taken a bit of wind out of his proverbial sails. Carmy does not feel as though this will automatically be a successful endeavor just because his name is attached to it. Neither does Sydney, who has never done this before and also has no illusions of grandeur.

But for all the curated menus and carefully planned details, a business without people is a waste of space. Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) pulls Natalie (Abby Elliot) aside and tells her that if the restaurant isn’t doing business, it is hemorrhaging money. As per their deal, if the restaurant doesn’t make a profit in eighteen months, he can sell it and make a profit on the real estate market. That isn’t even a given. But the odds are better.

Therefore, the restaurant must push for a three-month opening, which is unheard of in the industry. They are doing an almost complete renovation of the space, so even if money were not an issue, and indeed it is, three months is a severely low turn-around time to get all the tasks done. After all, they need just about everything. There are slow-moving contractors, mold, missed phone calls, and an order to the processes that gets more convoluted every day. Scheduling isn’t their only problem. Inflation is killing the restaurant industry, and The Bear in particular. They have to increase prices by 5-7% just to stay afloat enough that they won’t get repossessed by Uncle Jimmy, who is reluctantly, yet nonchalantly, waiting in the wings. Although he wants them to do well, he seems to know that they won’t. To be fair, from his perspective, one can understand why. Natalie, who has never run a restaurant before, is running a restaurant. Carmy is dating, ergo distracted. He has never seen Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) do anything seriously or of note in all the time that he has known him.

And it does seem to be falling apart for the crew of The Bear until Friends and Family Night. They did not get the new refrigerator door that they needed, as Carmy proves when he gets stuck in it. They also run out of forks, sending Sweeps (Corey Hendrix) to the nearest store to buy as many as they had in stock. They are missing a meth-loving line cook that they subsequently have to fire. Yet, despite roadblocks, the night seems a success. There seems to be a method to these scenes where all is in disarray and the crew is scrambling to meet this tenuous deadline. It seems like the audience is being pointed toward believing The Bear has an uncertain future at best or a future that does not want them at worst. But, there are positive changes as well.

There Are Glimpses of Silver Linings For The Bear

Everyone starts pulling more weight. Richie stages at the top restaurant in Chicago and learns what fine dining means. He seals this knowledge by bringing Uncle Jimmy a chocolate-covered banana like he used to get with his late father as a kind gesture. Natalie finds that not only is she good at managing a restaurant, she enjoys it. Even Uncle Jimmy is beginning to have faith that it could work out.

Perhaps it is as Sydney’s dad (Robert Townsend) says, and “this is the THING,” after all. When Sydney speaks to her dad about coming to Friends and Family Night, she expresses concern that she may not be placing her energies in the right places. She has a lot of talent and ambition but worries that this particular venue may or may not be the right “thing” to focus all of that on. But her dad is blown away. He catches her outside getting sick in the alley and reassures her she is on the right path.

And if The Bear doesn’t work out, they could learn from their mistakes and try again. Even though all around them is falling apart, maybe this crew has the right skills for this time and place. That is likely why Mikey (Jon Bernthal) chose Carmy for the project over Richie. He knew that it would take a certain mindset to be able to take the vision further and be successful and that Carmy has it.

Still, we are left wondering if, for Carmy, things are falling apart so that better things can fall together. And unlike the aforementioned chefs, he is trying to rectify the bad timing to his own detriment. He seems to be ready to end his relationship with Claire (Molly Gordon), to put all of his time and energy into the restaurant. Will Carmy be able to meet the demands of being a restaurateur and a boyfriend? Will the fight he and Richie have will be the end of Richie’s time there? Richie is questioning his place in many aspects of his life. This closing salvo may serve as an omen for him to move on.

The staff at The Bear are willing to sacrifice and give it their all even knowing that it might not work. Maybe that is the glimmer of hope that they need to keep going and push harder. And perhaps it gives the audience hope that the restaurant will continue on, despite all the evidence to the contrary.