The following contains spoilers for “Gary,” the surprise prequel episode of The Bear now streaming on Hulu.
The ghost of Mikey Berzatto (Jon Bernthal) looms large over The Bear. Across four seasons of FX’s award-winning series, Mikey’s loved ones understandably remain tormented by his suicide and regret not being able to help him, no matter how hard they might’ve tried. His brother Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and the best friend he affectionately called Cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) drive this point home in the most recent season finale. During a particularly aching conversation, Richie admits to feeling like a failure because he could never figure out what was wrong with Mikey’s mental health. Later in the episode, he reflects on a memorable road trip they took together. Richie is clearly sentimentalizing this little excursion, evidenced by his need to clarify that it felt perfect for “about half an hour” when they were just two homies listening to tunes on a work trip. (Hey, he did make a mix CD for it, after all.)
A necessary clearing of the air in “Goodbye” has now become the source material for a surprise standalone prequel. Penned by and starring Moss-Bachrach and Bernthal, “Gary” is the amuse bouche for the main course, a.k.a. The Bear’s fifth and final season, arriving this summer. Directed by series creator Christopher Storrer, the hour-long outing paints a colorful picture of Richie and Mikey’s adventures in nearby Gary, Ind., where Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) sends them to drop off a package. It is pretty chill when they cruise down from Chicago, stop to play ball and talk trash with some kids, and chat up a restaurant worker while grabbing a meal. But in typical The Bear fashion, their day is derailed once Mikey gets high, opens up to a stranger (played by Marin Ireland), and horrifically trauma dumps on Richie in front of a bar full of day drinkers.
As affecting as Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach’s performances are, “Gary” doubles down on some of The Bear‘s self-indulgent storytelling impulses: characters yelling at or over each other constantly, lazily written interactions (why in the world is Ireland’s Sherri waxing poetic about trees to Mikey?), and a visual aesthetic that has gone from gritty to gimmicky with its close-up shots. Crucially, the show doesn’t seem to trust its audience’s intelligence to grasp a fairly simple anecdote it’s been telling since 2022. Even before Richie’s “Goodbye” recollection, he mentioned this trip to Natalie (Abby Elliott) in season three, briefly bringing it up before she went into labor—because, in “Gary,” Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs) is on the verge of giving birth to her and Richie’s daughter. Isn’t it enough to know that this specific day with Mikey is ingrained in his memory? Do we also have to see it dramatized in a way that sheds no additional light on its significance to Richie?
In actually depicting how the day transpired, The Bear continues to scream its themes out loud: In this case, navigating anxiety, burnout, and mental health struggles through found family. And considering how far he’s come since season one, it’s tiresome to see Richie go balls-to-the-wall again, doing coke with random townies when his wife might need to rush to the hospital at any minute. At best, “Gary” explains why Richie behaves the way he does with Carmy in the present‚—he’s unsure of when his other Berzatto bro might leave him after not being able to cope with the pressures of his career or family.
As for Mikey, he’s a character best consumed in small doses, as seen in “Fishes.” Season two’s pivotal, Christmas-set flashback offered necessary context about the complicated dynamics he shares with Carmy, Richie, his mother, and the rest of his extended clan. The episodes landed with such an impact because of its novelty and the way they provided a break from Carmy, Richie, and Sydney’s (Ayo Edebiri) attempts at revamping The Beef into a high-end affair. “Fishes” was a feature that The Bear then turned into a bug, relying heavily on similarly self-contained episodes that went further away from the show’s enticing original premise. (See also: season three’s “Ice Chips” and, possibly the worst offender of them all, season four’s “Bears.”)
The vibes of “Gary,” wherein Mikey and Richie hang out before everything goes awry, indicate that Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach—currently co-starring in Broadway’s Dog Day Afternoon—likely wanted to spend more time together. (The timing of the episode’s release, meanwhile, suggests a premature celebration for Tony nominations that did not come.) At least they have the chemistry to make it worthwhile. The episode also ends with a bang: It turns out that, at some point after the events of season four, Richie is reminiscing about this day while driving the car and gets T-boned. If nothing, “Gary” is a wild setup for season five—does the accident have a major role to play in this last batch of episodes? But as far as standalone episodes go, it’s time for The Bear to rethink its narrative non-negotiables.
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club’s TV critic.
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