[Editor’s note: The recap of episode eight publishes July 3. This recap contains spoilers.]
The Berzattos are a lot. That’s just a fact. But despite all their faults, their messiness, and the ways they project their trauma outward, people are drawn into their event horizon like flies to mānuka honey. There’s Richie, Jimmy, and the Faks, of course, all whirlwinds in their own right. But there are also the calm, composed folks—Tiff, Claire, Sydney, Stevie, Lee—who can’t help but be drawn in. As Stevie tells Frank, “It’s really fun. Genuinely.”
This extra-long episode sees the whole Bear clan come together. Despite their reservations, Richie, Carmy, and Natalie have all turned out for Tiff and Frank’s wedding, forcing themselves to face their various ghosts. Sydney is also there in her capacity as Richie’s emotional support plus one (plus Marcus and Chester, who apparently slept with Frank’s mom?! Man, is Chicago a small town.)
This season, the show seems determined to prove that it still deserves a place in the comedy category at the Emmys, and “Bears” makes a solid argument. It’s a classic entry into the wedding-episode canon, complete with reunited exes, estranged relatives, and dishy revelations. It also represents a pivotal moment for our big three characters: Carmy exorcising his demons, Sydney’s priorities coming into focus, and Richie realizing he’s not as alone as he thinks.
Carm is even more on edge than usual, because he’s about to see his mom for the first time since she drove through her own wall. Nat has strapped on her armor for her dreaded reunion with Francie Fak. And Richie is determined to make nice with Frank.
Sugar and Francie—played by Oscar winner Brie Larson!—start shouting over each other within seconds, stomping their heels on the floor like angry horses. We’ve been waiting for literal years to find out what caused the rift between these two ex-BFFs, and the answer is juicy as hell: They hooked up! Pete is just as surprised as we are, if significantly less delighted.
Michelle (Sarah Paulson) is the first to run into Donna, and you can instantly see her hackles rise. She shelters with Tiff in the bedroom, getting her ready for the mess downstairs. It’s a quiet, intimate scene between two excellent actors as Tiff talks about her complicated feelings about her mom not coming to the wedding.
Downstairs, Michelle’s partner, Stevie (John Mulaney), is giving Frank the lowdown on what to expect from the Bears. He and fellow honorary Berzatto Claire try their best not to scare Frank too much: “It’s a lot of people with very specific and unique personalities that feel things very strongly.” Best of luck to the groom!
Carmy’s spidey sense kicks in before he’s even laid eyes on Donna, snapping him into a signature trauma-flashback montage. Jamie Lee Curtis’ performance is achingly specific as always. From the way Deedee looks at her son, you can see how hard she’s working to hold herself back. They’re both as nervous as two teens on a first date, stuttering half-sentences and inanities about Tiff and Sophie and how many people are here.
As far as I’m concerned, Richie coming to Carmy’s rescue is proof positive that he’s finally forgiven his cousin for the refrigerator incident. He and Sydney give Bear an out with a fake story about how he’s needed in the kitchen and take over the conversation with Donna. But when Frank pulls Richie away, Syd is left all alone with the monster in Carm’s closet.
Sweet, innocent Frank needs help coaxing Evie out from under a table, where she’s hiding out in protest of their planned stepfather-stepdaughter dance. It costs Richie more than Frank knows to bargain on his behalf, but he does it anyway because he’s a really decent guy. He’s also encouraged by the golden-boy groom’s insecurity about being a good dad—an issue that’s never been in question for Richie.
Carmy is hiding out in the kitchen chomping on Nicorette when he runs into the last person he expected—or wanted—to see: Uncle Lee (Bob Odenkirk), who is probably Donna’s boyfriend even though he swears their relationship is purely platonic. Carm opens up to him in ways we’ve never seen before. It’s a lot easier to confess your darkest secrets to someone you don’t give a shit about.
Lee has mellowed since we last saw him in “Fishes,” approaching Carm like a fellow adult whose choices he respects. Bear is shocked when Lee says he clocked his brief appearance at Mikey’s funeral—and even more shocked that he didn’t tell anyone. Carmy didn’t stay because he didn’t think he deserved to—not after skipping town even though he knew how bad things were. “That’s stupid,” Lee says.
While Carm was off rising up through the fine-dining ranks, Lee became close with Mikey. And he talked about his little bro a lot—how proud he was of Bear, out there working at the best restaurants in the world, wrapping fish in potatoes. It’s a truth that’s harder for Carmy to hear than if Mikey had hated him for leaving. Lee also says Bear is more like his sensitive, intense mother than he knows. And like him, she’s starting to open herself to the world and identify the ways she needs to change.
Back in the reception room, Sydney is genuinely enjoying Donna’s company. They bond over how much they both were drawn to the frenzy of The Beef. It’s loud, sure, but Syd likes the noise. Deedee asks what it’s like to work with Carm, and Sydney remembers why she was so drawn to her talented, hardworking partner in the first place. She talks about the time visited Chef David’s restaurant in New York so she could taste a Carmy Berzatto masterpiece. “You guys are very close,” Deedee says, and Sydney realizes that, despite the tension between them, it’s true. He’s family. With the same grace she showed when she left Natalie and Pete to gush over their newborn, Donna makes her exit so her son can stop cowering in fear.
Meanwhile, Frank, Richie, and Claire join Evie under the table for a mini-summit—followed by a curious Carmy. A wonderful farce unfolds as more Bears join. To make Evie feel better about being scared of dancing, each member of the extended fam shares their biggest fears, ranging from heights and big dogs to the singularity and the gradual collapse of the planet. (Chester, hilariously, hates spiders but also loves them?) Carm has trouble formulating his answer. “What’s the opposite of chaos?” he asks. “Peace,” Claire tells him. He chickens out and says math instead, but that bell can’t be unrung.
Evie lights up as she watches her family grow bigger and bigger. She’s getting the loving, supportive childhood the damaged adults around her never got to experience. It’s the exact inverse of Christmas at Donna’s and not just because they’re gathered under a table instead of around one. This is a brood that becomes a little kinder with every person they invite into their ranks.
The Bears return to the party with hearts and souls refreshed, ready to become their better selves—or at least to try. Sug and Francie, no longer able to deny how much they’ve missed each other, finally bury the hatchet, with the provision that neither can fuck the other over. (Nat tells Pete there aren’t any romantic vibes between them anymore, but I’m not convinced.)
Meanwhile, Richie realizes that his jealousy toward Frank has been misplaced. Helping Evie to trust her stepdad doesn’t mean he’s replacing Richie; it just means he’s made his daughter’s support system even stronger. Lately, he’s been feeling isolated, thinking of himself as a lone boulder in that Zen garden in Kyoto. But he’s finally figured it out: He’s not one of the rocks; he’s the sand dividing the gulfs between them.
Sydney gets a text from Shapiro because she’s been ghosting him yet again. We don’t see her response, but we know what side she came down on when Richie asks what decision she’s been nervous about. “You make the right one?” “I think there was only one. Y’know?”
At the edge of the party, Claire is seeing Carmy with fresh eyes. He’s trying to participate in the project of being human, ready to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known. As she asked him to recently, he opens up to her about the big stuff: When he got the call about Mikey’s suicide, he didn’t accidentally scorch his hand on a pot; he pressed it to a burner. “I’m trying to tell people things,” he says, which Claire knows is terrifying for him. He counters that it’s not scary when the person he’s telling is her. When they step out onto the dancefloor, turning slowly to Emmylou Harris’ “Tougher Than The Rest,” they press their foreheads together like they’ve finally come home.
Tiff offers Jimmy her own painful truth: He and the rest of the Berzattos mean everything to her. They took her in with open arms when her own family left her in the dust, and she was so afraid she’d lose them when she divorced Richie. Jimmy holds her close and promises that, for better or worse, she’s a Bear forever.
After he gets home from the wedding, Richie pops open a solitary beer like he does every night. But then Teddy texts him a picture of their whole crazy family, sardined together under the table and grinning like idiots, and remembers that he has plenty of rocks to lean on.
Stray observations
- • Throughout the episode, Evie is clutching the normal-size teddy bear Richie gave her instead of the big, fancy one from Frank. Really, that should tell Richie everything he needs to know about where his daughter’s affection lies.
- • The Fak boys have stopped telling Francie about their dating lives because she’s always really mean to their girlfriends. She insists it comes from a place of love: All their girlfriends have sucked! She rejects Kelly out of hand for the unforgivable sin of wearing ugly shoes. (No wonder her friendship with Sugar is so messy.)
- • It’s starting to feel like a meta joke how little the other actors who play the Fak siblings resemble Matty Matheson and Ricky Staffieri. But if The Bear wants to cast John Cena and Brie Larson, who am I to complain?
- • Stevie’s description of Carmy’s post-shift “psychopath smell” when he was crashing on his couch in New York is poetic: “Pledge week at a Sicilian fraternity. Sweat, death, lemons, garlic. The most cigarettes ever.”
- • In a house stuffed full of complicated people and their complicated feelings for each other, Teddy and Kelly’s easy declaration of mutual love is a nice respite.
- • As if I couldn’t love Richie any more than I already did, the guy has a Thelma & Louise poster tacked up on his kitchen wall. That’s what I call a green flag.
