programming note: with the july 4th holiday tomorrow i feel like i probably won’t get to episode 8 tomorrow. i’ve heard from a few people that they’re watching along, so be advised!
Today’s episode of The Bear feels like an in-universe rejoinder to the cavalcade of cameos we've had so far this season. A few days ago, John Cena showed up. Before that? The entire cast of Chef’s Table Season 1. So who's on The Bear today, you ask? Just a bunch of guys.
Most specifically — Christopher Zucchero as Chi Chi, and Paulie James as Chuckie. Zucchero is apparently the owner of the actual Mr. Beef in Chicago, the basis for The Bear. Paulie James was, I think maybe the third guy in Tonya Harding’s entourage? Basing this entirely on vibes.
There’s also another Fak, but honestly at this point I’m good on all the extra Faks and this “haunting” bullshit. Stop trying to make “haunting” happen, Faks. It’s not a thing! (Was it clear before that the Fak Family contracting company is called "Matter of Fak"? That's very good. I’ll give them that.)
Anyway, the boys are back at The Bear, and they're doing great! That sequence with Ebra, Chi Chi, and Chuckie absolutely cooking at The Bear's back window was the highlight of the episode. (Also, I’m with these guys on their mayo policy 100%.) And Ebra is happy and Tina is affectionately regarding the napkin dispensers.
But up front, under the harsh, flickering fluorescent lights? Not great, Bob! Which we know because of a little montage at the start of the episode explicitly showing what each character is worrying about. That was dumb, by the way! Editors of The Bear: I promise we have gotten enough mileage out of this old footage now, OK?
There are some new developments, of course. Shapiro from Ever is looking to hire Sydney, and she's tempted. Not just by the 80k starting salary, but also because Carmy isn’t much of a collaborator. We knew that already. But will Syd really split? It feels like a headfake to me.
Meanwhile, Richie is having a hard time locating his mojo. It might be on one of the little pages falling out of his notebook. That was a very real scene for me, a person who just today found a balled-up notebook page of passwords on my desk at work and INSTANTLY misplaced it again. The other really real scene was Syd falling into the cardboard boxes like quicksand. I’ve been there. An exquisitely performed piece of slapstick comedy.
I liked Carmy, Marcus, and Syd's conversation about legacy, where Carmy actually speaks out loud his philosophy that in order to be calm, he needs to be "square with everybody and everything." It tracks that he’d think this way; it’s a moveable goalpost he can hold in his mind to keep himself from ever being happy, even if he does eventually call Claire. (Loved the scene at Al-Anon* about how when you don’t let the words out, they disappear down inside of you.)
(*Is it clear to everyone that that’s what Carmy goes to? Al-Anon, as opposed to AA, is for the families of people struggling with/lost to problematic alcohol/substance use. Whereas AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, is the more traditional, step-oriented, very movie-exposition-scene friendly support group for people seeking recovery. It’s confusing branding, I know.)
The other thing Carmy talks about in the legacy/legerdemain scene is the way the constituent parts of every restaurant break away and reconstitute at new restaurants, and that the diaspora it creates is the engine that drives the industry forward. It’s also what complicates the idea of one’s own legacy — which is true in any creative field, really. You see traces of yourself in the cloud and you wonder if there’s any way to quantify what, if anything, it is adding up to, and if it is, if anybody would ever be able to trace it back.
Last thing today: let’s give it up for Abby Elliott, who is giving such a natural, realistic performance that it has become impossible to picture her on Saturday Night Live where I first saw her. It feels like the next episode is really going to center on her—it’s called “Ice Chips,” after all. And as predictable as the arc of her pregnancy and fears feel going in, I have no doubt that Elliott, Storer and Co. will find a way to surprise us.