The following article contains spoilers for The Bear Season 4, Episode 10, “Goodbye.”
The Bear Season 4 takes a number of risks while exploring Carmy’s state of mind, but few actually stick the landing the way the finale, “Goodbye,” does. Undeniably, the best episode of the season, the single-scene approach to one of the most important conversations of the show’s history is as close to “Fishes” as we’ll get. Personally, I would even argue that because of its vulnerability, it’s significantly stronger, breaking barriers in a way few shows can manage.
The chaos of “Fishes” hits as hard as it does because it represents a real familial argument, but the anxiety-inducing effect of The Bear Season 4, Episode 10, “Goodbye,” relies entirely on the performances from Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Abby Elliott. Viewers feel the pain pouring out of every word they speak, but it also gushes from the performances. Every gaze, every frenzied movement, the close-up shots, every head tilt, and every animated hand motion—there’s something profoundly agonizing nestled into every single frame.
Written and directed by Christopher Storer, “Goodbye” feels like a real argument we should be looking away from, and yet, we can’t stop watching. It’s impossible to look away. The fact that it begins with lighting an actual cigarette and ends with flames in a quietly explosive argument is no small feat. Every high and every low in the episode is rewarding in a way that TV often isn’t allowed to attempt because there’s a mistaken belief that if we stay in one place, it’ll bore the audience. But there’s quite literally nothing boring about this scene as every revelation makes our hearts pound and our heads ache. It’s an episode guaranteed to evoke a visceral reaction out of the audience—negative or positive, it doesn’t matter. It set out to make us feel, and that we do.
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But let’s break down the context scene—let’s talk about why it hurts so much to hear Carmy say the words, “Any chance of anything good happening in this building, it started when you walked in.” White’s delivery in this moment is his strongest work yet in the show’s run, and it’s proof that he’s one of the greatest actors of our generation. Pair him with Edebiri’s honest and gut-wrenching reaction, and we’ve got something truly magical in front of us—something indescribable. For viewers who aren’t generally fans of theatre, there’s something that happens in the third act of most great plays that leaves the audience with the same uneasy satisfaction that this scene does. It’s all unfolding in real time, and we’re so in tuned with what’s happening that the emotions are legitimately overwhelming. It’s the kind of serotonin boost for which there are very few words to accurately describe.
And Edebiri’s work as Sydney is something else entirely because she’s so easy to care about as a character that the moment she cries, we’re crying with her. The second her voice started shaking in The Bear Season 4, Episode 10, “Goodbye,” my chest tightened, and the anxiety didn’t stop until the credits began to roll. Masterful, transcendent, and profoundly vulnerable, everything that Edebiri brings to this scene is astonishing—outright brilliant.
Carmy falling out of love with cooking makes complete sense. It happens to many of us when our passions turn into careers. He lost a part of himself the day Michael died, but he gained something in return when Sydney walked through the door. The Bear, as a restaurant, is synonymous with loss, but it also pairs perfectly with hope. Sydney is a representation of hope in every way. Whether Carmy does actually leave or not, only Season 5 can answer. But this moment is about airing out all their pain, taking it to the back of the building, and releasing every bit of the darkness still clinging to them.
Grief is never going to leave the Berzatto family because that’s not how grief works, and in many ways, The Bear Season 4, Episode 10, “Goodbye” is evidence of their shared grief. It’s evidence of Mickey’s impact, even for someone who didn’t know him like Sydney. Because it all comes back to the idea of an actual bear and what it stands for. How the restaurant and everyone involved have lived through pain, and how they’ve taken their broken pieces and allowed it to be the kind of place people will travel miles for. It’s proof that even if there’s hope, the pain is still suffocating Carmy.
The thing is, it’ll never stop hurting. Because that’s what grief is—it sticks and it follows us everywhere. But as human beings, it’s up to us to decide how we push forward. Writing for me is tied to my late father. I am a writer because of him, but he never got to see me become one. He knew I would long before I did, and when everything is too hard, when this passion starts to feel like a job—when it becomes too hard to hold my head over the water—I question why I’m still doing it. I wonder if there’s anyone else I can pass it down to. Maybe that way the pain will stop coming. But deep down, I know that’s not how it works because I have grieved. I still grieve. But for Carmy, so much of that is different because he’s just starting to let himself ache. The fact that he’s no longer harboring the secret that he went to Mickey’s funeral is a huge step forward. And it’s not just about Carmy grieving, but Richie and Nat, too.
It’s about realizing that they can’t keep locking their emotions into vaults—or refrigerators, if we want to get metaphorical with the show’s narrative. It’s about understanding that pain and joy are often tethered together in a way we can never unravel. They’re meant to co-exist. But human beings are tricky creatures. Big feelings don’t often dawn on us when they should. We push and tug on the locks constantly until they finally break.
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Carmy acknowledging Sydney’s importance and the hope of what she represents is everything he needs to start healing. Once he does that, finding joy in cooking again can be possible. Or, maybe for him, this really is the end. But how The Bear Season 4, Episode 10, “Goodbye,” underscores the significance of healing is no small feat. If the show had ended here, it would’ve been a brilliant way to go. Still, since there’s more story to tell, I hope the emotions are as raw and as vulnerable as they are in this episode.
Now streaming on Hulu: What are your thoughts on The Bear Season 4, Episode 10, “Goodbye?” Let us know in the comments below.
First Featured Image Credit: ©FX