After four years and five seasons, FX’s The Bear has served its final dish — metaphorically speaking, of course. In-universe, the fine-dining restaurant of the same name is still very much up and running in Chicago, thanks in part to the good word of a Michelin Guide Inspector in the series finale, “The Original Beef of Chicagoland.”
In the culinary world, the coveted Michelin star is a symbol of excellence, with the most exceptional restaurants earning one, two, or even three stars.
For Sydney Adamu, The Bear’s newly minted executive chef (as of the Season 4 finale, “Goodbye“), the pursuit of this honor has its origins all the way back in the Season 2 premiere, “Beef.” The restaurant is still in its earliest stages of construction at this point, but Sydney is already adamant that she wants what they’re building to become something worthy of a star. “This is going to be a destination spot. This is going to be an excellent restaurant,” Syd tells potential investor Jimmy Kalinowski in “Beef.” “And I know that, because we’re going to get a star.”
This desire of Syd’s puts her at odds with Carmy Berzatto, Jimmy’s nephew and at the time The Bear’s executive chef, who’s got a background in fine dining and all the psychological trauma to prove it. Carmy is insistent that stars are meaningless — “Syd… F— stars,” he tells her during their pitch meeting with Jimmy — but Syd points out that he can say that because he already earned one at a previous restaurant. In Carmy’s eyes, this doesn’t count because he only “retained” that restaurant’s three-star rating; he didn’t earn it himself. “That’s basically a cousin of getting one,” Syd says, unconvinced by his argument.
When Jimmy asks Sydney and Carmy what happens next if they do earn a star, they respond at the same time but with different answers reflecting their opposing viewpoints on the matter: Syd says they’re “dialed,” while Carmy says they’re “trapped.” In the next episode, “Pasta,” Syd and Carmy develop the restaurant’s menu at Carmy’s apartment, and the topic of stars once again finds its way into their conversation. Syd opens with, “Can I ask you something, and you can tell me to f— off if you want?” to which Carmy replies that he doubts he’s gonna do that.
“When you got that call, the three-star call…” Syd starts, and Carmy interjects with a laugh and the predicted “F— off” before she can even finish. Undeterred by her own embarrassment at caring so much about this particular accolade, Syd asks Carmy how it felt to get the call from the Michelin inspector. “The first ten seconds felt like a sort of panic cause I knew I just had to keep ’em, I had to retain ’em,” Carmy explains. “Um… And your brain does this weird thing where it just bypasses any sense of joy. It just, like, attaches itself to dread.”
He goes on to tell Syd how he jumped right back into work after those first ten seconds because an important set of diners had just arrived at his restaurant, and that was that. “So, normal. Totally normal,” Syd jokes dryly, to which Carmy agrees, and it’s through this exchange that we better understand his perspective on Michelin stars — they don’t matter to him because he’s never worked in an environment that celebrated them.
Throughout the rest of Season 2, we see Sydney, Carmy, and the team prepare The Bear for its very first service, a friends-and-family trial run that takes place in the finale, aptly named “The Bear.” This already nerve-racking first service is made even more stressful when Carmy ends up accidentally locked in the walk-in refrigerator midway through the night and remains trapped there until all the patrons have left.
Even though Syd and the rest of the team do successfully make it through service despite Carmy’s incapacitation, this personally disastrous first service stays with Carmy. He returns to work the next day in Season 3‘s “Next” armed with a list of “non-negotiables” for the restaurant, which includes creating a new menu every single day.
His reason for this? “We’re gonna get a star,” which is what he tells Syd when she wants to know why he made so many changes overnight. “I thought that was a trap,” she reminds him, and Carmy counters with, “I thought we were gonna be dialed.” Carmy’s regression to a more controlling, intense, and ultimately traumatized version of himself is further emphasized when Syd once again asks why he’s doing this, and he says it’s “so that I can push you and you can push me. That’s what you wanted, right?” But the issue is, this isn’t what Syd wants — at least, not like this. Not in this type of kitchen environment and not with this type of executive chef at the helm.
Carmy spends the bulk of Season 3 stuck in a fundamental misunderstanding of what works best for both the restaurant at large and for Sydney as a chef, and it’s not until the Season 4 premiere, “Groundhogs,” that he finally starts to realize the error in his ways.
A throughline of this fourth season, then, is Carmy’s growing awareness that not only is Syd a better chef than he is, but she also doesn’t need him anymore. This culminates in an end-of-episode cliffhanger in which Carmy has asked to be removed from The Bear’s partnership agreement and is quitting the industry. Of course, Syd doesn’t take too kindly to learning this information, and her and Carmy’s ensuing 13-minute fight scene in the Season 4 finale, “Goodbye,” proves that Carmy’s perception of the situation is decidedly not how Syd herself feels. “I’m gonna do everything I can to set you up for success,” Carmy attempts to reassure her. “But… any chance of any kind of good in this building, it started when you walked in. And any possibility of it surviving… It’s with you.”
“How can you say that?” she asks him tearfully. “I believe in you more than I’ve ever believed in myself,” Carmy replies. Syd wants to know why, and Carmy’s response is simple: “Because you’re The Bear.” In Carmy’s eyes, the restaurant he and Sydney created together is better off without him… which is what makes what happens in the fifth and final season so much more impactful.
This season largely takes place over the course of one single day (the day after Sydney and Carmy’s aforementioned fight), and with a torrential downpour, broken pipes, a malfunctioning reservation system, limited ingredients, and Jimmy’s looming threat to sell the building, it’s shaping up to be a terrible one.
Of course, this also happens to be the day that a Michelin inspector is very likely dining at The Bear, based on clues outlined in Season 4’s “Soubise” on how to try and identify these anonymous inspectors. This added pressure is just yet another obstacle that Syd, Carmy, and the team have to overcome in the dinner service from hell, but fortunately, despite all the setbacks, the suspected inspector and his local celebrity guest end up having a wonderful evening.
Given that there’s only one episode left in the entire show at this point, it doesn’t take long for Syd and Carmy to learn whether the restaurant has successfully accomplished what Syd wanted all along.
Midway through the season and series finale, “The Original Beef of Chicagoland,” Carmy’s sister Natalie informs him that someone named Peter Clark has been trying to reach him to talk about the restaurant. We saw Carmy ignore a call from an unknown number on multiple occasions in the preceding episodes, and when Carmy finally returns the call, we discover that this persistent caller is actually a Michelin inspector — but there’s a twist.
As it turns out, the Michelin inspector calling Carmy today is someone who visited several months ago, not last night. Avid viewers may remember that a Mr. Clark comes to The Bear as a solo diner back in Season 3’s “Scallop,” and as I note in this other article from a year ago, this man ends up having a front-row seat to a truly above-and-beyond display of hospitality from The Bear’s staff for a family and their daughter who just finished chemotherapy.
We don’t get to hear what Mr. Clark says to Carmy during this phone call, but soon enough, Syd happens to glance into the locker room and spot a visibly shaken Carmy sitting on the bench.
She asks him what’s wrong, and Carmy tries to brush it off, but Syd, of course, doesn’t believe him. Carmy then admits that Peter Clark is “Star Man,” and Syd shares the viewers’ initial confusion about whether this was the patron from last night, like everybody thought (Carmy clarifies that the man from the night prior was really just a regular guest).
At this point, Sydney is in somewhat of a trance, not yet able to comprehend that there really was a Michelin inspector in her and Carmy’s restaurant. “Do I wanna know what he said?” Syd asks Carmy as she joins him on the locker room bench. Carmy initially struggles to articulate Mr. Clark’s feedback until finally he finds his footing. “He said the food overall was truly exceptional. And creative. He said the talent here is undeniable.” Syd’s expecting a “but” to follow Carmy’s recounting of this inspector’s incredibly high praise, but Carmy’s not finished. “[He said] that there’s a scallop dish he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about and the hospitality was beautiful. He said the room felt alive without being precious or try-hard.”
At this point, in light of all this praise, Sydney finally dares to ask (albeit in a shaky whisper), “Did we get a star?” Carmy shakes his head, breathing heavily, and Syd interprets this as bad news. She nods, teary-eyed and seemingly resigned, when Carmy drops the bombshell that he himself only just learned: “You got two.”
Two? The Bear has earned two Michelin stars? According to the Michelin Guide, two stars are awarded when “the personality and talent of the chef are evident in their expertly crafted dishes; their food is refined and inspired.” Needless to say, for The Bear and for Syd and Carmy, this is huge.
Now, it should be noted that when I first watched this scene on June 25, I really thought Carmy was going to tell Syd that no, they didn’t earn a star, but it’s okay because stars aren’t a metric by which they should be judging the success of their restaurant. I felt like I’d seen such a sentiment in many a sports or performing arts movie, and I was prepared for the same vibe in The Bear’s finale.
Of course, when Carmy surprised both Syd and me with the news that the Michelin inspection had gone even better than expected, I’m not ashamed to admit that I openly bawled. What makes this reveal so meaningful is that despite Carmy attempting to remove himself from the equation (he specifically says Syd, not them together, got the stars), the service that earned The Bear its two stars was one that showcased the very best of all its staffers working together in harmony.
Mr. Clark’s experience at The Bear was so memorable not because of one specific element courtesy of one individual employee — as he told Carmy on the phone, he loved Syd’s scallop dish, and the winter wonderland Richie Jerimovich (The Bear’s Maître D’hôtel) dreamed up for the cancer survivor and her family, and the original beef sandwich they got served off-menu as a bonus course, and the restaurant’s overall atmosphere and hospitality. (Notably, it was Carmy who insisted on plating the beef sandwich just like how it’s served from the sandwich window during the lunch rush, no doubt adding to the authenticity of the dish and further elevating the family’s experience eating it.)
The Bear’s two Michelin stars were earned by Sydney and Carmy and Richie and the rest of the team, but despite this, show creator (and writer-director of this episode) Christopher Storer keeps this moment of discovery purely between Syd and Carmy, and it’s absolutely the right choice. We don’t see the rest of the kitchen find out, and we don’t need to.
After Carmy shares the news with Sydney and they both spend a few seconds attempting to process this monumental achievement, Carmy suggests that they wait until after that night’s service to inform the rest of the staff. “Yeah, that makes sense to me,” Syd says, and she and Carmy agree that this will help everybody stay focused.
They awkwardly congratulate each other before parting ways to get back to work, and we follow Syd as she returns to the kitchen and turns on the stove. Still understandably reeling from the news, she stands at the stove and just stares at the flame — in a moment that feels visually reminiscent of Carmy dissociating in front of a burner in seasons past — for several seconds until the sound of Carmy going through the door to front-of-house pulls her out of this daze.
We cut to Carmy wiping down a table, and he looks up as Syd appears in the doorway from the kitchen. She doesn’t say anything, just lets out a combination of a cry and a laugh, and Carmy chuckles before they both rush towards each other to share a hug of truly epic proportions (my friend who considers herself a TV and movie hug expert doesn’t even watch The Bear but says this hug is genuinely one of the best she’s ever seen).
After several seconds of just embracing each other and actually allowing themselves to celebrate the significance and unbridled joy of this moment — contrary to Carmy’s past experience with Michelin stars — they pull back a bit and look at each other.
Syd chuckles happily, and Carmy frames her face with both his hands. “You did it,” he whispers. Syd gives him an emotional nod before they both go in for a second, somehow even tighter hug (yes, Syd squeezes her eyes shut at one point), and then the screen cuts to black, sealing them in this special moment.
While the episode does continue a little longer after this in what’s functionally an epilogue, this moment is the very last one-on-one scene we’ll ever get for Syd and Carmy, and it’s perfect. After five seasons of watching these two chefs learn and grow and heal and love, and along the way build something truly remarkable together, there’s no better way to end their shared story than on this particular note.
And as they said to each other when they were fixing a table together in Season 2’s “Omelette” (shortly before the restaurant was set to open its doors for the very first time), Syd and Carmy really do make each other “better at this.”
All five seasons of The Bear are now streaming on Hulu. What are your thoughts on Sydney and Carmy’s conversation in the Season 5 finale? Let us know in the comments below.
First Featured Image Credit: ©FX