The Ending of “The Bear” Season Two, Explained (2024)

Warning: This piece contains spoilers for season two of Hulu’s The Bear.

The Bear undergoes a transformation in its second season, and not just because the titular restaurant changes from an old-school sandwich joint to a fine dining establishment. Throughout the 10-episode installment—which follows Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), and the team's mission to reopen the former Original Beef of Chicagoland in a three-month turnaround—the hit dramedy slows down the frenetic pace of its first survival-mode season to highlight each of the show's stellar cast of characters and show why they've dedicated themselves to building their dream restaurant. After weeks of stages, renovations, and a standout Christmas flashback episode, the show culminates in Friends and Family Night, the first night The Bear opens to the public.

The episode begins with a sense of frenzied calm, with the staff at their stations and a packed dining room of guests. Among the front-of-house staff, Natalie a.k.a. "Sugar" (Abby Elliott) at the host stand, while Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) wastes no time displaying the skills he learned staging at the "best restaurant in the world." When he offers Syd's father (played by Robert Townsend) a beverage, he already knows Mr. Adamu doesn’t drink alcohol, so a besuitted Fak (Matty Matheson) brings over a "Bear Pop service" instead.

The back of house isn't running as smoothly. We first see a moment of Sydney skillfully running expo duties before all the little things that can go wrong on a first night open start to pile up: One of the new hires, Josh (Alex Moffat), has gone missing (and will remain missing for most of the episode); Marcus and Sydney (Lionel Boyce) are having issues communicating after he awkwardly attempted to ask her out earlier in the day; there are no more clean forks; they're down 12 baskets of bread; Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) makes a T-bone steak isn't up to Sydney's standard and is told to start over; and the clogged toilet has exploded on Natalie.

Meanwhile, Carmy's been waiting for the other shoe to drop all day, as his head fills with negative self talk and toxic criticisms from his past jobs. When he goes out to serve his new girlfriend Claire (Molly Gordon) and her friend as a king gesture, he hallucinates that his vicious old boss (played by Joel McHale) is seated in the back of the room. While he was in the front, the seven dishes at his station have gone cold and need to be remade, and Carmy starts freaking out asking Sydney if his old boss (who we later see isn't actually there) is the one who ordered it.

The two chefs calm down and Sydney is beginning to rally when we hear a slam and a muffled "No, no, no, no! F--k!" from across the kitchen: Carmy is stuck in the walk-in refrigerator, and Marcus breaks the faulty handle off.

Without her business partner, Sydney becomes frozen in panic, as the rest of the kitchen looks to her for guidance and the order tickets keep coming, with the printing sound bringing her back to the endless takeout orders in season one, episode seven. Richie offers to take over expo for her. With five minutes on the clock and Sydney's Coach K photo for motivation, the man who started the show with complete disdain for Carmy and Sydney's system is running expo with level-headed skill, impressively pushing the team with expletive-laced declarations of love. He even sweetly encourages Fak to man the front of house by himself. Carmy is picturing the chaos of the past from his place in the fridge (including Syd's accidental stabbing of Richie), but the unlikely duo have gotten everything under control.

This being Friends and Family night, each of the show's main characters have a special guest to impress. Carmy has Claire, Sydney has her well-meaning yet apprehensive dad, Richie has Uncle Jimmy—who he later surprises with a chocolate-covered banana in a sweet callback to the elder's story about his childhood in Episode 6—and Natalie has her and Carmy's mom, Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis). Natalie and her husband Pete (Chris Witaske) weren't sure if Donna would show, but during crunch time in the kitchen, Pete spots Donna smoking a cigarette outside. When he invites her to come in, she refuses, as she's wracked with fear about possibly spoiling the night. She says she loves her kids, but she doesn't know how to show it to them or apologize. "I don't deserve to see how good this is," Donna says. "I don’t want to hurt it."

The emotional scene is difficult to watch, but sweet, sweet Pete still tries to convince the stubborn woman, since he knows how much Natalie wanted her to come. As he insists, he argues that she should come in because a) it's cold outside and b) they have to get the dinners in before the baby. "Whose baby?" Donna responds, before Pete and the viewers realize in unison: Sugar never told her mom she's pregnant. In the end, Donna promises to call them later and forces Pete to say that it's okay for her to leave. And she does.

There's a bit of a hopeful reprieve between that heartbreaking scene and the final moments. The chefs pull off their five-minute crunch, and the lovely vibes among the guests hint that they all love their food. Marcus finally finds Josh in the back alley smoking crack(!) to get through the shift, and the pastry chef sweetly goes to check before firing him. The wild discovery breaks the tension that's been lingering between Marcus and Sydney, so they seem good after she awkwardly brushed off him asking her out earlier. Natalie also comforts a crying Pete, and admits that she works full-time at The Bear now.

Then we're back to Carmy, who has become self-reflective in his spiraling and begins pouring his heart out to Tina through the door. "I failed you guys," he says, listing all the inconsequential things that went wrong and blaming himself because he wasn't around. He believes that because he was off with Claire, distracted by love and actual happiness, he didn't operate in his typical state of excellency where he's completely tapped in to the job.

"I wasn’t here," he vents. "What the f*ck I was thinking, like I was going to be in a relationship? I’m a f*cking psycho! That’s how I operate. I am the best because I didn’t have any of this f*cking bullsh*t, right? I could focus and I could concentrate."

He concludes that he doesn't need to be in a relationship, saying he doesn't need to "provide" or "receive any amusem*nt or enjoyment." He's okay with being miserable and super-competent, because "no amount of good is worth how terrible this feels. It's just a complete waste of f*cking time." A voice responds to him, but it isn't Tina. Claire has come to the back to check on him, and her response to however much of his speech she heard (let's assume all of it) is to leave, silently crying as Carmy calls her name.

Richie comes in as Claire is leaving, and she says goodbye to him. He asks Carmy what the hell just happen, out of equal parts concern and disappointment. When Carmy won't tell him what he said to Claire, Richard mocks the chef and calls him "Donna," hitting a nerve as he asks why Carmy "can't just let something good happen for once in your f*cking life," he says. The play cousins berate each other the fridge door; Carmy calls Richie a loser and a leech obsessed with Carm's family, while Richie asks where Carmy was when they buried his brother Michael. They shout "f--k you"s back and forth, with Richie's barbs devolving from "I f--kin' love you" to "I hope you f--kin' freeze to death" until he finally walks off.

Where does everyone stand at the end of The Bear season two?

Following Carmy and Richie's blowout, several of the chefs get a moment to wrap up their journey this season. Sydney, who was left frazzled and hearing the phantom printer long after the orders stopped coming in, left the kitchen to go throw up her nerves in the alley. (She'd previously warned Marcus that's how she would wind down the night.) Her dad comes up and praises his meal, finally accepting that this is "The Thing" that Sydney was meant to do, even if it brings vomit-inducing nerves. A satisfied Marcus hangs up the "Every Second Counts" sign he received from his Copenhagen mentor Luca (Will Poulter), but he doesn't realize that he's missed several calls from his ill mother's nurse. This hints at a devastating update about his bedridden mom, who he's taken care of all season.

Alone in the fridge (before the fridge guy Tony/Tom/Tim comes to cut him out), Carmy finally checks the voicemail Claire left him earlier in the day. During her shift as an ER doctor, she got a sudden urge to call him and confess that she used to have a big crush on him growing up. She adds that she's proud of him, and that his brother Mikey would be too, before telling him "I love you" for the first time. Carmy hangs up and breaks down, realizing what he's just lost, and hopefully starting down the path to learning that he can't dedicate himself to work to the complete neglect of his loved ones.

What do we know about The Bear season three?

FX and Hulu have yet to announce whether The Bear will return for a third season, but based on viewers' overwhelming response to season two, Carmy and the chefs will very likely return for another round. Among the questions left hanging after the finale: Will The Bear be enough of a rave that they'll be able to pay back Uncle Jimmy's massive loan? If the restaurant actually does make a profit, how will Carmy and Sydney figure out profit sharing? Will the Berzatto family begin to heal and repair their relationship, possibly as Sugar's baby arrives? Could Carmy win Claire back? Can The Bear actually stay open, or will it succumb to the post-COVID difficulties that caused the closings of other restaurants throughout the season? We'll have to be patient, but answers will come in due time. After all, this was only night one.