Warning: Spoilers for all seasons of ‘The Bear’.
What is an episode of The Bear without someone having a meltdown?
Whether it’s pastry chef Marcus (L-Boy) quietly spiraling over desserts at his station, or all the Fak brothers screaming at each other in glorious Fak confusion, nothing about The Bear is calm, and that’s what we love about it. But some high-volume screaming matches are more serious than others.
Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) is always having a loud mental breakdown, even when he’s not locked up in a walk-in fridge. Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) can’t go two seconds without crashing out over his failed marriage and his constant loneliness (valid). Plus, all the flashbacks to the chaotic, dysfunctional family life of the Berzattos never fail to give us a plethora of messy, angry mental breakdowns, screaming matches guaranteed.
Now that Season 4 is streaming on Disney+, it’s the perfect reason to look back at all the times the show has had us clutching our chests in secondhand stress. While this list is nowhere near definitive (because really, almost every episode feels like a mini-anxiety attack), it does capture some of the most traumatic moments the show has to offer. In no particular order, here are some of the biggest crash outs onThe Bear .
Mikey Throws Forks At Uncle Lee
Season 2, Episode 7: “Fishes”
While there were many, many, many mental breakdowns throughout the 66-minute episode “Fishes,” one of the most stressful ones had to be Mikey Berzatto (Jon Bernthal) getting into a dinner fight with his Uncle Lee (Bob Odenkirk).
The kitchen, helmed by matriarch Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), is a tomato sauce-drenched fever dream. The Berzatto brothers are fighting, and the supposedly pleasant Christmas dinner is quickly devolving into a full-blown family nightmare. At the dinner table, Uncle Lee is trying to politely explain the origin of the Seven Fishes tradition, only to have a very drunk Mikey repeatedly throw forks at him.
Uncle Lee decides to take him down a notch. “You’re nothing,” he screams at Mikey. “Throw the fucking fork, tough guy. You’re nothing.” Through intense, claustrophobic close-ups on Mikey’s face, it’s clear he’s barely holding it together. The high-pitched ringing in the background, coupled with Mikey’s look of distress, darkly foreshadows what’s to come for the eldest Berzatto sibling.
Mikey’s crash out is one of the show’s most memorable because it foreshadows what eventually happens to him. “Fishes” is a glorious, messy flashback, and everyone who watches The Bear knows that the loud, angry voices inside Mikey’s head eventually get the best of him.
Syd Drops A Hot Gooey Mess of Veal Stock Jelly
Season 1, Episode 3: “Brigade”
Syd (Ayo Edibiri) is not having a good day. Richie’s playing the macho man around the Original Beef, screaming and bossing people around on the kitchen floor. Carmy wants to improve productivity among the restaurant staff, all of whom are fairly adamant that they’re doing things the right way. He chooses to run an old school French brigade, turning the kitchen into a strict, rigid, military-style battlefield.
Syd has the unfortunate task of implementing the brigade, to no one’s delight. After accidentally cutting herself on a boxcutter, getting sabotaged by co-chef Tina (Liza Cólon-Zayas), and misplacing all her hard-sliced onions, she’s done with trying to work with everyone. She yells at Marcus for trying to help her reach a giant vat of gelatinous veal stock, but ends up dropping the entire hot mess onto the floor. She stares at the icky, moist sludge in shock, shoulders shaking as her bad day comes to a gross climax.
Syd’s meltdown stands out mainly because she isn’t the type to have meltdowns. Throughout the series, Syd is the calm presence at The Bear, the committed sous chef who knows just how to pull Carmy out of his own mental breakdowns and make sure the kitchen doesn’t devolve into a shit show. Her crash out with the veal stock sludge is subtle and quiet, but powerful.
Carm Screams At Claire From The Walk-In Fridge
Season 2, Episode 10: “The Bear”
Opening night of Carmy’s new restaurant, The Bear, doesn’t go according to plan at all. A line cook disappears out back to smoke some meth, the restaurant runs out of forks, and the kitchen has turned into a flurry of broken plates, dropped meals, and screaming galore. To make matters worse, Carmy accidentally traps himself in the walk-in refrigerator, meaning all he can do is yell helplessly from inside as the rest of his staff try to get through the dinner rush without him.
Although the service ends up being a success thanks to Syd, Carmy spends the entire night spiraling from his inability to do anything. He finds himself having a panic attack, imagining his old, abusive mentor Chef David Fields (Joel McHale) telling him he’s worth nothing. When Tina tries to soothe Carm from outside the fridge door, he finally snaps. He starts ranting about how he’s failed the restaurant because his girlfriend Claire (Molly Gordon) has distracted him from his vision. Claire walks into the kitchen just in time to hear Carmy declare that his relationship with her is a waste of time. She leaves The Bear in tears, and Carmy is too lost in his anger to do anything.
Carmy is by no means a flawless character, and up until this point in the series, we’ve forgiven him for so many things. But his fight with Claire makes him almost irredeemable, especially because Claire didn’t deserve that treatment from him.
Sugar’s Water Breaks on the Highway
Season 3, Episode 8: “Ice Chips”
Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto (Abby Elliott), the only Berzatto sister, finds herself in a difficult situation when she’s stuck in traffic on the highway and her water breaks. Panicking, she calls everyone in her list of emergency contacts — her husband, Carm, Richie, Syd, Marcus — only to be put on voice mail by all of them. As angry drivers honk at her from behind and the gridlocked traffic grows more and more claustrophobic, Sugar’s breathing becomes shallow, her voice trembles, and the reality of being completely alone in one of the most important moments of her life sets in. She pulls over to the side to have her meltdown in the safety of her car.
It’s a gut-wrenching decision, but with no one else to turn to, Sugar calls the only person in the world she’d rather not have at the birth of her child: her mother Donna. Their relationship is a patchwork of mother-daughter trauma landmines, but in this moment of crisis, Sugar has no choice but to reach across the emotional chasm.
Sugar’s breakdown is so terrifying because it stresses just how alone she is. She’s done her best to keep The Bear floating and to assuage the dysfunctional kitchen staff, but at a time when she needs the help in return, there is no one there to help her.
Donna Berzatto Crashes Her Car into the Family Home
Season 2, Episode 7: “Fishes”
This list wouldn’t be right without another section dedicated to “Fishes.” But this time, we’ll focus on Donna Berzatto’s crash out, just minutes after Mikey’s. While things settle down at the dinner table after Stevie (John Mulaney) says grace and diffuses some of the tension, the peace doesn’t last. “It doesn’t matter,” Donna whispers before breaking into tears in front of her family and guests. Donna quietly cries, but Sugar escalates the situation by asking her, “Are you okay?” Donna hates being asked that, and lets Sugar have it at the table. “Do I not look okay?” Donna screams at both Sugar and the rest of the table. “Am I okay? Are you motherfuckers okay?” She takes her time yelling at all of them before breaking a dish and leaving the house.
The dining room devolves into a brawl among all the guests (especially Mikey and Uncle Lee), but this fight is quickly interrupted by Donna crashing her car into the side of the house’s living room. As Mikey tries to get her out of the car, all Donna can do is laugh.
Donna is a mess, but her car crash highlights just how at the end of her rope she was at that point in her life. Although she eventually figures out that she needs to do right by her children, her meltdown shows how desperate she was for a moment of peace.
Carmy Finally Apologizes to Claire
Season 4, Episode 3: “Scallop”
The entire third season of The Bear didn’t see Carmy try to reach out to Claire at all after their big fight in Season 2. In fact, Carmy and Claire don’t speak to each other at all for the entirety of the show’s third season.
But Season 4 finally brings some level of closure to their relationship. At the spur of the moment, Carmy decides to stop moping around and knock on Claire’s door, hoping for forgiveness. To his surprise, Ted Fak (Ricky Staffieri) meets him at the door, and in typical Fak fashion, attempts to lie and say that Claire isn’t home.
Claire actually is home, and she reluctantly meets Carmy at the door, arms crossed. He’s at a loss for words, and his stutter comes back in full force when he tries to say those two blessed words — “I’m sorry” — after ghosting her and failing to give her a decent explanation about that night.
What starts as a tense but calm confrontation turns into a loud, angry fight, with both parties venting out their months-long frustrations at each other. Claire is quick to point out how hurt she felt when Carmy put his walls up against her when they were dating, and Carmy in turn can’t quite figure out how to properly tell her he loves her without sounding like an asshole. The night ends with Claire in tears and closing the door on Carmy, who is left standing alone on the sidewalk.
Did we hope that Carmy wouldn’t mess up his big apology? Yes. Unfortunately, him fumbling the bag with Claire is very on brand for him, and their sidewalk fight provides a sad, but realistic, second act to their last heated argument.
