There’s not a lot of screaming that goes on in “Gary,” the surprise episode of The Bear. At least, at first.
While the show has learned how to balance out its noisy, ugly kitchen scenes with softer moments from its ensemble, the quiet is almost too loud in “Gary” — especially since it turns its gaze towards a still-living Mikey (Jon Bernthal) and a still-obnoxious Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). We’ve jumped into a memory, into a before-time when this duo was still young, dumb, and too eager to get out of Chicagoland and make something of themselves.
That escape comes in the form of a questionable job for Jimmy (Oliver Platt), who’s sent the boys off across state lines to Gary, Indiana to deliver a sealed package. Richie is more than ready to turn this side gig into a full-on quest. He’s broken out his big boy pants, tucked a glock into his tighty-whities, and burned a CD full of songs for the road trip (maestro, cue that reggae classic, “Draw Your Brakes.”). All he has to do is make sure that he’s home by 5:15, otherwise his pregnant wife Tiff (Gillian Jacobs) might have their baby without him.
Richie hasn’t been this stupid for a long time on the show, not since becoming a master maître d’ in Season 2. So it’s certainly a delight when Moss-Bachrach keys back into Richie’s immaturity, playing a much-too-old cokehead who’s happy to storm into a bar while on the job. Richie is definitely the comic relief of “Gary,” but watching him regale a full bar with stories of him almost shitting his pants feels more like a trainwreck than anything else. We know how things fall apart for Richie later on, and it’s heartbreaking to see him play an active role in his own downfall.
But things aren’t all doom and gloom, because neither of the boys know what lies ahead for them (this is a prequel episode, after all). They’re singing along to their playlist, picking fights with teenagers on a basketball court, and doing bits that only the closest of friends can do with each other (“Althea when I Althea!” has to be the best dumb joke of the hour). “Gary” is filled to the brim with nostalgia, and while there are obvious reasons why Mikey doesn’t make more of an appearance in The Bear, it’s a shame that we don’t get more glimpses of him and Richie together in their prime.
Bernthal certainly makes the most of his extended screentime in this episode, because there’s never a moment when you completely turn your eyes away from him. As any good fan of The Bear knows, Mikey is a ticking time bomb (see “Forks” in Season 2), and, while he may be laughing and enjoying himself, we all know to watch out for the warning signs of an explosion.
However, before he ultimately explodes, Mikey is glorious. Yes, he’s goofing off with Richie, but the elder Berzatto can be surprisingly tender. Their pit stop at the bar brings him face to face with Sherri (Marin Ireland), who isn’t afraid to run her fingers through his beard and coax him into sharing the fucked-up thoughts running around in his head.
“I know I’m all fucking babbling and shit like a fucking baby, but I could be a fucking blast,” Mikey confesses while they’re curled up on the bathroom floor. “Like, I can share it, but… out of nowhere, those same thoughts, this kind of meaningless of it all… it makes me sad.”
“That sounds exhausting,” replies Sherri. “You must be really tired.” Sherri, you’re absolutely right, but the grief that comes with watching “Gary” is knowing how things end for Mikey, and they do not end well. There’s some comfort in watching Mikey realize that the emotions he’s feeling aren’t sustainable, but that comfort immediately disappears when he decides that he’s done being soft.
In a move that just oozes straight man machismo, Mikey throws Sherri, himself, and his tenderness out the window in favor of ruining the day. He finally explodes, his ire aimed straight at his best friend Richie, and all we can do is watch Mikey morph back into the bear that he always was.
“Gary” ends with a bang (both literally and metaphorically), setting things up for a final season that may just be brave enough to kill its darlings (and if you don’t get what I’m getting at, go watch the episode). We’ll have to see how The Bear ties up all its loose ends, from Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) walking away from his own restaurant to the rest of the gang learning how to save it without him. But “Gary” gives us both a reprieve from the chaos and a warning of what’s to come, and it looks like the storm is just starting to brew.
