SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the final season of FX’s The Bear.
The Bear is officially over.
All eight episodes of the fifth and final season dropped on Thursday evening, concluding the series run by picking up the morning after the events of the Season 4 finale in which Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Sugar (Abby Elliott) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) find out that Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) is leaving the restaurant. It also just so happened to be the night that The Bear’s 30-day timer, representing the vestiges of Uncle Jimmy’s (Oliver Platt) money to keep the lights on, ran out.
A majority of the season takes place over the course of one day, as the kitchen prepares for and executes one final service in hopes of earning its first Michelin star, because they believe the man who may bestow it upon them will be dining there that night. If they can even make it to service, that is.
Throughout the day, just about everything that can go wrong, does. A gnarly storm hits Chicago, sending the restaurant into a flurry of panic as ceilings collapse, pipes break, rooms flood, and deliveries get canceled. Carmy, Richie, Sydney and Sugar decide not to tell the rest of the staff about Carmy’s departure, but the tension gets to the group and Sydney eventually drops the news in a moment of frustration.
The train is already in motion, though, so like it or not they have to do what they can to survive this service. By the grace of some unknown force, they do make it through the service. The finale follows up with the group in the aftermath of that service, when the clouds have parted and everyone’s heads have cleared the next morning.
And, it turns out, Star Man wasn’t there at all. He had been there months prior, and The Bear earned itself two Michelin stars.
See how things turned out in the final episode of The Bear for the main characters, including Carmy, Sydney, Tina and more.
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Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto
Image Credit: FX
As we found out in the Season 4 finale, Carmy is dead set on quitting the restaurant. He tells the staff, during an impassioned speech once they all find out about his planned departure, that he doesn’t think he loves owning his own restaurant (or maybe even cooking at all) the way he thought he did.
In the finale, the restaurant gets two Michelin stars, and while he refuses to change his mind, he does manage to change Jimmy’s. He convinces Jimmy to give the restaurant another shot and go along with the franchise idea. After he walks away from The Bear, Cousin Stevie (John Mulaney) sets Carmy up with a meeting to become an intern at an architectural firm. He leaves Marcus his recipe books.
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Sydney Adamu
After becoming a Michelin-rated chef, Sydney takes over as the head chef at The Bear when Carmy steps away. Like Tina, Sydney’s skills save the day during that tough service, when the cola ribs she’d made for family meal become part of the menu as ingredients get tight.
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Tina Marrero
Amid the chaos, Sydney makes it clear that when she takes over the restaurant she wants Tina to become the chef de cuisine. The decision is only validated when Tina’s brussel sprouts literally save the day, filling a last-minute need for another side on the menu that is ready for the public to taste.
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Marcus Brooks (and Chef Luca)
Marcus takes over the pastry and dessert operation at The Bear all on his own, after Luca goes back to Denmark. Oh, and it turns out these two were stockpiling the spoons all along.
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Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto
Sugar takes over as part owner of The Bear alongside Sydney and Richie.
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Richard “Richie” Jerimovich
After impressing a couple who got engaged at The Bear, and who just so happen to work for Pellegrino, Richie gets invited to an international hospitality seminar in Japan. He hesitates at first, which he claims is because he’s never been on a plane. When he confides in Carmy, his cousin uncovers the real source of his anxiety: he’s stretching the limits of his comfort zone. The cousin-to-cousin pep talk seems to be just what Richie needed to keep moving forward.
Before he goes, he throws his daughter a surprise party at the restaurant, where Sydney helps him prepare for his trip. He also seems to have finally made a move on Chef Jess, who joins him in Japan.
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Uncle Jimmy
By the finale, Jimmy is broke and pretty pissed off at Carmy for losing all his money, but he also loves his family and wants his business to succeed. So rather than pulling the plug like he’d previously threatened, he gets on board with the franchise idea in hopes of saving the restaurant.
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Ebraheim
Since the beef window is closed during the storm, Ebraheim spends the entire day trying to think of ways to save The Bear. He pitches the idea of franchising beef window to expand revenue. Carmy swiftly approves the (obviously great) idea and sends him off to execute.
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Ted & Neil Fak
The Fak brothers continue to be a beloved nuisance within The Bear, at times bringing the restaurant staff closer together and sometimes causing aggrevation.
