Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Season 5 premiere of The Bear.
Like the saying goes, time waits for no one… and in the fifth and final season of The Bear, the team behind the titular Chicago eating establishment is running out of it.
As viewers saw in the Season 4 finale, the clock for The Bear — and Uncle Jimmy’s (Oliver Platt) patience for keeping the debt-ridden restaurant afloat — had officially hit zero. That happened after executive chef Carmen (Jeremy Allen White) had to explain to co-owner and chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) as well as business partner and family friend Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) why he’d decided to retire.
As Season 5 picks up — all eight episodes drop on FX and FX on Hulu today — The Bear staff is planning to live another day against all odds. Despite a torrential rain storm, backed-up pipes (featuring a fun cameo of sorts), a failed reservation system and no credit, the show must go on. After all, a Michelin star is potentially at stake; and with Carmy effectively passing the head chef’s hat to Sydney, the dynamics in the kitchen have shifted.
“It’s something that, as far as the characters [are concerned], has been building for the previous four seasons,” Edebiri tells Gold Derby. “And what I think is central to it is this idea of partnership.” White agrees with his costar, adding that as performers, “finding that balance remains the same. It’s just a shifting of that balance.”
The first episode, “Soda,” opens with Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) trying out a dish in her home kitchen as her husband David (the actress’s real-life spouse, David Zayas) reassures her that this job crisis is different from the last one. They’re in a better place financially and she’s developed a wider range of skills. The scene recalls Tina’s backstory as revealed in the Season 3 episode “Napkins,” which explained how the sous chef became a line cook at The Original Beef of Chicagoland after being laid off from her corporate job.
“But I didn’t do what I loved the last time,” Tina tells David, adding that she’s doing what she loves with the people she loves. Tina then assures him that it’s “not over” yet.
Meanwhile, Sydney opens The Bear and gets to work prepping her signature Coca-Cola short ribs, and Richie is giving himself possibly the most downer pep talk. “Nobody likes you. Everybody hates you. You’re gonna lose. Smile, you f–k,” he says in the mirror.
As Richie heads to work, getting a call from Jessica (Sarah Ramos) that the entire online reservation system is down, he takes a beat while sitting in his car amid the rainy chaos. Richie then slips into a memory of Carmy’s late brother, Michael (Jon Bernthal), as he looks at the empty passenger seat. But as Richie resumes driving, he’s hit by a minivan on the passenger side. Luckily, he appears to have escaped physically unscathed but rattled and annoyed at the other driver.
Back this season is Jamie Lee Curtis as Carmy and Natalie’s (Abby Elliott) mom, Donna, as well as Luca (Will Poulter), who experiences his first McGriddle when pastry chef Marcus brings him the McDonald’s breakfast sandwich as they carpool to The Bear. The Golden Arches makes a key reappearance in the episode, when Carmy wonders if it’s chaos at the fast-food chain due to the downpour. “Hell, no. That s–t is smooth. Styled like a Rolex. Assembly line,” Marcus explains.
Carm arrives at The Bear about halfway through the episode, vowing to help however he can, as Sydney has been dealing with the wonky pipes and adjusting details in the kitchen, which includes covering a cracked workspace with white linens and tape. “All that’s missing is a quote,” Carmy tells her. That’s when she pulls out two sheets of paper, one a printed image of Remy the rat from the 2007 Disney-Pixar animated film Ratatouille and one with the quote, “Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great.”
Carm tells Sydney not to mention their new partnership agreement from “last night,” aka the Season 4 finale. The staff doesn’t know that Carm has quit and that the business will now be run by Sydney, Richie, Natalie and Jimmy. Even as Jimmy is eager to sell The Bear, his financial advisor and friend Nicholas “Computer” (Brian Koppelman) is advising him to franchise the business. Station chef Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) wants to do exactly that with the takeout sandwich window.
Ebra jumps on calls with his businessman mentor Albert (the late Rob Reiner) to muster the courage to talk to Carmy about his franchise ideas. “Don’t be scared by his blue eyes,” he tells himself. When Ebra asks Sydney where Carmy is, he reveals that the credit cards no longer work. As he wonders if it’s the restaurant’s last day, since the countdown clock has moved to zero, Sydney takes the remote and resets it to start moving forward.
In the meantime, Jimmy reveals to Richie that he made a “bad trade” and lost about three-quarters of his money. He’s now selling watches, save for one given to him by his brother, to make ends meet. Although the stakes are high to sell The Bear, Richie says he’s not giving up.
Episode 1 comes to a literally noisy climax as the pipes are clanging louder than ever. Sydney calls on the Fak brothers Neil and Ted (Matty Matheson and Ricky Staffieri, respectively) to help. A cardboard cutout of Paul Rudd in The Original Beef gear (misspelled as Berf) and a bowtie stands in front of the pipes. “Why is Paul Rudd making noises?” Neil asks. “Don’t f–k with me, Rudd,” Ted adds, as the camera cuts to a closeup of the cardboard Anchorman actor just before a flood of water hits Ted in the face.
Matheson told Gold Derby that the actor was in on the joke. “Rudd, man — he knew,” Matheson said. “I don’t think a lot of people know, but I’m pretty sure he’s the voice of Ballbreaker in the first season of the video game that’s in The Beef. It’s a thing where [series creator] Chris [Storer] and him are very good friends.”
Mattheson, who is also an executive producer on The Bear, adds that the creatives “wear our influences on our sleeve” through books, posters and movie references. “Everything is very deliberate,” he added. “Paul being down there with the Berf shirt on is all time.”
