The Bear’s Kitchen Now Serves a Romantic Menu
A timeline of Sydney and Carmy's relationship and why you (the shipping fandom) probably missing the whole point of The Bear Season 2.
I intentionally refuse to watch the one-year-ahead-wait shows of its opening week, The Bear Season 2. Save the good stuff for later, why not? Yeah, until the ‘current’s viral’ topic popped out on my Twitter home page. The one account who is Pros’ and the other one as Cons’. Are Sydney and Carmy will make the kitchen more heat in the next season?
For a couple of days, I was able to stay as I intend. But, this topic just keeps showing in front of my face. I couldn’t risk myself to lose the amusement if the big spoiler happened to ruin my plate to watch. So, I binge-watched and I guess making a show to be consistently good is hard. But, thank God it’s not as bad as Ted Lasso’s S2.
The shus and fuss of the ‘current’s viral’ topic was the idea that Sydney and Carmy would be a romantic couple. Plus, some people, I presume trying to create their alternative universe/fan fiction version or over-analyzing the existing content. This move has made some people disgusted and even despise the idea of romance to be exist in the shows.
Honestly, if you happen to be allergic to romance, The Bear is not a cooking show. Let’s change the terminology here, how about a relationship? Connection? Intimacy? Just come back and rewatch the last episode of The Bear S1 and you will find a solid ground to answer the crumbs of questions we had for recent debatable topics.
Although, I couldn’t deny the romantic menu that has been served in S2 between Sydney and Carmy is more than a Platonic Love (PL). I pick the cinematography and editing aspects to establish this matter as I compared how PL in “Elementary” between Sherlock and Joan worked. But, do I wish Sydcarm’s relationship go further beyond burning the kitchen down? Nope.
The idea of romance being a subplot in tv shows or movies is something beautiful and so humane. But, in this era where everyone is able to use their rights to speech on social media about what they see or read, the romance genre as a boat could be drowned by a shipping wave. The situation when they forced this subplot to become the main plot and forget the essential matter of the story itself. They throw away the question of “What is this story about?” into “When are we going to see them doing a pillow talk?”
Now, let’s enter the operation room to dissect the Sydcarm timeline relationship by using these 3 elements:
1. Now you have watched S2, do you agree that we will get to explore the romantic aspect of each character?
2. Should we let Sydney and Carmy ship sailing?
3. What is your expectation for the next season The Bear?
The Bear has practically carried a massive subplot of romance. Perhaps, you want to use the word relationship or connection to comfort the idea they will not end up bringing a bedsheet to the kitchen. But, I am particularly aware of how progressive the relationship between Sydney and Carmy is. From the business hierarchy's boss-to-employee relationship, a first and surface layer of sharing a vulnerability (see “Brigade”), that specific turning point that almost threatens their connection (see “Review”), to how Carmy deeply cares about Sydney's professional pursuit of a dream and perhaps a question to the higher status of their next relationship status. And this fluid conversation at the end of season 1 seems like an exchanging of vows.
C: Family style? Two tops, booths.
S: Danish design…tasting menu at the bar.
C: Window on the side…
S:…for sandwiches
C: Yeah.
S: Okay. What do we call it?
The vows become a motivation that continuously echoes along the storyline of The Beef who need arcade games tournament to bring cash to The Bear’s plan system that builds for Michelin Star awardees. One by one, the romance nuance started to upgrade itself as Sydney and Carmy tried to polish their relationship with ‘outside from work’ conversations (see “Beef”). The locker scene where Netflix might be taking their character into a retro restaurant vibe with over-the-top ice cream sundae and a conversation about their abusive parents. The Bear by FX hit you with some harsh truth or (for me) a clever idea to show “Is being professional in the workplace mean emotional unavailability?”.
And then here comes the main distraction. Or I guess the reason some people are worried The Bear now become a romance-centric genre show.
If you are trapped in a situation where you have not watched The Bear and reading some awful Tweets about Claire's character, good news, I’m not going to talk specifically about Claire-arc. The first time I watched The Bear S2 all I could do was complain about why Claire is there. And I rewatched The Bear S1 and it just made sense.
- C: And that kind of confidence, you know, like I was finally…I was good at something, that was so new, and that was so exciting and I just wanted him to know that and, fսck, I just wanted him to be like, “Good job!”
- C: And the more he wouldn’t respond, and the more our relationship… kinda strained, the deeper into this I went and the better I got. And the more people I cut out, the quieter my life got. (See “Braciole”)
Claire is not only a distraction but a jinx to Carmy who driving by an ambitious motive in his work. People around Carmy keep saying to just let the good thing happen to him. But, he denied it and needs someone else affirmation to take the precious, Claire, as a reminder for him to be human. Later on (See “The Bear”), something went fractured as Carmy realizes his embedded nature, ambition, is the only thing precious to him.
The interesting part is how The Bear S2 gave us brilliant parallel storytelling to show character development and it’s still SydCarm-centric. Sydney is the exact part of that Carmy explains about himself in “Carmy’s 7-minute dialogue”. Her mind was dominated by an ambitious/goal-driven mantra and in the end, she was winning the game. Contras to Carmy who happened to regret and took the risk of cheating from his ambition motive, being locked in the freaking refrigerator because he was so distracted with chasing happiness.
And then you saw in the very last scene where Syd throws up after an intense hour of doing something she used to think that she couldn’t cook without her Michelin culinary guru, Carmy. This vomiting sequence reminds me of Carmy's experiences during his training chef program. He said about vomiting every morning before work because of the pressure under the toxic fine-dining culture.
I don’t mean to be inhumane by saying the previous sentence, but “Is ambition killing your happiness?” Yes, that might be the correct answer for Carmy and also Sydney who happened to reach the first goal, the debut of her first Chef de Cuisine, and without Carmy standing in front of her.
For disclosure, Carmy's last epiphany of his ambition was on S2 episode 9 “Omelette”. Yes, that freaking panic attack scene where everyone thought it was a moment when Carmy was actually really in love with Sydney.
Guys, please pay attention to a specific dialogue within a chosen scene.
- Steven: Carm, this is a good thing.
- Sydney: Hi Hello. You were the most excellent CDC at the most excellent restaurant in the entire United States of America. What are you doing here, I guess?
From a likely broken tape song and a high pitch of whistling boiled kettle to a clear and focused back sound “R.E.M. — Strange Currencies” as Sydney’s words admiring Carmy’s professional job. This scene it’s shows how Carmy needs to choose between his ambition or happiness. And it really happened a couple of hours before they launched The Bear.
People get so distracted by the idea of Sydney passing thru by to Carmy’s mind as he tried to calm the panic attack response. Omg, his first memories of her calming the panic attack. The chosen dialogue was not exactly ‘the first memories’ as they had a length of previous HR-Employee conversations before Sydney asked that question and the editor eventually cut to a different scene after Carmy shortly answered “making sandwiches”. So, why are you choosing to play that word in your head, Carmy?
In another parallel of Sydney's POV, the panic attack scene happened after her scene before leaving the apartment where her father told her about the backup plan in case she failed. Sydney answered, “Why can’t we put everything that we have into everything that we can?”.
My hope for my annual sanctuary, The Bear, I’m waiting for more chaos. And if you need to build a more solid SydCarm relationship, I am fine as long as you don’t have that type of scene where time feels like stopping and the characters looking at each other eyes as if it’s a contact lenses advertisement.
