The Bear – Season 3 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Doors

Episode 3 of The Bear Season 3 begins with Marcus’ mother’s funeral, where he delivers a heartfelt speech. After this, we immediately see The Bear go into work mode. Doors are opened and the episode takes us through several days of the restaurant as it works, from one messy session to the next. Again, there isn’t a specific set of events but rather each session offers a collage of moments to show us how things went down — which for the most part is, not well.

Richie and Carmy are still at odds with one another and constantly bicker as they take charge of the front and the back of the restaurant respectively. Richie even comes up with his list of non-negotiables to rival Carmy’s, although his does include the words ‘open heart’ and ‘razzle dazzle’.

Meanwhile, Carmy sticks to his list and sends back meat if it’s not cooked to absolute perfection, even though Richie insists the guests have been waiting for a while. Sydney tries to keep things calm and even helps out Tina, who looks stressed and overwhelmed. Meanwhile, Jimmy grows frantic looking at the growing cost of the restaurant.

Things keep getting messed up. Plates are broken and Fak tries his hand at serving but ends up simply bringing the food back to the kitchen. Ebra works at the restaurant’s beef window but the large orders overwhelm him and his station looks sloppier than ever. Meanwhile, Natalie does the numbers and tells Richie they need to add another round of guests each day or they won’t be meeting their costs.

Each night, Carmy makes sure the staff rigorously cleans the restaurant. Tina continues to struggle with a certain pasta dish and Sydney does her best to guide her through it. Carmy’s daily menu changes cause confusion in both, the front and the back of the restaurant. Jimmy demands to know from Natalie why they aren’t making any money even though the place is packed every night.

During one session, Richie and Carmy get into a physical fight over one of the guests’ requests to remove mushrooms from a mushroom-based dish. This infuriates Sydney as they manage to spill the order tickets all over the floor.

The fights and the mess continue and one night, Carmy’s vision begins to blur as he’s calling out the orders. He grows angrier due to this and Sydney orders him to calm down. But the messes continue and nobody seems very happy to be working here. By the time The Bear Season 3 Episode 3 closes, even Sydney looks done.

The Episode Review

The Bear Season 3 Episode 3 brings us the consequence of Carmy’s new, non-negotiable plan to get a Michelin star. He insists on pushing out as much as possible in as little time as possible and accepts nothing less than perfection. And the pressure is taking its toll. The episode rushes at you in the quintessential, chaotic spirit of the series, bringing back the frantic energy that marked Season 1 and made the show stand out.

The Bear’s team isn’t a cohesive group, cracks are forming (literal and figurative), and the episode uses the physical mess of dropped food and broken plates to convey how the team is functioning as a whole. Carmy might be heading the restaurant to positive reviews, but at what cost? Tina is feeling the heat and Sydney looks close to losing her patience.

Carmy’s new resolution has lost what he learnt over the last few seasons, that The Bear works best as a team and not as one person barking orders at the rest. He’s slowly following his own harsh mentor, David’s, footsteps but when will he realise it? Hopefully not when it’s too late.