The Bear – Season 3 Episode 9 Recap & Review

Apologies

Episode 9 of The Bear Season 3 begins with a montage of clips about magic and illusion. Marcus turns out to be the one watching it. Outside, Carmy and the Fak brothers break down the delivery boxes. They insist they’ve been doing it like Carmy had told them to but somehow the dumpster is always full of unbroken boxes. They say that maybe Claire is ‘haunting’ Carmy because she’s mad at him.

Meanwhile, Sydney tries to practice a speech telling Carmy about her new job offer but is unable to string the words together. We then see a montage of Carmy yelling at his staff through service, interspersed with shots of news clips of The Bear (presumably ones that Carmy is only imagining and aren’t actually real). Richie and Carmy still don’t see eye to eye and Sydney looks more frustrated than ever.

Later, Richie is sitting with Gary when he realises they missed a guest’s birthday. In the kitchen, Sydney and Carmy talk about how things have been a bit off. Sydney is about to tell him something but then backtracks and decides to talk later. Carmy tells her that the funeral dinner for the Ever is the next day. He tells Sydney that she should come too. Carmy then says he doesn’t want it to be so hard to keep up with him, but doesn’t expand on it. After Sydney leaves, Carmy goes inside the walk-in fridge and thinks about calling Claire. He even practices apologising but is ultimately unable to call her.

Back home, Sydney goes through several articles that talk about The Bear but only mention Carmy and not her. The next day, Jimmy comes to leave his golf clubs with Carmy since he’s going out of town. They both agree they’ve been thinking about the upcoming Tribune review a lot.

Jimmy then goes on a rant about how a lot of crazy dreams were achieved by people in Chicago while they were financed by the university. His point is, if the restaurant gets a bad review then he’s going to ‘cut the string’. He then tells Carmy that his mother wants him to call. He also apologises for not doing more when things were crazy with DD and Mikey. Carmy says he also could have tried more.

Later, we see Jimmy get back in the car with Computer and we realise that was not the whole truth. Apparently, Jimmy isn’t doing well financially and is about to go broke. Richie meets with Tiff at a playground where Evie is playing. She asks him about his RSVP for the wedding and tells him he’s her family and she would like him to come. When Richie brings it up, Tiff apologises for telling Evie that he’s alone.

Back at The Bear, Tina works on a new dish and Marcus tells her it’s really good. She asks if he’s doing okay and he admits getting flashes of memories with his mother. He then gives Tina the idea to use smoked horseradish in her cauliflower dish.

We then see Carmy sketching and drawing in his notebook at various points in his career. Elsewhere, Sydney goes out to the seaside. Ted and Neil have the brilliant idea of going to the hospital and speaking to Claire on Carmy’s behalf. Which truly sounds like the worst idea.

Syd completes her journey and reaches Sydney and Pete’s house with a bag full of food for the new mother and child. Pete thanks her and then brings up the partnership contract which he, as a lawyer, looked through. He tells her the salary and that insurance starts after three months, which is not as good as the contract that Shapiro offered her.

Neil and Ted do meet with Claire and make a rough, badly structured case for Carmy. They say he still loves and she very politely asks them to leave her place of work. Back home, Nat fawns over her newborn. Carmy, all dressed for the funeral dinner, leaves his prayer card behind as he walks out at the end of Episode 9 of The Bear Season 3.

The Episode Review

Episode 9 of The Bear Season 3 is one of the slowest episodes of the season and also has some of the show’s weakest writing. While it is clear that this episode is meant for characters to apologise and come to terms with what they’ve done, the writing feels a bit loose and sloppy compared to the generally tight scripts.

It’s not just that the pace is slow that’s the issue. The Bear is known for episodes that aren’t just fast and snappy but that are constructed to say something. Through the quick cuts and jumbled dialogue, The Bear offered episodes that were artistic, engaging and meaningful all at once. ‘Apologies’ fails to meet those marks.

To top it all, Carmy’s character seems oddly one-dimensional. He keeps apologising to Sydney and saying he wants to be better without actually doing anything to be better. Sydney’s reluctance to bring the issue up is also baffling considering how she was more open with Carmy all through Season 1. With only the finale left to go, I’m hoping it ties up all these loose threads.