The Bear – Season 3 Episode 10 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Forever

Episode 10 of The Bear Season 3 starts with one of Carmy’s previous workplaces. It’s his first day and the head chef — played by the very real chef Thomas Keller — shows him how to prepare a roasted chicken. He talks about the importance of being a chef and the significance of making food that plays such an important role in people’s lives, eventually leaving him with some encouragement.

At present, we see a montage of a large group of highly reputed chefs, all of whom will be attending Ever’s funeral dinner. Carmy arrives and meets Luca. Richie arrives too and greets his old colleagues. He asks if he can hang around inside during service and they agree. Sydney arrives and Carmy introduces her to everyone. Shapiro puts forth the first dish to the group and Sydney keeps thinking about his offer.

While all the other chefs talk about their various experiences, Carmy keeps looking towards David, his harsh mentor from New York who is sitting a few tables away. Sydney seems to enjoy hearing all the stories about all the chefs’ mistakes as well as their rewarding moments. Carmy seems zoned out though, thinking about the times David grilled him or when he told Mikey his idea of opening a restaurant together or his moments with Claire.

The chefs talk about their love for food and how they have the power to make a little magic for people. And then it’s time for Terry to give her big speech. She describes how she started to work as a garde manger in London and how she watched her regulars for years, watched kids become teenagers. She says that in the end, people don’t remember the food but they remember the people. She closes it out by thanking everybody.

Inside the kitchen, Richie asks Jess if there is a secret to staying inspired at this job. She says she surrounds herself with people better than herself. Back outside, Luca and Sydney call Carmy out for staring at David. Luca agrees that he’s not a nice person. Carmy says he was a great chef but left him very mentally ill.

When he sees David getting up, Carmy follows. He tries to call David out for giving him ulcers and panic attacks but David claims to have turned him into an excellent chef. David claims that by leaving out all the other ‘bullshit’ in his life, Carmy achieved greatness. This doesn’t sit well with Carmy of course, who believes his life stopped because of David. David casually leaves to go to the loo while Carmy grapples with his feelings.

Elsewhere, Luca and Sydney talk about the pros and cons of having or not having siblings. Luca says he’s here for a few months to reconnect with his sister. Adam Shapiro comes by and asks to speak with Sydney. He asks if she has spoken to Carmy yet but she says she hasn’t found the time.

Terry finds Carmy standing outside for some fresh air. He thanks her for all he learnt while working under her. She then reveals that she’s closing because she wants to focus on living — sleep, party, travel, meet people. She believes she did all she wanted with the restaurant. She then congratulates him on his new restaurant. He asks what she would tell herself when she was in his position. She replies she would tell herself that she doesn’t know what she’s doing and is therefore invincible.

All the staff watch as Shapiro brings down the ‘Every Second Counts’ sign and gives it to Terry. The whole group, except for Carmy, meet up with the staff from The Bear at Sydney’s apartment and throw a party.  Terry brings out the frozen waffles and pizzas from Sydney’s fridge for everybody. Sydney looks at a clipping about The Beef on her fridge and thinks about all the people at The Bear, tension slowly increasing till she has to step outside and let the panicked breaths take over.

Somewhere on the streets, Carmy checks his phone to see that The Tribune’s review is out. We don’t see the full review but only a flash of words — excellent, dissonance, sloppy, genius, innovative, delicious, tired, inconsistent, and more. Could this be a mixed review for the restaurant? Either way, Carmy simply looks up and curses before “To Be Continued” flashes across the screen at the end of The Bear Season 3 Episode 10.

The Episode Review

The season finale is a well-constructed and well-written episode. The limited setting of the Ever’s funeral dinner works really well and gives the script a crispness that keeps us engaged. The dinner table conversation between all the chefs is done really well. The dialogue is casual but nuanced and throws so much light on the ups and downs of working in the culinary industry.

The joy of providing food highlights the profession’s graces while, for example, Luca’s repurposed trauma dish shows that the training process may not be the healthiest.

I love that Terry is closing the restaurant because she wants to feed the other parts of her life now. What would have been better is to know more about what Carmy thinks about this. His confrontation with David is executed quite well and the chef comes across as ruthless in the flesh as he does in Carmy’s memories. Sydney’s dilemma reaches a peak and Edebiri conveys her contradictory feelings quite well. All in all a great episode even though this feels more like a midway point rather than the end of a season.