How ‘The Bear’ Episode 6 Contextualizes the Series
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“The Bear” isn’t giving up its crown as one of TV’s most stressful shows.
In Season 2, the FX “comedy” cranks up the ante with Episode 6, “Fishes,” an hourlong flashback to Christmas at the Berzattos written by Joanna Calo and creator Christopher Storer. Complete with jaw-dropping guest stars, top-tier family drama, and a fork scene so acutely distressing it will leave the viewer scared to eat for days, it’s not only the best of “The Bear” but some of 2023’s best TV so far.
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It’s time for cozy Christmas in the perennially wintry Chicago of “The Bear,” as Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) comes home for the holidays with a gigantic chip on his shoulder. He’s not the only one though; the entire extended Berzatto-Jeremovich-Fak community knows that Carm has better places to be, and he’s barely hiding it. He’s reluctant to help mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the kitchen, furious that brother Mikey (John Bernthal) and cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) tease him about a girl, and doesn’t take long to utter the actual words “This is why I didn’t want to come home” out loud to his family (because at Christmas, you tell the truth).
As the Christmas party parades through the house like “Love Actually” rolling out its own prolific roster (complete with “All I Want For Christmas”), it includes Gillian Jacobs, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, and John Mulaney — in addition to recurring cast members Oliver Platt, Matty Matheson, Abby Elliot, and Ricky Staffieri. “Fishes” provides immense narrative and emotional context for Carmy and Richie in particular, but what speaks volumes is how much they lost during their years apart — losses inextricably linked to Mikey’s death even if they weren’t related.
It’s easy to retcon an emotional arc, and for it to look obvious, but “Fishes” builds the past seamlessly into the present. Claire (Molly Gordon) shocked the audience as well as Carmy with her Episode 2 debut, but Episode 6 reveals that she (and Carmy’s affection for her) has been part of his life since childhood. He stayed away for the Carmiest reasons — obstinance, work ethic, masochism — all of which have been hardwired into him this whole time.
That’s juxtaposed with Richie, seen here happier than he’s ever been in the series. Moss-Bachrach and Jacobs share a beautiful scene that plainly lays out Richie and Tiffany’s love; soft moments with minimal palpable intimacy and inevitably viewed through the tragic lens of knowing their relationship will end. It makes Jacobs’ second appearance in the back half of the season even more of a gut-punch to see exactly what this partnership was at its peak and how clearly its loss changed Richie’s entire demeanor.
The cast is nothing short of sheer alchemy. Bernthal gave a taste of Mikey’s might and melancholy in Season 1, a reprisal as confident and satisfying as expected. Curtis is utterly devastating, pouring herself wholly into Donna’s highs and lows without compromising on tangible warmth. Odenkirk arguably splits the difference in his AMC turns as Saul Goodman and Hank Devereaux, but his Uncle Lee is so specifically prickly and particular that he feels independently lived in.
The group interactions unfold in classic “Bear” fashion, with overlapping shouts and expletives, cooking snafus, and tight, erratic closeups. It’s a deliberate stylistic parallel tying Carmy’s tumultuous home life to the chaos of the kitchen, where he seeks refuge and comfort when family no longer feels reliable. Mulaney, here in the rare outing as an actual character and not his own stage presence or heightened persona, ends up grounding the episode remarkably with Stevie’s dissonantly calm energy and a moving statement of grace. He describes the seven fishes, the care and dedication required to put together a meal like this one, but he gets at the true heart of Donna’s efforts and what the kitchen means to everyone else in “The Bear.”
“It’s a chance to be together, and to take care of each other, and to eat together,” he says. “Spending that time and using that time on the people that we love is how we show them that we love them. Maybe we eat too much, and we definitely drink too much, and we say too much without listening… but we have to take extra time to do it, and we have to chew more and we have to listen more and we only get to do this tonight one time.”
Bears are aggressive, Stevie reminds them, but they’re also sensitive — the Berzatto family included. Behind the raised voices and flying cutlery and Donna’s car in the living room, there are aching hearts and struggling minds and people who love each other even when they don’t know how to help each other (as Donna’s finale return underscores). “Fishes” doesn’t end with any sense of uplift — maybe another show would end on grace and a pleasant meal — but with significantly more clarity on why Carmy left and stayed away, and why he finds it so hard to let himself feel welcome or happy. It’s not a problem solved in “Fishes” or in “The Bear” Season 2 — but a North Star for a series steeped in what defines love and family.
“The Bear” Season 2 is now streaming on FX on Hulu.
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