The episode premiere of The Bear in a word is, quiet. We are inside Carmy’s mind and feel the speechless panic he is going through throughout this entire episode. There are plenty of references to The Seven Fishes episode and new periods in his life as this is the story of Carmy’s emotions, a telling of how each of the traumatic events from his past has affected him.
This perspective is lost in the first two seasons as we learn that Carmy does not speak of any emotion that he has felt, as he has taken on the stress of a restaurant and the death of his brother in the past year. This story is told in non-chronological order but it fills in the blanks of events we only heard details about in previous seasons.
We start first though, with an apology from Carmy, both in verbal and physical sense. As he cleans up the restaurant that was left in chaos, he apologizes to Sydney for his panicking and anger out on everyone as he had been trapped in the freezer. They both understand that this means a lot to him, and Sydney is far more apt to his apology. They seem to be on good terms and supportive of each other.
Not only this, but we see his first couple of weeks staging at The French Laundry in California. Here he learns his technical skills and hard lessons of consistency. Then we see him move back to Chicago working at Ever, a restaurant with Luca, Andrea, and Adam. Here, we see Carmy’s problems with authority at times, as he is scolded for raising his voice and touting orders. We then see him working at a restaurant, living with his aunt and away from town the week his brother passes. There is a great inner turmoil that Carmy goes through as he is away from home when this happens, away from the painful grief of his siblings. By the looks of it, Carmy is trying to bury his emotions with work and distraction.
This is when he decides to go to Copenhagen to stauge at a new restaurant named NOMA. Here we witness a breakdown of his spirit from a boss there. Something that deeply triggers his quest for home and betterment of self.
He hones into his skill and craft, as we watch his talent grow to where it is now. He is constantly taking notes for himself during these vignettes, reminders of how to run a restaurant. He learns from chef Redzepi and basks in the peace and anonymity of the restaurant. He loves his habit of capturing Polaroids of each dish and decides to send one to his brother, who is still alive at the time, and shows it to Tina. Overall, the chefs at Noma and the French Laundry are deeply impressed with Carmy and his skill set.
The directing in this episode deserves attention and great accolades. Most of the episode has no dialogue, and even what we do get is only what is incredibly necessary. And for this, there is a great need to applaud the emotional performance of Jeremy Allen White. He was the focus of this episode, and pulled off bringing us into the world of colorful and chaotic emotions that he had gone through, during the most pivotal year of his life. All with only a handful of lines in this episode. It was a brilliant way to give the audience context for the emotional turmoil Carmy has been through that we have not seen yet.
As the end of the episode wraps up, we see him complete every dish on the menu and step back, something that can be taken as a metaphor for looking back on all his experiences and being ready to create something new.
Rating: 10/10