The FX series, The Bear season two’s third episode, “Sundae”, starts with Carmen “Carmy” (Jeremy Allen White) speaking at a meeting. In previous episodes, Carmy talked to his sister Natalie “Sugar” (Abby Elliot) about going to a recovery meeting to help with his grieving the loss of their brother Michael (Jon Bernthal). Carmy tells the group he is with that he’s beginning to think “more positively,” which is a good start for him because he hasn’t had the best with his mental health as of late, primarily revolving around the new changes they were making towards The Bear. Carmy seems to be more relaxed than usual, which is a sign that his new “method” is working.
Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) is still working with Carmy on finding new recipes. They are working to create a new menu together at Carmy’s place. When Sydney Googles all of the restaurants that have failed and shut down in Chicago, it takes viewers back to the previous episode, “Pasta,” because her father Emmanuel (Robert Townsend) was concerned about how successful the restaurant would be once they opened it back up, or if they’d be able to open it at all. That means that Sydney will make more of an effort to ensure that they’ll be successful with their plan, not wanting to end up like the rest of those restaurants on that list.
There’s a scene in this episode that shows more of a softer side of Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). It looks like he’s taking his daughter Eva home. This is the first time that the show has shown his daughter, who viewers have only known by short mentions from Richie in the first season. It’s been brought to the viewer’s attention in season one that Richie and his daughter’s mother don’t have a great relationship. As the scene is about to end, his daughter is walking away, and he gets a little emotional. Will this be added to Richie’s personal life shown in the series this season?
After Carmy’s ex-girlfriend, Claire (Molly Gordon), found out that he gave her a fake number, she calls him and asks him about it. She asks him if he would like to meet up with her and he hesitated but agreed. It seems that there will be more between the two of them throughout the rest of the season. The two of them meeting could possibly become the start of what they used to have. Carmy has a packed schedule, so his saying yes to helping Claire out means that she’s important to him.
Sydney decides to go to a restaurant and orders a whole bunch of food off the menu. The reason why she’s doing this is because she needs inspiration for the new recipes since the ones she and Carmy have been working on haven’t been very successful in their trials in his kitchen. Sydney is putting in a lot of effort when it comes to planning everything out for the new updates, menu, and even new employees. She puts up flyers asking for a new chef.
Since Carmy can’t be there to help her because he’s helping out Claire, Sydney spends the whole day going around Chicago to try different food in multiple restaurants. Sydeny also takes notes while visiting what seems to be a restaurant she was formerly at, noting recipes and menu items. She was asking people for advice and when she mentions that she was working with a partner (Carmy), they just tell her good luck, because they haven’t had the best luck with sharing a restaurant with a partner. This has formed more stress and worry for Sydney.
Unfortunately, the crew has faced another problem. They had raccoons and other wild animals coming through, doing damage to the structure, so they had to make the decision of breaking down the whole wall. The walls were rotting, which is why Carmy made the decision to tear the wall down. Because of this, Sydney was vocal that she was basically feeling left out, and that Carmy should’ve let her know about it before making the decision.
Carmy is confused by this, not understanding completely why she felt the way she did. But, viewers have to be mindful that this is Carmy’s first time having a partner, so he’s not used to having to work with someone on decision-making, especially when it comes to something more than just working on the food. This creates tension between the two chefs, which doesn’t come unnoticed by the rest of the crew.
The last scene of the episode is Sydney working on some of the new recipes, but she still seems to be stuck, not getting it right. Overall, this episode wasn’t that eventful. It focused mostly on Sydney, which gives the audience more of how structured and perfectionist Sydney is. Will she be able to get a good recipe in the next episode, or will she still be struggling on making a good recipe?
Rating: 8/10