Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Bear, Season 4
The Bearjust scored another round ofEmmy nominationsfor last year’s run, cementing its place as TV’s reigning prestige chaos cooker, and, on paper,Season 4 gave fans exactly what they were hoping for: namely, a slightly less volatile Carmen Berzatto.Jeremy Allen White’sprodigal chef returned, notorious for imploding his own life to serve up something transcendent on a plate, had finally matured. He apologized! He delegated! He even flirted with emotional availability! And then,in the finale, he “chose himself”and handed the restaurant to Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) – a move so mature it practically screamedhe’s in therapy now.
But, as deserving of praise as White’s performance is, his character’s choices deserve a bit more scrutiny. Sure, the knee-jerk reaction to anyone (especially a grieving neurotic poster boy for unresolved childhood trauma) setting boundaries and prioritizing their mental health is, normally, “Good for him!” But, in this case,we can’t whip up an enthusiasticyes, chef!just yet.
Why?Because progress and growth aren’t the same thing.One is goal-oriented: attending a wedding despite your crippling social anxiety or having a sit-down with your estranged former alcoholic of a mother. The other is more holistic and harder to measure: the self-awareness needed to make amends, the willingness to learn from mistakes instead of simply repeating them with better intentions.
Once you start deconstructing Carmy’s arc inThe Bear’sfourth season, it becomes fairly obvious: this isn’t a new dish, it’s an old recipe just plated better. And it’s why the show’s latest season finale still feels so frustrating, becausethere’s no real evolution for our main character – just more avoidance.
Carmy’s ‘The Bear’ Season 4 Arc Looked Like Growth — Until It Didn’t
Season 4 ofThe Bearis all about Carmen Berzatto rediscovering his purposeafter his passion for food has all but wrecked his life. What does living look like when he’s not white-knuckling his way through trauma, fixating on the past, and obsessing over his destined greatness in the kitchen?Throughout the season, Carmy repeatedly vocalizes his desire to change. He’s ready to stop spiraling, to find healthier forms of communication, to hand over control to Sydney, Cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), his sister, Sugar (Abby Elliot), and the rest of the back-of-house staff. He embraces the creativity of those around him, sacrificing perfectionism for the kind of culinary originality that sparks joy in customers of his restaurant and the workers who keep it running.
He searches for peace in his personal life too, making amends with Richie, his mother, Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), andhis ex-girlfriend, Claire (Molly Gordon). In a season that trades verbal thrashings in walk-in freezers for soft-spoken apologies on Brownstone steps and vulnerable confessions huddled under linen-covered buffet tables,Carmy’s ongoing emotional epiphany is what fuels some of the best moments.
But, despite the countless “I’m trying” statements and declarations of desiring to do better,Carmy’s promised breakthrough in Season 4’s final episode feels more like a bust. The episode, which sees him blindsiding Sydney with the news that he’s already signed over ownership of his failing restaurant to her to leave, and soon, lays waste to most of the emotional groundwork that’s been done. Instead of arriving at something new, Carmy circles back to where he started: alone, distant, and convinced that absence somehow signals acceptance. Only this time, it’s worse. This time, it’s not just Carmy who has something to lose.
What ‘The Bear’ Gets Wrong About Carmy’s ‘Selfless’ Season 4 Decision
Carmy’s unexpected exit is initially framed as noble – he’s turning down the heat on himself to let someone with more passion and potential lead. That’s certainly how he views it, shouting about how it’s what’s best for the restaurant as his partner has an emotional breakdown after a draining, hours-long shift. But there’s no build-up, no communication, no effort to prepare anyone who works for him; just Carmy, self-flagellating to draw sympathy from his friends (and fans watching).
He manages to twist his plan to ghost his coworkers as something generous, a gift he’s giving to Syd and the crew while he goes onsome kind of culinary walkabout.He falls back into the same self-sacrificing behaviors, positing his career martyrdom as beneficial to the people he’s abandoning, indulging his narcissism, just in the form of self-pity this time.
What makes his decision even more of an emotional gut punch is knowing, as the audience does,how committed and conflicted characters like Richie, Sugar, and Sydhave been to Carmy’s vision of The Bear.They’ve agonized over every tick of that dread-inducing countdown clock, they’ve revised and redrafted pre-service speeches, and they’ve struggled to balance their personal lives with the overwhelming demands of their professions.
Everyone onThe Bearhas had a rough go of it, but only one staff member is throwing in the towel.Even Sydney, who spent most of the season wondering if a different workplace might signal a better, more stable future for herself, ultimately decided to captain the ship, whether it was sinking or not. And yet, does the show want us to see Carmy’s departure as progress? To view his consequence-dodging dressed up in self-care speak and self-effacement as a good thing?Ultimately, Carmy’s still centering on himself, dictating the terms of everyone else’s emotional experience; he’s just rebranding his old habits so we don’t recognize them.
Where Does ‘The Bear’ Go After Carmy’s Season 4 Exit?
The inherent chaos of a show likeThe Bearis often the talking point of any praiseor criticism, but whether a sous-chef can construct a pasta dish in under three minutes has never really been the point of creatorChristopher Storer’sseries.The Bearisn’t about food, it’s about family – the kind found. These misfits are discovering their potential while building something meaningful out of grief, guilt, and greasy floors.Season 4 spent a long time doubling down on that theory.Richie rediscovered his confidencein the front-of-house, which helped him forge healthier relationships with his family when life-changing events came knocking.
Marcus grieved his mother and debated reestablishing his relationship with his estranged father while finding frustration and joy in his work. Sydney wrestled with doubt over whether her devotion to a purer vision of what the restaurant could be might mean the destruction of bigger dreams. These arcs connected them, bonding them just as tightly as any bad review or slow service. So Carmy’s choice to leave feels almost like a betrayal – not because he’s choosing himself, but because he’s done it in such a selfish way. It’s not that he left. It’show he left.And for a season that cemented the idea that your work family can be your real family, his abrupt pulled escape hatch felt especially disappointing.
‘The Bear’ Finally Addresses One of the Long-Standing Problems It’s Had Since Season 1
“It’s like a liquid snapshot of time.”
So, where do we go from here?Or, more importantly, where doesThe Beargo from here?What happens when a season-ending twist sidelines its evolving central thesis? Over four installments, the show has wrestled with a question that’s quietly evolved from, “What does it mean to be great?” to asking, “Can Carmy be great without being destructive?” There was hope we might find an answer, especially as Carmy put in the work to rewrite old patterns even as his restaurant seemed on the brink of failure.
But the season finale seems to suggestThe Bearstill views Carmy’s pain as something singular and sacred – something to be tiptoed around and catered to. Despite filling out every character’s life with problems, their backstories with pain that fuel the choices of their present,Carmy is the only one permitted to live in theGroundhog Dayversion of his own bad choices. Maybe the writers are still romanticizing him the way he romanticizes his pain. Or maybe they’re afraid to push him into unfamiliar territory, a space where he might have to change without disappearing first.
