Throughout all of The Bear season 3, the Faks (Marty Matheson, Ricky Staffieri and, uh, John Cena) have been incessantly talking about this idea of “haunting.” They don’t mean it in the ghoulishly supernatural way; their version is more like hanging the promise of a prank over a person’s head. But though nobody in the finale episode pulls a fast one over Chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) — who has been spooked all season, by the memory of Claire (Molly Gordon), by the expectation of that Chicago Tribune review, by the impossible standards he set for himself — he might think that some otherworldly power is playing a cruel joke when he spots his worst nightmare at the funeral dinner for Ever.
Yes, David Fields (Joel McHale), Carmy's belittling boss from New York, has been invited to the fine-dining restaurant's grand finale, which is a who's who of real-deal food-world greats: Grant Achatz, Wylie Dufresne, Christina Tosi, Genie Kwon, Malcolm Livingston II and Anna Posey, among others, all appear as versions of themselves in the episode. (Example: the TV version of Achatz hilariously has little patience for the incessant cooking-related questions from Carmy's Copenhagen buddy Luca, played by Will Poulter.)
They've all come out to celebrate Chef Terry (Olivia Colman) — or Andrea, as she wants to be called now — and everything she built over three decades with Ever. Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) also comes to pay his respects, though he spends most of the night hanging out at the expo station with Ever's back-of-house leader Jessica (Sarah Ramos), with whom the maître d' shares a not inconsiderable amount of chemistry. We'd definitely be into seeing Richie get his very own love story, pun intended, come season 4!
Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) also chooses to attend the shindig, though she still doesn't have an answer for Adam (Adam Shapiro) about his chef de cuisine offer. Instead, she keeps busy swilling wine with Luca in the kitchen — is there romantic vibes here, too? — and soaking up all of the stories and wisdoms being offered up by those big-name chefs at the dinner table. Will she ever get to rise to that level of greatness or will Carmy and his criticisms and complexes continue to haunt her? As Christina Tosi shares, "The greatest mistake is working for a bad boss."
And speaking of haunting, Carmy can't keep his eyes off his own ghost, Chef David, a.k.a. "that f***ing asshole over there." When the latter gets up to use the restroom, Carmy follows him. "Do we think that's gonna end well?" Syd uncomfortably jests to Luca. And it doesn't go well. Carmy tells David that he always wondered what he'd say to him if he ever saw him in the flesh again. "After f*** you, I don't have much," Carmy spits out.
He awkwardly shares that he thinks way too much about him, but Chef David is unphased about his former protégé's talk of the ulcers and panic attacks and nightmares he apparently caused him. All of that bad brought a lot of good, David argues: "You were an okay chef when you started with me and you left an excellent chef, so you're welcome." Carmy is shaking in tears, but at least he's finally free from that haunting.
Carmy doesn't join Chef Terry, sorry, Andrea, Richie, Jess, Luca, the Faks, Marcus (Lionel Boyce) and Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) back at the Ever after-party, hosted by Sydney at her new apartment. And that's a shame because it looks like a blast, with kegs rolling in, cigarettes being lit indoors and frozen Eggos topped with caviar, all soundtracked to that rowdy James classic, "Laid." Sydney, in particular, is having a hell of a time with her The Bear buddies, so much so that it prompts a bit of a panic attack, requiring her to steal out into the stairwell for a cry. Is she ready to leave these lovely people and run her own restaurant?
And out on the streets of Chicago, nicotine gum firmly between his molars, Carmy himself has a bit of a freakout when he realizes that the Tribune review has dropped, and he has several missed calls from Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) and The Computer (Brian Koppelman). The write-up runs the gamut of adjectives: words like “confusing,” “excellent,” “innovative,” “sloppy” and “delicious,” flash across the screen, so it's difficult to surmise if it's a total rave or a slam. Alas, that dreaded "To Be Continued" card hits right as Carmy yells "Motherf***er" at the sky, so it looks like we're not going to find out until The Bear season 4. Stay tuned!
All 10 episodes of The Bear season 3 are now available to stream on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.
