Ending Explained

‘The Bear’ Season 2 Ending Explained: Does Carmy & Syd’s Restaurant Open Smoothly?

By Nicole Gallucci @nicolemichele5
Published June 22, 2023, 11:35 a.m. ET

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The Bear is back and better than ever before.

For the second year in a row, Christopher Storer’s sizzling dramedy cemented itself as the show of the summer with a 10-episode second season that will sear your heart like a juicy slab of beef.

Season 1 ended with Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Marcus (Lionel Boyce), Tina (Liza Colön-Zayas), Ebra (Edwin Lee Gibson), Fak (Matty Matheson), and the rest of the culinary crew deciding to shut down The Original Beef of Chicagoland and open a new restaurant, aptly called The Bear. Season 2 gives viewers a front-row seat to the grueling renovation process, both in and out of the kitchen, as our favorite Chicago chefs work to build a brilliant new business while pursuing personal growth.

From the early days of demolition and hours spent perfecting the menu to a boat in Copenhagen, a week at Ever, and a star-studded flashback Christmas episode, The Bear Season 2 takes us on a wild three-month ride that ends with a make-it-or-break-it friends and family test run.

If you’re hungry for The Bear Season 2 finale spoilers or simply want to relive those last chaotic forty minutes, you’ve come to the right place. Wondering how The Bear Season 2 finale ends? Dig into Decider’s Ending Explained article below for a delicious recap of Season 2, Episode 10, “The Bear.”

The Bear S2
Photo: Chuck Hodes/FX

The Bear Season 2 Ending Explained: Season 2, Episode 10 Finale Recap

At long last, The Bear is up and running in the Season 2 finale as we open on Sydney calmly giving orders to an eerily calm kitchen. The restaurant is bustling and our dearly beloved Pete (Chris Witaske) is telling Nat (Abby Elliot) how proud of her he is, but she barely hears him because she’s too busy wondering if her mom will show. (Per Pete, the odds are 75:25, favoring a no-show.)

Richie’s working the room, saying hi to esteemed guests like Claire and her friend Kelly, Syd’s dad, and Uncle Jimmy. But the smooth night quickly hits some shake-ups when the kitchen runs out of forks, new hire Josh goes missing, and Marcus screams at Sydney after another awkward post-ask-out interaction. By utilizing the swinging kitchen door, The Bear does an extraordinary job of stressing the juxtaposing vibes between the restaurant’s two core rooms. Tensions are high in the kitchen as constant bickering, chopping, clanging, and haunting sounds of a rapid-fire ticket machine take place beneath fluorescent lights and a menacing clock. But when an order passes through the door, we’re transported into a dark dining room with warm lamp glows, luxurious food, and mood music that drowns out any signs of chaos.

In the front of the restaurant, everything’s in order. But behind-the-scenes Nat is wrangling an explosive toilet and all hell breaks loose after a motivated Carmy visits Claire’s table and catches a glimpse of his old NYC chef (Joel McHale) in the corner. Carm remembers his days of being berated by the chef for being too slow and when returns to the kitchen — confidence taken down a notch — he has a familiar Season 1, Episode 7 outburst and goes off on Syd and the team over cold seven fishes dishes. Syd tells him to take it way down, they sign “sorry” to each other, and for a moment all seems back on track. But Carmy heads into the broken walk-in fridge and promptly gets trapped inside because he spent all season not calling the fridge guy.

The ticket machine continues to fire with such relentless force that they start to read “FUCK,” “FUCK! FUCK!,” “FUCK MY LIFE TO HELL!” in Syd’s mind. She freezes in panic for a moment, then springs into action with extra help from Richie (who offers to run expo), Marcus, Nat, and Fak. With five minutes on the clock, the bucatini, t-bone, four fishes, and more start flying from kitchen to table while Carmy — still in the fridge and convinced he cursed the night — plays a supercut of his most flawed moments in his mind. While he thinks about his former chef telling him he should be dead, Joel McHale morphs into another man with brown hair and glasses, and we realize he was never at the opening. It was all in Carmy’s head.

Jeremy Allen White as Carmy on 'The Bear'
Photo: FX

Richie steps up, bringing everything he learned from nomo to the table, including a surprise dessert sent to Uncle Jimmy (a chocolate-covered banana, a sweet callback to their heartfelt convo in Episode 6). After one of The Bear‘s signature montages alternates between mouth-watering food shots and glimpses of determined cooking and serving, we get a glimpse at Syd’s dad — eyes are watering in pride — and Carm and Nat’s mom (Jamie Lee Curtis) having a smoke outside. Pete sees her and excitedly goes to escort her in, but she breaks down and says she has to leave because she doesn’t know how to show her love for her kids or say she’s sorry, and she doesn’t want to take away from their big night. After Pete accidentally tells her Nat is pregnant she begs him not to tell her kids she was there and promises to reach out and make things right eventually. Pete goes back inside alone, starts sobbing in front of Nat, and tells her not to hold the no-show against her mom because showing up with that kind of history is hard.

Back in the kitchen, Richie fulfills the final ticket order, screams “FUCK YOU,” and everyone celebrates surviving the night — except Carmy, still stuck in the fridge, weepy-eyed and pouring his heart out to Tina through the door. He reflects on all the mistakes he made the past three months and says he failed them but it won’t happen again. Outside, Claire is asking Fak if she can talk to Carmy, and she rushes into the kitchen once she learns he’s trapped. Unbeknownst to Carmy, Claire takes Tina’s place at the door, so when he faults himself for prioritizing Claire over the restaurant and blames his attempt at a relationship for his professional shortcomings, she’s the one who hears it. “I don’t need to provide amusement or enjoyment. I don’t need to receive any amusement or enjoyment. I’m completely fine with that. Because no amount of good is worth how terrible this feels. It’s just a complete waste of fucking time,” he says, to which Claire replies, “I’m really sorry you feel that way, Carm.” Taken aback by her voice, Carmy says her name eight full times, but she leaves the restaurant in tears, saying goodbye to Richie on her way out.

Thought you were done with devastating fridge door scenes? Not on The Bear‘s watch. Richie questions Carmy about Claire through the slab of metal and the two scream a series of painfully below-the-belt insults at each other in a heartbreaking split-screen scene. After Richie says he hopes Carmy freezes to death and leaves, the trapped chef checks his voicemail and finds a message Claire left him earlier that day telling him how proud she is of him, how proud Mikey would be, and says “I love you.” The hits just keep coming!

Can’t get enough of The Bear Season 2? For more insight, analysis, GIFs, and close-ups of Carmy’s arms, check out all of Decider’s episodic recaps:

Syd and Marcus make amends when she gives him the green light to fire Josh, who missed the dinner rush because he was smoking crack in the back alley. After the tasting ends, an overwhelmed Syd rushes outside to throw up and her dad finds her, tells her how proud he is, and assures her she finally found “the thing.” And back inside, Marcus opens a present from Luca, aka #33 (Will Poulter), but as he hangs his gift — an “EVERY SECOND COUNTS” sign — under the kitchen’s clock, his phone buzzes on the counter revealing missed calls and texts from Kristy, his mom’s nurse. His mom, who has been on the brink of dying all season, may have passed while he was happily finishing service.

In the final minutes of the finale, the fridge guy finally comes to cut Carmy free and one last vision of Claire flashes through his mind. The final shot is Syd’s face as she cycles through a series of emotions — joy, fear, pride, and everything in between — outside The Bear. With tears in her eyes, she exhales, braces for all that’s still to come, and the end credits roll.

The Bear Season 2 is now streaming on Hulu.