Yahoo News Richie’s Episode Is ‘The Bear’ Doing What It Does Best
[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for “The Bear” Season 2, Episode 7, “Forks.“]
Sometimes, it’s hard just to wake up. Some of the best moments in “The Bear” (particularly in Season 2) do such an effective job of detailing all the steps that even get you to the crucible. A key part of the prologue in Episode 7 “Forks” is watching the city wake up along with Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Some creative pursuits (especially ones as part of a team) are all-day endeavors.
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That tracks with what “The Bear” is at its heart: a seasons-long food metaphor for the very show you’re watching. It’s no coincidence that the series and the restaurant share a name. Everyone involved is working together in a kitchen, but nearly every detail has its TV storytelling analogue. (The giant wall calendar that looms over Season 2 is both production checklist and a collection of story beats.) So when Richie gets sent to Ever — a real Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago — it’s a crash course in all the elements that can make the meal of TV a singular experience.
It’s not a perfect one-to-one comparison. You could argue that the Ever patrons are TV viewers, that the personalized attention to each table is more a stand-in for the kind of story precision that lets everyone see a bit of themselves in someone else’s experience. Richie’s stint as a stage is almost like an idealized version of being a guest actor on a show — jumping into an environment where there’s an established group of folks and a way of doing things that, if you adapt to it, come with being part of a group in a united effort.
Regardless of what explicit connections episode writer Alex Russell may or may not have intended here, it’s hard not to see Garrett’s (Andrew Lopez) description of a transcendent restaurant experience like preparing viewers for greatness. People’s favorite shows are the Super Bowl to them. In that moment, Richie becomes a stand-in for anyone who takes this all for granted, breezing through an entire season without taking the time to let each episode soak in on its own merits. Him going back to basics is a kind of reminder that these stories don’t get made in a vacuum.
As that reality sinks in for Richie, it gets reflected in the gradually earlier wake-up times as the minutes creep up every day on his alarm clock. It’s in the wide-eyed eagerness of seeing what a fine-tuned kitchen can send out as everyone works together to make sure everyone makes their days. If Marcus’ Denmark trip shows one man’s renewed sense of purpose by retreating from the bustle of everyday life for a few days, “Forks” is its own back-to-basics character study that shows a set of priorities stripped down and rebuilt over the course of a week.
There’s some healthy skepticism at the outset, especially when being plunged into pre-service menu discussion comes with a heavy dose of “smudge” talk (some courtesy of staff writer and erstwhile Father Brah Rene Gube, who gets a chance to join the front-of-camera fun here, too). It’s a reminder that this is, at heart, a comedy. But it’s also a pretty efficient way to show how passionate discussion of perfection can also come across as a little absurd to an outsider. Obsessing over tiny parts of a presentation and working to avoid the one mistake that could break the illusion? That can sound overly precious out of context before you get to see how it works in practice.
But “Forks” doesn’t get so caught up in its own artistry that it forgets the world outside the kitchen. Richie’s phone call with Tiff (Gillian Jacobs) doesn’t get lost in its own melancholy. Between the talk of her new fiancé and him wiping down the kid’s coloring station in his own apartment, you get an effective snapshot of where Richie is mentally when he’s not distracting himself with taking orders and learning proper table etiquette. (It’s also a sly bit of foreshadowing for where another certain person from the “Bear” world is going to find themselves by the end of the season.)
Inside Ever, there are certainly enough distractions. As Richie is learning Jess’ (Sarah Ramos) color-coded, keep-everyone-happy system, the show itself is giving everyone a visual look at the menu without having to pause the action. Richie is learning by doing and helping to reinforce the idea that the meaningful flourishes work best when they’re in the seamless flow of the whole operation. Richie’s gofer errand to pick up deep dish pizza (at Pequod’s! a fantastic choice, everyone) is a prelude to him getting to serve the eventual plate himself. “The Bear” loves to put its characters in make-or-break situations. Here, Richie is right on the verge of popping the fine-dining balloon, but he manages to do it “right” while still doing it his way. That’s huge for an episode that also has to work as an overall pivot for Richie, rewiring him with a full appreciation for the process while Fak (Matty Matheson) is trying to rewire things back at The Bear.
He’s being drowned out by “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” but Moss-Bachrach’s best moment in the episode might just be that drive home after he’s started to figure things out. Zooming down Chicago side streets and alleyways, in one fell swoop he goes from belting a chorus to shouting at other drivers. That’s Richie in a nutshell. It’s the temper, it’s the passion, it’s the repressed frustration over a life and a job and a marriage that hasn’t turned out exactly the way he’d planned. Behind all that, though, he’s reinvigorated now. He’s able to show enough of the salty-sweet personality that gets his temporary coworkers on his side by the end of his stage week.
“The Bear” is a push-and-pull between that overwhelming dread that something could go wrong and the moments before and after, when the people involved get a chance for a breather. For the enigmatic Chef Terry (Olivia Colman), it’s the chance to hand-peel mushrooms for the day’s dishes. The episode before this in Season 2 gets (deserved) attention for corralling a high-profile collection of guest stars, yet there’s something unassuming and unshowy about Colman’s entrance into this story that just seems….right. You can see Richie’s calmness around her, like Terry has turned down the heat on his personal burner to a simmer. The biographical details each of them allude to in their conversation are the kind you share with someone who puts you at ease. Of all the lessons that Richie learns in “Forks,” it’s that culinary excellence can be compatible with empathy and ease and understanding. And sometimes, people give you just enough information so that you can answer the big questions yourself, as long as you’re paying enough attention.
It’s the capper on an episode that does everything “The Bear” does best. It grabs a little musical help (this time from Tangerine Dream and David Byrne, tracks also used respectively in two mammoth works of American cinema: Michael Mann’s “Thief” and the 2004 Topher Grace vehicle “In Good Company”). It captures the cacophony of a kitchen humming along as intended. And it situates all that orchestrated chaos within a city and the lives of the people who call it home. “Mangia!” indeed.
“Forks” (and the rest of “The Bear” Season 2) is now available to stream on Hulu.
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