On a whole, season 2 of The Bear—which just released all episodes to Hulu today—is a softer show than season 1. There’s less yelling and more self- discovery as the characters work together toward opening their new restaurant that was teased in last year’s finale.
Still, in the middle of the binge you’re hit with a wallop of the kind of chaos that first made the FX series a standout. Episode 6, titled “Fishes,” throws the audience back in time and invites you to a traumatic Christmas Eve dinner at the childhood home of our favorite brooding chef Carmy Berzatto—Jeremy Allen White, magnetic as ever—with his now-dead brother Mikey (Jon Bernthal).
“Fishes” is a relentless episode full of long takes and frenetic camera work that feels designed to be the kind of standout that lands on end-of-the-year lists and has people screaming, “Emmy,” much like season 1’s instant fan-favorite, one-take episode “Review.”
For one, “Fishes” is almost twice the length of an average Bear installment, clocking in at one hour and six minutes. It’s also packed to the brim with A-list guest stars—it’s a veritable parade of movie stars, character actors, and comedians, all cameoing as. various Berzatto family members and family friends. (As is often the case with The Bear, it’s difficult when watching to tell who is actually related and who is just calling each other “cousin” or “uncle.” Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Richie, as previously established, calls Carmy “cousin,” but they are not actually related by blood.)
There’s Bob Odenkirk as Uncle Lee, Sarah Paulson as Cousin Michelle, John Mulaney as Cousin Michelle’s partner Stevie, Gillian Jacobs as Richie’s then-wife Tiffany, and, in the coup de grace, Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna Berzatto, Mikey and Carmy’s alcoholic mother. Plus, the dinner is also attended by already established characters including Carmy’s sister Natalie Berzatto (Abby Elliott), Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt), and Neil (Matty Matheson).
The host of amazing guest stars has the potential to be distracting (and, admittedly, it is at first), but they all manage to slip so fully into their roles and meld with the mayhem that director (and creator) Christopher Storer orchestrates that it works.
As one might expect given everything The Bear has told us about the Berzattos, this is not a warm gathering. From the first moments of the episode, Natalie is worried about Donna, who is making a mess of the kitchen attempting to cook a traditional Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes, despite the fact that everyone is just going to eat the gravy anyway. Donna, with butter in her long red fingernails, constantly clutches a dirty glass of red wine, and bristles when Natalie (or anyone really) asks her if she’s “okay.” Curtis brilliantly plays her as a woman who just thinks she is having fun, but who is liable to be set off by what she perceives as the tiniest slight. Her livewire emotions are represented by a cooking timer ringing like a siren. It’s a performance very in line with Bernthal’s as Mikey, who we know eventually commits suicide, and is similarly a good time guy until the pain takes over.
Carmy himself fades into the background a bit amid the trays of cannolis and the gleaming decorations. He’s home from studying in Copenhagen and you can see how ill at ease he feels around his volatile family members. (It’s unclear when exactly this takes place but Tiffany’s 1989 Tour t-shirt makes pegging it around December 2015 a safe bet.) Michelle, who lives in New York, latches onto Carmy’s outsiderness and suggests he should come stay with her in the city. “I see what happens here,” she says. “And I can see how it gets in your head. I don’t want that for you.”
It’s one of the notes that prove this episode isn’t dependent on screaming and rash actions. There are just as many calm moments that provide equally fascinating insights and contexts into our favorite damaged chef’s lives. The hour offers a window into Richie and Tiff’s relationship before it falls apart. She’s newly pregnant and nauseous, and Richie is trying in his blustering way to help her out. Moss-Bacharch and Jacobs have a sweet chemistry that deepens our understanding of Richie’s charm, and his failures. Elsewhere, Mulaney, who rarely ventures into the world of serious acting, gets a wonderful monologue as he says grace, espousing the value of family with all of its fucked up contours.
This isn’t to say that “Fishes” has a happy ending. Donna and Mikey both let their anger overwhelm the night, which ends with Donna crashing a car into the house. Storer zooms in on the stunned, trapped eyes of Carmy and Natalie as Mikey screams at their mother.
“Fishes” ends up being a roadmap for the emotions of Carmy, Richie, and Natalie as The Bear heads towards the finish of season 2. In moments of tension, the events of that night run through their brains. They are all healthier people than they once were, but that pain remains.