By Julio Bardini
Just hear us out on this one.
The Bear is finally back for Season 2 and love is in the air — or at least it was in the air. The introduction of Claire (Molly Gordon) makes huge waves in Carmy Berzatto's (Jeremy Allen White) life, all for the better. All of a sudden, a show that was about grief in its first season shows us a glimpse of the happiness that lies at the end of the tunnel for those who brave through it, and Carmy does for a while... Until he ends up locking himself in the walk-in fridge of his restaurant in the season finale and, in the middle of an anxiety attack and unaware that she's listening on the other side of the door, says things that would sound like a break-up to anyone.
It's pretty sad because things were starting to look up for him, especially for the way their relationship began. They stumble upon each other in the frozen food section after not seeing each other for years, but what may seem like a serendipitous chance meeting is shown to have been in the Berzatto family's plans for a while, with everybody rooting for them. But even though Carmy's mental health has improved a lot since Season 1, he still is far from fine, ultimately jeopardizing any chance of happiness for the pair. So let's have a look at what went wrong, and why we just can't have nice things.
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Why Is Claire and Carmy’s Break-Up on 'The Bear' So Sad?
There are some people you can't help but root for, and Carmy is certainly one of those. We've seen him try to make sense of the chaos that Mikey (Jon Bernthal) left behind and how it brought out his own demons. He improves a lot over Season 2, and it's a joy to see. Meeting Claire is certainly the highlight of that improvement, and those few episodes in which they are starting to get involved with each other make The Bear seem almost like a feel-good love story. Still, this is not that kind of series.
We see Carmy get stuck in the walk-in fridge after the handle comes off, and that culminates in him giving a monologue about how he doesn't "need to receive any amusem*nt or enjoyment" while Claire listens by the door. He says that because he understands that he's only stuck in the fridge because he didn't call the guy to fix it, starting a whole chain of events. The team at the restaurant manages without him during this time, and everything is fine. Their system works and everybody shines at their stations. Still, the conclusion Carmy draws from this is that he failed his team because of his relationship and that he doesn't have to be happy — he just needs to work. That's depression and anxiety talking, of course, but hearing him say those things is heartbreaking nonetheless.
On the other side of the fridge door is Claire. Or as the Berzattos call her, Claire Bear, whom we all love (and, if you don't, you're wrong). We've seen the positive impact she had on Carmy's life, giving him some well-deserved and much-needed happy moments. She made his life a little lighter, showed him experiences he'd missed while away from Chicago, and taught him some important lessons, especially about feeling bad about himself. There's a touching moment when they are both alone in his apartment when Claire tells him to "never apologize." This isn't about him never being wrong, of course, but understanding that mistakes happen and that we can work to improve once they do. Episodes later, Carmy apologizes to Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) for not being 100% present because he was with Claire, and she answers by telling him that's silly. Still, this apology sends him on a downward spiral that culminates with his breaking up with Claire.
Claire Deserves Better — On and Off the Screen
Admittedly, Claire isn't the most three-dimensional character. The Bear doesn't give her enough screen time to fully flesh out her character — we will give it that. But from what we saw of Claire, she doesn't deserve the criticism she gets. Claire has always appreciated Carmy's work and has always been proud of him. So proud, in fact, that she understands how hard he worked to build his career and always treated him as his own person. She's hard-working, dedicated, and understanding, and didn't deserve to hear all that Carmy said in the fridge.
When Claire first appears in Season 2, we can't help but think that things can't go right, which is precisely what makes us happy to see everything working out up to the point Carmy gets stuck in the fridge. We know he has trouble focusing and is extremely messy, and also that he has a huge responsibility with Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and the others at the restaurant. There's a point in which he sits down to talk to Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt), who says "uh oh" when he tells him about Claire. But what Uncle Jimmy means isn't that Claire will get in the way, but that Carmy has to know how to balance things, and knows that, well, right now he can't.
Can Things Eventually Work Out Between Claire and Carmy?
Everyone who's ever been in a headspace at least similar to Carmy's knows it's difficult to learn some self-respect and self-worth, and sometimes this is the work of a lifetime. Carmy started to understand that he is more than he thought when Sydney came back to The Beef at the end of Season 1, and Claire was continuing to teach him that, only on a different front. It's never a quick and easy process, but Claire is definitely the right person to do it, and everyone in Carmy's family circle knows it.
Another touching moment in this sense is when Neil Fak (Matty Matheson) tells Carmy that Claire's the best, but that he's the best, too. This is reiterated in the Christmas episode when Mikey, Richie, and Fak tell Carmy about meeting Claire after years. He's resisting this, thinking that it's a prank of some kind, and it all does seem a bit childish until Stevie (John Mulaney) tells him "This is a good thing." This is proof of how people understand Carmy can't bring himself to accept that he, too, deserves good things in life, which, in turn, is why he even gave Claire a fake number at the beginning of Season 2 — it's better to just pretend it was a mistake and not risk heartbreak than allow yourself a chance to be happy for once, right?
But Claire is not that kind of person. Right off the bat, we see that she understands that a relationship isn't something that is supposed to be perfect right from the start, but both partners in the relationship have to be willing to put in the work to do it. She sees that Carmy has a lot of work to do and understands that hers is allowing him the time to do so. They are definitely in different moments of emotional maturity, but that's not necessarily a problem if both people want to put in the work to be together. But she's still human, and even though the Berzattos, Jerimoviches, and Faks love her and root for her and Carmy to work out, she's still prone to heartbreak like the rest of us.
Unfortunately, as deserving as Carmy and Claire are of one another, a relationship between them can never fully blossom while he hasn't learned some self-respect. We know where his problems come from, but while all the other characters grew a lot this season, he still needs to do some growing of his own. Hopefully, Claire can still come back in Season 3. Carmy was literally and figuratively in a bad place when he said what he said, and wasn't even aware Claire was listening. Maybe she can find it in her heart to forgive him. She has no obligation to, of course, but as Fak said, she's the best — and he's the best, too. They deserve something good together.
