Sorry, This 'The Bear' Season 2 Romance Was Doomed From the Start

The Big Picture

Carmy's romance with Claire in The Bear Season 2 was doomed from the start due to his belief that love and vulnerability are weaknesses.
The pressure of renovating the restaurant and taking on his late brother's legacy has led Carmy to prioritize work over personal relationships.
Claire served as a connection to Carmy's human side and revealed his vulnerability, but ultimately, he saw it as a weakness that would hinder his success.

FX’s The Bear Season 2 introduced a whole new look into the private lives of the dysfunctional restaurant workers we met in Season 1, as well as bringing in some new faces. One of those faces was Claire (Molly Gordon), the romantic interest of Chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) throughout the entirety of the second season.

Fans of Christopher Storer’s The Bear are already accustomed to Carmy’s strict, ritualistic routine when it comes to his family’s restaurant. His initial plan was to take the family restaurant as it was and elevate it to a new height, or at the very least get it to function better than it had been under his late brother Michael (Jon Bernthal). Season 2 sees Carmy take on a whole new set of stressors as the plan has changed to renovating the restaurant into something new altogether. Considering his strict lifestyle and constant balancing act of attempting to open a new restaurant on an accelerated timetable, it was a wonder if Carmy was ever going to have time for a personal life outside the walls of the kitchen.

More so by chance than anything else, in Episode 2, “Pasta,” Carmy heads to a convenience store to grab something, and this is where he runs into Claire. Or, rather, Claire notices him and begins to talk. This meet-cute has all the workings of the childhood crush romance that never happened, and a hope that Carmy will have a romance arc is realized, only for it to be yanked away in, literally, the last minutes of the season. However, those who have been analyzing Carmy and the way he works since Season 1 knew all too well that this romance was doomed from the very beginning.

The Bear

ComedyDrama

Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, a young chef from the fine dining world, returns to Chicago to run his family's sandwich shop after a tragedy. As he navigates the chaotic environment of the small kitchen, Carmy must manage the struggles of turning around the failing business while dealing with his own grief and personal demons. The series dives deep into the intense world of culinary arts, highlighting the challenges of running a restaurant, the bonds formed among staff, and the relentless pursuit of perfection.

Release Date June 23, 2022 Creator Christopher Storer Cast Jeremy Allen White , Ebon Moss-Bachrach , Ayo Edebiri , Lionel Boyce , Liza Colón-Zayas , Abby Elliott , Oliver Platt Rating TV-MA Seasons 3

Carmy Is Full of Self-Blame

There are several factors as to why Carmy puts everything that happens in and around the restaurant on his own shoulders. For one, everyone on the staff looks to him for culinary guidance due to his accolades and stardom within the culinary world. Couple that with the fact that he is trying to turn the restaurant into a success in the aftermath of Michael’s death, and in the context of financial and time pressures required to get the loan to even re-open the restaurant, an immense amount of pressure is mounted on his shoulders. This pressure is shared by other members of the team, yet Carmy perceives most of it as falling on him. This is important as it sets up his reasoning for ultimately viewing the romance between him and Claire as a trivial and distracting pursuit.

Sydney’s Tattoo in 'The Bear' Season 2 Means More Than You Think

Nice symbolism, chef!

This is perhaps best illustrated towards the end of the season when the soft opening or “friends and family” night is imminent. Carmy is unsure of the level to which Claire is affecting his ability to function in the restaurant and even seeks out advice from his Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) as to what to do. Uncle’s advice? Relish in the absolute hell that is operating a place to a successful capacity and cut everything else off. This sentiment slices into Carmy’s reasoning of how he got stuck in that walk-in cooler like a freshly sharpened chef’s knife. To him, the logical thing is that if he weren't off spending time with Claire, he never would have missed certain things, such as the fridge repair guy’s call.

Vulnerability Is a Weakness to Carmy

Throughout the season, Carmy and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) are at odds in the background because Carmy wants final approval on everything going into the new spot. The vision is as important to him as it is to Sydney. Because he positions himself as the decision maker, the problems that arise from the variety of factors surrounding the accelerated restaurant opening ultimately fall on his shoulders, or so he thinks. He fails to recognize that there are variables beyond his control that lead to these issues, not just missed phone calls, but that’s what he focuses on. As he deliberates how something as embarrassing for him as getting locked in his own walk-in cooler could happen, it lands on the only major change he has made in his ritual up to this point: Claire.

It isn’t fair that Claire gets the brunt of Carmy’s blame for his perceived failure, even though the restaurant is functioning successfully without him present, thanks to Sydney and Richie’s (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) quick thinking. As Carmy barks out loud, he says he shouldn’t be someone who allows enjoyment into his life if he wants to be the best. This has been present since the first season of the show, and Carmy’s belief that he could have a romantic relationship, love even, in his life becomes perceived as a failure in and of itself. His resistance to even calling Claire his girlfriend gives the window into this reasoning as he is unable to fathom being committed to anything other than the restaurant. His Uncle’s words ring true to him at this moment in that in order to even have a shot at not having to give up on his chance at making something of the former Beef, he has to sacrifice everything else.

Carmy and Claire’s relationship throughout the season was essential to the plot and the development of Carmy as a whole, but to think that it was going to maintain the meet-cute energy that it begins with is borderline delusional. It can be argued that Claire was Carmy’s way of connecting with those who are closest to him — Richie, Natalie (Abby Elliot), Fak (Matty Matheson), Sydney, and even Michael in a flashback, all see a human side to Carmy that revolves around Claire. The vulnerability to not only his own emotions but to the laser focus he thinks he needs or else all will fail is ultimately what Carmy sees as a weakness. It’s anyone’s guess as to if we will see Claire in the future of The Bear, or if Carmy will now join the ranks of people who believe in the one that got away.

The Bear is available to stream on Hulu.

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