'The Bear' Season 4 Ending, Explained

Cosmopolitan

a day ago

Watching The Bear over the past three seasons—following the highs and pitfalls of creating and running a restaurant—has been quite a ride. And its season 4 return has been one of the most highly-anticipated events in television this year. After all the hard work and sacrifice Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Marcus (Lionel Boyce), Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), and their entire team have put into their restaurant, fans have been itching to find out whether their favorite chefs are finally getting their coveted Michelin star.
But the fourth season has been more about survival rather than getting the prestigious award they've been gunning for. We see the team struggle to reach profitability, to work as efficiently as they possibly can, to find ways to grow, and to just generally keep their own sh*t together for the greater good of the restaurant. By the last few episodes, however, things seem to finally be looking up for everyone—especially Carmy, who's been a hot (very hot) mess since season 1. Which is why the show-altering 33-minute-long finale comes as a bit of a surprise to fans.
Here's the ultimate breakdown of the last episode of The Bear season 4.
If you were hoping for an action-packed finale, then you might be disappointed. Season 4 Episode 10, simply titled "Goodbye," is basically a big discussion and screaming match that takes place after dinner service. It opens with a miserable Syd, head against the fencing in the restaurant's backyard, clearly frustrated. Over the course of the whole season, she's been grappling to make a decision on whether to stay at The Bear, or leave to accept the generous offer from promising restaurateur Adam Shapiro. And in the last episode, just when she'd made peace with her decision to stay, she gets word from Pete (Chris Witaske) that Carmy has had the restaurant's partnership agreement written exclude him.
Yes, you read that right. The star of the show, the head chef, has decided that he's calling it quits. And he's not just quitting the restaurant—he's quitting all restaurants. He tries to explain to a very upset Syd that he's come to an epiphany: he doesn't love cooking anymore. He even ventures to say that maybe he's never really been in love with it the way that she is.
"I did this so I didn't have to do other things," he tells his business partner. In episodes past, people have been telling him he's been causing chaos, trying to chase and prove something that he didn't need to. It turns out, maybe he's been drumming up chaos to keep himself busy, to distract from confronting his problems in life. But now that he's actually out and trying to deal with his issues (i.e. talk to Claire (Molly Gordon), visit his mom (Jamie Lee Curtis), reenter society and human civilization), he no longer wants to use the kitchen as an escape. And he's decided that now that things are looking up for the restaurant, he wants to begin the process of moving on. But Carmy makes it clear that he'll help make sure they pay their debts and are profitable before he leaves.
And though he admits that he'd known about Shapiro trying to poach her, he says didn't mind because she is a talented chef and deserves to cook wherever she wants to cook. Of course, given his decision to leave, he's glad she chose to stay. He tells Syd, "I believe in you more than I've ever believed in myself because you're The Bear."
Syd and Carmy are in the middle of their screaming match in the yard when Richie joins them. Syd breaks the news to Richie, which he refuses to believe at first. But as Carmy tries to explain, he refuses to listen. Just as he's about to walk out, Carmy drops another big truth bomb, which is that he was actually at his brother Mikey's (Jon Bernthal) funeral. This really riles Richie up and coaxes him out of his false indifference. This is when the two "cousins" hash everything out.
The tension between Carmy and Richie has only gotten progressively worse since the walk-in fridge incident in season 2. But in this final episode they both reveal that they've been harboring resentment towards each other that goes way further back than that. Carmy's always been jealous of Richie's closeness to his family, especially to his late brother. And Richie's been envious of Carmy's career and genius, and how much respect and admiration he's gained from far away.
Carmy then tells Richie that there's no need to be jealous of him, especially because he says, "Outside of the kitchen, I don't know what I'm like." After the final steps of making sure The Bear can be up and running without him, he wants to leave to find himself.
Both Sydney and Richie realize that Carmy has made up his mind regarding his decision, and see reason that this move might actually be good for everyone involved. Syd agrees to stay on as head chef and partner, but on one condition: Richie has to be a partner, too. So the legal agreement would include their investor Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) as one party, and the party of The Bear would include Sydney, Natalie a.k.a. Sugar (Abby Elliott), and Richie. At first, Richie thinks this is a joke or a token offer, but when Syd says she's serious he gives an enthusiastic, "F*ck yes."
Sugar ends up joining them in the yard, and is the last to learn about Carmy's decision to leave. But instead of getting mad or reacting violently like Syd and Richie, she cries and comes over to hug her little brother. After all, it was she who—upon noticing how miserable Carmy was—told him (episodes ago) that it was okay if he wasn't in love with cooking anymore. She's proud that he's taking steps to prioritize his wellbeing over his career.
While the finale does give us a resolution regarding who's going to be running the restaurant, we don't know what a potential fifth season's going to look like. Will Carmy (and actor Jeremy Allen White) be completely out of the picture? Are we following Carmy on his soul-searching journey?
There are also a number of unresolved plot lines from this season. Chef Luca (Will Poulter) also came in as a stage to help Marcus, and the whole kitchen in general. It's unclear whether he'll be staying on full-time, or leaving to go back to Copenhagen or some other city to work as a chef.
We also see Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) toiling away, crunching the numbers and doing research to figure out how to expand The Beef window so that they can maximize their profits, which could help the whole restaurant operation. He finally arrives at a solution, which would require opening two new locations and taking on a new partner. But he has yet to present this business proposal to the rest of the team (aside from the Faks).
The last few seconds of the finale shows the clock—which indicates how much time is left before Uncle Jimmy would shut the place down (if they didn't get their numbers up)—run out of time. So time has run out, but their numbers are up. Still, it's not explicitly said that they've worked everything out and that they've done enough to keep going.
The finale doesn't really get into this, but many fans do want to know what the deal is between Carmy and Claire Bear now. Well, if the wedding episode (Tiff's (Gillian Jacobs) wedding) was any indication, things seem to be looking good. Carmy's apologized for every which way he's hurt Claire, and has even said that he loves her—which he'd never previously told her. However, it doesn't seem like they're officially officially back together.
Claire knows that Carmy's got a lot to figure out, and Carmy knows that Carmy's got a lot to figure out. So it doesn't seem like they're jumping into anything too quickly, but we don't really get a straightforward answer by the end of the season. It seems like to answer this question, and many more, we're all going to have to wait until season 5—which has yet to be confirmed.