Carmy Is Finally Solving Mikey's Mystery In Season 2 Of The Bear

This article contains spoilers for "The Bear" season 2.

FX on Hulu's hit series "The Bear" has worn many hats in just two seasons on the air — it's a comedy, a drama, an eclectic and fast-paced capsule of the restaurant industry — but it isn't often considered a mystery. In season 2, Michelin Star chef Carmy Berzatto is still grappling with the loss of his older brother Mikey, a troubled addict who left him the family business, a struggling sandwich shop on the south side of Chicago. Mikey's suicide is still shrouded in intrigue, as were his intentions with the restaurant. But by the season 1 finale, Carmy and his ragtag crew are finally starting to discover the clues that his brother left behind.

Mikey's posthumous scavenger hunt kicks off when their "cousin" Richie finds a note left for Carmy behind Mikey's old locker. At first, his resentment and grief over the loss of his best friend encourage him to keep the note a secret from Carmy. He and Carmy fight over the direction of the business and he can't understand why his good friend wouldn't leave a note for him as well — simply put, he is jealous of the closure that such a note could potentially offer his cousin.

When the two have an emotional breakthrough in the season finale, Richie gives Carmy the note. He opens it privately to discover only a family recipe for spaghetti and a heartbreakingly simple message: "I love you dude. Let it rip." Carmy had been mystified all season long by the overwhelming presence of canned tomatoes in the restaurant. Upon opening them to make the spaghetti, he realizes that Mikey stored thousands of dollars inside the cans, money his uncle had previously invested in the business that was thought to be lost to Mikey's rampant drug use. This opens the doors for more questions and answers, like the meaning of the show's title.

"Let it rip" is a bit of a catch-all saying in the Berzatto household, but it is particularly used between Carmy and Mikey to communicate their plans for their future business venture. In the star-studded anxiety attack that is "Fishes," a flashback episode reveals that Mikey and Carmy had always planned to work together on a restaurant. Carmy gifts Mikey a sketch of this dream restaurant's exterior as a Christmas present. In reply, Mikey has one thing to say: "Let it rip."

Another mystery is introduced in season 2 when the fire suppression system presents a seemingly insurmountable problem for The Bear crew. A seed for a solution is subtly planted in the premiere episode when Sydney falls through a hole in the wall and tears Mikey's beloved poster of Fenway Park. Richie explains that Mikey used this wall to store the means for a crackpot scheme. The late Berzatto believed that should the restaurant burn down, it could earn the business some insurance money that could be used for franchising.

The fire suppression system is a continual problem for the manual labor team of Fak, Sweeps, and Richie throughout season 2. The problem comes to a head in episode 8 when this test is the only remaining piece of the puzzle standing in the way of The Beef's grand re-opening as The Bear. It is only in the eleventh hour that Fak finally solves the mystery — Mikey had overridden the fire suppression system so that the gas wouldn't turn off, making it easier for fires to start and expand in the kitchen and thus allowing him to collect insurance money. This moment marks a huge breakthrough for the business and for the decryption of Mikey's many scatterbrained messages from the beyond.

With The Bear's doors finally open in the season 2 finale, it may seem like Mikey's mysteries have all been wrapped up, but that isn't necessarily true. One major mystery remains: what was with the hat that Mikey left behind in his old locker?

The hat, Carmy explains, is from The Beef's booth at the Taste of Chicago festival in 2010. Carmy, Natalie, and Richie had evidently worked this booth alongside Mikey, as they all fondly remembered this day. Perhaps the hat is as simple as a symbol of their collaboration and togetherness, a totem of the family business. Perhaps it serves as a reminder of their humble beginnings. Or maybe Mikey just thought it would be a good idea for the business to return to that festival in its new and improved form.

Whatever his reasoning, it's hard to believe the hat was unintentionally left there. Mikey went out of his way to hide his money away and left Carmy to put the pieces together rather than telling him outright where it would be. It seems far-fetched that he would clean out his locker entirely and leave only one item that held zero significance. Although season 2 fails to explain why Mikey left the hat in his locker, season 3 is likely to revisit this moment.

But any good fan of this series knows that a huge part of "The Bear" is about the emptiness of grief. Maybe the hat really was just a hat, and it was meant to feel anticlimactic — or maybe there's more to it than meets the eye.