No, Chef: The Bear Season 2 Could've Seen Carmy And Sydney Hooking Up
To ship or not to ship? That was the question many fans of "The Bear" took to social media to contemplate after the show's second season debuted early this summer. According to a recent Hollywood Reporter interview with co-showrunner Joanna Calo, viewers weren't the only people who spent some time thinking about whether emotional trainwreck chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and up-and-coming sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) should get together. "I will say, at one point, very early on, I was like, 'Maybe they do hook up,'" Calo told THR, noting that series creator Christopher Storer shot down the idea.
Calo said that when she joined "The Bear," some season 1 scripts had already been written, and one of the first things she realized was that the show should hone in on the unique relationship between its two leads. Calo says she "immediately felt" that there "was something very special between Carmy and Sydney and I really wanted to prioritize that relationship and the Sydney character." At this point in the series, the pair have an established platonic partnership that feels emotionally profound and meaningful for them both, but Calo says the internet's fixation on the two becoming more than friends "really surprised" her despite her early idea that there could be something there.
'These relationships are complicated'
Joanna Calo said Christopher Storer was right to note that Carmy and Syndey shouldn't get together, but as she put it, "I think what I was getting at was that these relationships are complicated." Personally, I've always seen Carmy and Sydney's relationship as one that has a tinge of romance, but not the type that actually needs to lead to anything else. When Sydney felt a pang of frustration over Carmy's new relationship and couldn't quite pinpoint the reason for it, or Carmy calmed down after thinking of Sydney, that felt familiar to me — and much more nuanced and interesting to watch than yet another fictional couple confessing their love. When the pair share a quiet moment while fixing a table ahead of The Bear's opening, it's an equally great moment, one that feels like it veers between platonic partnership, deep friendship, and something like love from second to second.
The series' co-showrunner seems to express a similar sentiment. She told THR:
"I've heard people use the term 'work wife' — there are relationships in our lives that have all different meanings, and we sometimes really rush to characterize everything very cleanly and there's something beautiful about acknowledging how messy our lives really are and just how enmeshed so many of our relationships are."
Frozen out
It's true: Some of life's most fulfilling relationships can straddle a line between platonic and romantic, or contain undercurrents of attraction or infatuation that might never fully be realized. The counterpoint to this is, of course, that the real-life restaurant biz is notorious for casual hookups among staff, and in a less stylized version of this world, someone at The Bear definitely would've gotten together by now. I get why people want Carmy and Sydney to get together, and I get why people think there's nothing there, but I think the show thrives in the messy in-between. If the series returns for a third season, though, it's possible the pair's dynamic will have changed once again.
Carmy spent much of the season finale locked in the restaurant's walk-in freezer, and Sydney kept the ship afloat while he melted down. Joanna Calo says the freezer plot was written into the script both "for his own misery and this idea of being punished for the joy that he experienced, but also because we really wanted to give Sydney a chance to rise into power." The pair's relationship has always been defined by his success and her relative inexperience: How will it look when the tables have turned?
"The Bear" seasons 1 and 2 are now on Hulu. The show has not yet been renewed for a third season.