'The Bear' Season 2 Ending Explained: Where Did We Leave Carmy, Sydney and Cousin Richie? (2024)

Warning: The Bear season 2 spoilers ahead!

The season 2 finale of The Bear brought audiences from screaming "Yes chef!" to "Oh no, chef!"

Centered around an eatery of the same name, the latest season of the Hulu dramedy ended with both a bang and a whimper: As The Bear enjoyed a relatively successful opening night, making Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Marcus (Lionel Boyce) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) beam with professional and personal pride, owner and chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) spiraled and sabotaged his own shot at happiness with emergency room doctor and childhood friend Claire (Molly Gordon).

The season, which was full of dread, drama, tension and triumph cleaned up at the 2023 Emmys mere months after its release. The Bear won outstanding comedy series while White, Edebiri and Moss-Bachrach also won in the acting categories.

Now, the award-winning series is returning to Hulu for a third season on June 26. But before you begin your highly-anticipated binge-watch, here's a recap of the season 2 finale — including where both Carmy's new restaurant and his love life stand.

How did The Bear season 2 end?

On their "friends and family" soft opening night, things go wrong quickly: Josh goes missing, they run out of clean forks, a toilet explodes on Natalie (Abby Elliott), the seven fishes dish gets cold and has to be thrown out and Sydney makes Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) remake a steak.

However, things really go awry when Carmy, following an argument with Sydney, gets locked in the walk-in freezer — a direct result of his procrastinating getting the door handle fixed for the entire season up to this point. With Carmy out of commission, Sydney steps up to fill in his role, while Cousin Richie calls orders, greets patrons (and gives Uncle Jimmy, played by Oliver Platt, a chocolate banana). He demonstrates tremendous growth professionally and personally, even telling the crew he loves them as they get down to work.

Natalie and Carmy's mother, Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), arrives, and when Natalie's husband, Pete (Chris Witaske), sees her outside, he tries to convince her to come in. Donna, wracked with guilt, tells Pete, "I don’t deserve to see how good this is. I don't want to hurt it." Pete eventually concedes, and Donna leaves — but not before Pete accidentally reveals that Natalie is pregnant, not realizing that Natalie never told her mother the news.

Marcus eventually finds Josh (Alex Moffat) outside doing hard drugs behind the restaurant. He tells Sydney about the incident and gets her permission to fire him, which eases some of the tension they had earlier when he asked her out and she declined.

While trapped inside the walk-in refrigerator on the restaurant's biggest night to date, Carmy spirals with flashbacks of working in New York City under a chef who constantly berated him (Joel McHale), and his crippling self-doubt gets the best of him. He pours his heart out to Tina, calling back to what he said in an Al-Anon meeting earlier in the season about "amusem*nt and enjoyment" — but this time, instead of seeking it out in a healthy way, he says he doesn't deserve to have either and that he'll just provide it to others through his work. He berates himself for pursuing a relationship with Claire at what he believes is the expense of his restaurant's success.

"I wasn't here. What the f--- was I thinking, like I was going to be in a relationship? I'm a f------ psycho! That's how I operate," he fumed. "I am the best because I didn't have any of this f------ bulls---, right? I could focus and I could concentrate ... No amount of good is worth how terrible this feels! It’s just a complete waste of f------ time!"

Tina wasn't listening at the time, but Claire was, having come into the kitchen to check on him after the staff told her where he was. She tells him, "I'm sorry you feel that way, Carm," and walks away crying as Carmy calls her name repeatedly.

Claire tearfully tells Richie goodbye in the dining room and leaves. Richie returns to the kitchen and gets into a shouting match with Carmy, at one point calling him "Donna" and telling him, "I don't understand why you can't just let something good happen for once in your f------ life."

Still trapped in the freezer, Carmy finally hears a voicemail Claire left him earlier in the day, telling him that she's "always had a massive crush" on him. "I'm just so excited for you and so thrilled for you. I know it can be hard to find a second to feel good about what you're doing right in the middle of when you're in the middle of doing it, but uh ... I just hope you know that I'm so proud of you, and Mikey would be so proud of you. And I just, um — I really love you."

Devastated, Carmy throws his phone down and cries.

Meanwhile, Marcus proudly hangs a sign that says "EVERY SECOND COUNTS" on the wall from Luca (Will Poulter) and misses several calls from his ill mother's nurse. Sydney, finally overcome by the anxiety and stress of opening night, throws up several times behind the restaurant, where her dad (Robert Townsend) tells her he's proud of her for finding "the thing" she's meant to do. Richie smokes a cigarette and smiles, pleased with and proud of the team's work.

And finally, a man with a chainsaw arrives to open the freezer door and let Carmy out.

What happens with Carmy and Claire at the end of The Bear season 2?

Carmy and Claire's fledgling relationship appears to be at least temporarily over after the season 2 finale. Claire, who left Carmy a voicemail earlier in the day telling him she loved him for the first time, overheard Carmy lamenting that their relationship was a "waste of time" and took his focus away from work. She leaves the restaurant crying, and when Carmy hears her voicemail, he breaks down crying as well.

That said, Gordon is set to reprise her role in The Bear season 3, so there may still be hope for Carmy and "Claire Bear" yet.

What did the note to Marcus say in The Bear?

Luca sent Marcus a wall plaque that reads, "Make every second count" and a note that says, "Make it worth it! Good luck."

Why was Sydney puking in The Bear?

Sydney throws up near the dumpsters behind the restaurant after friends and family night, largely her anxiety and nerves from the big night manifesting physically. Her father runs toward her to see if she's OK, and she assures him that she's fine. He compliments the soft opening's success and tells her, "Baby, it's the thing."

It's a callback to Sydney's previous conversations with her father, in which he expressed doubts about the potential of a restaurant to succeed. Now, he realizes this is "the thing" she is meant to do. She takes a break from vomiting to beam with pride, then goes back to throwing up.

What happens to Richie in The Bear season 2?

Richie has one of the most redeeming arcs of the series in The Bear season 2. Heartbroken upon learning his ex and mother of his daughter, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs) is engaged, he gets his act together professionally. After resisting change and butting heads with Carmy out of misplaced loyalty to Carmy's late brother Mikey, Richie interns at a Michelin-star restaurant Ever (a real-life Chicago eatery) for a week. Studying under the tutelage of Chef Terry (guest star Olivia Colman), Richie finds a new purpose in his work, which brings a new sense of calmness to the temperamental manager.

When does The Bear season 3 premiere?

The Bear season 3 is set to premiere on Hulu on June 26 at 9 p.m. ET — one day earlier than originally announced. — and all 10 episodes of the season will drop at once. In March 2024, Deadline reported that the series was also greenlit for a fourth season, which was reportedly filmed back-to-back with the third.

What will happen in The Bear season 3?

While the plot details of The Bear season 3 are mostly under wraps, the season 3 trailer revealed that Carmy develops a list of "non-negotiables" for the restaurant, which include pushing boundaries, evolving through creativity and "vibrant collaboration," much to the chagrin and mockery of his colleagues and staff.

Carmy's friends and family confront him about Claire, with Neil Fak (Matty Matheson) telling her that he believes Carmy does love her.

Carmy gives Sydney an offer to become a partner in the restaurant, and stress is still high in the kitchen, with Carmy and Richie arguing over handmade bowls being different sizes. There are menu changes, a birthday surprise from Richie (who we also see bonding with his daughter) and Uncle Jimmy arguing with Natalie about his loan. Even when things go well at The Bear, The Bear always brings the drama.