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Iridescence can stop the hauntings

Carmy thinks he is haunted by the memory of Claire. Really he is haunted by Sydney.

The Fak's used the password iridescent to stop Sammy from haunting Theodore.

The term iridescent describes something that changes colors depending on the angle and how light reflects off of it. It also something often used by plants and animals for mating for many birds, butterflies, and fish. What else do we know that changes colors?

Marcus and his little white violet, which is meant to symbolize innocence.

But he also wants to use the violet dessert to create some magic.

We also know the magical mythology of the flower turning from white to purple by cupid and becoming a love potion.

He said he wanted to make a white violet, but we keep seeing him using purple.

Marcus and his desserts have always brought Syd and Carmy together.

With the first donut, Carmy and Sydney initially rejected it and she ended up breaking up with him quitting.

We saw that Carmy did try it and then Sydney told Marcus she had also eaten it off the floor and they ended up back together in the end.

Then Marcus had Sydney and Carmy try his Copenhagen sundae and they made up at the end of the episode for a hot second.

He showed them all the new desserts with the new donut and the cannoli and they ended up screwing under the table.

This new White Violet dessert he's been working on seems to be turning out more violet than white. If Marcus creates some magic by making it iridescent and change colors depending on if it's meant to be given to someone white/platonically vs violet/romantically, that could be what changes the dynamic between these two and makes Carmy's intentions and feelings for Sydney clear.

Syd had basically given up on fighting with Carmy in season 3, because she was giving up on him/the bear. If they are back to fighting and yelling at each other I think that's honestly a healthy sign that she wants to make it work with him at The Bear and doesn’t quit.

Because otherwise she would have just backed out and left quietly without a fight like she was about to do when she was trying to tell him about Shapiro's offer.

We don't know what exactly they are fighting about. We just know Richie and Marcus will also be there at some point. And that she's wearing her muse bandana from her first day and when she made The Dish. Could be about the menu, could be about Shapiro's offer, could be about him seeing Claire again, could be about Sydney and Luca, could be about the Michelin stars. Who knows. I think it will most likely be about something similar to what his fight with Claire is going to be.

The whole Claire slump he's been in is about to burst and that will inevitably bring back up his feelings about Syd again like it did with the panic attack.

In his fight with Claire she accused him of lying to her and doing something and he swears up and down that he didn’t do it then apologizes. So maybe Carmy was lying to both Claire and Sydney about the same something. Which would make sense cause he has been keeping his actual feelings about both of them to himself. 

Richie and Carmy will likely make up at some point before the Claire Carmy fight cause he’s supposed to be there. Richie has kind of been working against Syd and Carmy but not really on purpose.

He had pushed him to be with Claire in the Fishes flashback, but he actually never pushed Carmy to be with Claire once Syd was in the picture. He said it was interesting that he was hanging out with Claire but only pushed him to see her at friends and family once he had already told him she was his gf.

I think before Carmy and Richie make up he is going to fuck with the sydcarmy by pushing her towards Luca like his little evil notebook suggested.

Carmy has still yet to realize that everyone wants Sydney. He doesn't know Marcus asked her out, he doesn't know Shapiro is trying to poach her, he doesn't know Luca was flirting with her. That's all on purpose. He's going to find out eventually and maybe that will freak him out and make him jealous/upset/angry that she was keeping all of this from him.

I think once Richie realizes Syd might leave, he’ll try and fix Syd and Carmy’s dynamic because he knows if she leaves that place is going under.

On the other hand Marcus has invested so much into The Bear. He wants it to work probably even more than Syd and Carmy do at this point. He knows they need to stay together for it to work and they need to fix things.

He's always kind of been at the periphery of their relationship but never really noticed them (clearly). The whole new menu suggestion back in season one he was right there but he didn't notice them getting close. Then Sydney told him about Carmy making her the best meal ever. The whole Claire is his girlfriend or friend that's a girl where Sydney was jealous he didn't really clock it. He was there with the whole you look nice moment but didn’t seem to notice it as something more between them. I feel like once he realizes what's up with them he's going to push for them to fix things.

I think Marcus is going to try and get mom and dad back together. And if his violet dessert is any indication of it, it might work.

I think the sydcarmy fight will be after the Claire fight and be the main incident that will lead to him being actually being honest with himself and Sydney as to why he is doing all of this and how much she means to him.

Luca is the Scotch Bonnet Party Trick

Luca's tattoo pepper on his hand is specifically a Scotch Bonnet. Syd and Carmy already had a whole argument about Scotch Bonnet.

Carmy cut himself then told Sydney that changed the menu by introducing scotch bonnet. He said that they needed more heat and acid. Then she went on to tell him that their real issue is communication. Then she cut herself as soon as he asked about her dad and tried to get closer to her.

That story of the scotch bonnet being a reference to Will's mom party trick seems very suspicious to me because of the wording. Season 3 had so much talk about magic tricks and illusion, referencing Georges Méliès, the inventor of trick films. Calling it a trick seems a little too on the nose for me.

Especially when you combine the fact that Luca met Sydney at a party. Carmy introducing Luca, aka the scotch bonnet, is going to come back and hurt him.

Luca is bringing in the acid, heat, and potato chips. And Sydney is going to tell Carmy to shove it up his ass once again.

Sydney fell in love with Carmy in a train station

The made up restaurant, Empire, where Carmy worked under Chef David Fields and where Sydney had the best meal of her life was filmed in the Railway Exchange Building in Chicago.

So much of this story is connected to trains, and although in universe this building is not the railway exchange, this season showed to us that the lines between our reality and the shows reality is blurred.

Between Richie breaking the fourth wall, Chris Storer making a cameo in Tina's flashback, Chris and Courtney Storer appearing in the Ever funeral photo collage, and Martin Scorsese giving us and Marcus a film lesson telling us about Magic while showing movies that illustrate the complexities of Syd/Carmy/Claire's storyline, the show is trying to show that it is somewhat self aware of what is going on. We know they had the budget to go to New York and film there, and they could've picked any location to film in, but they choose a building in Chicago that was built to run the trains. Trains are definitely going to continue to play a role in the story and I'm curious to see where exactly it will take them. Maybe Memphis?

Claire Dunlap is Clear as Mud.

Back in february I spotted her last name from her scrubs.

They purposely omitted saying her name until the very end of Season 3 when the Fak's showed up to her work to beg her to come back to Carmy and she basically told them it was over and to fuck off, because things are starting to become clearer.

Claire means clear, but Dunlap means muddy.

The sudden emphasis on Claire in Season 2 and 3 and how out of place she is from the rest of the characters has been very confusing and off putting for a lot of viewers, but the seeds of their plan for her have been there from the very start. We are starting to see the actual Claire that isn't who Carmy has been making up in his mind.

Carmy is just as confused as we are. Arguably more.

The Scrunchie Does Not Fit In, but Carmy is Saving it for Later

Carmy finds a funeral card from Mikey's funeral in his suit jacket and puts it on top of a book next to the scrunchie and some bobby pins.

The book is I DON’T FIT IN – My Wild Ride Through The Punk and Power Pop Trenches with The NERVES and THE BEAT, which is a memoir about the lead singer from the band The Beat, but not the british one that wrote Save it For Later.

There are actually two bands called The Beat, an English one and an American one. The two bands came up around the same time and were often confused with each other, so the English one went by The English Beat and the American one went by Paul Collins' Beat. They actually ended up touring together. So why have a book about the Paul Collins' Beat when the recurring song this season is written by The English Beat?

Save it for Later has a few versions of it throughout the season. The first version we hear is from the American singer Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam when Sydney is on her way to The Bear after the incident and there is montage of classic Chicago spots. And if you listen closely to the full song, at the very end you can hear in the backing vocals "can't find a better man" from Better Man by Pearl Jam. We know Carmy is a big fan of Pearl Jam. Come Back by Pearl Jam was the song playing in the table scene with Sydney and we know the music in the show is supposed to represent their inner thoughts and feelings, so at this point Sydney is still thinking about Carmy.

Then an instrumental version of Save it for Later plays when Richie is talking to Jess on the phone about the Ever funeral. When Sydney is talking to Shapiro and he makes her the offer, the original Save it for Later by The English Beat plays.

They are setting up the American vs British confusion. Sydney is going to be torn between Carmy and Luca (and Shapiro by de facto), the same way Carmy is torn between Sydney and Claire. The song is instrumental, neither british or american, with Richie because he is the puppet master in this whole british vs american ordeal that is going to happen between them.

So much of this season and the previous have been about confusing people or projecting them on to the other, like with Claire and Sydney in Season 2, and then again in Season 3 with the polka dot dish freezer incident. This all ties back to the plotlines of Vertigo and A Midsummer Night's Dream that are referenced in Season 3 where the love interests are frequently confused with each other, sometimes on purpose and sometimes on accident.

The bobby pins seems more like a Claire item that she probably left behind, but when Claire's hair is tied up it is always with a plain black hair tie. The hair clip at the beginning of Tomorrow is probably Claire's, but a girly floral pink scrunchie? That is so Sydney.

The Bear had pink floral dinner plates back in Season 2 before Carmy switched to natural earthenware in Season 3, which also when he basically erased Sydney from The Bear. The scrunchie is a remnant of Season 2.

Sydney has been seen in pink and florals, whereas Claire never has. Sydney also loves patterns. From her bandanas to her shirts and jackets.

She actually has a whole book about them sitting in her locker. She was probably the one who picked the tropical wallpaper in The Bear's bathroom.

Claire is really never seen wearing patterns or prints aside from Friends & Family night (aka ClaireCarmy's relationship funeral) when she wears a black floral shrug, which is the last time Carmy saw Claire. The funeral card is notably Mikey's, not Marcus' mom, which has also always been tied back to Sydney and the Let it rip note. He texted Sydney before opening the note and then had Richie give it to her in a frame to put on her expo.

It's easy to see why he might confuse the scrunchie with Claire's things and put them together when the don't fit actually fit in, the same way The Beat's get confused. And probably the same way Sydney is going to feel confused about Luca vs Carmy in season 4. Is Carmy going to realize the scrunchie is Sydney's and not Claires? It's in his bedroom so I doubt it was Sydney herself that put it there. Seems like he is once again using Claire to project his feelings for Syd, by missing her instead of Sydney.

The Bear is taking a trip to a Magic Farm in Memphis on the City of New Orleans train

When Richie is looking for the quote to tell the staff in the pre service meeting, in his notebook we see a page with a story about Thomas Keller, head Chef of The French Laundry. It says:

In 1978, a young Thomas Keller loaded his backpack with snacks and ambition and boarded a bus to Memphis. "Why Memphis?" you say, "That's a magic farm, a place for an inspirational chef."

As far as my research goes, this story seems to be made up. But if you head south of Chicago and head towards New Orleans, right in the middle is Memphis, Tennessee.

Sydney's short rib risotto dish combined elements of both of those cities cousines, the beef from Chicago and the Etouffee from New Orleans and from both of Syd and Carmy's family meals.

And I know a couple of young chef's that have been searching for inspiration. Sydney said she wanted to go to Noma for inspiration, Carmy wanted to go to Kasama with her for inspiration before he bailed.

Carmy was stuck at home drawing the lamb dish Sydney tried out, searching through all his cookbooks and thinking back on his past restaurant experiences for inspiration, thinking of The French Laundry, but was unable to finish it. Sydney has had basically no dish truly of her own since opening.

And we know Sydney is his muse at the end of the day.

The Amtrak train has a direct route from Chicago to New Orleans that stops in Memphis called City Of New Orleans. There is also a famous song called City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman about this route that has been covered by a lot of artists. It talks about trains being magic carpets made out of steel, and how it makes everything feel like it was just a bad dream.

We know trains are a recurring theme on the show. We even saw Chris Storer make a cameo on a train in Napkins.

Are Syd and Carmy going to take a train trip down to Memphis to look for inspiration, make magic, and make their railroad blues disappear?

Or is Marcus going to be the one to go there on another adventure side quest to find the magic for his violet dessert that may or may not cause Syd and Carmy to fall in love? We'll have to wait and see.

Carmy is an angry dinosaur.

There are dinosaurs in The Bear's kitchen. The paper weight in the expo station is a mosquito trapped in amber replica from Jurassic Park, where the head of the parks had a mosquito trapped in amber on a cane.

We see a close up shot of it when the Computer is talking to the crew and Carmy is acting like a little bitch.

In Jurassic Park the dinosaurs were able to be cloned because the mosquito sucked dinosaur DNA and got trapped in amber, which allowed it to be extracted.

The movie also had a very famous kitchen scene where the raptors are chasing around the kids in the kitchen, and then one of the kids traps a raptor in the walk in fridge. Kinda like a certain angry Chef I know.

Carmy is a dinosaur scaring the kids in the kitchen.

The Bear is A Midsummer Night's Dream and Marcus is making the violet love potion for Syd and Carmy

There have been Shakespeare references in The Bear from the very beginning. In the very first episode Marcus finds Carmy’s James Beard award for Fairest Creatures, which is a Shakespearean sonnet about life being short and how everything will end and die even if they're beautiful, but the only thing that survives are children, and not having children deprives the world of beauty. Nat's conversation with Jimmy about raising children was parallel with Carmy's conversation with Terry about starting a restaurant. Then of course there was Richie singing Love Story which is about Romeo & Juliet.

Violet and purple flowers are a reoccurring thing we see and learn about in Season 3 of The Bear. According to Roman mythology, the wild pansy, a type of violet flower, was originally white, then turned into the purple Love-in-idleness when Cupid accidentally shot one of his arrows at it, working as a love potion with Cupid's powers. The first time we see purple flowers is in Tomorrow when Carmy tweezing purple flowers next to Luca at Ever, this is the same wagyu dish they ate at the Ever funeral with Sydney. We see more flowers in montages, like Carmy eating them at Noma, bouquets in hotels, and at Marcus' mom's funeral and more.

A Midsummer Night's Dream TL;DR: The play starts with Theseus preparing for his wedding to Hippolyta, he declares that young people should have fun and celebration, not sadness like at a funeral. Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius are in a love square and run away to the woods. Puck aka Robin Goodfellow, a fairy that enjoys mischief, manipulates them with the juice of a violet flower, love-in-idleness, that makes people fall in love with the next creature they see. Things get messed up, the wrong people fall in love with each other, and they all fight with each other. Puck reverses the magic, then the couples reconcile and get married at Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. There is also group of 6 stupid men called the Mechanicals that put on a play, Pyramus and Thisbe (which is also the inspiration behind Romeo & Juliet) for the wedding. In the end, Puck breaks the fourth wall and apologizes to the audience for any offense the play might have caused. The Bear Season 3 started and ended with a funeral and an attempt at a celebration, and we know there will be a wedding in Season 4.

Marcus and his magic purple flowers are always tying back to Syd and Carmy. In Doors the purple flowers at the funeral cut to Sydney and Carmy's "cause you write in the margins" wholesome moment between them.

In Children, Marcus sees a white violet then it cuts to Sydney reading the partnership agreement that Carmy sent while wearing a purple flower scarf.

He then tells Nat about it, she mentions it's the state flower of illinois and he decides to make a white violet flower dessert.

In Violet, Marcus is working on some purple liquid and holds a violet petal, then it cuts to Syd and Carmy.

Even back in Season 1 Marcus was interested in the color purple and flowers, roommate Chester brought pantone color swatches. In Legacy Marcus and Carmy talk about creating magic to push his violet dish further, then Sydney appears.

In that same episode after the conversation about legerdemain and magic, Richie's notebook makes its own sleight of hand. It's a bit hard to read his terrible handwriting but on one page it says Lover for Syd on top and below:

Carmy -> Syd Luca -> Carm

And in another page he wrote:

Syd -> pansy Luca -> Carmen

Richie is Puck/Robin and he wants to see what would happen if Luca and Carmy start fighting for Syd. Richie and the Fak's have been fucking with the dream weave and Carmy’s love story for a while by pushing him to be with Claire.

The Faks are the Mechanicals, a group of incompetent manual laborers. We see Carmy tweezing herbs next to some pansy flowers, then Fak brings out the donkey piñatas. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of the mechanicals, Bottom, gets turned into a donkey then the rest of the mechanicals say they are being haunted. And we all know how much the Fak's love to talk about being haunted. Can't get more on the nose than that for them.

The Faks/Mechanicals are mechanics but they think they can make a movie/play. Theodore Fak thinks he makes art films, Sammy Fak argues with him over SD cards and tells him he makes films for children's parties. Even Francie Fak is a reference to one of the mechanics, Francis Flute, who is the only one forced to play the female role in the play they are putting on for the wedding. Also, In A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999) Michelle Pfeiffer played Tatiana, the Queen of the Fairies, who Storer originally had in mind to play Donna. 

When Richie arrived to Ever he took off a fishing hook from a purple flower, then right after Luca appears and greets Carmy. Carmy's flower tattoo in his hand is a violet, and it was right in front of his face the whole dinner when he was next Sydney and Luca and they started vibing with each other. Next season will have a wedding and Marcus' white violet dessert will be tasted. Richie already told us plan he has for Syd, the pansy and it goes from Luca to Carmy.

At the end of the play Puck has an epilogue and breaks the fourth wall to apologize to the audience if they have offended them. Richie and Tiff broke fourth wall to address the "kids" aka us the audience in Apologies. In conclusion, The Bear is a Shakespearean comedy, but it is also first and foremost, a messy love story. 💜

Carmy is experiencing Vertigo.

In the magic scene, one of the movies that is shown to us is Vertigo. The central plot of this movie revolves around a man who is hired to follow a woman. He falls in love with her but she ends up killing herself. He then tries to have a relationship with a woman that reminds him of her. He buys her the same clothes, makes her dye her hair, even takes her to the same restaurants as her. Sounds familiar?

The Bear itself is trying to make Claire into Syd by having her dress the same and do the same things as Sydney because Carmy wants to use her as a stand in, or a cold prep, for Syd.

Carmy tells himself he can't stop thinking about Claire and convinces himself that those were the happiest days in his mind.

But he ignores all the other times that we actually saw he spent with her in Season 2 that were tied to Sydney, because he is in denial of everything reminding him of her.

He tries to ignore a suppress thinking about Sydney. But in turn his subconscious obsessed over her and he ends up making a dish inspired by her polka dot circles hair scarf.

Carmy needs to wake tf up from the dream sequence he's been living in for the past few months and realize that he can't keep using Claire as a replacement to avoid thinking about Sydney.

The Bear's Magic Tricks: From Dreams to Love Stories to Trainwrecks to Alien Motherships

The Bear Episode 9 Apologies starts of with a montage of magic and movies. The scene begins with a black screen reflecting ourselves onto it. Because this scene is about addressing us directly, as viewers and observers of the show itself and the process of filmmaking and creating magical unexpected moments within the show. It's Martin Scorsese in an interview talking about the movie Hugo.

Hugo is about an orphaned boy living in a train station, who is in charge of winding up the clocks. He likes fixing things because he believes everything has a purpose. That life is like a machine and there are no extra parts, because everything has a role. He ends up fixing a machine that his dad left him, that draws a scene from his movie A Trip to the Moon. He finds that it was made by magician turned filmmaker Georges Méliès, a real life person, that is known for being an earlier adapter of cinema and inventing 'trick films' and special effects.

We then fall into Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo dream sequence and from there it blends into a dancing scene from The Red Shoes. Both of these scenes use 'tricks' and special effects to create the illusion of the man falling and the woman flying and being transparent like a ghost. Vertigo is about Scottie, a former police officer with a fear of heights, who is tasked with keeping an eye out on a wealthy man's wife, Madeleine. He falls in love with her and then witness her commit suicide by jumping off a church tower and is distraught because he feels like his fear of heights stopped him from saving her.

Then he encounters Judy, a woman that looks very similar to Madeleine, and he tries to change her to look and act more like Madeleine by buying her the same clothes and dying her hair. In the end he discovers that Judy and Madeleine are the same person and that Judy was part of a murder scheme for the real Madeleine and was tricking Scottie all along. But Judy also ends up falling to her death on accident.

The Red Shoes is about Victoria, a ballerina at Ballet Lermontov, who is told that she has to choose between her dance career and her love for Julian, a composer, when the director of the company fires him. She chooses Julian at first, but is unfulfilled when she has to give up dancing, so she goes back to the ballet to Lermontov, who is secretly in love with her. In the end she tries to go back to Julian, but dies by falling to her death from a balcony onto a train, because the red shoes are said to have a mind of their own and tricked her.

Something else is existing there, I don't know what. But there's something happening, it's not part of our normal day, literal nature of how we live.

We then see another shot from Vertigo, of Scottie spying on Madeleine at a flower shop, that places us viewers once again like voyeurs within the episode. Then a shot from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a movie about UFO sightings and alien abductions, where a man, Roy, witnesses a UFO at a railroad crossing.

The shot from Vertigo is of Judy in her hotel room after Scottie took her to dinner and brought her home. In that scene she calls him out on only being with her because she reminds him of Madeleine. The scene from Close Encounters is when the aliens return the people they took from Earth. At the end of the movie Roy leaves with the aliens on the mothership because he wants to learn more about them and what is really happening. The Red Shoes and Vertigo are both love stories filled with deceptions and surrealist moments. But we are like Roy, witnessing something that we can't completely explain, that is out of the normal, that not everyone can see or believe in. But Roy from the very start of the movie told us that he enjoys magic.

But we're trying to create something different.

Then we see a shot of Méliès' A Trip to the Moon as it turns into a coin spinning, Victoria from The Red Shoes turning while dancing in the spotlight, Madeleine from Vertigo's hairstyle that spirals onto itself, a UFO sighting from Close Encounters, the staircase from Vertigo then Scottie waking up from his dream sequence. Like the very first episode when Carmy wakes up from his nightmare to a bright circular light.

The symbols of Vertigo's spirals and The Red Shoes ballerinas can be seen in Sydney's own t-shirts in Season 2 and 3.

We then see a series of magic tricks and illusions like a man standing on woman's hand, levitating a table and a woman, and boots walking themselves away and a lot of other clips from Méliès' trick films. There's a shot from The Red Shoes of a dancer turning into Lermontov then turning into Julian, then Victoria runs into him, as she is torn between choosing between her career and love, it creates the illusion of her being in front of the movie screen as she runs towards him, breaking the fourth wall within the movie. The Bear is being upfront and honest to us about what tricks they are trying to pull right in front of our faces. They are telling us they have been tricking us.

The Red Shoes is essentially the journey that both Sydney and Carmy are on, but in different ways. Carmy believes he has to give up amusement and enjoyment and love in order to be successful as a Chef and get a star, but he is also trying to get a star out of love for Syd that he isn't fully aware of or willing to admit to himself. Meanwhile Syd is stuck trying to decide if it's worth leaving people she loves in order to be more successful at her career and make a name for herself. Like Vertigo, The Bear itself is trying to make one woman (Claire) fit the mold of another woman (Sydney) by dressing her the same and having Carmy give her what Sydney likes and take her where Sydney has been.

This magic dream like sequence is really an explanation for this entire season and previous ones. They are telling us directly as the audience the tricks they have up their sleeves. Carmy is stuck in a dream weave.

More on clocks, trains, dream weave, ghosts, hauntings, the fourth wall, sleight of hands, Hugo, Vertigo, The Red Shoes, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to come...

Claire is not Carmy's future. She's "Wednesday".

Being in denial about feelings and trying to repress them is definitely a thing. And if there's one thing Carmy has ever consistently done is be in denial and suppress. Like he did with Mikey, the NYC Chef trauma, his mother's alcoholism, Sydney when she quit etc. Part II was all about Carmy using Claire to avoid the restaurant/Sydney, even when we saw him being riddled with panic attacks every time he was with Claire. He was trying to make Claire his present/future but every time it kept pulling him back to his past. Part III was all Carmy trying to mentally rewrite his relationship with Claire and conveniently ignoring all the weird times and the panic attacks. Carmy does not think about happy times with Claire to feel happy. He thinks about them to stay in his cold pit of despair and to keep himself from moving on and accepting amusement or enjoyment in his life again. He's addicted to thinking about Claire like he's addicted to cigarettes. Both were not good for him and "a waste of time", and he "quit" both of them but he continues to think about them all the time because he is a self-destructive person.

That long scene with Claire that he thought of at 5 am established several things. Primarily that Carmy is still in "Wednesday", both the literal day that it took place but as a concept. He's stuck in the past with Claire. Frozen in time. He says he used to love Wednesday's as a kid, just like he used to love Claire. Now Sydney is just trying to get past Wednesday, while Carmy tries to avoid thinking about his legacy and the future.

His least favorite day is Sunday because the restaurant is closed and he has nothing to do and he can't turn off the "buzz" at night. Conveniently the only day he doesn't see Sydney. And it's also what Sydney lied about in order to get him to give her a job at The Beef. Then after thinking of Sunday's, Claire noticed his heart was beating really fast, in a seemingly calm situation. Buzzing one might even say.

Then they talk about his hand scar from grabbing a hot pot. He really grabbed it and it's really deep, but he wasn't paying attention. In the very first episode when Sydney arrives, he's arguing with Richie and grabs a really hot pot and burns his hand. Syd is a hot pot that he hasn't been paying attention to and that is going to leave a very deep scar on him once she leaves him.

Claire tells him a story about the girl who came into the ER on the 4th of July with a bunch of cuts, and that she almost killed her by not paying attention to her chart, but when she woke up from surgery she didn't even feel pain because it hurt so much that it didn't hurt at all yet. Then in that same episode Carmy cuts his hand and Sydney walks by, then she cuts her hand after telling him he is not communicating or paying attention. A small cut to the many that he has been adding to his relationship with Sydney. That scene remembering Claire was about how he is hurting people and himself but can't stop because he doesn't feel it yet, because he is frozen in the past, and despite his denial, he still can't "turn off" the buzz of Sydney from his head.

In Apologies after Sydney left him when he realized he was thinking about her while making a dish and starting to allow amusement/enjoyment back in his life by asking Syd to come to Ever, he went back into the fridge to distract himself by thinking about Claire again the same way he did when he was trapped in the fridge, to try to turn off the "buzzing" from Sydney.

Natalie had a similar early morning blue light flashback about her own unresolved issues, thinking about Marcus's mom's funeral and Donna. But by the end of the season we see that she has made peace with her past and Donna and has moved forward with being a mother.

How does Carmy move on from a Claire obsessed season? He faces her reality and what his relationship was her was actually like, not just a highlight reel. He might feel guilt but does he actually want to even be with her again? Doesn't seem like she does based on her conversation with the Fak's.

How does the show establish his feelings for Sydney have always been there? He actually explains to Syd why he wanted her as his partner at the end of Part I, why he was avoiding her/why he thought he could make his feelings for her go away by being with Claire in Part II, and why he was not letting Claire go in Part III and not letting himself feel amusement or enjoyment with her. The same way he explained why he wanted to build a restaurant with Mikey, why he avoided grieving him, and how he accepted the reality of the situation at the end of the end of Part I at al anon and the same way he opened up to her under the table to her in Part II. He is capable of using his words when he really wants to. Losing Claire might have put him in a funk, but if he loses Sydney? Everyone around him is going to be painfully aware of how much she actually means to him compared to Claire. Cause that guy could barely stay alive after she quit the first time. Mikey and Sydney are the only two people Carmy has ever made plans with for the future.

Claire is the physical manifestation of Carmy’s avoidance.

Before he got locked in the fridge Carmy chose to prioritize Sydney over Claire. But at Friends & Family night he ended up picking Claire over Sydney because he was being pressured by Richie and his avoidance kicked in again. This resurfaced his NYC Chef trauma, because Claire was a distraction to getting Sydney her star and the general success of The Bear. Then he tried to over compensate by turning into NYC chef all of a sudden and freaking out at Sydney. Because he wants to get Sydney a star but he’s also terrified of failing and having the NYC Chef “win” and wants to succeed out of spite for how he made him feel.

He left Sydney at Kasama to be with Claire because it was the easier choice for him than to put himself out there and be vulnerable with Sydney. Then he left her to go to that party with Claire and ended up having the Fishes Christmas panic attack. He left Sydney to cook for Claire, then ended up with the alleyway panic attack about Claire and Fishes. He left Syd at service for Claire and ended up with the NYC Chef panic attack then locked himself in the fridge and he is mainly concerned with Sydney and the staff through flashbacks. Using Claire as a distraction from Sydney always comes with a cost. And it always brings up the root cause of his avoidance which is his mother and the NYC Chef.

Carmy promised Sydney that he would not leave her alone after the fridge. And while he physically has not left her alone to be with Claire. He never mentally left Claire. 

Sydney suggested he should make a call after he got out of the fridge, and he thought she was referring to Claire instead of Richie, who is his actual 'family' and who he really hurt with his words. He apologized but in the most generic way possible and Richie knew he was just doing it to get it out of the way, which is why they're still fighting. He's still using Claire to avoid confronting his emotions for people like Richie and Sydney, who he knows he has hurt but who he really cares about. Sydney didn't give Carmy "permission" to call Claire then. He needed Sydney's push in his relationship just to call Claire his girlfriend. He thinks not talking to Claire equals prioritizing Sydney, but in turn he is still prioritizing Claire only just in his head, not physically, because he is still using Claire as an avoidance tool for his feelings for Sydney, his lack of apology for Richie, and even his lack of confrontation with his mother. 

In Season 3 we see him happy and panic free in Claire flashbacks. Because she is in a romanticized version of his past. We know he can be an unreliable narrator and see things that aren't fully there or twist things, and his flashbacks to his relationship with Claire is not the full picture. He's not thinking about all the times that being with her led to a panic attack after. He is using her to be avoidant of Sydney and what she means to him and what doing all of this for Sydney means.

He can't really answer Nat or Sydney when they ask “Why are you doing this?” because he’s still in denial about what he is really feeling for Sydney. But he can answer that he feels guilt whenever someone brings up Claire because that is easier to address.

Carmy is an avoidant. In Season 1 he oscillated between avoiding dealing with his actual grief about Mikey by just focusing on the restaurant and avoiding dealing with what was growing between him and Sydney by using the restaurant and his grief for Mikey, until it blew up in his face. He physically avoided the restaurant itself Season 2 because he needed to avoid his feelings for Sydney, but still projected his feelings for her onto Claire by doing everything Sydney enjoys with Claire until it blew up in his face with a panic attack about the two of them.

Then in Season 3 he couldn't physically avoid Sydney, so he mentally avoided her by trying to reframe his relationship with Claire as something joyful and carefree and peaceful. When we all know that the reality of it was something else. He tells the Fak's he can't apologize because it's too hard. He's avoiding apologizing to Claire for many other reasons too. Cause if he does he'll have to address the fact that Claire said she loved him, which I really don't think he loves her back like that. He'll have to face the real version of Claire and his relationship with her; which was not all sunshine and butterflies. It was filled with panic attacks and anxiety. So he'd rather live in a romanticized version of her in his head, missing her and filling his thoughts with her instead of Sydney, than face what was actually going on.

Sydney is still his muse. He slipped into thinking about Sydney that night by making a dish about her and by inviting her to go to Ever with him. He made that dish that was blatantly inspired by her standing right in front of him. He has been avoiding talking to her, and he clearly wanted to say more, but didn't know how or what to say.

Once Sydney left he started hearing the music from his time in the fridge, he threw the dish out and immediately started to spiral. He stared at the bar cart with party items for Richie's Tuesday Surprise. aka the Amusement and Enjoyment. Which is what he was trying to find with Sydney that day he had planned an inspirational food tour with her, but ended up ditching her for Claire at Kasama. And what he told himself he no longer needed in order to focus on getting Sydney a star.

He stands outside the fridge then Strange Currencies starts playing very quietly under the fridge music, "I don't know why you're mean to me When I call on the telephone." He then goes inside the fridge and "I don't know what you mean to me. And I don't know what you mean to me But I want to turn you on, turn you up, figure you out I wanna take you on" plays a little bit louder, which is basically what his deal with Sydney is right now. He doesn't know what she really means to him. He knows she calms him down and inspires him, but he doesn't ever say what that means to him out loud. Then it grows louder with "These words, "You will be mine""

Then he reached for his phone to try and call Claire. Because he's trying to drown out the song with Claire. The first time we heard it was when he first saw Claire by the fridge and once he rejected her, aka when he chose Sydney, the song got louder. Then when he wanted to take Claire to the restaurant, aka where Sydney was, after the party it played again. He knew it was for sure about Sydney from the panic attack, because with Claire it was backwards, she was his past, but with Sydney it was moving forward.

When he's debating pressing call to Claire, the fridge music overpowers Strange Currencies, because Claire is what keeps him frozen in the past and "haunted" by it. He practices saying sorry as the songs grow louder trying to drown each other out, and we see a clip of present day Claire working and Strange Currencies stops playing.

Then a flash of her in The Bear sitting on the garde manger aka cold prep, which was the same clip we saw of her when he was thinking about her when he was locked in the fridge, Strange Currencies plays again over it. He is still stuck on it even though she's moving on and living her life. Strange Currencies grows louder because he keeps trying to convince himself the song is for Claire and reverts back to the past when he thought it was for her that night he took her to see the kitchen.

Claire's I really love you voicemail plays. Then it cuts to who else but Sydney. I really love you. aka I really love *you*. Sydney. What he is actually thinking but avoiding. What stops Carmy is fearful avoidance, because Claire Sydney is so great she scares the shit out of him.

It was literally in Season 3.

Sydney stopped on Sheridan Road by the lake on her way to Nat's house which is in Evanston.

That's where Carmy took Claire on their way to deliver mail.

I think there's probably not going to be a Season 3 part 2 soon tbh They just confused everyone because the third act of The Bear is still not finished, but the third TV season is.

The Bear is split up into parts, they show us with slates at the beginning of every season.

Season One was Part I

Season Two was Part II

Season Three was Part III

Season Four will also be Part III Continued

Basically they gave us half of an act worth of the show for a Season for the sake of having it be a part of a TV cycle. Which is why it is so unfinished. Instead of waiting until the full act was done. I think they will either end the series in Season 4 with the final third part. Or have a fourth act in Season 5.

They should have just explained that Season 3 is the first half of the Part III act and Season 4 will be the second half of Part III from the start, cause now everyone is pissed off at how incomplete everything feels. These people really need to hire a new marketing team.

Sorry but I refuse to believe that Carmy finds peace in Sydney because she's just such a wonderful coworker. His panic attack in Season 2 was about his relationship with Claire and his family, nothing at all work related. He was not thinking about "Wow Sydney has some serious cooking skills!" there. He thought of the first time her met her, and when she came back to him when he thought she was gone forever. He has also worked with the best chef's on this planet with far better skills than Sydney, many of whom were calming and supportive presence in his life.

In Season 3 the thing that sets him off is seeing an imagine of meeting Claire in his mind. Then he is reminded of his fight with Richie.

He tries to think of The French Laundry and then Noma to calm down. Then he tries to think of Nat at Marcus's mom's funeral.

And only after that when Sydney talks to him he calms down. He's always stressing about work, in that moment the trigger was Claire, not work, and the peace was Sydney. Not because she is helping him do his job or work, but because her presence brings him peace and pulls him away from what causes him anxiety, which is remembering Claire who is tied in his mind to so much family trauma.

You can't shoot down what was already written! Carmy took Claire to Sheridan Road and Post Office like UPS, those are both tied to Sydney. He made her Sydney's pasta that led to her coming to him. He had a far more intense and passionate moment with her under the table making promises of prioritizing her over his girlfriend, never letting her fail, promising to always be there for her, giving her the most thoughtful gift one could imagine. Far more than he has ever had with Claire.

So what he's trying to say is that they have this deep cosmic connection, intense passion, and she brings him peace and happiness and security but the only thing he could never possibly have is any form of physical attraction towards her? That Sydney can meet all of his emotional needs and work needs and share the same interests and goals and passions. But Claire will always win at the end of the day, in spite of the lack of peace she actually brings him and there being seemingly no actual shared interests between them, because he just wants to sleep with her? Like...

1. I don't buy that Carmy has absolutely no possible interest in Sydney in terms of physical attraction.

2. If that's genuinely the case, and this is all ending with her either leaving forever and Carmy giving up or staying as his calming sidekick while he's endgame Claire, it is basically putting Sydney in some sort of black woman savior trope for him whose purpose is to serve him and his story and his progress while remaining undesirable, while also simultaneously giving her nothing back because he can't uphold any promises to her cause he's too damn busy thinking of Claire.

If they wanted to keep them platonic they could have done so after Season 1 without constantly drawing comparisons between Sydney and Claire and making her everything he wants and needs except being ya know.... his white girlfriend.

Sydney is nadeshiko.

That Season 3 picture that they put on the trailer even though it wasn't even in the trailer is telling us something. The bandana she wore is called the Nadeshiko Champetre. Nadeshiko means the idealized woman in Japan. She is Carmy's idealized woman.

The brand of bandana's is Kapital, which we've seen before in Season 1 when he first officially hired her and when she quit. They are known for their Japanese denim and named after the denim capital of Japan.

And we all know who loves denim.

She is also wearing another Kapital bandana in Season 3 called the Selvedge, which is type of finish on the edge of denim that is supposed to prevent the hems from fraying or unraveling. Sydney is trying to prevent Carmy's unraveling

Forget Copenhagen, sydcarmy trip to Japan when?