The Bear: Carmy, Sydney and Richie Bare Their Souls in an Intense Season Finale — But Is It a Series Finale?

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Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Season 4 finale of The Bear.

The Bear’s Season 4 finale is titled “Goodbye” —and it kind of felt like it could’ve been a goodbye to the series as well.

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Hulu’s Emmy-winning dramedy wrapped up its fourth season by turning the spotlight on its three main characters —Carmy, Sydney and Richie —in an intense scene of dialogue that all takes place in the alley behind the restaurant. As the episode opens, Carmy finds Sydney out there, looking despondent, and she claims she was just smoking a cigarette. “You don’t smoke,” though, he points out. He knows something is wrong, and Sydney eventually tells him: She talked to Pete, and she knows Carmy changed the partnership agreement to go half to Jimmy and half to Sydney and Natalie, cutting himself out.

Sydney feels abandoned: Carmy is quitting, and “you’re leaving me with all this s–t.” Carmy insists “this is the best thing for the restaurant,” and he’s confused: “I thought you’d be psyched.” He promises to get the restaurant out of debt before he leaves, but she doesn’t want to hear it. (She also tries to light her first cigarette, but needs his help doing it.) He tells her he needs a break from restaurants: “I think I did this so I didn’t have to do other things.” (“Then join the f–king club,” she scoffs.) He used to love it, he says, but he doesn’t anymore: “I don’t have anything to draw from. I don’t have anything to pull from.” He says he’s been putting “hurdles” in his own way — like changing the menu and “just being a f–king menace in general,” Sydney offers. He also knows that Sydney was exploring her options with Adam Shapiro’s new restaurant, he reveals: “I’ve known Adam for a very long time.”

The Bear Season 4 Finale Sydney Carmy

Carmy can see Sydney struggling to smoke (“You’re not good at smoking”), but she refuses to stop trying: “I’m gonna get good.” She admits she was going to tell him about Adam, “but you were being a f–king maniac.” He doesn’t blame her: “I would want to leave, too! I f–king get it!” She says she’s sorry for everything he’s been through, with Mikey and his family, calling it “the f–king elephant in the f–king restaurant.” He says that’s why he needs to leave: “to make me not like this.” He throws Adam a backhanded compliment, calling him an “OK” chef. But “I smoke him,” he declares, and “so do you.” He tells Syd “you’re everything I’m never gonna be… Any chance for any kind of good in this building, it started when you walked in, and any possibility of it surviving? It’s with you.” He tells her “I believe in you more than I’ve ever believed in myself.” Why, she asks? “Because you’re The Bear.” He says she doesn’t need him, but she says that’s not the point: “You’re supposed to f–king be here!”

After that 13-minute dialogue, Richie comes out and interrupts, and Sydney tells him Carmy is leaving. Carmy calls it “retiring,” and Richie chuckles at that: “You’re 12.” Richie turns bitter, telling Carmy to “just take off. It’s what you’re good at.” He starts to walk back inside, but Carmy stops him by telling him he was at Mikey’s funeral. An enraged Richie gets right up in his face, warning him: “I will f–king destroy you.” He tries to quiz Carmy on what he was wearing at the funeral, but Carmy doesn’t know, because he didn’t stay long: “I couldn’t handle it.” Richie asks if Carmy knows how hard Mikey’s death was on him. Carmy admits he was angry when he got back to Chicago, but “I didn’t realize how you lost someone, too.”

The Bear Season 4 Finale Carmy Richie

Carmy admits he resented Richie’s closeness with Mikey: “You got to spend time with him… I didn’t know him like you did.” Richie remembers that he stayed at The Beef just to keep an eye on Mikey, and he tried to keep him safe, but “I failed.” In fact, “I thought that’s why you didn’t go” to the funeral, Richie says. He takes a drag of Sydney’s cigarette and admits he missed Carmy when he was gone. He recalls taking a road trip with Mikey and feeling locked in at work and thinking to himself, “That’s what Carmen’s life must be like.” He even bought a cookbook, The French Laundry, even though he didn’t understand it. He can’t understand why Carmy would leave, either, but Carmy tells him: “I don’t know what I’m like, Richie. Outside of the kitchen.”

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Richie figures the restaurant will be fine, though, looking to Sydney: “We’ve still got you, don’t we?” She’ll stay, she says, but she has a request: She wants the partnership agreement changed to include Richie on the half with her and Natalie. Richie is touched: “F–k yes, Chef Sydney. It is a f–king honor.” They shake on it, and Richie has just one question: “Exactly how the f–k do we keep this place open?” Sydney has the same question, and Carmy assures them: “We’re gonna figure it out.”

The Bear Season 4 Finale Carmy

Natalie joins them outside, and Sydney tells her Carmy is leaving — and Richie tells her Carmy was at Mikey’s funeral, too. Natalie looks at Carmy, and he nods, and she walks over to him without a word, hugging him and crying. We see shots of the city of Chicago at night, the empty kitchen at The Bear, the empty dining room. We can hear a beeping: It’s the countdown clock, making its way down to zero. And when it hits zero, it starts beeping like an alarm clock.

Is time up for The Bear, though? The Season 4 finale was written in such a way that it could serve as a series finale if needed, and FX has not yet officially renewed the show for a fifth season. Plus, Jamie Lee Curtis, who plays Carmy’s mom Donna, posted on Instagram this week a message that felt like a farewell to the role, telling series creator Christopher Storer: “Thanks for the ride of my life.” But we need to see Carmy stick around long enough to get The Bear that Michelin star, don’t we?

We want to hear from you: What did you think of the season finale? And would it be a satisfying series finale, if the show ends here? Give Season 4 a grade in our poll, and hit the comments to share all of your thoughts.

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