Summary
-
The Bear
season 2, episode 6, “Fishes,” is a brilliant and haunting portrayal of the Berzatto family’s deep-rooted traumas and unresolved conflicts during Christmas. - The episode showcases the Berzatto family’s highly compelling and painful dynamics, with tensions escalating and culminating in a chaotic and destructive dinner scene.
- The Christmas episode of
The Bear
rejects the typical feel-good holiday trope and instead offers a darker and more realistic depiction of familial dysfunction, making it one of the greatest TV episodes of 2023.
The Bear season 2’s hour-long Christmas episode served as a haunting portrait of the characters’ traumatic family backstory. Following up on the success of the first season, The Bear season 2 was another smash hit for Hulu, with frequent praise being aimed at the celebrity-filled flashback episode. Set outside the titular restaurant, The Bear season 2, episode 6, “Fishes,” takes the series back five years in time as members of the Berzatto family tree gather for Christmas at the home of Carmy, Sugar, and Mikey’s mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis).
The Bear’s Christmas followed the Berzattos as their deep-rooted traumas and unresolved conflicts rear their ugly heads. As Donna hectically cooks the intensive Seven Fishes meal for The Bear’s Christmas episode, Carmy and Mikey passive-aggressively argue, Sugar incessantly inquires about her mother’s well-being, Lee tries asserting his dominance over Mikey, and — tragically, given what’s to come — Richie is depicted happily married. The heat is turned up with every anxiety-inducing scene escalating until everyone is seated for Christmas dinner, concluding with Lee and Mikey throwing forks and screaming insults while the intoxicated Donna crashes her car into the house.
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The Bear Season 2’s “Fishes” Was One Of The Greatest TV Episodes Of 2023
The Hulu Show Continues To Push The Envelope On The Small Screen
In terms of TV episodes that are simultaneously so haunting, beautiful, heartbreaking, hopeful, and disastrous that it’s impossible to look away, The Bear season 2, episode 6, “Fishes,” certainly stands out as a brilliant example. Like Carmy in the episode’s final moments, the events are so shocking yet not at all surprising that there are no words left to say when they’re over. The direction, the acting, the screenplay, the anxious face close-ups, and The Bear season 2’s unexpected cameos combine to make “Fishes” one of the greatest episodes of TV in 2023, alongside installments like “Church and State” in Succession and “Long Long Time” in The Last of Us.
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The Bear’s Christmas Episode Is A Highly Compelling & Painful Portrait Of Family Dysfunction
The Portrayal Of The Berzatto Family In The Holiday Season Was Uncompromisingly Realistic
Rather than a look at a dysfunctional family that still learns to come together peacefully for the holiday and resolve their conflicts, The Bear utilizes its Christmas setting to give the most intimate and raw exploration of the Berzatto family’s psyche yet. For dysfunctional families, Christmas can turn into a day when familial anxieties are at their worst despite efforts to maintain a good face and have a nice holiday. However, as The Bear shows, Christmas also comes with too high of expectations, which often ironically leads to worse disappointment and heightened conflict.
By dinner time, the real roles that each member of the family plays and their trauma responses are known, which return in The Bear season 2’s chaotic ending. The matriarch Donna is a familiar figure to many, and as she strives to have a perfect holiday steeped in tradition and love with her clan, the expectations she places on herself become too overbearing, with any minor mistake or error being catastrophic. Donna drinks to cope with the stress, although the alcohol exacerbates her anxieties, self-loathing, and anger.
The same is true for Mikey, who puts on a happy face and has a fun time telling stories with his friends until Bob Odenkirk’s Uncle Lee berates him for his drug abuse, failed business plans, and insecurities. After the volatile Mikey returns intoxicated, the hot-tempered violence and lack of self-restraint that Lee criticized are made worse as he childishly throws forks at the dinner table. In just one hour of television, The Bear season 2 brilliantly and painfully establishes the Berzattos’ tragic family dynamics that have been festering unresolved and unchanged for years, if not decades, before this episode.
By the end of
The Bear
’s Christmas episode, Carmy’s deep-rooted associations between food, family, and trauma, as well as the origins of his perfectionism and quickness to anger and frustration are bleakly understood.
The Bear’s flashback Christmas episode makes it clear why Carmy left Chicago and avoided his family by diving into his career. Like Michelle and Uncle Jimmy, who try not to engage in the family’s clashes, Carmy’s attempt to enjoy a nice holiday is thwarted by the curse of denial that plagues the Berzattos. By the end of The Bear’s Christmas episode, Carmy’s deep-rooted associations between food, family, and trauma, as well as the origins of his perfectionism and quickness to anger and frustration are bleakly understood.
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“Fishes” Brilliantly Breaks TV Christmas Episode Tropes
The Bear Rejected Christmas Episode Expectations
While a special holiday episode led to worries that The Bear may follow in the footsteps of Ted Lasso season 2’s surprising Christmas episode, which detracted from the plot to tell a story of goodwill and kindness among the team, FX/Hulu’s series went in quite the opposite direction. Rather than a feel-good story about the Berzatto family at a rare, happy moment in their past, The Bear season 2, episode 6 depicts them at some of their lowest and most traumatic moments, with familial resentment and feuds being exacerbated by the holiday.
There’s no Christmas miracle or happy reunion between characters in
The Bear
’s episode – instead, the installment serves as context for the tragic betrayals, demises, and thwarted hopes and happiness to come.
“Fishes” wasn’t simply an excuse to work in a fun holiday episode. The Bear’s setting and flashback were necessary to understand the Berzattos’ dynamics in claustrophobic, high-stress situations. There’s no Christmas miracle or happy reunion between characters in The Bear’s episode – instead, the installment serves as context for the tragic betrayals, demises, and thwarted hopes and happiness to come.
No family is perfect, but many TV shows’ Christmas episodes highlight the hope that such conflicts will be set aside for just one day on Christmas. The Bear rejects this dream and hits viewers with a darker reality instead, which is far more truthful to Carmy and the Berzattos’ story. Not only is it more authentic to the narrative at hand and the growth still to come several years later, but The Bear’s “Fishes” is about as feel-bad as a holiday-themed episode can get.
The Bear
’s “Fishes” is about as feel-bad as a holiday-themed episode can get.
The chefs at The Bear aren’t gathered around playing Secret Santa, baking Christmas cookies, or singing carols. The Bear’s flashback Christmas episode is Lee telling Mikey he is and will amount to “nothing,” Donna driving her car into her house, and Carmy dissociating as he stares at the cannolis that will be linked to trauma for the next five years. It’s real and heartbreaking despite still having some glimmers of hope with the side stories of Richie, Tiff, and Uncle Jimmy, serving as a rejection of the nostalgia-filled Christmas episodes more prominently featured on TV.
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The Bear’s Christmas Episode Cameos Avoid Stunt Casting Clichés
The Cameos In “Fishes” Were Incredibly Well Selected
The Bear‘s Christmas episode is filled with big guest stars, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Bob Odenkirk, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Paulson, and John Mulaney as members of the Berzatto family. With special episodes dedicated to big holidays where previously unseen characters may appear, it’s tempting to fill the installment with big-name actors that simply augment the surprise factor of the story. However, The Bear avoids this by genuinely utilizing its guest stars’ talents in their portrayals of their deeply imperfect new characters, proving their inclusions are anything but stunt casting.
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It wouldn’t be shocking if Curtis received an Emmy nod for her “Fishes” guest role, as the Oscar-winning actress is the standout for her chilling performance. Indeed, the emotional depth of The Bear‘s holiday installment rests largely on the shoulders of its guest stars. Curtis as the erratic matriarch, Bernthal replacing his father as the troubled “man of the family,” Paulson as the cousin who sees her family’s faults and tries to help Carmy escape it, Odenkirk as the man stepping on Mikey’s toes in a fight for power, and Mulaney as the unrelated friend who loves the family despite their dysfunction make The Bear‘s Christmas episode hauntingly compelling.
The Bear’s Family Christmas Episode Drama Excels In What The Berzattos Leave Unsaid
The Words They Can’t Bring Themselves To Say Reveal Plenty
Despite so many cameos, returning characters, and chaos occurring throughout The Bear’s “Fishes” episode, it’s clear that there’s one important member of the Berzatto family missing from Christmas dinner. While he may not be physically at dinner, the presence and legacy of Carmy’s mysterious father is still felt throughout “Fishes,” even without his name ever being uttered. However, the fate of the Berzatto family patriarch is never officially revealed in The Bear season 2, rather it’s only implied that he passed away sometime before that fateful Christmas day.
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Another facet of dysfunctional families that The Bear season 2’s Christmas episode drives home is that some of the most important things are said without actually saying them at all. Carmy’s father may not be around anymore, but his influence over the Berzatto family is still extremely tangible without the characters even directly mentioning him. While Mikey references their father during the anxiety-inducing fork-throwing scene, his lasting impact on their dynamics is felt more deeply in what’s left unsaid – maybe what they’re too afraid to say. Clearly, the lore of the Berzatto family and their dysfunction goes far deeper than The Bear has yet to disclose.
The Bear
Set in a Chicago sandwich shop, The Bear follows Carmy Berzatto, a young professionally trained chef who returns to take over his family business after the unexpected death of his brother. At odds with many of the shop’s employees due to his culinary training, Carmy struggles to maintain order and keep the shop from failing entirely. Jeremy Allen White stars as Carmy alongside Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Ayo Edebiri.
- Release Date
- June 23, 2022
- Cast
- Jeremy Allen White , Ebon Moss-Bachrach , Ayo Edebiri , Lionel Boyce , Liza Colón-Zayas , Abby Elliott , Oliver Platt
- Seasons
- 2
- Story By
- Christopher Storer
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu , Disney+
- Directors
- Christopher Storer
