The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘The Bear’ Season 5, Episodes 5-8: Every Second Counts

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

Van and Charles keep the volume down to recap the final four episodes of ‘The Bear’ Season 5. (0:00) Intro (1:00) Instant reactions (7:25) Carmy’s ending (9:40) Marcus and Syd (16:15) Did the series run for one season too long? (22:29) The lasting legacy of ‘The Bear’ (26:45) The Claire of it all (30:41) Did the show get it right in the series finale? Email us! [e-mail] Follow us on IG and TikTok! Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of ‘The Prestige TV Podcast’ and so much more! Hosts: Van Lathan and Charles Holmes Producers: Kai Grady and Devon Renaldo Additional Production Support: Justin Sayles and Jacob Cornett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you win a $3,000 a month payday for life, what would you feel free to do? Maybe take a long weekend, every weekend, or try a bunch of new hobbies? Would you feel free to upgrade and listen ad-free? Don't worry, we get it. Every $20 ticket could win you $3,000 a month for life and supports life-saving cancer research at the Princess Margaret. Feel free to buy your payday for life ticket today. Raffle number 155-214. Please play responsibly.

This spring, Denham gets a softer, lighter, update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming. Plus, that signature, wait, for this price, moment. Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. Welcome to the Prestige TV podcast. I'm Charles Holmes. He's Van Leithin. Together, we're known as the Midnight Boys. Woo!

And we are back for the series finale culmination of the bear. It has finally happened after five seasons. The beef, the bear has narratively closed. Even if spoiler alert, the story rolls on. Then they decided to do a big gamble this season. Everybody's like, oh, this reminds me of the pit. The structure of this is one night in the restaurant. Can they pull it off?

can they work together? And in the back of my mind, I was like, are they going to land this plane? And I cannot lie once episode seven hit, I was like, they did it. They did it.

I was actually, I was getting shows. I'm like, okay, this is why we watch TV. It was why you invest five years of your life. This is why we love these characters. Seeing them finally get to the summit was some. I did not realize that this show could still make me feel the same way

that I felt in season one, season two, in terms of just like what it is to see people achieve their dreams in this way. And they did something daring. They ended the show by taking Carmi out of it. Yeah. Carmi had to go find something different. He had to find fulfillment in a different way.

He had to leave all of that. You thought that this show was the origin story of Carmi as the best chef in the world, but it was really kind of the origin story of Carmi as a healthy person, which is that journey is kind of just beginning. What does he say to break patterns? You have to break patterns. Yeah, the break patterns, you have to break patterns. And like, not everyone is suited for the amount of stress

and the amount of strife and strain that comes along with doing the thing that you actually might be great at. Sometimes health is the path of least resistance. And least resistance for him is doing something totally different. Maybe he cooks for his family at some point. Maybe he cooks for people in his life at some point. But doing it in the way that he was doing it was just going to eat him alive. and episode seven showed that from him,

showed that he could be a part of a team, but also showed that the healthier place for Karmie is outside of the restaurant. I mean, to your point, that was season one where he comes back to the beef, and he sees a vision of this place that no one else can. And I think in a lesser show, they would end on episode seven. They would end on the thing finally happened.

This man finally achieved his dream. And instead of that, it does the more difficult, naughty thing, which is like, yeah, you can achieve your dreams in real life. There's still something after. And maybe that thing you were chasing and you were achieving is not actually what's going to make you a fully self-actualized person. Because what I love about this, and we're going to jump around a lot, is that scene where he tells Sid that they got two stars.

Sid goes back to cooking and the burner, and they shoot it in that same way that we've seen Carmi where that clicking sound, that igniter sound of the stove, represents a certain type of anxiety in the walls closing in. And for the first time in the show, Sid does something that Carmi and Wolves can't,

which is she runs out and hugs him. And there's always been that thing in the show. It's like, is this a love story? And I'm like, oh, this always was a love story. It was not a romantic love story. but it was Karmie realizing in Sid that actually for me to be my full self, I have to like not only step away from this woman, but allow her to take on something because I can't.

Yeah, this is her thing. Yeah. It's like not really your thing like you thought like, man, some people are Luke and some people are Obi-Wan. Yeah. You know what I mean? And Obi-Wan at one point was Luke. Obi-Wan at one point was the person

that everybody was getting ready to go out and live his life as a Jedi. Then what you realize is the greatest contribution you have might be getting the greatest Jedi of all time ready to go do their thing. It might be giving back. As soon as this show stopped being oriented around Karmie,

the depth of the show, and that was by design by the writers, I should say, particularly this season. it wasn't oriented around Karmie anymore and the show got deeper. It got richer, it got fuller, and it got easier to see where they were going and what the purpose of the show was.

The purpose of the show was to show what family can build, like what can be built when you invest into people. We had these sort of examples early on with Kami being around these chefs. We have this idea of executive chefs being these people who are consumed with this, who can't stop doing it.

This is their whole life, wake up in the morning early, They get fish, look at the fish all day. They make a restaurant. They make a dis- I don't like this. It sucks. All of this stuff. And at some point,

the structure that was put into the beef and the discipline that was put into it was going to be the thing that made it worth being there. And that's not what made it worth being there. What made it worth being there is the questions that it answered for all of the people that were involved.

The fact that it helped them develop as human beings that helped them sometimes find love, answer questions about their life, reconnect with family, like connect with other people. That's the thing that's going to keep that entity running for a long time, not because Karmie is the dopeest cook or because they make the best food in Chicago. And like, I would have never thought that the bear was going there. I would have never thought that the bear was going there.

Maybe it always was or maybe something that they learned along the way. It was heartbreaking because it was one of the most realistic scenes, which, and it made sense why they had released that long Gary Indiana episode. when Ritchie reveals that he's never been on a plane or out of the country that revealed something to me not only about him as a character but what Karmie was returning to

similar when his mother was going through his journals of New York and the French laundry and seeing him points and be like I stayed on that boat in Copenhagen. You're realizing that for Karmie he's returning with all of this knowledge about the world to people who have haven't been able to travel at. Even Sid was like, she hasn't been that well traveled.

And I thought that it was so interesting to end on that note of Karmie talking to the leader of that architecture firm and realizing the actual joy was of him creating a family again. Yeah. And like giving them the tools and empowering them that they're the CDCs, they're the head chefs, they can go to the Japan. And I was like, I am glad that they ended up there. I'm glad they didn't do the thing where it was like, Karmie does the buzzer beater, he makes the brioche,

he's the hottest fucking chef, he has to stay in this kitchen because they can't survive without him. I love the narrative. Did you think he would change his mind and stay? I was so scared when he's getting emotional talking to that woman in the office. When he's realizing how much that day where they finally all come together and sing, I was like, please don't do, don't do the last minute. Actually, I need to go back.

to the bear. But what I also think, the reason why I was almost positive that they wouldn't do that is because Karmie is so resolute, not only in his decision, but he keeps going to Sid, that's your two stars. He's like, he is very much like, this is something that you did, which always made me be like, he's saying, I don't need the stars. For someone, like, for his journey, if you think about it, he's already been where Sid has been at. Right. And it's destroyed him. What sense would it make for us to have watch five seasons of this where he's like,

actually stars are really, really important? Right, right, right, right. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, because also what it proved to me was the reason why the stars can be important for Sid is because when Karmie's like, the difference between you and me is, when I get overwhelmed, I yell at everyone around me. You come out here and you let it out by yourself.

You don't take it out. I'm like, Sid's the type of person where the stars are not going to go to her head. Right. And she's also the type of person that everybody is going to work freely, better, maybe not perfectly. Even the errors are going to be useful. She's going to trust you more, which means there will probably be more mistakes.

Yeah. But those mistakes are going to be out in the open. They're going to be useful mistakes because she's going to be able to correct. Karmie is the kind of guy that kept you on edge so much to where, even though he wasn't like the sort of fire breathing dragon that we remember him as now, it's just the intensity that he brought was sometimes suffocating to people and he didn't let them be the full selves. So he's learning or has learned about himself.

and we've also learned that for that particular restaurant, she's the much better leader. What was interesting to me about the latter half of this season is they give both Sid and Marcus, who are obviously going to be the inheritors of this thing. With Marcus having one best new chef, Sid being in the paper, getting the two stars being the head chef.

It was very interesting that this season gave them both moments where they became little cargies, where the structure of this place was like, oh, it's not that Karmie was born like a megalomaniac fucking I you gotta do this. It's like no the pressure of the star

system and the accolades and needing to get the food out on time can turn you into a monster. That's what I tell you. Like he was created that way. Yeah and seeing both of them in different ways seeing how Marcus and Sid in their own

lives and in their own careers got up to that precipice and had to be like, no, too much. I got, because that to me is also true to life where it's like, it's not like you go in one day, you're like, I'm a fully realized person, I'm not going to be toxic in the workplace,

I'm not going to get it, let it get to me. There's a moment in this season where they're just like, okay, now we have to do it all over it. Right, yeah. Like, there's a whole, like, I'm like, yeah, you achieve like excellence this one night. All right.

Yep. Bring it, you got to bring it again. I was like, oh, right. So they're just at the beginning of some. something, Walt Carmies at the end of something. Yeah. Did you think that the restaurant will close? So early on, I thought that they were getting us ready for the restaurant to close.

Yes. In the first four episodes, it very much felt like a funeral, which is good writing where I was like, this, because of the structure of the season, I was like, there's Michael Mann in this, there's a heist movie in this, but there's also like a sports movie analogy where it was like, like, this is our final game. Right. But then I was like, oh, no, that almost funeral. aspect. In the latter half of the season, I'm like, this is their final game with Karmie.

And that's what I realized where there's a moment in the penultimate episode where Kami drops the, what was the dish? It was like... The lamb? Yeah. That he had created. And it's this moment where he's about to melt down. He's having all these flashbacks to when he was in the kitchen, the mistakes. And they think that it's going to be the critic that's going to give him the star. And that was the moment where it's like, oh, this place isn't closing because they all, like, Richie's like, hey, we got you. Everyone rallies around him. And Carmi has that final moment where he makes the brioche where, like, Luke is like,

talk, that's not even the first time I've seen him pulled out something like this. I was like, oh, that was the writers, the creators, Christopher Storr, giving Carmie that final moment of like, hey, yo, you won the championship. But this is no longer your team. Right. It's no longer your team. in that moment Karmie didn't need correction

he needed care and that's what the entire restaurant needed from the beginning he thought that everybody needed correction but what they needed was care they needed somebody to believe in them to invest in them to listen to them and so when he got that

it probably was the time in his life that he appreciated it the most right And then it's just so interesting to go from that, to go from him learning that lesson to him still making the decision to leave. It's a ballsy choice. It's a ballsy choice because the big things that you set up for here are either the restaurant closing,

Karmie leaving, or maybe something happening to someone, which would have been really cheap had they done that, right? Sometimes shows do kind of crazy shit. I really think I really thought that everybody was going to leave and go there separate ways and ways and be better as people. But

what I got in the brilliant seventh episode and then, well the brilliant penultimate episode and then the last episode which was kind of like a postlude almost like an epilogue. What I got was just like this deep understanding of how well I know

these characters. Yep. But I didn't realize how well I knew them. Like how well I knew them, how much they've changed. Richie has changed as much as any character on television ever. To see him in a situation where he flying off to go do his thing, he kind of almost got his girl. No, he did because Jess was right there on the play. And even that scene where he puts his finger on hers, he goes, I still got it. You're like, you, because I want to ask you this, what was genius about the? latter half of the season is

you knew what each character wanted. And they had created a moment where it's like we get to see Karmie have his buzzer beater. We get to see Sid get to bring out that dish that she had made back in the first season, the one that I kind of put the beef on back on the map, the Coca-Cola short ribs. We got to see Marcus start a reconciliation

with his dad and even someone like Ibra. finally like get his moment of just like oh come like yeah do it i thought that was also brilliant where there was all of these balls in the air and i was like how are like how are you guys going to land this fucking plane and to get to the end of the series where it's like to your point not only do i know these characters so much i know what they want and i know how hard they've been fighting for this thing i can see that like even with tina this season starts with tina waking up at the being like this means so much to me. Like, what am I without this?

I was like, oh, is her lesson going to be that she'll be fine as a CDC? She could go anywhere. And it actually being that moment where Sid has to be like to car me, she's got this. We're going to send her dish out there. I was like, oh. And she got to call the shot. She even know how to do it.

She was like sitting down there, it's like, you guys take it, say hands, chef. Like it just like even that. Like all of that stuff, watching her come into her own and all of that stuff, just really, really worked. Yeah. It really, really worked. Staples Preferred Business Membership, built for busy business owners, because you've got bigger things to think about.

With Staples Preferred, get free delivery, no minimums. Staples Preferred unlocks up to 3% back. Plus 10% savings on print and exclusive wireless offers. One less. thing on your plate. Actually, a lot less. Visit staples.ca slash preferred. That was easy. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair.

Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home.

Do you think that the bear did itself a disservice by maybe going one season too long. Yes. What if... Like, yes. Where... What if this season was last season?

And was the last season? If this season was last season, I do think people would be having a different conversation with it because your biggest critique about late stage the bear, and weirdly, I think the penultimate episode is poking fun at itself. The penultimate episode is very, very better. Because they have that annoying couple who's back there, the guy that's like, yes, chef.

Yes, chef. Or there's the joke about, I think it's Carmis' mom. Ask our, carmi. He's like, oh, we have theories. And it was like, I think that what I loved about that episode was it was almost Christopher Storer. I think the bear could get so self-serious at points. And the previous season got so self-serious. it almost felt like the penultimate episode

was Christopher Sawar being like we can have fun again. We can laugh again. Not only do I think this would have been better if it had one less season, I will say with this final season, I don't know how many people are going to give it a chance where it's like you do have to stay with this season

because it's almost, it is structured more like a movie than it is a season of television. And at times at the beginning of this season, it wasn't always easy to watch. It was like a lot of shit going wrong at all times, a lot of stress and strain on these characters. We haven't even talked about.

Harry Lennox comes in and plays Marcus's dad. That stuff really worked for me. Yeah. It was very, very meaningful and moving to me. He cuts the candle. Yes, man. God damn it. It's like, who are you really cooking for?

Like, the reason why this matters is because that's like something that you do out of love for someone. But for him, he can, you know, display his genius and get, like, it's just this, this, this, this, underlying theme of family continues to be hammered into the bear. And that's what that's enduring for me. I mean, even when, because at times I was getting a little bit done with the facts of it all. Uh-huh. But even when fact did get that moment where Richie and everybody's super fucking nervous, like, God damn, he's talking to, he's telling stories.

But then you see he's charming, he's charming. who they think is a restaurant critic, I was like, oh shit, okay. They have landed the plane on each in every single one of these characters. And what I also think is kind of like a deft piece of writing, and this is what you can do when your show comes back every year,

is that plot thread, I remember that plot thread of like when Richie makes it snow and there's that guy sitting there. I'm like, that's the critic, that's the star critic. and we did not get it in that season. All we got were the bad reviews. Right. And for them to bring up the fact.

I've forgotten. Here's the thing. I knew that like instinctually, but to your point, I forgot that that had never paid off. I was just like, oh, I guess he had just written the review.

Well, when they got the bad review, I kind of got confused between the review and the stars. Yes. Like I was like, oh, they got a bad review. Does that mean you don't get it? your star, but those are two completely different things. Yeah, those are two completely different things.

But to your point, I, once it like pots back and that guy popped on screen, it was like, and he started talking about the snow, I was like, oh, so I went back to that episode Scallops to look at and I was like, oh, I do remember because this was the episode

where Richie's on his fucking game. You know what I'm saying? And like, even Karmie's like pulling the sandwich and he's like cutting it and he's like, no, we want them all to share it. Marcus makes the hot cocoa. it's every and like even Sid has her moment with the scallop and I was like that to me is genius

writing as well but not to cut you off but real quick that is one of the episodes where you thought you were sure that everything was going to be okay yeah you just knew that everything was going to be okay and then it wasn't okay so you thought you had already lost that battle

right and then to know that everything was kind of okay the entire time yeah I mean Not really, but in a way, you had already made your impression. You already done this. And the rest of, I don't know. Like, that was really, to me, something that they did really well.

I mean, but isn't that also true to most artistic endeavors where if you're in the back, if you're in the back of house, if you're the person who's making the thing, you see all the warts. You see how fucking shitty yesterday was, today was, last week, last month was. but when you're truly doing it for the love and you're on top of the game, the people in the front of house can't tell. And I was like, that was also interesting where it was like, oh, the real win. And I think this series has always been toggling between

does the recognition matter? Do the stars matter? And I think by hiding that and showing when Karmie's reliving that night, he's not thinking of like, oh, that was the night we got the story. star or we thought this person was there who was like, no, that's when my team finally chilled.

Yep. That's when they were the best. And that was probably the moment where he was like, oh, I can actually leave now. Yep. I feel good about leaving because one of the best moments Sid had, and it's such a little moment is when Carmie's doing his little Carmis shit and Tina's trying to help him. And he's like, oh, I can just do it faster myself. And she's like, she can do it, Carmen. You're like, oh, she is a better leader. Yeah. This is a, not, Carmen, this isn't about you scoring all the points. This isn't about showing us how fast you are plating, how fast you can cut an onion. This is about empowering everybody around you to be able to do it the fucking selves.

When the bear came out, it was kind of a trendy show. We talked about this in the last episode. It was a trendy show is a show that cut through culturally. And, man, it could have, like, rested on that. it could have continued to just be a show about beautiful people making beautiful food. Carmi's love story and all of that stuff. We could have done the whole thing. But they did something more daring in the end.

And they kind of got away from themselves and some of the celebrity stuff and all of that stuff. But it was just deeply emotional and moving at the end of it because you were just with someone. And you remember sometimes, it's like almost being like with a friend where you remember like how much you have. have in a tank with them. Like how long you've been with them. I found myself at the end of the show being way more emotionally invested than I thought I was going to be.

Same. I wasn't even super looking forward to doing this because we've done these, me and you have done two shows in total. We've done more than that. But for prestige, we've done, we did Atlanta. Yeah.

And then I feel like we might have done, our first time on here might have been actually Wandavision. Wandavision. So Wanda Vision aside because that would have been on the Midnight Boys at that podcast if it existed at that time. But us doing this and having done those two shows specifically

this one felt more pertinent to my life right now. Yeah. Like I can understand how everyone feels and I felt good for them. Atlanta was so avant-garde that at times it was just like, what are they what crazy shit are they going to cook up. But man, I'm just happy everybody's okay.

All right, this show is not the wire, but it's funny how when the wire comes out, it is not, if you're a true TV head, knew what was happening. But it's not the most popular show. People had their problems with the second season. People had their problems with the last season. But now, not only is it talked about a different way. When you can watch the vision from front to back, you have a different conversation.

And I think when you watch the bear or Atlanta now in a couple years and you see the full breath of it, I think people are going to appreciate the show more. You're going to be like, damn, this did reignite Jeremy Allen White. This did introduce us to I.O. Debris. This was the start of Lionel. Lionel Boyce as like dramatic actor.

You know, I was rewatching some Atlanta episodes recently and I'm like, this is so much more enjoyable outside. side of the take cycle. Like you appreciate the large swings way more because I think what people, what these shows get to is they start chasing, why isn't this show giving me the same feeling as it did in the first and second season?

Why isn't this show the thing that all of my friends are watching? Why are people falling off? And that's what's different about it, where it's like, we're not actually talking about the bear half the time. We're like, well, why is it a binge? Is it really a comedy? Did it not?

two, three, four years, who gives a fuck about that way? Yeah. You know what I mean? And I think it is harder now because less shows. I would not be surprised if third season of something like Widows Bay, third season of the pit, people start having these conversations because you can only be that show for a season or two before everybody's just like, well, you guys aren't the center of attention anymore. You're not the center of culture anymore.

I mean, weirdly, it's what we're talking about with something. something like Supergirl, where it's like, what are these movies now when they're not the center of culture? We're always going to get Spider-Man. We're always going to get Batman. We're going to get X-Men. Are you truly a fan when this thing isn't the epicenter? This sort of mob mentality that gets people both on something and off something is a double-ed sword. It's kind of a thing to where when everyone, the group think is just so poundingly evident now.

That's not to say that there weren't certainly things to criticize about the bear. during his run. Yeah. But, you know, for the people that stuck with it, I think they got a treat. I want to ask you about one more thing specifically. Okay.

Claire. She was at the party. She was at the party. But they just fucking kicked the ball away from Claire. There was nothing about Claire Bear's entire deal that ended up being figured out in this season. Not to me. Like they kind of abandoned the Claire and Carmi thing.

Or maybe not. Did you expect some kind of resolution? Yes. and the thing I was surprised about is they had been giving us kind of little hints last season about kind of the Richie Jess romance. It was very funny that like

they showed us way more of that than they did of like the romance that took up a fucking entire season and a half. That was like the whole, a whole season and a half was oriented around it. You thought legitimately that Claire was Carmi's salvation.

Yes. That like if Carmi could just figure shit out with Claire that he would become a normal person. And then that just kind of, that's not what saved Carmen. What saved Carmen was walking away from the restaurant. But like, she's just gone. I do think it is the right creative choice. And that's nothing against that actress.

That's nothing against the Claire plot line. But when Sid runs out to hug Karmie, I was like, well, that was the central relationship with the show all along. That's what it was. And I'm just like, that is the right creative choice. because I'm just like, once you add Clare to the mix, it gets a little bit muddled. Yeah.

But I was like, because there was even this moment where like Jeremy Allen White holds IOS face. I'm like, please don't see the kiss. I thought that was going to happen. And I think there was a reason that happened. But I was like, oh, to me that was Christopher Storer being like, you know what, let me reorient this because it is a love story. I think people wanted this to be a romantic love story.

And I think that this was a platonic love story. This is about someone finding their person in this world and having that connection and then that ability to let go. And where would Claire have fit in this? Because we also forget, this is about one night in the bear. The whole thing about Claire was she was not connected to the bear.

Right. She was connected to Karmie. Yeah. And because even it was funny, like I thought that scene between Karmie and Ritchie in the, in the freezer was phenomenal. Like getting to see these two brothers

come together and heal that, that could have been a great place for Claire. But that moment... Yeah, that moment wasn't really about Claire. That moment was... What I think was cool narratively is I'm like, Karmie isn't just telling Richie that you can fly, you can travel.

He's saying, like, you can live. Like, you deserve love. Like, you just don't have to be this, like, surly single father. Like, there's more, like, you can be a person, especially if I'm not around. He was like he was giving him permission to do it. And that's why I loved where it ended where I was like,

Karmie was giving permission to Sid to be like, this is your place now. You serve your food. You lead these people. Same thing with, like, Richie. He's like, hey, yo, Mikey's gone. I might, like, I'm still here. But, like, bro, you're no one side.

sidekick, go do what you need to do. And to me, to your point that you brought up earlier, that's when the show got deeper. Like, I was always worried, I'm like, what is the final season going to look like where, like, Jeremy Allen White is not in the center of the frame? And to me, the salvation of the show was realizing, like, hey, yo, the bear was always these people would like, look at all these actors. I'm going to put them in a position where they're going to become superstars. You really don't know what they have.

And to me, that's also the defining thing of the bear. You can talk as much shit about this show as you want, the amount of talent that they picked and really truly like... Cultivated, nurtured, yeah. Io was not only front of, like, is not only a superstar. She was in front of the camera and behind the camera. Same thing with Lionel. You have all these moments, like, where I'm like,

Jeremy Allen was on a successful show for years. I don't think anybody was just like, that's a leading movie. man, not many shows can do that. Yeah, not many shows can do that at all. And not many shows can do that. And while landing the plane of their narratives, shows that send you off in a way that makes you feel not good about leaving.

I think a lot of people get that missed up. It's like, you never feel good about leaving your favorite show or a show that you love. But you do want to feel okay about it. You want to feel okay to leave, right? You want to feel okay to get out of this world and go do something else or experience something else. You want to feel okay. And so a lot of times when shows don't work at the end, it's because you don't really feel okay leaving.

You feel like they're unanswered questions. You feel like the answers that you got didn't make any sense. You feel like the characters acted in ways that didn't line up or aligned with who they were. And you don't feel okay about it. Like, what is that? Like, what's, like, I want more. And why that person died? That's not the way that was supposed to go.

I legitimately feel okay about leaving this world. Where everyone ended up seemed so true. Where you were just like, to your point, I'm like, I felt this way about the end of something like Atlanta, where you're just like, hey, as long as every character ends at a place where I'm like, it could be tragedy, it could be joy, but this feels true to the show that I've been watching. and it feels true to how many hours

I invested with these characters in this family. Hey, bro. Like, the bear, they did it. I don't care what anybody says. It was just like, yo, they fucking landed the plate. Is there anybody else that you feel like you wanted to see more? Did you want to see more of the facts?

Did you want to see? Is there anything that was left on the table for you? The reason I will say no is because of, that penultimate episode number seven, hour long episode did go out of its way to give every single person there win. And the one person who didn't get it, Ebra got it in the finale.

Yeah. Where you were like, oh. That was a great scene. Because also to take a character like Ebra that is almost, I don't want to say almost forgettable in the first season, but not even really part of the main, main cast and give him the actual win where like carmi is sitting there with uncle jane is like

well that's fuck that's a great idea like giving ibra the moment where he's the actual person that saves the bear and then carmi telling everybody at that table you guys are the actual reason that we keep getting to be able to do this is so smart because i'm like it's also true to life there's no main characters and the most talented person is not is not always the person

that's going to end up saving the day. The person who's saving the day is a lot of time the one that's like has their hands in the dirt slinging the fucking sandwiches. Ibra was actually the one

where I was getting a little choked up and my man Ibra finally got that shit. Do you remember two Richie, do you remember the scene I think it's from season

one maybe two where Richie and Sid run into each other? Yeah. Remember that scene? Wait, was that when, I think that was also the penultimate episode where she accidentally stabs Richie with a knife?

Yep. Right. So think about Richie's response to a mistake and the intensity of that episode and how that mistake like shaped like the environment of that scene. And then think about how Richie reacts when Carmi drops the lamb. That. is a full character.

That's, this guy makes a bad situation worse. He makes a tense situation more tense. This guy might be good at his job. He can diffuse a situation, but he's not a good caretaker, right? Think about the way Richie diffuses a situation in the first episode. They're lining up, comes out with a gun,

you snide first motherfuckers. You know what I mean? By the end, he's using his words. He's using his emotions. He's using his connection to get through it. Like those types of journeys is what makes a good, developed television show and makes you remember a character for a long time. Man, that's a perfect place to end it because I couldn't agree more.

Yo, thank y'all for everyone out there who's been on, been at this restaurant with us for, what, four years now? Four years. Hell yeah. And you know what? Special, special, special shout out to the producer who has seen us. through this all literally like what he's been he's been our sid you know what I'm saying he's our sit yo shout out Kai Grady for uh always killing it behind uh the boards hey yo

the bear did it shout out the prestige TV podcast hey make sure you tap in if you want to hear more midnight boys come out every wednesday tap into higher learning twice a week and yo we'll see y'all very soon boo!