The Bear Season 3 Ending Explained: What is The Future Of The Restaurant?

The conclusion of The Bear season 3 marks a significant turning point for Carmy, Sydney, and the entire team at the fine-dining restaurant.

It’s a culmination of personal battles, with Carmy confronting his mental struggles, Sydney navigating his professional challenges, Tina coming to terms with her past, Richie dealing with his wife’s remarriage, and Sugar repairing her relationship with her mother. These individual journeys lead to a cathartic closure for The Bear season 3.

The episode opens where Carmy, Sydney, Richie, and many of the country’s best chefs gather at Chef Terry’s Ever to honor its legacy before it officially closes.

1. What was Chicago Tribune’s Review of The Bear Season 3’s Ending?

The Bear season 3’s ending maintains an air of ambiguity surrounding whether the Chicago Tribune review is positive or negative. However, it briefly features flashes of several keywords from the review, allowing the viewer to guess its content. Some of the keywords that appear momentarily in the closing scene are as follows:

“Confusing”

“Excellent”

“True culinary gem”

“Dissonance”

“Innovative”

“Brilliant”

“Sloppy”

“Inconsistent”

“Delicious”

“Simple”

“Disappointed”

“Berzatto”

“Stale”

“Overdone”

Mixed keywords are indicative of both positive and negative receptions for the bears. Though the result of the review remains unknown, Carmy’s reaction and all those missed calls from Uncle Jimmy hint at bad news.

If this is true, The Bear’s fate could be in limbo, where it will come down to Jimmy to decide whether the venture is worth continuing.

Jeremy Allen White in The Bear | Source: IMDb

2. Is Sydney Leaving The Bear?

In the final arc of The Bear season 3, Sydney is seen enjoying herself at Ever’s retirement after-party. However, a sudden breakdown reveals her internal conflict must choose between staying at The Bear or joining Ever’s former CDC Adam on his new restaurant venture.

Throughout the season, Sydney has tried convincing herself to stay at The Bear. This is why she delays signing the contract that would make her a joint partner. Her struggle is palpable, and it’s clear that her decision is not easy.

She is almost convinced that the moment she has entertained Adam’s offer, she must leave The Bear and entirely shift her career path in the food world. But she doesn’t feel it easy to bring up the thought of leaving Carmy.

Even when meeting with Adam at Ever’s retirement party, Syd tells Adam she is on board for the opportunity. This infers that she wants to leave The Bear but is too in love with the people of the restaurant just to walk away from them.

Because of this, it becomes clear that she doesn’t freak out in the closing scene because she doesn’t know what to do. She knows she needs to part ways with The Bear if she will make new headway in her cooking journey and get further attention to her work.

Syd panics because she can’t summon the guts to say goodbye to the people she has grown so attached to. If The Bear received a bad review from the Chicago Tribune, it would mean that Syd had another valid reason to move on. However, had the review been flattering about her dishes, the plots for her to leave could have turned complicated.

3. Will Uncle Jimmy Stop Funding The Bear After Season 3’s Ending?

During the show’s third season, when The Bear struggles to break even, Uncle Jimmy becomes involved. He brings in his financial advisor to examine how Carmy and Sydney could cut operational costs.

Much as Jimmy may have wanted to keep his family-owned and operated restaurant up and running, he realized there was no way he could continue to fund it.

Hence, he tells Carmy that he will have to pull the plug on them if they cannot get a good review from the Chicago Tribune. Moments after he gets back into his car, his financial advisor tells him that he is not in the position to fund them anymore as several figures are lost from his overall net worth.

While the result of the review may ultimately decide whether Jimmy will or will not continue to invest at The Bear, his deteriorating financial situation may spell trouble for the restaurant.

Even though The Bear got a favorable review from the publication, Uncle Jimmy could not sustain it for long since he is running short in money and not as well off as earlier.

What’s worrying is that Carmy does not seem happy after he has read the review, hinting at its negative nature and probably meaning Jimmy finds no reason to keep investing in the restaurant in season 4.

Oliver Platt in The Bear | Source: IMDb

4. Is there a Redemption Chance for Carmy? Will He Get Back Together With Claire?

The opening episodes of The Bear season 3 underline that Carmy realizes where he went wrong with Claire. Even while he understands what went wrong, he just cannot bring himself to apologize to her. Carmy waveringly fluctuates between two behavioral patterns throughout The Bear season 3.

While one part of him continuously tells him to be easier on himself and more nourishing towards his relationships, the demon reminds him that he needs to step up twice to master his craft and become numb to everything.

The latter renders him unable to call Claire and apologize to her. Considering he declines even when his boss, the Faks, suggests that he should do so, he probably will not do so soon. When Carmy holds on to the belief that his success in cooking will come at the expense of his relationships, he’ll stick to this pattern of self-induced isolation and thus lose even Sydney.

5. How was Carmy impacted by the meeting with David in the end?

During Ever’s retirement party, Carmy runs into his old boss, David. Through Carmy’s flashbacks, one can see how he was bullied and humiliated in the kitchen by David, which gave Carmy his psychological and emotional trauma.

His sight angers Carmy, who tells his old boss how he badly treated him. In return, he proudly tells him that Carmy would not have been a great chef if not for him. This bursts a bubble upon Carmy when he realizes that David’s toxic mentorship in his life contributed to his mindless drive for perfection; Carmy gradually becomes a spitting image of David.

Although the third season of The Bear concludes right after this rejuvenation, it would seem that now, after coming to realize how he is gradually turning into the same kind of chef that he despises, Carmy will have to change himself for good—that he needs to keep his feet on the ground and not be such a bully to the people he works with because he may leave the same mark on them that David did on him.

But considering how Syd is already close to bailing on The Bear, all of this could prove to be a bit too little, too late for Carmy to get out of his way finally.

6. How The Bear Season 3’s Ending Sets Up Season 4?

In particular, Season 3 of The Bear toned down the drama slightly compared to Season 2. At the same time, it saved all the heavy-hitting drama for the ending moments to show how The Bear season 4 will massively jack up the stakes.

With Uncle Jimmy probably having to pull the plug and Sydney possibly leaving The Bear, The Bear season 4 will tread on some of the biggest difficulties Carmy has ever faced. Meanwhile, Syd will wail on the inside as she struggles with the decision to allow her emotional attachments to drive her choices or think more rationally about her future.

These big plot points of The Bear season 4 will all stem from the vague restaurant review. Having just been shut down by Ever, Richie won’t have too much career-wise to fall back on either if Uncle Jimmy pulls the plug on The Bear early. Professionally, Tina takes the biggest blow in The Bear season 3 if the main restaurant gets closed or Sydney peaces out.

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7. About The Bear
The Bear is an American comedy-drama television series created by Christopher Storer.

A young chef from the world of fine dining comes home to Chicago to run his family’s Italian beef sandwich shop after the suicide of his older brother, who left behind debts, a rundown kitchen, and an unruly staff.

All episodes of the first season were released on FX on Hulu on June 23, 2022, and the second season was released in its entirety on June 22, 2023. In November 2023, the series was renewed for a third season, which was released on June 26, 2024. Ahead of the third season premiere, the show was renewed for a fourth season, which will film back-to-back with the third season

The series stars Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, and Abby Elliott.