Worms

As someone who cherishes every glimpse we get into Sydney's life outside of the kitchen, this was a delectable episode. I loved watching her dynamic with her cousin and her niece (or second cousin, rather) and hearing more about why she's so torn between The Bear and Shapiro's place. So far, her viewpoint could be gleaned from gestures and expressions and hints, but it was nice to hear it in her own words (even through a sleepover metaphor lol). This episode was funny, it was warm, it was grounded, it was enlightening (in terms of Shapiro's flaws), and for me, personally, it felt familiar in the best way. Kudos to Ayo and Lionel for this one!

There's one shot in Season 4 Episode 4 of The Bear ("Worms") that literally made me burst into tears. Directed by Janicza Bravo.

An episode all about the decisions we face from childhood to adulthood. You get older and what was hard is now easier, but you are faced with new challenges. The fact of the matter is, Syd will probably be alright regardless of what she does, but making the decision is very hard because there are emotional casualties.

Her cousin clearly has taken up a semi/motherly role in her life and once she has to step away, Syd gets to spend time with her younger cousin who doesn't realize how lucky she is to have this time with her Mom.

Sometimes people who need to workout a decision in their life can reach a conclusion by helping someone else with theirs.

I'm glad her younger cousin is going to the sleepover.

Then we get that shot of the phone with all of the work notifications from Carmy, Pete, and then you finally notice the wallpaper: Syd and her Mom. That hit me like a tidal wave.

She has? Well give her another one because she is kicking ass this season, and this episode she has shown it big time. May be one of the first times I've seen her as credited being the writer the episode too. Total bottle episode and long takes show her range and acting abilities. Side note, the trick about adding tomato paste to hamburger helper is a sneaky good idea. Just give Sydney her own episode every season because they are always fun when she's the main focus.

I'm interested to see where this whole story arc with the partnership agreement finally goes. This season you can tell is doing a lot of healing from the pain they all endured in season 3.

Truly one of the best episodes of The Bear with some amazing writing and acting from everyone involved. It's such a refreshing episode that reintroduces the light and comedy into what has been a dark past 2 seasons and takes us into the world of Sydney which fans have so desperately been asking for. We get to finally hear her internal monologue externally as she continues to decide between The Bear and the new restaurant. We get to see the people in her life and how she functions in the real world, giving us the juxtaposition they talk about later in e10- Sydney has managed to be an amazing chef, better than Carmy even, while still having a foot in the world around her. One of the highlights of the entire series.

One of the things I love the most about this show is how they take the time to show us a glimpse of the character's lives outside of the restaurant, giving us a chance to see their development. This episode in specific was so good in portraying Syd's internal struggle to choose between the two restaurants, but also in showing a realistic conversation with a kid (that was so sweet and relatable honestly!). The writing was genuinely funny and vulnerable at the same time. Love it.

In a way, I feel like it's important to see that Sydney has a life outside the restaurant, she's just having the same struggle as most of young adults have: little time, too much responsibility and, when we realize, it's been six months since we last saw our friends. It's nice to see that represented on screen.