Review: The Bear, "Violet" / "Children" / "Napkins" | Season 3, Episodes 4-6
After chaos swallowed The Bear, the series pivots to a reflective trio of episodes
“That dream shit…wasn’t going to happen to me.”
Based on where the second season left off, it felt fair to suggest that the logline for The Bear season three was about transitioning from creating a fine dining restaurant to actually running one. And in the opening episodes of the season, we saw that story play out, building to the sheer chaos of “Doors” where the restaurant’s first six weeks took years off the chefs’ lives.
But then we follow it up with these three episodes, the first two of which technically take place in the aftermath of that chaos but involve absolutely no time spent with the chefs while the restaurant is open. The opening scenes of “Violet”—beyond another Carmy/Claire flashback to add to the pile—are just the characters’ respective mornings, unencumbered by the existentialism that nearly swallowed them in the previous outing.
It’s a reminder that one of the reasons why The Bear is so striking is that it ultimately has more interest in the day-to-day life of its characters than the day-to-day of running a fine dining restaurant. Those two pieces are obviously linked, and their intersections often make for some of the show’s best drama, but the writers are interested in a greater work-life balance than it may seem within the suffocation of an episode like “Doors.” The central conflict of the show is Carmy’s inability to achieve such a thing, and watching every other character struggle to be consigned to the same fate is where that story gets its dynamism. Other than that brief Claire flashback, Carmy’s own struggles take a backseat here as we explore the other characters’ adjustments to their new normal.
Overall, “Violet” and “Children” are a conscious effort to slow down the pace of the season: after racing through six weeks, these episodes cover at most a couple of days, and the second episode in particular basically takes place in real time once we enter the restaurant. Just look at Marcus’ story: he finds the violet at the beginning of the first episode, but he doesn’t actually start developing the dessert around it until the second, and in between he was just living his life as he deals with the loss of his mother. As is his nature, there’s something so understated about Marcus’ grief, and above all else that’s what he wants: he appreciates Sydney’s help dealing with his mother’s belongings, and her friendship (once they clear the air on the romantic blip last season) as someone who also lost her mother, but what he wants is to just be inspired by a flower and take that into his work. The Computer may wonder how Marcus can be worth his salary when he’s only making two things every night, but Nat’s violent response to the suggestion is a reminder of the equilibrium he brings to an environment where so many others struggle to keep their heads on straight.