Apologies (The Bear)

Marcus continues his study of legerdemain. As the Faks, Neil (Matty Matheson) and Theodore (Ricky Staffieri), help Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) behind the restaurant, they try to get him to apologize to Claire (Molly Gordon), but Carmy is too distracted to focus on Claire at the moment. He and the rest of the staff are waiting for the Chicago Tribune review, as it could set either their success or downfall. Carmy is deeply anxious about the review as they struggle through service, particularly with the Wagyu beef and pasta dishes; Carmy and Richie remain visibly estranged; Marcus worries that strain is eating Carmy alive.

Carmy and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) continue having communication problems; Syd is frustrated with his lack of self-awareness. Carmy invites Sydney to the Ever "funeral service" closing dinner, which is scheduled to take place the following day (Sunday, when the Bear is closed), and she accepts. Alone, Carmy tries to call Claire but cannot bring himself to do it, so he only mutters "I'm sorry" to himself. He is later visited by Cicero (Oliver Platt), who explains the state of their situation; due to the rising costs, if the review is negative, he will have to back down his investment in the restaurant. Sydney feels jealous when she reads newspapers about The Bear, with Carmy receiving sole credit for its status. When she delivers food to Pete (Chris Witaske) and Natalie (Abby Elliott), she discovers from Pete that Carmy is offering her less money and fewer benefits as a partner than she would get working for Adam.

At a park, Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Tiff (Gillian Jacobs) watch Eva (Annabelle Toomey) play. Tiff wants to know if Richie will attend her wedding, feeling that she does not have a lot of friends. Marcus (Lionel Boyce), Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), and Sweeps (Corey Hendrix) all come in on their day off to work on the restaurant; Sweeps is studying "grapes," and Marcus helps Tina brainstorm a dish. Fak and Theodore visit Claire at the hospital, as unappointed messengers. They tell Claire that Carmy loves her more than he does himself, but Claire says she has not heard that from Carmy himself.

At his apartment, Carmy puts on a suit, preparing for the restaurant funeral. He finds a funeral card with a lamb on it and puts it on his dresser next to a scrunchie.

Carmy asks Sydney to join him for the Ever funeral on Saturday, August 5, 2023. Nat, Pete, and the baby are home from the hospital, and Sydney delivers food to them on Sunday, August 6, 2023.

• Sydney listlessly clicks through a series of online magazine features about star chef Berzatto's rebuild of his family's heritage Chicago restaurant; A.V. Club recapper Jenna Scherer noted that these "articles about The Bear...give the 'brilliant, visionary' Carmy all the credit. It's pretty implausible that all these reporters and photographers have been showing up in the kitchen and completely ignoring Syd, or that Carm would let them."^[1]

• The prayer card that Carmy finds in his suit jacket and places on his dresser (beside a scrunchie hair tie) depicts Jesus Christ embracing a lamb, from a fresco depicting Christ as the Good Shepherd, painted by Josef Kastner for a Carmelite church in Döbling, Vienna, Austria.^[2]

• Marcus continues his study of magic and illusion, which was inspired by finding a sketch of a sleight-of-hand playing card trick in one of Carmy's food journals in "Legacy."^[3] The episode opens with a montage of licensed and public domain clips from old films including the fantastical A Trip to the Moon, The Vanishing Lady, The Four Troublesome Heads, An Up-to-Date Conjuror, and The Bewitched Inn, all by Georges Méliès, the surrealist Un Chien Andalou by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, the impressionistic but also German expressionist trauma-of-the-creative-arts post-World War II "musical" The Red Shoes, the psychological suspense thriller Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock, the suburban science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Steven Spielberg, The Magician by Ingmar Bergman, Weegee's Camera Magic, the vaudeville magician Al Flosso on The Ed Sullivan Show, and others, overlaid with talks by magician Ricky Jay, and director Martin Scorsese.^[4][5] The topic of both narrations is magic tricks, sleight-of-hand, distraction, deception, and the nature of storytelling itself. The Martin Scorsese talk, licensed from Film4, comes from a behind-the-scenes interview about the magical motion picture Hugo, based on the children's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and starring Ben Kingsley as Georges Méliès.^[6] The Ricky Jay voiceover comes from Deceptive Practices: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay.^[7] As one writer explained Ricky Jay's argument about the nature of magic in the context of The Bear:^[8]

Nobody likes being duped at a high-stakes game of poker, but when you go see Hans Klok, Mr. Copperfield, or David Blaine, you fully expect to be lied to. You want to be. Deep down, you'll know at all times: This lady is not really being sawed in half. But between that truth and what you see on stage, there's a tension, and the space between the two is filled with wonder. Unless the visuals are compelling, however, the whole construction falls apart—and compelling visuals are extra challenging when the audience is in on the trick: 'Physics won't allow this. So how can this look so real?' This is, quite literally, where the magic happens. For Marcus' new calling, that means elevating his desserts not just in terms of variety and taste but turning them into an experience as stunning as a magic show. Can you make a dessert that looks like an apple but tastes like a pear? Can you serve a piña colada ice cream that brings the drink to life in your mouth in an entirely new way? What about collapsing chocolate domes, hidden elements, and flavors that only activate once you add the right drink? Adding such honest lies to his craft is what'll take Marcus' patisserie skills to the next level.^[8]

In May 2024, Hulu confirmed that the ninth episode of the season would be titled "Apologies", and was to be written by supervising producer Alex Russell, and directed by series creator Christopher Storer.^[9] It was Russell's second writing credit and Storer's 18th directing credit.^[10]

Sydney is visibly torn in this episode between the partnership offered her by Carmy and the one offered by Adam Shapiro. She seemingly rehearses a speech telling Carmy about the Shapiro "opportunity" and begins to try to tell him when they are lingering at the prep table late one night after service. She also gets flustered when Pete explains the terms of the Bear partnership agreement to her. Ayo Edebiri told Deadline Hollywood about Sydney's ambivalence, "I think she's always balancing [Carmy's] validation and his style of communication, because he will do a gesture but not necessarily say what he's thinking or feeling...She's sort of like, 'Is that true? You're offering me this thing. But what does it actually mean?'"^[11]

Meanwhile, as Sydney seemingly wants to express but lacks the ability or willingness to articulate, "the nurturing qualities associated with a man able to cook and feed vanish as he reverts to toxic masculinity of high-level Michelin establishments embodied by Chef David in quick flashbacks across the series...The Beef's family warmth is replaced by the cold ambition of The Bear, allowing Carmen to slip into the self-destructive routines that have already damaged his mental health," which fuels Carmy's impulse to confront Fields in the following episode, "Forever."^[12]

Carmy wore a Ralph Lauren cotton "deck jacket" while spraying down the back patio of the Bear and listening to Jimmy talk about the University of Chicago as an incubator of innovation.^[13][14] The jacket has a corduroy collar, Japanese buttons, grosgrain-weave fabric, is half-lined, and is "based on classic nautical coats from the 1800s and 1900s."^[13] Sydney wore a vintage Ralph Lauren cowboy sweater while visiting Lake Michigan and Sugar's house.^[15]

There is a Say Anything... movie poster on the wall in the basement where they keep the chef jackets and the old Beef fixtures.^[16] Sydney fruitlessly rehearses her "thank you for the opportunity but I must respectfully resign" speech to Carmy in front of a cardboard cutout of Paul Rudd wearing an Original Beef shirt.^[17]

Songs featured on the soundtrack of the episode include "13 Ghosts II" by Nine Inch Nails (over the opening cinema-and-parlor-magic montage), "Are You Looking Up" by Mk.gee, "The Forever Rain" by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, "Hope We Can Again" by Nine Inch Nails, "Strange Currencies" by R.E.M., "Secret Love" by Stevie Nicks, "Blowing Kisses" by Jennifer Castle, "Constant Headache" by Tigers Jaw and Joyce Manor, and "A Murder of One" by Counting Crows.^[18][19]

• The Mk.gee song plays while Carmy is standing in the dumpster and the Faks are complaining about the onerous repetition of breaking down boxes.^[20] "Are You Looking Up" was a 2024 release.^[21] The use of very recent releases for the soundtrack, such as Adrienne Lenker's "No Machine" in "Legacy," is fairly uncommon on The Bear.^[22]
• "Forever Rain" was used in a Ken Burns documentary about the Vietnam War.^[20]

• "Hope We Can Again" reprises from the season-two finale, "The Bear," bringing "haunted children's music box" vibes and a "piano line...pure and poignant."^[23] Carmy's gorgeous plate clatters into the dish bin, he spares a glare for the bar cart in the corner of the kitchen, and the soundtrack segues into "Strange Currencies," which warbles distantly underneath the Nine Inch Nails instrumentals. The R.E.M. song, about "a lovelorn protagonist who yearns to win over a mysterious crush," was last heard during Carmy's pre-open back-alley panic attack in "Omelette," and has been described as the de facto "love theme of The Bear."^[24][25] Track repetition is unusual in television soundtracks but The Bear "is about how the past controls the present and the ways in which your omnipresent emotional damage never fully escapes the front of your mind. Your memories don't change, and the songs that stick in your head don't really change, either."^[26]
• "Secret Love," a single from the 2011 In Your Dreams album, plays while Richie and Tiff are talking and watching Evie at the playground.^[20]
• Castle and Matty Matheson, a producer on the show who also plays Neil Fak, worked together at a restaurant when they were in their 20s. "Blowing Kisses" plays over a montage of Carmy sketching "dishes for The Bear" while "Syd is shown taking in a calming view of [Lake Michigan] while other clips of food preparation are shown."^[27] Castle told Rolling Stone about the message of the song:^[28]

"Language can be so futile; I always loathe explaining myself, and yet my love for you makes me want to try, my hands gesturing in endless loop. One day I will no longer be here to revere the buoyancy of the blue lake. I'm held by the loving energy of God. Every rose has its thorn, truly, but let's focus on the rose for now."^[28]

• "Constant Headache" from the 2011 album Joyce Manor plays on the radio while Ted and Neil are on their way to court Claire on Carmy's behalf.^[29] This version is the 2023 Tigers Jaw cover sung by Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins.^[30] Joyce Manor is a post-punk band from Torrance in southern California.^[31] The tune was inspired by "Don't You Want Me" by the Human League from 1981. As to the lyrics, "It's rare that Joyce Manor refer directly to sex, but on the second verse, [Brianna Collins] shouts, 'You having sex in the morning, your love was foreign to me / It made me think maybe human's not such a bad thing to be.' For a moment, everything is uncomplicated and beautiful, only to be followed by a real gut-punch: 'But I just laid there in protest, entirely fucked / It's such a stubborn reminder one perfect night's not enough[.]"^[32]

• The first three seasons of The Bear featured Counting Crows songs; this episode ends with "A Murder of One," as Sugar shows off her newborn baby to her mother, and Carmy heads out to show off his favorite chef/business partner to the culinary elite of Chicago.^[26] According to one music writer, "As Natalie holds her new baby, we hear the Counting Crows song 'A Murder of One', although strangely, it skips around the verses."^[20] (!)

• Late at night, after service, Carmy works on a dish for the Bear menu; whether or not he is aware of it, Sydney seemingly plays the role of his artistic muse and model.^[33] According to one writer, "For Carmy, food is not only an art form, but his love language, [and] subconsciously or not, he draws inspiration from Syd."^[33] The white speckles in the purple sauce on Carmy's plate "distinctly resemble Syd's polka-dot headscarf. This similarity reiterates, through an artistic lens, the influence Syd has on Carmy."^[33]
• Sydney brings food to postpartum Natalie so Nat can focus on recovering from labor and taking care of the baby.^[34] Syd made beef ragù alla bolognese and noodles, beef stew, minestrone soup, and the lasagna with "crispy edges" that Nat particularly likes.^[34]

Jenna Scherer of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B–" grade and wrote, "That just sums up this season, doesn't it? Navel-gazing followed by more navel-gazing. Look, some of the greatest TV episodes in history have been all introspection with very little plot; The Bear itself made a delicacy of it in last year's 'Honeydew'. But watching Carm (and Sydney and Richie and Marcus and the friggin' Chicago Tribune) dwell on the same stuff for an entire season without making any moves isn't just unsatisfying, it's boring. I'm not saying I need to see these people make good choices; I just want them to make any choices at all."^[1]

Marah Eakin of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star out of 5 rating and wrote, "When the episode ends, Carm's dressed up sharp and heading out, leaving us a glimpse of the prayer card he either picked up at Marcus' mom's funeral or pulled out of The Bear since he didn't make it inside Mikey's. He's going to a funeral for a restaurant, but will it be a funeral for The Bear as well? Thank god we've only got the finale left, because I've really got to know how this all turns out."^[16] A.J. Daulerio of Decider wrote, "So that's FOUR major characters who cannot be honest with themselves. Carmy with his feelings; Sydney with her ambitions; Richie with heartbreak; Cicero with shame. The restaurant would have difficulty surviving if ONE of these essential employees was shading the truth. The Bear can only survive if everyone gets honest real quick. If not—REDRUM, lizards. "^[35]

Josh Rosenberg of Esquire wrote, "As he's losing his mind over ravioli, she's reinserting a kid's shoulder back into its socket in the hospital. Just apologize, Berzatto!"^[7]

In 2024, The Hollywood Reporter placed "Apologies" at 21 on a ranked list of 28 episodes.^[36] Screen Rant ranked "Apologies" 26th out of the 28 episodes produced through the end of season three, calling it "one of the weakest of the series" in part because "there are virtually no stakes or tension driving the plot forward."^[37]

In 2025, Vulture ranked "Apologies" as 24th-best out of 38 episodes of The Bear.^[38]

• List of The Bear episodes
• The Bear season three
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• Next episode: "Forever"