Ice Chips (The Bear)

Development

In May 2024, Hulu confirmed that the eighth episode of the season would be titled "Ice Chips", and was to be written by executive producer Joanna Calo, and directed by series creator Christopher Storer.^[1] It was Calo's sixth writing credit and Storer's 17th directing credit.^[2]

Writing

Donna tells Nat about the births of her three children, and each story seems to have a suggestion of the child's adult selves:

• Mikey: "I guess he had gotten twisted up inside there, right up until the last minute, literally to the last second...It was kind of like…like he wanted to stay in there."
• Carmy: "We were fighting the entire time. And the hospital. The hospital was a fucking mess. It was as if every person in the world decided to have labor at that exact second...[Donna's husband, the father of the Berzatto kids] was asking for a sedative, and he was panicking, and he freaked me the fuck out. And then Carmen…fucking Carmen…he took so long. It was so hard and so scary, because he kept getting stuck, and they just kept having to move me, and I remember they were moving me in all these positions. And then at one point, I think they had me fucking upside down or something."
• Sugar: "I woke up, and I was sweating, and my water had broke...Auntie Gail met me there...And she was sweet, and she sat with me. And she put on this beautiful song, and…And then Natalie. You're beautiful."

Casting

Keith Kupferer, who played Sugar's doctor, was also cast in "The New Guy," a long-form multi-brand advertisement Coca-Cola Company products that was directed by Christopher Storer and released in January 2024.^[3]

Filming

• According cinematographer Andrew Wehde, "Before Sugar gets to the hospital, there's an experience she's going through with her contractions that is hyper-intense, hyper-realistic. We wanted it to be direct sunlight, we wanted it to be harsh, we wanted it to be handheld. Everything we might do as filmmakers to make it look pretty, we got rid of it. From the parking lot to walking up and Donna [Jamie Lee Curtis] entering the frame, there's a barrage of overwhelming information for the senses. Then you see Sugar in the hospital room, and there's a level of peace."^[4] Rolling Stone Philippines wrote that Sugar's highway panic was written, staged, and acted in a way that made it particularly "terrifying because it stresses just how alone she is. She's done her best to keep The Bear floating and to assuage the dysfunctional kitchen staff, but at a time when she needs the help in return, there is no one there to help her."^[5] Abby Elliott broke her ankle the weekend before filming and wore an orthopedic boot for the scenes where Sugar is laboring in Chicago gridlock traffic and walking through the parking lot with Donna.^[6]

• The hospital scenes were shot at Endeavor Health Skokie Hospital in Skokie, Illinois.^[7] The hospital-room scenes were shot in two takes with three cameras, the first shooting Abby Elliott, the second shooting Jamie Lee Curtis, and a third set at the foot of the bed to capture both of them in frame for "two-shots." Per Wehde, Storer declared the first take "safe" and television-ready, so they used the second take more experimentally: "They basically performed a play from start to finish in that room...[with the second take], we really started to get some dynamic stuff, the shots that feel like The Bear, the big zoom-ins, the focus transitions to Abby, things like that. It was a tour de force from the actors, and all we had to do was capture it."^[4] Camera operator Gary Malouf stated, "I think that there's something that really fascinating about how once you get thrown into the fire, it's like we're all in this together. The hierarchy of a film set gets thrown out the window. It's no longer Oscar-winning actor and hack camera operator, it's just two people trying to figure it out together. That was a very exciting thing as a storyteller and filmmaker, and just as somebody who really loves doing what I do. It was different than anything I've ever been a part of, and all of that comes through on camera...We did two takes, and they just went through it. They did 27 pages all at once."^[8]
• Abby Elliott prepared for performing contractions onscreen by having someone record her when she was in real-life labor with her second child in June 2023.^[9] She later told a reporter that realistic labor pain "was such a big focus of mine to make it seem extremely realistic and have you almost feel the pain with me. And yeah, it definitely helped having done it twice now...Sugar is now stuck in a birthing room with the last person she wants to be with, but also the person that she needs there, who's the closest to her, who's also gone through labor. She needs to feel reassured in this calm manner [but] then Donna will go on a rant about her having her father's ass and Sugar's like, 'What? That's not what I need from you right now.' And then she surprises her and tells her this comforting birth story and holds her."^[6]

Picture editing and sound design

"Ice Chips" was edited by Megan Mancini.^[10] According to staff editor Joanna Naugle, the background sounds in the hospital were carefully dialed to the mood in Sugar's hospital room, stating that Steve "Major" Giammaria and SFX editor Jonathan Fuhrer we're "layering in sounds of people talking outside, machines beeping, and people wheeling things down the hallway. As we get into the more intimate part of the conversation, where we use more close-ups, the outside sounds melt away, so you're not distracted by them."^[10]

Music

"Baby, I Love You" by The Ronettes is a music pick that has layers: "Mother and daughter bond when the former tells the latter she was born to the strains of The Ronettes, the two tearfully reconnecting as 'Baby, I Love You' plays from a smartphone speaker. This moving moment goes deeper. The Ronettes tune was co-written and produced by the problematic Phil Spector, a man who did truly terrible things while producing era-defining works of musical genius. This mirrors the complex relationship between Donna and her children, who are struggling with undiagnosed, inherited generational trauma, but also have a persisting passion for cooking and family instilled in them."^[11]

Critical reviews

"Ice Chips" was positively received by critics. The Boston Globe critic described it as "a lovely détente, and its power comes not only from the sharp script but from Elliott and Curtis, who are both extraordinarily good."^[12] Jenna Scherer of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A" grade and wrote, "I expected 'Ice Chips' to start out bad and only get worse, like 'Fishes.' (I don't know about you, but I was so sure that Donna was lying when she assured Nat that she'd called Pete.) But Calo and episode writer Christopher Storer give us something far more cathartic—and far more surprising."^[13]

Marah Eakin of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star out of 5 rating and wrote, "The episode does a great job getting that across, timing out Natalie's contractions in what feels like real-time. We're not there for the whole birth—that would be an hours-long episode—but the direction and cinematography of the run-up feel real. Jamie Lee Curtis and Abby Elliott look how they look, crying and mussed hair, and there's no over-the-top comedic screaming or wacko water breaking."^[14] A.J. Daulerio of Decider wrote, "This season's Big Panic comes from Sugar's impending childbirth. And unlike the constant YELLING of those other episodes, 'Ice Chips' relies on uncomfortable silences and unspoken trauma to ramp up the anxiety."^[15]

Brady Langmann of Esquire wrote, "I'll spare the details, but Mrs. Berzatto recalls seeing a beautiful fish tank. She was sad to walk away from it but found solace in the fact that other people would experience and enjoy the sight, too. Take from that what you will, but maybe Mrs. Berzatto feels that—between Michael, Carmy, and Sugar—she ultimately raised a generation of Berzattos that'll leave the world better than she did."^[16] Natalie Zamora of Show Snob wrote, "'Ice Chips' is certainly one of the more emotional episodes of The Bear season 3, giving us much-needed moments between Natalie and Donna. There are only two episodes of the season left of the season, and I can't wait to see where it goes next."^[17]

Accolades

TVLine named Abby Elliott and Jamie Lee Curtis as the "Performers of the Week" for the week of July 6, 2024, for their performances in the episode. The site wrote, "After all that psychological turmoil, Nat and Donna reached something of a truce in a heartwarming moment at the end when Donna played the Ronettes' 'Baby I Love You' and stared into her daughter's eyes, their grievances melting away to reveal a fresh understanding. It was complicated, and messy, and it didn't all get neatly resolved in the end. But it felt achingly real throughout, thanks to Elliott and Curtis' astonishingly intimate work."^[19]

Retrospective reviews

In 2024, The Hollywood Reporter placed "Ice Chips" at 6 on a ranked list of 28 episodes produced to that point, calling it an essential showcase for Elliott's talent as a dramatic actor, and "a powerful exploration of the circle of life, with Nat and her mother healing old wounds as a new Berzatto baby is about to enter the world."^[20] Screen Rant ranked "Ice Chips" 10th out of the 28 episodes produced through the end of season three, calling it one of "one of the best and most tension-fueled episodes of the third season."^[21]

In 2025, Vulture ranked "Ice Chips" as 7th-best out of 38 episodes of The Bear, commenting, "About a billion TV shows have tried to show what it's actually like to birth a goddamn baby and very, very few have succeeded. Not only did The Bear succeed with 'Ice Chips,' but it also managed to somehow shoehorn incredibly amazing storytelling into the whole wildly painful looking experience. With just two cast members on-screen most of the time—Abby Elliott and Jamie Lee Curtis—'Ice Chips' still manages to feel full and vibrant, important and deep. Watch it and then call your mom to apologize."^[22]

Collider placed "Ice Chips" at number 9 on its 2025 list of top 10 episodes of The Bear, because even though "Nat is hesitant to call Donna because of their fraught relationship...Donna ends up coming through for her, and it makes for a lovely episode."^[23]

A BuzzFeed writer commented, in a character rundown published prior to the release of season four, "I depended on Natalie deeply for bringing a more calm and grounded essence to the series, and then they went and gave her one of the most chaotic episodes of season 3 (which was also my favorite!)."^[24]