The Bear Season 1 Ending Explained (In Detail)

The Bear’s first season finale hinted at The Original Beef’s potential resurgence under Carmy’s direction while also explaining how the eatery had a chance to survive. The narrative centers on Jeremy Allen White’s character, Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, a gifted young chef who inherits his late brother’s sandwich store. The sandwich shop’s success ultimately determines how The Bear season 1 ends. The Bear chronicles Carmy’s quest to elevate The Original Beef above a run-down but comfortable Chicago neighborhood hangout.

Carmy is supported in his goals by Sydney, a recent hire, but Richie, his “cousin” (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), wants to maintain the status quo in The Original Beef. (Ayo Edebiri). The unusual trio fights over adjustments to the menu and work habits, seldom ever seeing eye to eye. Carmy also stresses the financial hardships Mikey’s decisions put The Original Beef in, leading them to experiment with to-go orders. This all builds to The Bear season 1 ending, which provides hope yet uncertainty.

Summary

• The Bear season 1 ending reveals that the restaurant, The Original Beef, has a chance of surviving under Carmy’s leadership.
• The revelation of Mikey’s letter to Carmy shows that Mikey loved and believed in Carmy, leading to an emotional moment for the young chef.
• Carmy finally decides to close The Original Beef due to financial strain but plans to start a new venture with the support of his other chefs. Sydney also returns, signaling a potential partnership between them in improving the restaurant.

What Mikey’s Letter to Carmy Says

The Note Offers Words of Encouragement and A Secret Recipe

What is contained in Mikey’s letter to Carmy is one of the unanswered questions before The Bear’s first season finale. Richie discovers a letter addressed to Carmy on the floor behind the lockers early in the season. He puts Mikey’s letter back out of anger even though at first, he wants to give it to Carmy. When the young chef is having a rough time, Richie brings the letter to Carmy’s notice in the Bear season one finale. After a moment by herself, Carmy, astonished, decides to open it.

It took Carmy just two brief phrases to start crying.

Mikey’s presence in The Bear is only seen in flashbacks, which makes it powerful when Carmy reads his words now that he is gone. The front of the letter said, “I love you, dude. Let it rip.” These two short sentences were enough to make Carmy cry, as he looked up to his brother but grew resentful of him because Mikey never let him work at The Original Beef.

Carmy was reassured in the letter that Mikey did, in fact, love him, and that he believed in him to take charge by including his slogan, “Let it rip.” Mikey’s letter had the enigmatic recipe for Family Meal Spaghetti on the back, which Carmy had previously been unable to decipher.

The Bear’s Money in Tomato Cans Explained

KBL Electric Was a Ruse

Carmy decides spaghetti is on the menu for family supper after reading Mikey’s letter prior to The Bear season 1  ending and receiving the family recipe. He makes everything according to Mikey’s instructions, even using the 28-ounce tomato paste cans he said tasted better. There was a nice surprise for Carmy in these smaller sauce cans. To his surprise, he discovers a bundle of cash hidden in the sauce. He asks everyone at The Original Beef to assist open cans in order to discover even more money, and he brings Richie into the kitchen right away.

One of Carmy’s main concerns since taking over the restaurant is answered in the first season of The Bear by the money in tomato cans. He found records of Mikey making large payments to KBL Electric, but no one knew who this company was. The amount of money matched what Mikey borrowed from Cicero/Uncle Jimmy. He was saving money all along. A quick shot in The Bear season 1 ending shows “KBL” is on the bottom of the tomato cans, meaning Mikey was putting the money in them for safekeeping.

Why Carmy Finally Closes the Original Beef

Shutting Down the Restaurant Was the Right Decision for The Family

Carmy makes a significant choice in the Bear season 1 finale when he ultimately determines it’s time to terminate the Chicago institution, The Original Beef. Throughout the first season of his character arc, Carmy struggles with this atmosphere and tries to make up for Mikey’s sins. She puts a lot of pressure on him to close The Original Beef because she is a co-signee of the restaurant and fears that the bank and IRS will come for her home.

At last, Carmy thinks the moment is perfect to close the restaurant.

Carmy ultimately believes that the business should cease after reading Mikey’s letter and locating the funds that will lessen some of the financial strain. This decision is aided by the knowledge that he has the support of his other chefs and plenty of ideas to make a new restaurant all their own — even if it means closing another recognizable piece of the city of Chicago.

Why Sydney Returns in The Bear Season 1 Finale

Carmy Finally Accepts Sydney as A Partner

When Carmy shouts at Sydney for how bad the to-go orders are doing, she decides to quit The Original Beef. The Bear ending also extensively addresses Sydney’s future. With the bar next to The Original Beef closing and Sydney’s original recipe receiving such a positive review, there was a chance the impatient, ambitious young cook might find work elsewhere. She might even build up a competitor restaurant.

Nevertheless, The Bear’s first season concludes with Sydney going back to the eatery and continuing to be a significant figure. Despite the bad blood that seemingly existed between them, Carmy’s apology over text and receptiveness to Sydney’s ideas when she comes back to get her last check show that he is ready to accept a partner on this journey to improve the restaurant.

How The Bear Season 1 Finale Set Up Season 2

Money Wasn’t a Solution to Carmy’s Problems

The Bear’s first season finale revealed that Carmy will be closing The Original Beef and launching a new business venture dubbed “The Bear,” marking a change in the restaurant’s direction. The money appeared like a lifeline for Carmy, who had felt like he was living under water the entire season, juggling one problem after another and an apparently impossible financial condition. When I saw The Bear season 1, I didn’t think it would end well.

The money was not going to be the panacea for everything.

But if everything had only gone according to plan, season two of The Bear would have been a totally different program than it had been thus far. From the moment The Bear season 2 began, it was clear that money was not going to be the solution to all the problems in the show. Finding the cash helped ease the financial constraints for the time being, but immediately using it created new problems. Even with the restaurant closed for renovations, the fast-paced anxiety of the show presents one problem after another.

This leads to The Bear season 2 ending being a bittersweet finale with triumphs and failures. The Bear season 1 ending was a necessary conclusion as the audience had seen Carmy suffering and struggling all season. They wanted a victory for him to close out the season. The show would have betrayed itself if it suggested all of these issues Carmy is dealing with were fixed by hidden money. Season 2 was able to use that as a jumping-off point to show he had a long way to go to be healthy.

How The Bear Creator Christopher Storer Explains the Finale

Christopher Storer Revealed Uncle Jimmy’s Plans for Mikey and Carmy

Having the creator of The Bear himself explain the first season’s finale is useful, especially with so much going on. Christopher Storer talked about a number of elements of the last episode, how it wraps up Carmy’s first season trip, and how it allows room for more to be explored (via Indiewire).

Storer clarified that Mikey had planned to utilize the funds from Uncle Jimmy’s loan to build a restaurant with Carmy after he overcome his addiction. The revelation is all the more tragic for this reason, but Storer observes:

“There’s something beautiful in the idea that Carmy could have found this right off the bat if he would have made the spaghetti in the pilot, but then maybe he would have burnt out similarly to the way Michael did.”

The Real Meaning of The Bear Season 1 Ending

The Episode Is About the Importance of New Beginnings

The Bear’s first season ends on a theme of fresh starts, familial legacy, and addressing one’s history, much like the remainder of the program. Ever since Mikey’s death in the first episode of the show, Carmy had been torn about taking over The Beef. Episode 8 of “Braciole” marks his eventual acceptance of the situation and his decision to embrace it as an opportunity for a new beginning for both himself and Mikey’s restaurant.

There is symbolism in renaming The Beef as The Bear. It shows that Carmy is ready to move on from the death of Mikey, and that he won’t be dishonouring his brother’s legacy by trying to establish something new where The Beef once stood. The Beef clearly represents a lot to Carmy, as it’s almost a physical representation of the place Mikey had in his life — both the good and the bad.

Rather than trying to preserve and at the same time improve The Beef (alongside his memories of Mikey), Carmy instead realizes that the healthiest thing to do is to look forward and build new memories that, as much as part of him would likely wish otherwise, Mikey can’t be part of. The hidden money also played into this in The Bear, as it’s almost a metaphor for the fact that sometimes tragedies can also contain the foundations for how to emotionally move forward.

The Bear

Set in a Chicago sandwich shop, The Bear follows Carmy Berzatto, a young professionally trained chef who returns to take over his family business after the unexpected death of his brother. At odds with many of the shop’s employees due to his culinary training, Carmy struggles to maintain order and keep the shop from failing entirely. Jeremy Allen White stars as Carmy alongside Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Ayo Edebiri.