On May 5, The Bear surprise episode Gary premiered on Hulu and the internet completely freaked out, and for the right reasons. The episode follows twhat happens before the main series and centers entirely on Richie and the late Mikey Berzatto, two characters whose relationship has always been the show’s most emotionally loaded thread. But before you get into that, the episode dropped another bomb on fans: it was more than just an episode and meant something else entirely.
Set a few years before the beginning of the show, The Bear surprise episode Gary follows best friends Richie and Mikey on a work trip to Gary, Indiana, where they’re running an errand for Uncle Jimmy. The stars of the episode also co-wrote it, and series creator Christopher Storer directed. Importantly, it’s searchable on Hulu under the episode title rather than being tucked into any season’s episode list so you might have missed it if you went looking in the usual place.
The episode mostly plays like a standalone installment not too dissimilar from some of the show’s other flashback episodes. The focus is squarely on the dynamic between Mike and Rich: they play basketball, they do drugs and get drunk, they love each other, they hate each other, and somehow they actually manage to deliver the package. It’s the kind of easy, volatile intimacy between two people who have known each other too long and too well.
But the ending is where things get genuinely interesting. The episode ends with Mikey driving and Richie in the passenger seat, waiting at a crossing for a train to pass. Then it cuts to a different point in time, where Richie is the one driving and looking sadly at the empty passenger seat next to him. He is then hit by an oncoming van, which smashes into the car right before the credits roll. There’s very little to date the ending except that it’s clearly sometime later which means it could be from, during, or just before Season 5.
What fans are saying about The Bear surprise episode
The structure of The Bear surprise episode is telling in itself. Audiences have spent four seasons absorbing Mikey through secondhand accounts: Carmy’s grief, the money hidden in the beef, the specter that hangs over every corner of the restaurant. While fans have spent three seasons piecing together the myth of Mikey through hazy flashbacks and second-hand trauma, this surprise episode finally lets us sit in the passenger seat. Giving Bernthal a full hour to play Mikey at something approaching full capacity, before the depression fully swallowed him, is a narrative gift.
Fans on Reddit were quick to comment on The Bear surprise episode. One fan wrote,
Had to slam my laptop shut and stare at the ceiling after that ending. Wow.
Another fan praised Bernthal and wrote,
God, Jon Bernthal is such a good actor. You can literally see the flip of his character from the beginning to the end with the moment in the bar. Similar to how he would describe his mother. I’m assuming the ending was present day since Richie was in a suit and likely is gonna set up season 5. Can’t wait
The Bear surprise episode Gary is available to stream on Hulu.
Edited by Nibir Konwar