Forever (The Bear)

In a flashback, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) starts his first day at the French Laundry. As he is preparing family meal, he is approached by Chef Thomas Keller, who offers him some tips on trussing a chicken. Keller also explains that, besides learning how to cook, it is very important to "nurture" people in his environment to build a good image. In present day, Carmy, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) arrive at Ever (a fictionalized version of a real restaurant in the West Loop) for its closing dinner. They reunite with a few colleagues, including Chef Luca (Will Poulter) and a few other respected chefs. As they sit to converse about their experiences, Carmy notices that Chef David Fields (Joel McHale) is in attendance. Richie goes to the kitchen, where he reunites with Garrett (Andrew Lopez) and Jessica (Sarah Ramos), and decides to help them in running service. As the chefs talk about the importance of creating safe environments, Carmy finally admits his frustration with Fields to Sydney and Luca. When Fields walks to the bathroom, Carmy goes to confront him over his abusive nature. Carmy tells him he thinks about him which Fields states he does not think about him. Carmy opens up about how he destroyed his life by having abandoned other people in his life. Fields, however, retorts to an incredulous Carmy that he should be thankful; he began as a fine chef and left as an "excellent" chef. Sydney and Luca visit the kitchen, where Luca reveals he will stay in Chicago for a few months to visit his sister. Adam (Adam Shapiro) reminds Sydney about his prior offer, to which she states she is still interested. Chef Terry (Olivia Colman) delivers a speech, proclaiming that the importance of a restaurant is not the food, but the service to the customers. She also explains her choice to close the restaurant to Carmy, explaining she was tired of the constant stress and wanted to finish her career on her own terms. Later, Sydney invites the staff of The Bear and Ever to her apartment for a party. Checking the fridge, Sydney finds a four-star review for The Beef, causing her to leave the apartment due to a panic attack. Carmy walks alone past the old West Loop location of Peoria Packing Butcher Shop along the Green-Pink Line tracks, and discovers that he has missed phone calls from Cicero and Computer, as the Chicago Tribune review is finally out. He stares at a few specific words, but the consensus is not seen. Carmy simply proclaims, "Motherfucker." == Timeline ==

The Ever funeral takes place Sunday, August 6, 2023. The Chicago Tribune review posts online at midnight and Carmy's phone starts lighting up at 12:03 a.m. on Monday, August 7, 2023. == Context ==

• Chef Terry mocks a viral photo of a salt-sprinkling chef known as "Salt Bae." • The Faks play a dice game at the Ever funeral afterparty; Fak announces he's going to bet $500, which Sydney discourages. The Bear cast also played dice on the red carpet at the season three premiere party. ==Production==

Development In May 2024, Hulu confirmed that the tenth and final episode of the season would be titled "Forever", and was to be written and directed by series creator Christopher Storer. It was Storer's 14th writing credit and 19th directing credit. Casting The episode features numerous cameos by several real-life chefs portraying themselves, including Christina Tosi and Grant Achatz. Tosi became involved through her friendship with showrunner Storer, as well as her husband Will Guidara, who is a producer on the show and also cameos in the episode. Achatz was a fan of the show and was interested in being involved after earlier plans to film at Alinea fell through. The Achatz appearance was brokered by chef Dave Beran, who did the culinary and restaurant line training for Jeremy Allen White and Will Poulter; Achatz told Michelin.com: "Dave Beran (of Pasjoli) who was with me for 10 years flew into Chicago to be on-set with them and was speaking to the director. So Dave texted me and was like, 'Come down to set. They want to talk to you about possibly writing you in.'" As Achatz retold it on a podcast in November 2024 ahead of a planned culinary tribute to Chicago's own Charlie Trotter, "[Storer] knew I wasn't an actor...The questions that Will was asking me—they were annoying! They were weird. And I hear them all the time. So I was a little bit annoyed. The other thing they did was I didn't know that we were rolling...I thought we were practicing...So that was very real." Writing and filming Jeremy Allen White filmed scenes at the French Laundry in Yountville, California, United States, during the last week of May 2024. Chef Thomas Keller talked to Carmy about making roast chicken, Keller's real-life favorite. According to The Bear cinematographer Andrew Wehde, "At the beginning of the episode, when Carmy's with Thomas Keller at the French Laundry, that was 50mm. [Camera operator Gary Malouf] was handheld, riding a butt-dolly so he could roll. The movement's beautiful. To brag about Gary, he's been with me forever, since eighth grade. He was nominated for a Society of Camera Operators award three years in a row for this show. He gets Steadicam operators who send him messages like, 'What's your rig?' And he's like, 'It's all handheld.' He's just that guy...Put the camera on your shoulder and move it." Gillian Jacobs told The Hollywood Reporter how much she admired the acting choices of her former Community costar Joel McHale in the scene where Carmy confronts Chef Fields: "I can't stop thinking about his scene with Carmy in the last episode of the season. The restraint Joel uses, and to play that figure that has loomed so large in someone's imagination, and now they're having that conversation Carmy always imagined having. He probably pictured it four million times in the shower, on walks, and now it's happening in real life. You can see how it reminded him of what that dynamic gave him. It was like a fuel, although I don't know how healthy that fuel was." McHale told GQ of the Berzatto–Fields scene: "The fact that David's like, 'Hey, man, what are you so worried about? Unclutch your pearls. You shouldn't be so upset about all this stuff. You did it. You got there' is deeply unfair on David's part. He approves of him because it worked out. But there are probably so many chefs that didn't achieve the same thing. Obviously, Jeremy's character is extremely skilled, and has worked his ass off, but he's just like everybody in every profession—he had to have some luck. So the piles of other sous chefs and line cooks that worked for David who didn't make it? You forget about those people. So I think it's unfair, because he didn't have to be a dick, but he was, and that's how he is, and that's what worked for him." A Catholic magazine wrote of the scene, "Receiving no indication of remorse or regret, Carmy seems completely bewildered and hurt, forced to reckon with a question he is not prepared to answer: How do you forgive someone who does not think they need forgiveness?" Regarding the episode-and-season-concluding party at Sydney's tiny new apartment, Lionel Boyce told The Hollywood Reporter, "I had a lot of fun filming the party in the finale. We made that a real party environment. Even though we were still in the middle of filming, it felt like the last day of school. There was a relief and release. It was late at night, and it was very loose, and there was music playing. I didn't even know that song ['Laid' by James]. They told us, 'OK, yell out the song and everyone starts singing,' and I'm like, 'What is this song that everyone knows except me?'" Costuming and props As described by InStyle, Syd's "funeral" outfit is a "sleek satin shell top with a matching skirt, accessorized with a funky silver necklace, pearl drop earrings, and a black Ganni Bou bag with a braided handle...her most striking yet." Like her Shapiro-meeting outfit in "Legacy," this outfit is something a "public-facing chef would wear," and shows her continuing character growth. Her top was a Warehouse satin twill shell. Luca wears an Omega SA Seamaster Aqua Terra watch. Chef Terry wears a men's model Rolex Submariner specially fitted to Olivia Colman's "so small" wrists. That song once appeared on a list of "top 15 most Chicago songs ever recorded." Music Songs featured on the soundtrack of the episode include "Together" by Nine Inch Nails, "In the Garage" by Weezer, "The Big Country" by Talking Heads, "Joy" by The Sundays, "Within Your Reach" by The Replacements, "Can You Hear Me?" by David Bowie, "Diamond Diary" by Tangerine Dream, "Just One More Day" by Otis Redding, "We Close Our Eyes" by Susanna Hoffs, "Big White Cloud" by John Cale, "Laid" by James, and "Disarm" by The Smashing Pumpkins. Consequence.net commented that Olivia Colman getting down to "Laid" by James was "an impossible-to-top moment of television." Color key: • = lyrics captioned • = diagetic (music audible to characters in-universe) • = closing credits Also, as he enters the kitchen at Ever, Richie sings the baritone aria "" from The Barber of Seville, an 1832 opera with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini, music composed by Gioachino Rossini (ahem, which is to say, he sings the music conducted by Bugs Bunny when he brings down the house at the Hollywood Bowl in Long-Haired Hare). == Food ==

• Marcus and Tina make cotton candy in the Bear kitchen in a flashback that pops up during Will Guidara's speech about the nobility of service. • Sydney hosts a potluck afterparty at her new apartment. The food and drink (served in various-sized Solo red cups) include vodka (Belvedere brand?) (contributed by Jess, a of potato chips (contributed by Luca), a 12-pack of Budweiser (contributed by Marcus), and a keg of beer (contributed by Faks). Sydney is maybe smoking a joint. Sydney and Andrea chef up freezer waffles (Eggo brand) and frozen pizza (Tombstone brand, five-cheese). The oven-baked waffles are topped with and caviar. The caviar comes from what appears to be a $2,000 canister of Beluga sturgeon caviar (presumably either brought home from the now-shuttered Ever or given to Terry as a valedictory gift). ==Critical reviews==

Jenna Scherer of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B" grade and wrote, "Thus we arrive at 'Forever,' a season finale that feels like The Bear patting itself on the back, buzzed on its buzz, topped off with a non-ending that makes you want to throw your hands in the air. Storer's heavy-handed script hammers home themes that he already made crystal clear earlier in the season." Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone wrote, "even though the finale often gets high on its own supply, it eventually circles back to Carmy and Sydney, whose story this is above all else, and reminds us that miracles do not tend to come cheap. Perhaps if Carmy had gone back to Ever rather than going to New York, he might have become a worthy successor to Andrea Terry." Marah Eakin of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star out of 5 rating and wrote, "We'll have to wait until next season to find out, which could be The Bears last if rumors are to be believed. And while I don't think season three of The Bear was its best, maybe it helps to think about it like that frozen pizza Chef Terry pulled out of Syd's freezer: Even at its worst, The Bear is still pretty damn good." A.J. Daulerio of Decider wrote, "And here we are. The end of a mostly uneventful, meandering season that left the ravenous Bear-loving public still waiting for it to officially begin at the exact moment it ended. Most of the episodes were muddled with flashbacks, pretentious camera tricks, and what appeared to be an overreliance on the actors to improvise through dead spots in scripts. Next season, there should be more substance (right?) and hopefully 95% less Fak." Brady Langmann of Esquire wrote, "when Carmy's anxiety montages pop up, we're meant to understand that he's become an unreliable narrator. The review could've said anythinglet's just hope it's not negative enough to make Uncle Jimmy pull his funding entirely." A Food & Wine columnist commented about the use of real chefs in season three that the appearances in the finale (as opposed to the premiere, "Tomorrow") had "more meat to them...The [dinner] scene itself was mostly unscripted; the chefs naturally talked about the first dish they created for a restaurant menu, the impact of having a bad boss, and the joy of cooking. Every word added depth to the public perception of these real, ultra successful chefs who viewers may or may not recognize. And yet, I felt like the scene was far too long, swallowing up the entire episode..." ==Accolades==

In 2024, The Hollywood Reporter placed "Forever" at 19 on a ranked list of 28 episodes, describing it as one of the show's "most overt expressions of love for the restaurant industry, with real-life world-famous chefs like Thomas Keller appearing to celebrate fictional world-famous chefs like Olivia Colman's Andrea Terry. It is a beautiful episode with a lot of crucial forward momentum, from Carmy confronting McHale's Chef David Fields to Sydney's breakdown at her afterparty." Screen Rant ranked "Forever" 12th out of the 28 episodes produced through the end of season three, in part due to Carmy's emotional confrontation with his old tormentor Fields, a "poignant scene mixed in a season finale that was surprisingly without much plot or stakes otherwise." In 2025, Vulture ranked "Forever" as 35th-best out of 38 episodes of The Bear, commenting, "We've known since practically the beginning of The Bear that Fields is a charlatan and a dick who took every opportunity to traumatize Carmy in the kitchen, so having to watch it over and over and over again just feels cruel, even to the viewer." == See also ==