The Bear Season 2 Adds A New Flavor Of Anxiety That Could Be A Recipe For Disaster

Contains spoilers for "The Bear" Season 2

Critical acclaim aside, there's no doubt that as great as "The Bear" is, the first season was a binge-able stress test. Watching Carm (Jeremy Allen White) battle against the pressures of keeping a dying restaurant on life support was a gripping and great story that left fans hungry for more. Make no mistake, however, the anxiety was real. It's what fueled the show and its central characters and nailed the restaurant atmosphere perfectly. 

While there's undoubtedly more of the same barbarous back and forth between staff to come, Season 2 is making a brilliant effort to apply some new cooking methods to mix things up. That familiar on-edge atmosphere that made the debut season so exceptional has been left to boil and added in a different form, and it comes with Carm, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), and company doing something they're not used to: nothing. 

Whereas the first season displayed the rush to get the job done and the friction between colleagues, Season 2, in its first episode, gives fans a taste of what can happen when those active contributors are forced — like it or not — to step back and take a minute. Here, a new form of tension kicks in, and by the end of the season, it's an undeniable factor that shouldn't be ignored.

In the first six minutes of "The Bear," Season 2 establishes it isn't about trying to plate anything up but the unsettling feeling of not having anything to dish out at all. During Richie's (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) early confession to Carmey, he admits his fear of what could happen if he's left high and dry. 

"I'm afraid one day I'm gonna wake up, and you guys are just gonna cut," he says. "Just drop this a**." 

It's a severe realization to the shortest fuse on the show, fearing an uncertain future. It's also something that not even Carm has thought about, and it shows. It also raises the question of what does life look like outside the restaurant. By the end of the episode, viewers get an incredibly uncomfortable tease of things to come in its finale.

Carm sits in his shell of an apartment and fails to press his own off switch, which builds up a different tension from the show's first season. This time around, the head chef and other key players are as on edge when they're clocking off as much as they are clocking in. In doing so, it reconfigures that stress that is so addictive in the first season and refreshes it here. It also establishes that, like cooking, leaving a dish to cool is just as important as turning up the heat, and it's great to see a few characters get a taste of what that could be.

If there's one ingredient "The Bear" has, it's passion — the immovable drive to deliver perfection and do anything to get it done. In Sydney's case for Season 2, Episode 3, it's inhaling half of Chicago's competitive cuisine to discover what she's up against and what new ideas she can gain elsewhere. The problem is that it ends in failure by the episode's end. 

Trying to piece together a ravioli dish, she's distraught when one mouthful proves it's not very good. It's one of the many occasions in the show where our favorite bunch of culinary dreamers hit brick walls; however, there's a lesson to be learned, and thankfully, a few among the staff manage to take it on board.

In the very next episode, Marcus (L-Boy) heads to Copenhagen to take some lessons from one of Carm's old chef buddies (Will Poulter). In doing so, he gets the break he needs. Away from his troubles and the infectious unease at work, he nails a dish on the first try. 

Compared to Sydney's struggle, he's flourishing, and he's not the only one. Richie's fork-polishing pilgrimage leads him to find the purpose he's been looking for, and Tina's (Liza Colón-Zayas) time at culinary school is a success worth singing about. This is what can come when obsession gets an intermission, which is something Carm fights to accept.

Great as it is that Carmey is sending his team to find themselves and better recipes, it's a journey he should be taking too. As the second season continues, the lines between passion and profession become more blurred, with the only chance of separating the two being a blast from the past — Claire (Molly Gordon). Here is a chance at a healthy work-life balance via a potential romance. In doing so, it fortifies the message that stepping back from a job someone pours everything into is as important as diving headfirst into it.

Instead of taking the chance to cool down in the restaurant's walk-in fridge, Carmey boils over. His fears and doubts about what a future looks like beyond these freshly painted walls come to the surface, revealing that he believes being a chef is all he's good at. This is another solid representation of restaurant life and a common sense of dread for anyone who invests 100% of themselves into a risk. While he feels alone, there is one person who may understand. 

Prior to Carm cracking on the sidelines of service, there's a moment he has with Sydney that hints at more than just a work relationship. Both admit they can't operate without the other, and while it seems like an honest moment between colleagues, Sydney's reaction to Carm having a possible life and romantic interest off the clock has flared up on more than one occasion. 

This could mean there's something more between the two. The problem is it could be a development that will do more harm than good.

In a show that has fortified the message that drawing a line between work and life is crucial, a romance cooking in the kitchen might be the last thing this place needs. This a workspace where volatile characters with conflicting ideas can cause a greater issue than burnt food, so adding an extra bit of romance to the mix could make things worse. Fans' only hope should be that Carmey learns from his mistakes and tries his best to make amends with Claire next season while living a life outside The Bear.