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on a scale of 1 to 10, how emotionally devastated am i about to be

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think i’m most excited for all the bear ao3 updates we finna get 😮‍💨 even when the show writers piss me off, yall never let me down!

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my favourite sydcarmy mass delusion in a while

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Hello, I come bearing gifts while we wait for The Bear S4 to drop tomorrow night. Undecided on whether I'll put this up on AO3, prompt fill from an anon for a back alley fight between sydcarmy.

Carmen finds her in the alley behind the restaurant after shift. Squat, on the ground with her arms propped up by her knees and her head in between them, a cigarette in hand that’s been burning for so long that the ghost of it exceeds its body. It’s how he’s found her every night for the past week. Only this time, he understands why.

“Chef,” Carmen says, warning her of his presence. If he calls her Sydney, he might snap; if he calls her Syd, he might break. This is the comfortable middle ground. Her title. Who she is to the people who don’t know her. People like Adam Shapiro. Adam fucking Shapiro.

Maybe it’s something in Carmen’s voice, or the fact that he joined her outside at all when he no longer smokes, but when Sydney looks up at him, there’s nothing but contempt in her eyes. It’s so familiar that it winds Carmen up even more than he already was after being pulled aside in his own goddamn restaurant just to be asked if he was, “cool with the offer [Adam] made to Sydney.”

“What offer?” Carmen had asked. Adam’s smile faltered. “Oh, she hasn’t told you yet?”

Back in the present, Sydney sighs and says, “Whatever it is you need, can it wait like five minutes?”

Any other day, Carmen would give her the five. Give her the space. Anything she asked for, he would give to her. But it’s night right now, and the sky isn’t the only dark thing between them. So, Carmen says, “I think you’ve had longer than five minutes for this.”

Sydney’s eyebrows draw together in confusion, then relax as realization (and horror) dawn on her. “He talked to you.”

“Who?” Carmen asks – because he wants to fucking hear it from her. The person he built this place with, revived it with. First Mikey, and now her? And neither one of them had the decency to say goodbye themselves? “Who do you think talked to me?”

Sydney lets out something between a laugh and a scoff. “Okay. I can already see how this is gonna go,” she says as she stands up. “This is why I didn’t wanna have this conversation with you.”

“And what conversation is that?”

“About Shapiro offering me a position at his new place,” she answers dryly.

Carmen takes a deep breath to steady himself. “So when’s your last day, chef?”

Sydney rears back like she’s been slapped. “My last –? You know what, I changed my mind. I’m glad you brought this up.”

Some part of Carmen is thrilled that he’s getting a rise out of her, and he knows that it’s sick and twisted of him, but it feels like release.

“You know what your problem is, Carm?” Sydney asks as she crushes her cigarette beneath her heel. “You make decisions for me instead of with me.”

“Maybe if I didn’t have to pull everything out of you by force, I wouldn’t have to, Syd.”

“Oh, so now this is my fault?”

“Did I say that?”

Sydney gives him a look. “Were you trying to imply something else?”

“I’m not trying to imply anything,” Carmen intones. “I’m telling you, it’s harder for me to get you to say what’s on your mind than it is to scrub burnt caramel off a pan.”

She rolls her eyes. “Like you’re any better.”

“I am with you,” Carmen fires back.

The muscles in Sydney’s jaw clench at that. She looks down, then says, “Okay, you wanna know what’s on my mind?”

“That would be tremendous.”

“I think you’re a pain in the ass,” Sydney huffs. “I think you’ve found a way to make getting a star all about you when we were supposed to be doing this together. And like, I’m not suffering from the delusion that this –” Sydney gestures to the restaurant beside them, “– is going to be a fun little walk in the park every day, but it was supposed to be different. You didn’t even want a star when we were rebuilding, and then you flipped and went insane. Your list of non-negotiables is insane! Well, minus breaking down the boxes, you were right about that.” She shakes her head. “That’s not the point.”

“There was a point?”

Sydney rolls her eyes. “Oh, fuck you.”

“Fuck you,” Carmen returns.

“Fuck you!” Sydney snaps. “This is what I mean! You talk over me, you change the menu without me, you argue all. the fucking. time. Enough that even Shapiro noticed when he came here with his friends!”

“So go fucking work for him, then. I’m sure it’ll be so much better.”

Sydney tugs at her apron violently trying to pull something out of the pockets. When she finds her pack of cigarettes she launches it at Carmen, saying, “I don’t want to work for him, you ass! I want someone to work with. Someone to build a menu with. Someone to bitch about all of this – with. And that was supposed to be you! I applied to The Beef because I wanted to work with you!”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?” Carmen asks, sounding more defeated than he wants to. “Why haven’t you signed the partnership agreement?”

“I –” Sydney sighs. “I don’t know.”

“No,” Carmen says, taking a step toward her. “Bullshit.”

Sydney takes a step back not realizing how close to the wall she is and bumps into it. She looks back at the offending wall, then at Carmen again. “I can’t – I don’t –” she groans, annoyed with herself. “I’m putting everything into this that I have, and if it fails, I don’t know if I’ll recover again.”

Carmen takes a deep breath to say something but finds that he has nothing worthy of the air to say. Instead, he nods and rubs his fist over his heart. The moment he does, he realizes how long it’s been since he last used the gesture… and how many moments within that time frame that it would’ve been fitting of him to use it. After a moment, he finally says, “I was trying to make sure we didn’t. I was trying –”

Sydney raises her eyebrows, waiting for the end of that sentence. When it doesn’t come, she prompts him, “You were trying to…?”

He looks her in the eyes. “I was trying to get you to stay.”

Her brow furrows again. “You didn’t even know Shapiro tried to hire me on as his executive chef.”

Carmen laughs, but it’s a hollow sound. He runs his fingers through his curls and scratches at his scalp. “That’s, that’s not – I was trying to give you what you wanted.”

Sydney squints at him. “Did you think I would leave if you didn’t?”

Carmen is silent for a beat too long apparently because Sydney whines, “Carmen.”

“What?”

“Dude, if not getting everything I wanted was enough to make me leave, I would’ve left a long time ago. And also, you’re kind of a shit judge of character when it comes to what it is that I actually want. Or like, the ranking of those things.”

“It’s not like you’re telling me, Syd,” Carmen drawls.

“I am,” she insists. “I have been. So, do me a favor? Try to internalize it.”

“... Chef.”

Sydney sighs. “I want you to talk to me,” she says. “About the menu, about what’s going on in your head –”

“I don’t think you want me to do that,” Carmen mutters under his breath.

“Shhh,” Sydney hisses over him. “I do want that. Because, clearly, whatever is going on up there is fucking up what’s out here.”

Understatement of the century, Carmen thinks.

“Just – stop trying to do it all alone to prove a point. Believe it or not, everyone wants this place to work. Not just you. And they’re willing to help get us there, too.”

Carmen nods. “Yeah.”

Sydney opens her mouth, then closes it, then tries again. “Y’know what the best meal I ever had was?”

Carmen’s brow furrows, confused as he is by the sudden turn in the conversation. “... What?”

“Paupiette of hamachi with blood orange,” Sydney says. She doesn’t wait for him to respond or react before going back inside. She simply says, “You already proved yourself to me as a chef. Now do it as a partner.”

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‘you put that cig out, you can hold her’

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STUNNINNN

wunmi mosaku • via instagram • @/dionnesmithhair

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it’s giving rick and michonne and i just have to say, i literally predicted them getting together years before it came into fruition on twd and ppl thought i was bonkers. but if sydcarmy isn’t endgame in the bear i will be devastated. season 4 plz don’t let me down i need SOMETHING

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THE BEAR SEASON 4 TOMORROW!!!!!!

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WHY ARE THEY TOUCHING HIS COCK??

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will someone plzzzzzz make a sydcarmy edit to the angel massive attack song, i feel like it would eat

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quick lil bear prediction! i’m thinking the wedding will be one of the later eps of S4, specifically because i think that carmy might open up to syd after they stumble through some tensions in the first half of the season. in particularly maybe he dives into his relationship with donna or chef fields and syd is there to comfort him.

i’m guessing maybe she meets donna at the wedding in passing (maybe donna is showing real signs of growth but carmy doesn’t trust it and it somehow becomes an argument or draws attention from the ceremony), and carmy bolts out of there because tensions rise and he doesn’t want to be the reason things go south at the wedding.

maybe this all triggers richie as well as he tries to calm everyone down and it threatens his growth as well. i think syd will stick around to comfort richie—prompting the hug between them in the trailer. maybe richie gives syd some more insights into the dynamic of their lives growing up in that environment and how he doesn’t wanna be around that anymore and he wants to be better.

i think this is what will lead to sydney and carmy finally having their first reconciliation kind of moment, that forces them to talk about where carmy is at and how it’s ruining what they have at the bear. maybe carmy finally lets his walls down and sydney is there for him in a new way. i think that syd might also suggest to him that he should cook for donna. and make something beautiful to her. almost like syd just knows the cure to their relationship problems. BONUS points if syd also opens up and lets her own walls down. i’m thinking maybe she tears up or cries a little because she wonders what it would’ve been like to have a mom growing up. maybe she’ll make a quip about them both being in the same boat but carmy has the chance to change that. also i think maybe carmy asks her to go with him. maybe they both cook his mom a meal—that way she can sort of have an experience with a mom. i also think her and Nat might have some mom/daughter chats that help syd with what she’s gone through.

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oh tiktok you will pay for this

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literally he’s such a lover boy i love him sm

I've been rewatching The Bear ahead of Season 4, and it’s making me realize how much I want Richie to have a love interest. And I’d totally volunteer — I LOVE HIM.

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Bear hive rn:

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“so” isn’t a big enough word to describe just how back we are!!!!!

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THE BEAR | 1.01: SYSTEM Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richie Jerimovich Jeremy Allen White as Carmy Berzatto

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Syd is the Vision.

Carmy is the Force.

UNPACKING THE BEAR'S EMOTIONAL CORE AND WHERE I THINK SEASON 4 COULD GO.

(I started this post about 2 months ago, and now that there are nearly two weeks until Season 4 drops, I feel that there is no better time to make this post)

If you’ve made it all the way to Season 3 of the Bear then you know we’ve come a long way with these two. Sydcarmy endgame all day. I have a ton of thoughts that I want to unpack here but to start, I want to focus on what I think the general premise of the show is and how I think things could go in S4.

A Few of the Shows Clear Major Themes:

Family/Found Family

Grief

Healing/Growth

Passion

Yearning

Purpose

Let’s wait to talk about the obvious parallels that exist between Sydney and Carmen for now, because I could (and more than likely will) write an entire post about that soon. Today, I want to more so focus on the functions of Sydney and Carmen in terms of how they co-exist both emotionally and professionally. What are their roles, and how does it push the story forward. So! Grab a bag of Doritos, a coke, and get comfy--cause this one's gonna be a long one.

As we know, Carmy wanted nothing more than to be in the kitchen alongside his elder brother, Michael. Anytime we get references to Mikey, or Carmy's past, this point continually arises. Multiple times when speaking about Mikey, he mentions how he wanted to be there with him, but Mikey never let him. Carmy admired Mikey--notably to the point of idolizing him, but he was also competing against him, given his older brother stopped letting him come to the restaurant.

I think it’s fair to say that Mikey was the original Vision or Spark for Carmen. An obvious statement, of course, but in order to really see how Syd functions as the new Vision and Spark, we've gotta start there.

Now, logistically speaking, Mikey having the restaurant and being able to make a way for himself is something that Carmy wanted to emulate because anytime Carmy saw his brother in the kitchen he was happy (or at least that's how he appeared). What is made clear to the audience as we see the edges beginning to fray, is that Mikey wore a mask for much of his life--a very realistic and reasonable response to being raised by a bipolar alcoholic parent, and an absent father.

I think this also stems from Carmen's trauma's associated with Donna in the physical space of a kitchen, but we will unpack that in a separate post.

I believe that Carmy wanting to move from the "loner kid brother" role into what he idolized his brother as being --The cool older brother than can throw down in the kitchen and who doesn't seem to let our childhood get to him. Carmy wanting to be Mikey. So he sees Mikey as this cool ass dude, with the flare, and the expertise in the kitchen, but he is rejected by him.

So of course as Carmy admits in his Al-Anon that he wanted to become better than Mikey, it becomes clearer that Mikey was his first source of true inspiration, despite it being planted for a bad (or sad I suppose) reason. It's also clearly an escapism from the life he grew up in, but more importantly it is where we see Carmy romanticizing the idea of running the Beef with his brother. As if it will make all the pain of their childhoods go away. Carmy has a habit of doing this in his life, which suggests he has an avoidant coping mechanism as well.

Here is where Carmy becomes that powerful Force.

He is able to put the work in and execute other people's visions. Because from the start, him becoming a chef is rooted in Mikey being that Spark for him. We don't see moments where he is young cooking, or talking about knowing immediately he always wanted to be a chef. Carmy talks about wanting to make people happy and that food makes them happy. This was also really interesting to see tied back to the Fishes episode given we get another perspective through Donna's talk with Carmy about how she felt cooking for everyone at their family dinner.

I think it's a little deeper than that though. Carmy has a track record of living for everyone else around him, not living for himself, and I think this is why Carmy is the Force rather than the one with the vision. Being the Force however, comes at the expense of taking himself completely out of the equation (in the past!).

For example, when he works under David Fields, he is the one ensuring each dish goes out exactly as it is supposed to. He is the one making David's vision come to life. He is the Force, making it happen.

When Carmy sends the blood orange dish out, that is when we finally see Carmy experiment with his own vision. It's the first time he truly is able to be creative and passionate about what HE wants, not what Fields wants or what any "expert" has told him to do in order to maintain perfection. And I think that he channels a bit of his brother Mikey to do this.

This is what Mikey exhibits in every scene that we see of him. He has that spark, despite the darkness he holds inside, the man is his own person, and Carmy desperately clings to that idea he has in his head about who his brother was.

During his Al-Anon meeting he even goes so far as to describing how Mikey had such a big personality, and a way of being that just easily attracted people to him.

Paraphrasing here, but something along the lines of—“Everyone thought he was their best friend. But he was actually mine.”

With this in mind, I think that Syd takes over Mikey’s role as the Spark/Vision.

LETTING HER SAY LET IT RIP ACTUALLY PHYSICALLY HAD ME SOBBING BECAUSE HOLY FU-

And the subtle ways they display this through the lighting that always halos Mikey and Sydney in the same way. UGHHH could go on forever. Lemme move on.

How It Ends (At least How I Hope)

I’m quite hopeful we get some iteration of the table scene again, except with a more healed/family-oriented Carmy that has matured a bit. Syd challenges him to be better, so seeing him heed that advice would feel satisfying I think for the final season. Hopefully which isn’t season 4 because we would be severely robbed and I can’t get over Ebon seeming done with the show when talking about filming season 4?????

I Know I Know, We Have to Wrap That Storyline Up Tho

I hate to have to even bring it up, but I'm really hoping that the only Cl***e scenes we get are her clocking him about how he feels about Syd. Then and only then, would it be tolerable to see her on screen. I can't even get into it right now, it pisses me off to think about.

ANYWAYS, MOVING ON TO OUR FAVS

I’m envisioning a very specific scenario, something along the lines of:

Carmy stares at her across the room. They are alone at the Bear after a long and frustrating day, but they are completely in sync—as they had been all night. (Perhaps it’s the night after they get some really good news or an outstanding review), and Carmy steps closer, to speak. Words are stuck in his throat for a moment before he clears it.

“You were perfect tonight, Chef,” something that doesn’t quite articulate how much he admires her but he does—and it’s written all over his face in those unmoving big blue eyes.

The compliment takes Syd by surprise, despite his growth over the season. Part of her doesn’t want to trust it, but the word ‘perfect’ is everything she’s wanted to hear from him since the day she walked into the Beef.

“We were perfect,” she says back softly. That same look mirrored in her. The space feels charged, more intimate than before.

Maybe a bit more conversing between them to build the tension up, and finally something shifts and a line is crossed.

“You’re the one that made it possible… from the beginning… it’s always been you, bringing us all to this point,” Carmy says more to himself—finally realizing what we, the audience, has known from Season 1. Syd is his vision. His muse. His spark. & The two of them together is the only way it works.

Syd of course would probably shake it off, deflecting.

“No, come on, it took this place,” Syd looks around, and maybe there’s a montage of the first moment they meet, and further back, we get a few glimpses of Mikey and Richie, and even further when the Berzatto family still owned the place—three kids running around arguing with one another.

Carmy chuckles, finally able to see the place from beyond the guise of his grief. Now his painful memories are replaced with loving ones with his found family and Syd at the very center.

“I’m serious… None of this would’ve ever happened without you, Syd. You deserve all the credit. I’m sorry I didn’t realize that sooner,” He rubs his fist against his chest in a circle. She repeats the gesture, without saying a word before she looks away for a moment—holding her emotions at bay.

Maybe here’s where Carmy takes a step forward, close enough for Syd to back away if she doesn't feel the same way. He leaves her an out, because with him, he needs her to act first, to know what he is feeling is for real, and Syd doesn't budge, just stares right back.

I really want a moment of Carmy actually making a move for what he wants, so he musters up the courage, and we see the conflict in his face a little--the past and the present version of himself fighting against one another, before finally he leans in, stealing a kiss before he pulls away, too afraid of ruining everything. Panic sets in, even though he thought he was okay again, but the moment he does, Syd pulls him back to her, ending the episode with a returned passionate kiss.

Okay thanks for listening to me ramble! K Byeeeeee