#when hyperfixations collide nd weird thread pulling happens I guess

[turbulenthandholding]

What we want and what we need has been confused...

I was looking at @thoughtfulchaos773's excellent gifset this morning of times when Carmy tells Sydney "this is what you want(ed)" culminating in the moment in the 4x10 argument ("Okay, if that's what you want" / "It's what I need") and suddenly this lyric was in my head:

what we want and what we need

has been confused, been confused

Which comes from R.E.M.'s song Finest Worksong, which plays at the end of 4x3 though they skip out on playing those exact lyrics. Hmmm.

I hadn't taken the time yet to delve into why they chose Finest Worksong and why they played it when they did (even with predicting they would use it), after Carmy fights with/apologizes to Claire and then immediately calls Pete about changing the partnership agreement. The episode cuts to black and then the song starts along with the credits.

Doing line-by-line scanning or analysis of the lyrics really kind of hit the nail on the head for where Carmy is at as well as the understanding or misunderstanding between him and Syd for what the other wants or needs - which is something they've done a lot all the way back to season 1 but that feels somehow more precise and intentional in several spots in season 4, like here.

I think the lyrics of Finest Worksong are actually presented as a thesis statement of what is happening within Carmy, both in that moment in how the decision he made immediately before the song played, throughout the rest of the season:

The time to rise has been engaged

Michael Stipe likely meant this line in a political sense, as the band's possibly reluctant but growing political commentary grew sharply on Document, and Finest Worksong is its first track.

For Carmy, however, the line insinuates that he is finally ready to take some action related to addressing things in his life and figuring out his path forward. His conversation with Claire was enough of a catalyst to prompt forward action relating to Sydney and her role/partnership in the restaurant, and he calls Pete immediately after.

Your better best to rearrange

Carmy has decided to take himself out of the restaurant; he's rearranging the partnership, due to what he thinks is "best."

I'm talking here to me alone

Every "you" or "you're" in the lyrics refers back to the "I" or "me" of the song -- Michael Stipe is telling himself to act in a political sense; Carmy is telling himself it's on him to make these decisions for the benefit of the restaurant.

I listen to the finest worksong

I think "finest worksong" in this context is possibly a reference to Syd. She had smoked him in the episode before with her sub-3 minute pasta prep. I think he had already been realizing what he tells her in their fight in 4x10, that she had surpassed him in a lot of ways.

Your finest hour, your finest hour

Remembering again that the speaker is talking to themself, this is Carmy reiterating to himself that he's making the best decision for The Bear/Syd.

Another chance has been engaged

To throw Thoreau and rearrange

I've long seen two interpretations of the word "throw" here -- either to throw out (get rid of) or to quote, depending. But Michael Stipe's use of Thoreau was an accident - he had meant to refer to Walt Whitman instead.* But anyway, I think these lyrics are Carmy cementing his decision to step away.

You are following this time

I beg you not beg to rhyme

(Blow your horn) Your finest hour

(Blow your horn) Your finest hour

Carmy already noticed that Syd surpassed him in speed and I think also imploring himself not to rhyme, or not to re-make the same mistakes he's been making.

Then the song in the show cuts off here because the credits do. Interestingly, the real song has a third verse and to me it's interesting that these lyrics were held back:

take your instinct by the reigns

your better best to rearrange

what we want and what we need

has been confused, been confused

I feel like it was a deliberate choice to cut the song where they did -- there have been plenty of times when they have done some creative editing of the soundtrack to match the message they were trying to convey (the example that immediately comes to mind is "In Too Deep" by Genesis, which plays during Brigade and cuts off really abruptly in a way that makes it seem like they didn't want the next line to play - "although I need you, I'm not gonna take this" which is much more decisively negative than the lines that are audible...).

Anyway, Carmy's instinct is to run away, to avoid, because that's what he does. At this point, and throughout the rest of the season, he does not seem cognizant that his leaving The Bear is following his instinctual pattern to avoid things that are good as much as to avoid things, like Mikey's funeral, that are hard. It will take reigning in his instincts (take your instincts by the reigns), likely reorganizing his priorities or his work life again (your better best to rearrange), to come to clarity about what -- and who, exactly -- it is that he wants and needs. And I think it's left unsaid because resolving the tension between Carmy and Syd's understanding of each others' wants and needs that will be the thesis for season 5.

*"My friend Chris told me that I was our generation's Whitman, I think because I was an ecstatic, and I liked men and women, and I was a poet in his eyes, even though I hated the word poet. Anyway I meant to write Whitman into the song, but I got mixed up and wrote Thoreau in instead."