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FOREVER (2025) | S1 EP3 Fourth Quarter

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gromit in the writer’s room next season:

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I miss sydcarmy.

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Ayo Edebiri via deemakeupart on Instagram — February 22, 2025

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FAAAAAWWWKKKK

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AYO EDEBIRI Ph. by Justin French for Citizen Magazine (2024)

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has someone done this already? Someone has probably made a variant of this already. idk I kinda recently got into this fandom so I'll just put this one up; its one of my favorite jokes in s3 lol

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stress baker

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The Bear is A Midsummer Night's Dream and Marcus is making the violet love potion for Syd and Carmy

There have been Shakespeare references in The Bear from the very beginning. In the very first episode Marcus finds Carmy’s James Beard award for Fairest Creatures, which is a Shakespearean sonnet about life being short and how everything will end and die even if they're beautiful, but the only thing that survives are children, and not having children deprives the world of beauty. Nat's conversation with Jimmy about raising children was parallel with Carmy's conversation with Terry about starting a restaurant. Then of course there was Richie singing Love Story which is about Romeo & Juliet.

Violet and purple flowers are a reoccurring thing we see and learn about in Season 3 of The Bear. According to Roman mythology, the wild pansy, a type of violet flower, was originally white, then turned into the purple Love-in-idleness when Cupid accidentally shot one of his arrows at it, working as a love potion with Cupid's powers. The first time we see purple flowers is in Tomorrow when Carmy tweezing purple flowers next to Luca at Ever, this is the same wagyu dish they ate at the Ever funeral with Sydney. We see more flowers in montages, like Carmy eating them at Noma, bouquets in hotels, and at Marcus' mom's funeral and more.

A Midsummer Night's Dream TL;DR: The play starts with Theseus preparing for his wedding to Hippolyta, he declares that young people should have fun and celebration, not sadness like at a funeral. Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius are in a love square and run away to the woods. Puck aka Robin Goodfellow, a fairy that enjoys mischief, manipulates them with the juice of a violet flower, love-in-idleness, that makes people fall in love with the next creature they see. Things get messed up, the wrong people fall in love with each other, and they all fight with each other. Puck reverses the magic, then the couples reconcile and get married at Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. There is also group of 6 stupid men called the Mechanicals that put on a play, Pyramus and Thisbe (which is also the inspiration behind Romeo & Juliet) for the wedding. In the end, Puck breaks the fourth wall and apologizes to the audience for any offense the play might have caused. The Bear Season 3 started and ended with a funeral and an attempt at a celebration, and we know there will be a wedding in Season 4.

Marcus and his magic purple flowers are always tying back to Syd and Carmy. In Doors the purple flowers at the funeral cut to Sydney and Carmy's "cause you write in the margins" wholesome moment between them.

In Children, Marcus sees a white violet then it cuts to Sydney reading the partnership agreement that Carmy sent while wearing a purple flower scarf.

He then tells Nat about it, she mentions it's the state flower of illinois and he decides to make a white violet flower dessert.

In Violet, Marcus is working on some purple liquid and holds a violet petal, then it cuts to Syd and Carmy.

Even back in Season 1 Marcus was interested in the color purple and flowers, roommate Chester brought pantone color swatches. In Legacy Marcus and Carmy talk about creating magic to push his violet dish further, then Sydney appears.

In that same episode after the conversation about legerdemain and magic, Richie's notebook makes its own sleight of hand. It's a bit hard to read his terrible handwriting but on one page it says Lover for Syd on top and below:

Carmy -> Syd Luca -> Carm

And in another page he wrote:

Syd -> pansy Luca -> Carmen

Richie is Puck/Robin and he wants to see what would happen if Luca and Carmy start fighting for Syd. Richie and the Fak's have been fucking with the dream weave and Carmy’s love story for a while by pushing him to be with Claire.

The Faks are the Mechanicals, a group of incompetent manual laborers. We see Carmy tweezing herbs next to some pansy flowers, then Fak brings out the donkey piñatas. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of the mechanicals, Bottom, gets turned into a donkey then the rest of the mechanicals say they are being haunted. And we all know how much the Fak's love to talk about being haunted. Can't get more on the nose than that for them.

The Faks/Mechanicals are mechanics but they think they can make a movie/play. Theodore Fak thinks he makes art films, Sammy Fak argues with him over SD cards and tells him he makes films for children's parties. Even Francie Fak is a reference to one of the mechanics, Francis Flute, who is the only one forced to play the female role in the play they are putting on for the wedding. Also, In A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999) Michelle Pfeiffer played Tatiana, the Queen of the Fairies, who Storer originally had in mind to play Donna. 

When Richie arrived to Ever he took off a fishing hook from a purple flower, then right after Luca appears and greets Carmy. Carmy's flower tattoo in his hand is a violet, and it was right in front of his face the whole dinner when he was next Sydney and Luca and they started vibing with each other. Next season will have a wedding and Marcus' white violet dessert will be tasted. Richie already told us plan he has for Syd, the pansy and it goes from Luca to Carmy.

At the end of the play Puck has an epilogue and breaks the fourth wall to apologize to the audience if they have offended them. Richie and Tiff broke fourth wall to address the "kids" aka us the audience in Apologies. In conclusion, The Bear is a Shakespearean comedy, but it is also first and foremost, a messy love story. 💜

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gif by @pajamasecrets

YOUR HONOR I LOVE THEM

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Sorry, I'm obsessed again with that damn sauce.I may be reaching, BUT I'm going to connect this. Something I noticed throughout the season was Natalie knowing something, and it was from knowing things about Pete.

In 3x04, Natalie talks to Richie, who tells her the story about the zen garden his favorite director visited. She knows it's William Friedkin because Pete loves him.

And in 3x07, Natalie talks to Marcus, who tells her he was inspired by the violet, and she shares a fact that it's the illinois flower. It's such a random fact to know, but she knows it because Pete knows it.

It's about knowing and paying attention to all your partner's idiosyncronticites and what they love.

That's emotional intimacy.

And I'm sorry, but I'll never get over this shit- Carmy seriously observes Sydney. Although he drives her away- unconsciously he yearns for Syd- he has a desire to know who she is outside of work because he's at a point where he hates his career and passion but he finds himself having passion for her.

He notices her fixation on polka dots throughout the month, and he's probably curious if it's her favorite pattern.

Recap if you missed it:

@sadbanana-69 noticed her Polka Dot Dress to the funeral. Her obsession with that pattern had been developing over the course of a month, and I'm sure that even Carmy, despite his agitation, noticed that she was always wearing it. This fixation seemed to start in episode 3x03. It was almost subtle at first, but then it became so intense.

He takes in her love of Thome Browne, her bow and sailor moon outfit. She has a habit of wearing scrunchies. There's a pattern with Carmy and an unconscious desire to know Sydney, maybe?

I'm not saying anything really new here, but lastly, he ultimately wants to know the man who raised her, and his motivation for that may be because he thinks Sydney is the best thing and Emmanuel, who raised her has to be just as great.

I think one of the show's main lessons is about the people and knowing everything about someone because life feels so short. It's a gift to have those around you.

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It's just how this season is all about paying close attention to each other, and Carmy immediately perks up when Sydney yawns.

Then persists she gets some rest a minute later.

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❤️ thank you for all the love since i started drawing these two emotionally stunted chefs. ❤️ i gotta go on an indefinite hiatus but all your kind comments and messages have meant so much to me and honestly, have encouraged me to be creative again after a long period where i simply wasn't. i really can't thank you all enough!

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Polka thoughts

I think ThoughtfulC is onto something here, so I started thinking about what @thoughtfulchaos773 said and this came to mind (thanks for the inspo btw):

So, here's how I connect these Polka thoughts dots:

Symbolically speaking Carmy, who was going through his blue period 🔗 and dragged Syd down with him bc they ARE connected even when they aren't and that's what happens when you love someone, whether you admit it or not...

Cut down indeed all joy from his life and he’s sick right now, as I thoroughly described here 🔗and foresaw here 🔗. That's what the polka dots represent, both happiness and sickness. And that's why Storer chose them to make a visual point throughout this season. Polka dots are a pattern, Storer loves them, so here are my 2 cents:

Source: Shutterstock's Blog on History of Fashion

Throughout this entire season, they were barely on the same page on the menu, which represents their emotional connection, 🔗 right?

Please note that no matter how disconnected he was from his heart which in his case is like being dead inside because he leads with his heart, just like Syd, he never stopped praising her cooking.

And as we all know since S1, Carmy’s emotional connection is through food and cooking

and not only was he disconnected from his emotions heart (he was blocked as I mentioned here, 🔗which has to do with him not choosing Sydney the polka dots sauce), and from Syd, he was also disconnected from his own food and his own cooking and as we learned in the finale, that resulted in THE BAD REVIEW:

They both lead with their hearts and therefore, since their hearts were 💔 this season the food was not perfect either. He was stuck here 🔗

But here’s the catch and silver lining:

If we dig deeper we find out that Polka dots also mean this according to Eastern tradition, which Storer mentioned here and there since S2, and Syd seems to be intuned with

Source: au.coeur.du.japon.com

Carmy was moving in circles throughout this entire season, that's why it looked like no progress was made. Well, actually, I beg to differ, but this was basically the cliffhanger → Carmy's breakthrough 🔗

As the article above says: the circle symbolizes ETERNITY in Western culture, as well. These symbolisms do not cancel each other out but rather complement each other because Storer's view is holistic.

So the events that we saw in this ep, which is the culmination of the whole season of death and rebirth:

Are initiating a domino effect that will bring about PERMANENT CHANGES in all the characters involved.

And Syd's polka dots represent exactly that (bears repeating):

We haven't seen the re-birth/light/harmony part yet, (which I'm sure will include a heavy element of Sydcarmy) we only saw the funerals and labor pains in S3. But the Polka dots Syd sported are a good sign. We will see the rest of that Polka dots symbology Storer planted in plain sight soon. Either in S 3B or S4.

Syd is 🔗 the twist ❤️🤌

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What the hell? Something about Spotted scarves and Chef Terry's leadership resembling Sydney's future.

But also Something about Carmy noticing the spotted scarves and being inspired.

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Ok so I’ve seen analysis on certain colors representing characters and I’m sorry I can’t remember from whom so if anyone can help me find those so I can tag I would appreciate it

But I know it’s been discussed that Carmy’s color is Blue and Sydney’s is red and there have been various indications of this throughout the show.

And then we have a whole episode this season called Violet which, my friends, is blue and red blended together…

Violet is associated with Marcus because it was his mom’s favorite flower. But symbolically Violet represents that Marcus is a part of Carmy and Sydney’s LEGACY, because they have both played a major hand in Marcus’ development in the culinary world. Marcus represents the flower that has bloomed as a result of the best parts of Sydney and Carmy coming together.

ALSO a nod to sydcarmy i think is when the computer questions Nat “Do we need a Marcus” very much how anti sydcarmys question, do we need Carmy and Syd to be romantic? And Nat of course puts him in his place, just as I hope storer and co will 😭

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Carmy burned his hand on the day Mikey died. There is something poetic about withholding his pain for the death of his brother but presenting his bleeding heart to Sydney.

x