The fifth and final season of FX on Hulu’s The Bear won’t premiere until June 25, but in a surprise, the streaming service dropped an hour-long, standalone episode of the series this week.* Subtitled Gary, the episode was a prequel to the series as a whole, following Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and the late Mikey (Jon Bernthal) as they spend a day in Gary, Indiana on a mission for Jimmy (Oliver Platt, who doesn’t appear). It’s an interesting episode, largely because it offers us a look at the relationship between these two men – and sheds some light on just who Mikey really was outside of the sepia-hued memories we’ve seen him in thus far.
*For the purposes of Emmy consideration, the episode is considered a part of season four – which aired back in the summer of 2025 – and not a part of the upcoming final season of the series. It was reportedly filmed prior to the recent season five shoot as well. The episode was co-written by Moss-Bachrach, Bernthal, and showrunner Christopher Storer.
The specter of Mikey has loomed large over The Bear from the jump. Central to the past of many of the show’s major characters – truly, only Syd lacked any sort of personal relationship with him – his appearances in flashbacks have weaved through the series as we’ve seen him through the eyes of other characters. We’ve watched him take a minute to chat with Tina, convincing her to join up at The Beef. We’ve seen how absolutely charismatic he can be, pulling focus while also building others up. We’ve heard how wonderful he was. We saw how much he loved Carmy – and his restaurant family – in his final gift of hiding the money in the tomatoes back in season one. But on the flip side, we’ve seen his explosive temper at the Feast of the Seven Fishes, showing us that Mikey was just as unstable as his mom, Donna. There was a deep darkness to Mikey that our surviving characters rarely reference – and almost never remember.
So, seeing Mikey in this episode was a rare moment of clarity for us, the audience. For the first time, we’re not seeing him through a memory or flashback attributed to a character. Yes, the episode ends with Richie reflecting on his missing friend, but this wasn’t an episode seen through his eyes – those scenes between Mikey and Sherri weren’t moments Richie witnessed and nothing about them indicated they were conjured up by him in a memory. This was Mikey, the real Mikey. The good, the bad, and the very, very ugly. We knew he had a temper, that he could be set off, but wow. That speech? The shattering of everything Richie thought he knew about how his cousin felt about him? That might have been the most painful moment The Bear has given us yet.
Sure, we can see that this was Mikey lashing out in jealousy – Richie, ridiculous little Richie, was about to have everything Mikey dreamed he could have. Richie was going to have a daughter, he had a wife, he had stability. Mikey? Well, he’s suffering from some form of mental illness – likely what affects his mother, and he’s seen what it’s done to her over the years and he’s terrified that he’s going to end up like her, angry and alone. He’s struggling to keep The Beef afloat, taking extra jobs for Jimmy to keep in his good graces and make some extra cash on the side. He’s pushed away Carmy in a misguided attempt to help him become something more than what Mikey has. That story Mikey told about the one night his mom was truly there for him and how it shattered him when she rebuffed him the next day? That’s Mikey explaining who he is now – someone who doesn’t understand how to give and accept love without expecting the bottom to fall out.*
Much like Stephen Root, Marin Ireland is having a heck of a couple of weeks here, offering a hell of a guest turn as Sherri in this episode while also having a supporting role in the new season of The Terror. One of the best actors out there, I was thrilled to see her turn up here and have some really great scenes with Bernthal.
This episode also completely re-frames the relationship between Richie and Mikey. From the beginning of the series, no one has been more protective of Mikey’s memory that Richie. He is still deeply scarred from Mikey’s death, unwilling to disparage his lost friend in any way. His resentment of Carmy in season one is largely unresolved grief over that loss, as Richie works through his anger that Mikey, who was always here and never left, is gone while the prodigal son – who Mikey adored, despite his tough love – is back. But now we can see that there were some pretty massive cracks in that brotherhood. Presumably, following this massive betrayal, the boys made up or at least were perfectly able to work together. Or, perhaps there was a frosty relationship for some time after – judging by how old Eva is now, there was a solid period of time between the events in Gary and the start of the series. No matter the state of their relationship upon Mikey’s death, we now know that Richie has more scar tissue from Mikey than just grief. There’s a deep well of sadness and pain that was caused by Mikey’s direct actions – and one can assume that this wasn’t the first or the last time Mikey came out swinging. Even if it was, perhaps, the hardest hit Richie ever took from him.
When The Bear is hitting on all cylinders, it’s truly a stellar series – a drama with the ability to throw in comedy at key moments to keep the story from becoming too much for us or the characters to handle. And Moss-Bachrach and Bernthal are two of the finest talents working on television today – getting the chance to watch them work off one another is a real treat. But what this episode offered us was a chance to see that while Richie might seem like he’s got things mostly figured out now after some false starts over the course of the series, he’s still working through that deep, confusing well of grief that was drowning him in the first season. So much so that he wasn’t quite paying attention at that intersection and ended up getting t-boned – something that the series is going to have to address when it comes back in six weeks. But until then, I’m thrilled we were offered this gift of an episode. I have been disappointed with The Bear over the last couple of seasons, but this episode? This was The Bear at its best.
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