Family holiday parties are an explosive mixture of celebration, stress, and long-simmering resentment. They should be well-intended reunions where we catch up, tell old stories, and hopefully enjoy each other’s company because tomorrow isn’t necessarily promised. But most people who have attended these outings know that the weight that resides upon the shoulders of good intentions is often too much to bear (heh).
The first five episodes of The Bear’s second season deal with the essence of moving forward out of the rubble of the past – whether it be Carmy’s attempt at trying to find life outside of his career or Tina striving to build up further confidence within herself and her abilities. Although it’s a stressful process, it’s needed as this collection of people proceeds to this new venture – on both a business and personal level. Despite these points, you can’t fully know where to go until you’ve looked back on where you’ve been. “Fishes,” the sixth episode in the second season, feels like a necessary interlude when considering The Bear rising from the ashes of The Beef.
The one-hour episode boasts endless impressive cameos ranging from Jamie Lee Curtis, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, and more. Not a single one of them feels wasted; all the while, there are so many stories at play in the Berzatto household. Everything begins with contemplating one action – asking if someone is ok. We all ask it of people we love as a real show of support and to gather information about how we can assist them. Outside the house, Natalie, Mikey, and Carmy are discussing how they will approach the dinner – particularly their mother, Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis).
Natalie wants to show her that she wants to help, and it’s not hard to see why. Donna is in the kitchen preparing all the food herself, patterned after the tale of the Seven Fishes. Now, there is no particular reason why the dinner is structured this way – but with any family custom, you follow it. Donna cares about her children – that part you can see. However, it doesn’t look like she knows how to receive love back. Within this episode, you must wonder if an undiagnosed mental health illness resides within the Berzattos. Donna drowns her sorrows with alcohol, and Mikey does the same with pills.
Many of Donna’s interactions with Natalie are unbelievably harsh – recalling how Natalie got her nickname especially felt like salt in the wound. I think this stems from family love built out of obligation rather than being shared freely and openly. By design, this dinner is custom, but a lot of doubt exists whether people like being around one another. The outlier is Carmy, who comes back home from studying in Copenhagen. Mikey gives him guff for being a “big shot,” but it all stems from insecurity. The increasing stress of trying to calm down his mother and cut through many of the loud personalities makes him wish that he never came home in the first place.
Throughout The Bear, this upbringing has given Carmy some social anxiety he’s trying to undo. Much of his wants to recontextualize The Beef into something different to prove to himself that this can work – for his own self-worth and the memory of Mikey. Although he wanted to do this sooner, Mikey and cousin Michelle (Sarah Paulson) push him away from the dysfunction in different ways. Mikey and Richie brag about great it would be if Carmy and Claire got together (foreshadowing to the present day). Then there’s the wall Mickey puts up to make sure Carmy doesn’t follow in his footsteps. Sadly, it feels like Mikey is too far gone in his addiction and the failure of his business. Even at the behest of Carmy to come to work with him and show him that drawing, Mikey says no.
His breakdown indicates feeling like he’s let everybody down as the defacto man of the house and an older brother. Michelle’s insistence on Carmy coming to stay with her in New York probably contributed to another source of trauma with the abuse he took there, but it was the right call. His family feels like ghosts entombed into this suspended existence of pain.
It’s not to say everything in “Fishes” is a mess. Richie interactions with his (now ex-wife) Tiffany (played by Gillian Jacobs) as they are away from the madness are wholesome. They are both scared as soon-to-be parents, and Richie wants to turn his life around. It’s why he goes to Cicero for a “job.” What happens after is left up in the air in how he stayed around at The Beef after and how it all unraveled with his marriage. As you see in the first episode of the season, “Beef,” Richie looks for direction while Tiffany seems to be thriving.
Michelle’s husband, Stevie (John Mulaney), is the brightest light. He agrees to give Neil and his brother the $500 for their card idea, mostly because he enjoys seeing them every year. He also says the beautiful words at the dinner table that only briefly pauses the hot heads of Mikey and Uncle Lee (Odenkirk). Lee is every person at the outing who has no decorum and chooses to lay his grievances down at the most inopportune times.
Is he correct about Mikey? Yes, in the fact that his life is falling apart. That’s where the fork-throwing comes in. Mikey’s only weapon is throwing it at Lee to attempt to exert some dominance. After a while (and the camera aspects show this), Mikey becomes that kid experiencing an elder tear down the little he has left. It feels like this is the moment where he breaks.
“Fishes” wouldn’t end on an “everybody holds hands” note. It’s only fitting that Donna drives her car through the living room for her to be seen. “Review” from the first season of The Bear showed what could go wrong in the context of the kitchen. “Fishes” was the other side in that the same anxieties reverberated far greater beyond the orders and menu.
