Braciole (The Bear)

"Braciole" is the eighth episode and first season finale of the American television comedy-drama The Bear. The episode was written by series creator Christopher Storer and executive producer Joanna Calo, and directed by Storer. It was released on Hulu on June 23, 2022, along with the rest of the season.

The series follows Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, an award-winning New York City chef de cuisine, who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his late brother Michael's failing Italian beef sandwich shop. In the episode, Carmy faces his past, while trying to repair the situation with the restaurant.

The episode received acclaim from critics, with Jeremy Allen White's performance receiving both universal praise and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

Plot
Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) is haunted by the recurring voice of Michael (Jon Bernthal). He attends an Al-Anon meeting, where - in a 7-minute monologue - he finally opens up about his past, explaining how he and Michael shared an interest in food and planned on opening a restaurant and how he was unaware of Michael's drug use, and how their relationship dwindled which eventually caused Michael to not allow him to work at The Beef. This inspired Carmy to pursue cuisine in other restaurants. Upon inheriting The Beef after Michael's death, Carmy considers that he is fixing the restaurant in order to fix his relationship with Michael. He claims it is everything to him, but wonders if it means anything to Michael.

Marcus (Lionel Boyce) meets with Syd (Ayo Edebiri) at her apartment, where he eats one of her meals. Their conversation soon turns into their new journeys, with both having quit The Beef. At The Beef, Carmy informs everyone that the restaurant will be closed that night due to a bachelor party for Cicero's friends. As Carmy and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) talk outside, a fight breaks out during the party. Richie tries to control the situation by assaulting one of the men who are fighting, but after Richie punches him, the man loses consciousness and is admitted to a hospital intensive care unit. Richie is arrested with the possibility of a manslaughter charge if the victim does not survive. The man wakes up, and Richie is charged with aggravated assault. He is released when Carmy bails him out.

Marcus returns to The Beef. Carmy apologizes for his behavior, which Marcus accepts. When Carmy starts a fire on the stove from lighting a cigarette, he zones out, and the others have to put the fire out. Carmy decides to contact Syd, apologizing for his behavior. Richie talks with him, giving him a letter from Michael addressed to Carmy that was found wedged behind the employee lockers. On one side of the letter, Michael wrote, "I love you dude. Let it rip," a phrase Carmy previously shared that Michael had used to encourage Carmy. On the opposite side of the letter is a family meal spaghetti recipe, which indicates that they should use smaller cans of tomatoes because they taste better (apparently finally solving the mystery of why Michael was ordering small cans rather than big ones, which Carmy had been wondering). Carmy retrieves one and starts cooking, until he notices a bag in the tomatoes. The bag contains money, so Carmy and the crew retrieve more cans, all of which contain money as well. Syd returns and agrees to come back to work. Carmy announces the closure of The Beef, intending to open a new restaurant, The Bear. He then joins the crew to dine, envisioning Michael smiling back at him.

Development
In May 2022, Hulu confirmed that the eighth episode of the season would be written by series creator Christopher Storer and executive producer Joanna Calo, and directed by Storer. This was Storer's fourth writing credit, Calo's second writing credit, and Storer's fifth directing credit. The title is based on the dish of the same name, but The Wall Street Journal offered a different interpretation of the title, "The word braciole, by the way, translates from Italian as 'chops.' Does Carmy have the chops to lead and turn around the family restaurant? Does he have what it takes to move past his brother's tragic death?"

Writing
Regarding the final scene, Storer explained, "In terms of the restaurant changing, it's not that they're going to lose all the charm of the restaurant. We're going to deal with this in season two. It's more like: How can we do this and maybe make some money? And maybe make it easier? And maybe — maybe — start from a place that's not fucked? Instead of beating a dead horse and making this fuckin' food that no one even wants to make, I see the promise in my sort of found family in the kitchen. Can we use that to build something freshly, now that we've all found each other in this stupid-ass system where things make no sense and people are putting veal stock on the top fuckin' shelf of the walk-in?"

The opening sequence was originally different. While it would still involve Carmy in a cooking show, he would actually be accompanied by a female celebrity chef. Carmy would confuse her for his mother and then hug her while sobbing. However, the celebrity chef was confused about the scene and decided to drop out of the series, forcing the writers to re-write the scene.

Filming
Carmy's seven-minute monologue was filmed on the last day of shooting for the season. White rehearsed the monologue at his apartment, even feeling that he performed better at that point than in the final cut. He explained, "Chris has had this character in his mind for like ten years, and I knew how important that moment was to understand Carmy, understand the story, and to make sense of the stuff that was going on. I felt a lot of pressure." Storer said, "In this scene, I think there's a sense of discovery; that all of his accolades and his quest to become this highly skilled individual were perhaps for the wrong reasons. And that all culminates with an anger pointed at his older brother; that real sense of feeling unloved or forgotten by a family member."

Critical reviews


"Braciole" received acclaim from critics. Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone wrote, "On the one hand, this happy ending — and setup for a second season — feels pretty jury-rigged. Why was Michael hiding the money in the tomato cans? Won't Carmy just have to pay back his uncle rather than invest all this cash turning Beef into Bear? And yet that family meal feels like exactly what Carmy, Sydney, the rest of the chefs, and those of us in the audience needed. The brief glimpse of Michael looking over his shoulder and smiling, as if he can somehow witness what he left behind for Carmy and the others, couldn't be lovelier."

Marah Eakin of Vulture gave the episode a perfect 5 star out of 5 rating and wrote, "Folks, Jeremy Allen White is a good actor. He's been lighting up every episode of The Bear as Carmy, the tortured genius chef with all manner of problems, but in 'Braciole,' the season-one finale, he comes in so hot with an Al-Anon monologue that I'd be shocked (shocked, I say!) if I didn't see it on every awards reel submitted to every TV voter next year." Liz Kocan of Decider wrote, "In the last moments of the season, Carmy puts a sign in the window notifying customers that The Beef is closing, and in its place will stand a new venture, known as The Bear. I mean, on the one hand, it's a devastating thought, realizing Mikey was saving all of this money knowing that one day he wouldn't be there to share in the dream he had with his brother, but on the other, it's a supremely satisfying way for a beautifully written and acted season to sign off."

Accolades
TVLine named Jeremy Allen White as the "Performer of the Week" for the week of July 2, 2022, for his performance in the episode. The site wrote, "As the talented but troubled chef at the center of Hulu's frenetically paced restaurant drama, the Shameless vet cooked up a fascinating lead performance: a little salty and a little spicy, with lots of interesting flavors and textures layered in. In the poignant season finale — that we're really hoping isn't a series finale — White dug deep into what really makes his character Carmy tick and blew us away with a mesmerizing monologue that was part scathing confessional, part much-needed pep talk."

For his performance, Jeremy Allen White received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. In addition, Jon Bernthal received a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.