‘The Bear’ Season 2 Episode 2 Recap: “Pasta” (2024)

As The Bear Season 2 Episode 2 (“Pasta”) begins, we’re reminded that there are 12 weeks to open, and EVERY SECOND COUNTS. Carmy and Sydney mind-meld about menu choices and watch helplessly as the demolition of Original Beef continues. Natalie–now on full-time as project manager–tries to keep track of all the mounting problems and issues she’s taken on, especially now that the timeline for open went from six months to ASAP. Richie and Fak argue over moving old lockers before they paint, a moment for Richie to firmly establish himself as an alpha up until project manager Nat interjects and tells him no, move the lockers and be quiet, you ape.

Meanwhile, Sydney tells Tina and Ebraheim that they will be headed to culinary school to better utilize their already short staff. Important sub-plot, but kinda boring to recap, so we’ll leave it at that.

Back to the locker fiasco, Richie and Fak stumble over each other and make it work, but it does not. After the lockers are finally put down, Carmy comes out to supervise but finds that his dead brother’s locker is still unopened. The room hushes because they know, as we all do, that it must be opened, so someone needs to fetch the boltcutters stat. ($300,000 was crammed into tomato cans–who knows what Mikey hid in his workman’s locker?)

Carmy does the honors with a circular saw, and inside the locker, we find…a baseball hat. Carmy, Richie, and Natalie lapse into sentimentality for a few seconds but not longer because EVERY SECOND COUNTS, as you remember.

Sydney enters and asks Marcus if it was Mike’s locker, and he fills her in. She can’t hide being underwhelmed. “So, there was just a hat in it?” Marcus calls her an asshole, but she’s not because we all thought it.

Later on, Syd and Carmy begin to plot their “chaos menu” for The Bear. It is at this time that we find how driven Sydney is when it comes to stars. “Do you really want one of these bullsh*t stars?” Carmy asks. She does. “You’re gonna have to care about everything more than anything,” he tells her.

That’s nonsense to non-chefs like you and me, but Sydney understands it completely, and, yes, she will care about Michelin stars more than anything. Everyone needs a purpose.

Later in the conversation, Carmy reveals that two of his old bosses used to sign “I’m sorry” during hectic nights when they’d eviscerate each other on the line. “It was their version of ‘let’s talk about this later,’” he says. Sydney loves it, and mimics it.

Calling it now: there’s a massive uncomfortable scream-off between these two on opening night.

A couple more big moments before we get to the big, huge moment: there is mold in the restaurant!

(Also: Sister Nat is pregnant.)

But–MOLD!

Before we get to the big-big thing: Sydney has dinner with her father, played by Robert Townsend, to celebrate the birthday of her deceased mother. There are candles in a cupcake plus a very gentle, but demeaning dad-talk about what on earth she is doing messing around in a start-up restaurant given that she has a relative who works for Boeing and can set her up with a steady, soulless job, flagging airplanes down a runway. She declines and is insulted by her father’s suggestion. (Runway ramp agents aren’t required to care about everything more than anything.)

Alright, so now the big moment: Carmy is at his local grocery mart in the freezer aisle when a familiar voice calls out to him.

“Carm?”

“Claire.”

It’s Claire!

(Who’s Claire?)

It turns out she’s a family friend from the way, way back. Carmy’s shaken by her presence caught between moony-eyed and shell-shocked. They’ve known each other since they were little kids, but they’ve lost touch. She’s now a surgeon in residency, he asks dumb questions about it. There’s a familiarity and comfort in their conversation even though Carmy halts before every sentence because he knows the last thing he needs right now is l-o-v-e. Tough luck for him because R.E.M’s “Strange Currencies” is what the musical director picked for this moment, which means he’s screwed.

Claire looks at him longingly. ”So, how’s your life been, Berzatto?” she asks. Carmy has no answer for her. This is gonna get complicated.

THE BEAR SEASON 2 EPISODE 2: LEFTOVERS

• QUESTIONS I HAVE ABOUT EASTER EGGS > INCREDIBLE MIDDLE-AGED DAD NEEDLE DROP: “Baby, I’m a Big Star Now” by Counting Crows. The Bear Season 1 saw excellent use of CC’s “Have You Seen Me Lately?” from their second (and best) album, Recovering the Satellites. But this is a deep B-side to their 2000 single “Hangin’ Around.” And–wait a minute. Eagle-eyed middle-aged dads like me who noticed the Rounders poster in the first episode will have had their minds collectively blown because this song was ALSO used during the closing credits of —you guessed it — Rounders. Who designed this easter egg hunt? Bill Simmons?

• CARMY ARM p*rnOGRAPHY: Can you believe they put the man in long sleeves the entire episode?

Can’t get enough of The Bear Season 2? For more insight, analysis, GIFs, and close-ups of Carmy’s arms, check out all of Decider’s episodic recaps:

• The Bear Season 2 Episode 1 Recap: “Beef”
• The Bear Season 2 Episode 2 Recap: “Pasta”
• The Bear Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: “Sundae”
• The Bear Season 2 Episode 4 Recap: “Honeydew”
• The Bear Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: “Pop”
• The Bear Season 2 Episode 6 Recap: “Fishes”
• The Bear Season 2 Episode 7 Recap: “Forks”
• The Bear Season 2 Episode 8 Recap: “Bolognese”
• The Bear Season 2 Episode 9 Recap: “Omelette”
• The Bear Season 2 Episode 10 Recap: “The Bear”

A.J. Daulerio is a Los Angeles-based writer and editor. He is also the founder of the recovery newsletter The Small Bow.