FX and Hulu dropped a major surprise on TV fans today, revealing a surprise prequel to The Bear that was quietly produced without much fanfare and has arrived with no prior announcement. As fans have been waiting anxiously for the impending fifth season of The Bear this summer, and whether it truly marks the ending of the show, this surprise has been a welcome one. Starring Ebon Moss-Bachrach as his iconic character Richie alongside Jon Bernthal as Mikey Berzatto, the one episode “Gary” from The Bear team acts as a prequel to the main show and follows these two friends on a surprising journey.
As one might expect from a prequel, though, something that The Bear has not shied away from in the past with many episodes (like Season 2’s “Fishes” about the Berzatto family Christmas dinner, or Season 3’s “Napkins” about Tina’s journey to The Beef), there are revelations to be found. Though the story is clearly set at least seven years before the events of the show itself, details about the characters’ lives and even how they feel about others that have become key parts of the show are confirmed in “Gary.” Among the reveals is at least one thing that connects it to The Bear Season 5, though, as such, Spoilers will follow for The Bear‘s “Gary” will follow.
In the Season 4 finale of The Bear, after Richie learns that Carmy is leaving the business behind, the latter reveals to him that he actually went to Mikey’s funeral, something he previously kept a secret and which prompts a charged reaction from Richie. Reflecting not only on his friend’s death by suicide but the circusmtances of his attending his funeral is a tough subject for Richie, who reveals how he tried to help Mikey, lamenting that “he failed.” Richie goes on to tell a story about a road trip he once took with Mikey, noting that for half an hour it “felt perfect” like it was as good as life gets, which Richie reveals it was what he assumed Carmy’s life felt like all the time. This episode IS that road trip.
As noted, “Gary” is standalone episode all about Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Richie and Jon Bernthal’s Mikey Berzatto. The pair have been given a task by Uncle Jimmy, to deliver a taped up box to someone in Gary, Indiana. When the episode begins though, as a means of telling us where this is in the timeframe of The Bear, we see that Richie is still married to Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), not only that but she’s visibly pregnant with their daughter.
This of course spurs conversation between Mikey and Richie about the arrival of his child, with Richie asking Mikey about potential names. At first Mikey shrugs off the name “Annie,” and then offers the alternative “Althea,” which Richie disapproves of because of the potential it might have in making fun of the kid. Mikey then has another suggestion, “Eva,” which Mikey appears to fire off as a text to Tiffany. As The Bear fans know, this is what Richie’s daughter is eventually named.
Throughout The Bear, the shadow of Mikey looms large around everything in the series, but hangs especially over Richie due to their friendship and years working together. What “Gary” reveals, is that in addition to being very close personally the pair also had a relationship that was tested. By the end of “Gary,” Mikey is not only drunk, but high on drugs, and then delivers a monologue to an entire bar that’s incredibly complimentary about Richie, at first at least.
In the end, Mikey’s observations about his “best friend” Richie stop being a toast about how healthy and happy his friend is, to then telling Richie that he should just leave town and stay out of his child’s life because he’s deifnitely going to “f-ck it up too,” even adding “everyone knows it.” As one might expect, this exchange results in fisicuffs, with Richie striking Mikey multiple times before they eventually leave the bar without addressing the conversation.
In a tender moment in a bathroom stall, Mikey opens up to a stranger (Marin Ireland’s Sarah) about not only how the world percieves him (“They say I don’t finish things”) but also his relationship with his mother, Jamie Lee Curtis’ Donna Berzatto. As Mikey tells it, as a kid his mother would come into his room, scratch his back, and tell him every detail about what their day was going to be like tomorrow. He laments that it impressed him and put him at ease, in part because it made him feel like his mother had planned his whole day.
Mikey goes on to reveal that eventually, when he asked Donna to tell him about his next day that she snapped at him. Seeing that sudden transformation of his mother broke Mikey in a way, though, and shows that the fractured foundations of the Berzatto family were felt in every character. He goes on to note his feelings about sadness and depression, which he doesn’t have the words for, but all of which set up his eventual death by suicide.
Throughout “Gary” there’s a ticking clock, that Richie needs to be back home by 5:15 PM. As explained, Tiffany has a superstition that she’ll go into labor at that exact time because it’s the point of that day that her mother went into labor with her. Richie is constantly checking the clock and trying to make sure he has time to get back home by 5:15 PM, though he gets a warning about if “the train” comes through town, he’ll be stuck in Gary.
Furthermore, throughout his check ins with Tiffany, she reminds Richie to not smoke any cigarettes or get into trouble, both of which he does. As you can guess, by the end of “Gary,” Richie and Mikey haven’t made it home, with the clock in the car confirming that it’s 5:15 PM and he’s missed the deadline. Though not explicitly said, the implication of hte episode is that not only did Tiffany go into labor because he wasn’t there, but that Richie doing the things she told him not to to eventually leads to their seperation.
The final moments of “Gary” appear to leap ahead in time, revealing Richie in a car on his own, reflecting on his friendship with Richie as he looks at the empty car seat next to him. As the rain patters down, though, a car behind him beeps its horn, prompting Richie to move ahead into traffic, only for his car to be surprise hit by another vehicle. The episode cuts to black immediately and ends.
It’s unclear if this moment is supposed to be set before the events of The Bear Season 5, perhaps implying that Richie might be hospitalized or immoble when the episode start, or will it happen later in the season itself and was revealed in “Gary” as a tease for what’s to come. Time will tell, but The Bear won’t return for Season 5 until this summer, so for now we have to linger on the cliffhanger.
