In The End, ‘The Bear’ Forgot All About Its Own Love Stories

T he Bear ended its award-winning run with a fifth season that felt like a return to form. The show’s ending, which was emotional albeit a bit predictable, was a fitting one. But the one question friends who hadn’t watched the finale yet kept asking me was, Did Carmy end up with Sydney or Claire?

It’s clear that those posing the question are ones who have truly not tuned into the series for quite a while, because it reminded me just how far removed the series had come from the thing that many viewers cared about.

For the record, I don’t necessarily follow one ship over the other. But it was very evident that almost every single love story the series tried to set up—whether intentionally or not—was completely lost at the end. When she was first introduced, Claire received a lot of backlash, especially from fans who believed that Carmy was initially being set up with Sydney. Then some shippers came out in support of a Sydney/Marcus relationship, but that also soon felt non-existent, with their own friendship fading into the background. Even though the final season does make some mention of Carmy possibly reconnecting with Claire, it’s not outright revealed whether he did or not.

Does The Bear actually need love stories to be successful? Not necessarily. But when the food industry is well-known for its hookup culture, it’s shocking how both sex and relationship-averse the entire series had become by the end. Only four couples made it out at the end—two new (Richie and Jessica & Uncle Jimmy and Donna) and two pre-established (Sugar and Pete & Tina and David)—with very little done or shown between them.

Sugar and Pete are the couple with the most screen time thanks to a sex scene in the middle of the season that finally gives us more of a glimpse of their relationship that we haven’t seen before. Still, it’s not much in the grand scheme of the rest of the season or the show overall.

Some fans actually believed that it would be revealed at the end that Luca and Marcus were somewhat together, especially after their big emotional fight. The show makes no explicit hint at that, but it’s clear that fans have been hoping for some more in the romance department from the series.

With so much fan expectation for relationships, it’s very clear that fans feel like its a missing part of the series. Has society come to a point where a love story is expected in every piece of medium, especially as culture dives deeper and screams louder about shipping characters and fandom grows more than ever thanks to the internet? Fans of The Pitt have also gone through similar experiences, with them even creating their own relationship storylines via fan fiction, fanart, or other fan works to fill in those spaces. But is it necessary for every single show?

Unlike The Pitt, the issue with The Bear is that it gave fans these expectations in the first place. While it was not explicit between Carmy and Sydney, they did set the precedent by introducing Claire as a love interest and seemingly writing her out. Fans are going to be naturally curious about what happens to them, especially considering Carmy and Claire were a major storyline in seasons two and three.

We can’t count love out completely, though. It’s very evident that the love of the game and The Bear won out at the end, as well as Carmy’s love for his brother and wanting to make him proud. And while it’s not the love story that fans were hoping for, at least it gave fans something to talk about.