The Bear’s fourth season is a refreshing follow-up tothe polarizing third season. There’s a lot more “Yes, chef!” to come asThe Bearhas officially been renewed by FX Networks for a fifth season. There are a lot of changes coming to the restaurant, however, and much of this centers around Sydney (Ayo Edebiri). Through the third season, Sydney struggled with a difficult decision. In the end, after lots of soul-searching, Sydney decided to stay with the people she called family. And while some might think she made the wrong decision for her career, it was clearly the right one for numerous reasons.
While Adam appeared to be a decent guy and talented chef, hispromises to Sydney in Season 3also seemed like pies in the sky.He was opening a new restaurant, and he offered to give her carte blanche to do what she wanted. She would not just workforbutwithhim, able to make decisions about the menu, hiring, and even the direction of the restaurant.
Anyone with talent in their respective field who has been in a similar situation might consider this a red flag.It all seemed too good to be true. Would Adam really relinquish so much power to Sydney once she signed the contract, or was he just manipulating who he believed to be an impressionable young woman he could mold in his likeness and use to prop up his own ego?
We Can’t Ignore the Racial Microaggressions
The reasons Sydney made the right choice run deeper than that, though.Through Season 4, there were several subtle but significant racial microaggressions. When Adam calls Sydney to meet up and she says she’s busy getting her hair done, he makes passing remarks to suggest he doesn’t understand how important this is for her, nor how long it would take.It isn’t so much his lack of understanding but the way he words things and his sense of entitlement over her time. This type of behavior would likely have translated into the workplace as well had she decided to work for him.
Later, while talking to Sydney, he asks her if she has ever watchedGood Hair, the Chris Rock documentary about Black women and the history of how they style their hair. It might sound as though he was trying to suggest he was diving deeper into her culture to understand her better. But it had nothing to do with her professional work. Instead,it appeared insensitive, like he was once again reducing her to nothing more than her race.
The worst offender, however, comes when Sydney visits the space he’s renovating and Adam walks her through it. She arrives, and he’s blasting hip-hop music and asks if she is familiar with the group, then mentions facts about them.He gives her the remote to change to a station she wants, and she opts for classical music, immediately shutting down his assumption that she must like or prefer hip-hop.
‘The Bear’ Cooks Up a Massive Season 4 Update
‘The Bear’ is back in the kitchen for its fourth season.
He then talks about all the things he hopes they can do in the space and mentions how she can bring an Afro-Caribbean flair to the dishes. So far in the show, Sydney has not shown any type of cultural influence in her cooking.She has never once developed an Afro-Caribbean dish, yet he implies that this is what she must bring to the table because of her race. The bottom line is that everything Adam did was a desperate attempt to connect to Sydney in some way, and none of it was genuine.It was all about her race and trying to make it look as though he understood her, only pertaining to her heritage, which he felt defined who she was as a cook.
His Handling of Her Rejection Said It All
When Sydney makes her final decision, she places an awkward call to Adam to break the news. It’s understandable that he would be upset since she strung him along for so much time, wavering on the decision. What’s interesting is that Adam had told Carmy about the offer, andhe understood why she was considering leaving, and was ready to support her if that was the decision she made. He didn’t try and get in the way of her making it because, above all else, he cares about her. It’s a stark contrast to Adam’s response.
Sydney decides to stay with Carmy, not only because she realizes he truly respects her as both a person and a chef. When she tells Adam what she has regretfully decided,he immediately goes silent, then insults the restaurant, Carmy, and her, saying she will be stuck hovering around the middle for the rest of her career when he was giving her the opportunity to make her great. What’s funniest about this comment is that,in the finale, Carmy not so humbly implies that he knows without a doubt that he is a far better chef than Adam. But when he tells Sydney that she is as well, even suggests that Sydney is everything Carmy will never be, her decision is confirmed to have been the right one.
10 Small Details in ‘The Bear’ That Are Really Easy To Miss
Let’s look back at some of the small details of the first three seasons of ‘The Bear’ and see what fans might have missed.
With Sydney now left in charge of The Bear, with Natalie (Abby Elliott) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as her partners, while Carmy decides to step back and reflect more on his life, all she needs is financial backing to make it work. And no one has more faith in her than Carmy that she can do it. Will Adam rear his poaching head again inthe confirmed Season 5? It’s likely. Fans will be excited to see Sydney run circles around him and prove that she’s far from being stuck in the middle as a cook. She has already surpassed anything he could possibly be, and his reactions suggest that he probably knows it.
