Full series spoilers.

I've been thinking about Richie's trip to Japan, and something clicked for me about the ending that I didn't really appreciate the first time.

Most workplace shows treat becoming indispensable as the ultimate achievement. You're so good at your job that everything falls apart without you. Your coworkers need you. Your boss needs you. You're the person who saves the day when nobody else can.

And for a long time, The Bear operates exactly like that.

In season 1, it feels like Carmy can't step away for five minutes without something exploding. Everyone has their own territory, nobody trusts anybody else's judgment, and half the arguments come from people feeling like they're the only ones who know how to do their jobs.

By the end, look at how different things are.

Richie can get on a plane to Japan. Tina can take on more responsibility in the kitchen. Ebra can pursue his own business plans. Marcus doesn't need Luca standing beside him to make something great.

And Carmy can contemplate an entirely different career without the restaurant immediately ceasing to exist.

Obviously, getting to that point was messy as hell, and I don't think Carmy handled his departure particularly well. But that's almost what makes it interesting.

The restaurant has finally become something bigger than the one person who was supposed to save it.

What really got me was Natalie encouraging Richie to take the trip. She's spent so much of the series dealing with emergencies, trying to keep everyone together, and making sure the business doesn't collapse.

And now she's encouraging someone important to leave for a while.

Not because he doesn't matter anymore. Because things can keep going without him.

I used to work somewhere that treated taking a week off like a betrayal. If you were particularly good at your job, you got rewarded with the knowledge that nobody could cover for you. And eventually you stopped even trying to take time off.

So watching these characters slowly become capable of functioning without having every important person physically present felt surprisingly satisfying.

The restaurant getting recognition is great. But there's something really nice about the idea that the people working there might finally have lives that don't revolve entirely around keeping the place alive.

I wonder if that's why the final scenes feel so different from the earlier seasons. For once, someone leaving the restaurant doesn't necessarily mean something terrible is about to happen.

Some spoilers below for season 5 so please be careful

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Overall - the bear is great man. I have enjoyed most of it, just apart from season 5.

I don’t know, I am writing this to figure out my thoughts - so please excuse me if this makes little sense. It just felt a little too neat, lacked the wider context that earlier seasons had (i laughed at how all the extra characters just happened to visit the restaurant that day/eve: here’s Pete, here’s Marcus’ friend to get raspberries, Luca is just here for a bit, here is Cheese and Computer etc. it felt quite forced where earlier seasons just had a more organic flow. By making it about the restaurant and nothing else, I felt it lost that these people do have wider relationships, beyond work. Previous seasons showed Richie figuring out his career, his divorce and relationship with his daughter, ex wife and new partner, with real grace and subtlety. Carmy doing the work to find his way through grief and mental health.

Unresolved plot lines (Clare and Carmy should have been resolved: slightly chickened out from finishing the story they have been telling there). Some characters just being there to be there (Jamie Lee Curtis is great in the Bear but I’m not entirely sure she was needed at all in this season). The Faks brothers - I like them but less can be more…there was a lot of filler scenes overall.

The whole franchising / air rights plot line - like it was so, so dragged out. Ebra is great but franchising the whole thing was discussed in earlier seasons, and how on earth did it take so long for them to come up with the idea. I burst out laughing when Carmy was like: that’s brilliant (when first hearing about it). lol the beef sandwich shop has been the only sustainable part of the business for years at this point. It wasny even that controversial.

Syd is awesome but I still don’t feel they went deep enough with her character. Far too defined by her relationship with Carmen, I wanted to see more of who she was. T is made CQC but nothing is really done with her after that. Marcus makes an ice cream for his estranged Dad - the arc fell so short considering how much it had been brought up before that.

And I have no idea what Carmen is doing now - apprentice in architecture or back at the restaurant? Would have preferred that they tell their story and not hide behind vague ‘It’s up to you how it ended’.

i did enjoy some of the season too. But compared to its best? the wedding; when Carmy confronts his old chef, Forks; final episode of season 1 (where they find the money l), fishes - nothing hit on that level for me, sadly.