honestly, i think carmy and claire need to date officially. because it feels like this weird and undefined relationship is the reason they keep going back to each other.
maybe i’m crazy but carmy not wanting to define their relationship but preceding to run to her after a full season of just thinking about her is because they need to cut the bullshit and officially date so they can put this to rest if it doesn’t work out.
clearly an apology and a love confession isn’t going to cut it. they need to stop making everybody else miserable and get it over with. otherwise, it’s a constant “what if” scenario between them.
but my fear as to why they won’t do that is because they’re using claire as an obstacle for sydcarmy and they don’t want to get rid of it any time soon. which is frustrating! sydcarmy have issues that could be used for them to be apart. they don’t have to do the same thing.
The topic of fixing came back with Sydney while discussing The Bear.
“…the house is crazy and full of crazy people. But, like, also full of goodness and, like, purity and fun and promise.” “Yes, I’m aware there’s no pizza, but there’s, like, still goodness. And I could fix it or… I don’t know if I could fix it but maybe it could be fixed. It could be fixed, and I could…It could just..Everything could make sense, and it would be good and…And honestly, it's like, "Do I even want pizza?" Because there's a bed for me, you know. There's a bed for me at that place. That's my bed, and it's not my house, but there's a bed that I can sleep in there. And there could be pizza, you know. Like we could make it a place where there is pizza. There could be Thai food if we wanted. There could be video games. And just... And, like, goodness and chaos and peace and good food. And, like, that's it, and it would be there, instead of me having to go to another house and, like, start over all again.
We know that Carmy wanted to fix The Beef because he wanted to fix his relationship with his brother. That’s why when Carmy asked Claire if she wanted to fix a broken arm, she corrected him by saying she wanted to understand it.
Afterwards, it almost looked like Carmy was disappointed in Claire’s response.
Maybe to Sydney, fixing The Bear is a way to fix her partnership with Carmy or even her life. Carmy trying to do it felt like he was running to the past while Sydney is trying to move forward.
It’s been briefly mentioned here, but Carmy’s feeling of inadequacy is so prevalent into the reason why their partnership feels disjointed.
It’s like this need for competition. To compete with the one person he’s culinarily intimidated by. And Claire saying that he’s The Bear, maybe he always felt like he constantly had something to prove. It reminded him of what he probably never wanted to be in the first place. All he ever wanted was create something good with his brother.
When Mikey purposefully stopped connecting with him, Carmy lashed out and went to multiple kitchens just to prove his excellency out of spite. It probably didn’t feel that way because he had a love for it. That took a turn when Chef David came into the picture. His drive to the culinary space was in showing Mikey that he doesn’t need him. Now it’s attached to his grief and trauma of culinary abuse.
To be completely honest, Carmy attempting to remove himself may be a great solution on paper but Sydney wanted a partner who she could trust. That trust is definitely compromised now.
But the big brother there is like… He’s somebody who I look up to a lot because he is… he’s the best in the world at playing video games. He’s, straight up, like, one of the best in the world. Like the fact that he wants me to be over at his house playing video games with him is, like, low-key an honor, you know. The only issue is that, um, he is kind of a lot and doesn’t like to share. And even though sometimes he’ll be like, “Oh, play this video game with me,” then if I do too well, he acts kind of weird and, like, funky with me. And it’s not always really clear or consistent, like, when he wants to share and why he doesn’t want to, and like what’s going on with his life and the other people he, like, plays games with. And also just friends outside of playing games. Often that comes into the gameplay and the sleepover of it all, and it’s actually like a little bit inappropriate sometimes.
Sydney is aware of her skills in the kitchen being the cause to his behavior at times.
This strange possessiveness to being the best in the kitchen while also his clear jealousy of when someone else wants her. As Sydney said, it is inappropriate.
When he said she doesn’t need him and her telling him that wasn’t the point, he likely knows that too because his problem might be with the kitchen, but it’s also the acknowledgment that his need for her to keep things afloat is stronger than hers.
Would they let her fix it? It seems like Carmy was only person that wouldn’t. For whatever reason, he keeps them in limbo.
Even if he decides to stay, so much time would feel wasted because we’re potentially going to gear up for however many seasons this inner turmoil will last. Especially considering with how long Sydney’s decision to stay or not lasted. Many of y’all will probably disagree with me but I feel like most of these problems of feeling consistent stagnant progression in the story wouldn’t feel that way if we had more episodes per season. Since it comes out every year, it feels like we’re hitting same story beats with a different font each year.
This post is my attempt at consolidating a whole bunch of meta on this platform about Claire's role in The Bear. Because given the new season, everyone's coming in with takes (some great, some not so great) and it gets hard to wade through it all. Also, there has been A LOT of historical analysis of this character from past seasons and almost all of it still holds up. But Tumblr being what it is and folks' attention spans and ability to actually conduct research being what they are, a lot of that analysis has fallen by the wayside.
Above: Claire in 4x03 Scallop looking a haggard mess. Also a picture of my shrivelled soul after reviewing this insane volume of Claire-based meta in the last few days.
With all that providing a lens through which to look at season 4, this season has confirmed for me that Claire has been purposefully written as an escalating threat to Carmy's mental health. This has been building from the start of her tenure in the The Bear, up to and including season 4. I repeat: Claire has not been written with the intention that anyone in the audience should ship her with Carmy. And if you do? If you are watching The Bear and are rooting for Carmy and this woman to be endgame? The show told you in 1x01 to stop watching get out of line along with the other media illiterate white supremacists incel, QAnon, 4chan, Snyder-cut, (and I'd also add) Reddit motherfuckers. [In case I need to spell it out: this is because you'd rather ship white wunderkind chef man Carmy with one of the only available, conventionally pretty white women in show whose character has not been fleshed out at all, than imagine him loving, needing, wanting his beautiful, multi-faceted, professional equal (well...superior at this point) who is a Black woman.]
Now, I'm not saying that Claire has been written as an out-and-out villain. The Bear doesn't have those (except for Chef David of Empire). Among the many things the show is about is how we all hold light and dark within us and that we have choices to make about how or if we share or weaponise those parts of ourselves with others. This is why many of us love this show, its realistic in that way. And lets be real: the folks in our lives who are not good for us, usually don't enter our lives with a sign around their necks or red flags flying from their heads to identify them as threats. In many cases, it takes time to recognise that someone's behaviour hurts. Similarly, it will take time for Claire and Carmy's incompatibility to make itself plain for viewers (particularly those who don't want to engage subtext when watching this show).
TLDR: If Syd and Carmy are the slow burn love story at the heart of The Bear, then Claire and Carmy are its slow chill: a relationship that if it keeps going at its current pace, will leave Carmy frozen in heightened anxiety, unable to move.
I put together this post in the hopes that it might make people feel better about this character's future (or lack thereof) in season 5. I've said it before and I'll say it again: legacy media, Reddit, Twitter etc none of them hold a candle to the level of analysis and rigour that gets put out by the folks in the #sydcarmy tag on Tumblr (and they know it too - thats why they're regularly combing through our shit and stealing content without attribution *cough*).
The list of meta links below, while long as shit, is by no means comprehensive. Its based on my own imperfect searching through multiple tags. I also stopped actively searching for Claire meta in the last week so there’s probably lots of recent S4 meta I’ve missed in this list. Feel free to reply or reblog with links to meta you’ve found/written that are not listed here. This post was haunting my drafts so I had to get it out lol. The list is under the cut.
Season 2
@eeeeehhhhhkiszkahkiszka's meta on Claire as part of a pattern in Carmy's life where things are chosen for him.
@strawberryscare's meta on a costume choice in 2x08 Bolognese that associates Claire with regression into Carmy's past instead of his forward growth.
@fairestbeard’s meta on Claire's disruptive waiting in S2.
@fairestbeard's meta on the use of signs and magical realism in 2x05 Pop.
My meta on the subtextual sex scene between Claire and Carmy in 2x05 Pop.
My gif-based meta highlighting the difference in warm and cold lighting for Syd/Claire scenes.
@brokenwinebox's meta analysing Clairmy over the course of S2.
@brokenwinebox's meta on pushing between Claire and Carmy and between Marcus and Syd
@yannaryartside's meta on Claire pushing Carmy.
@radio-ghost-cooks' meta on Claire as the last thing holding Carmy back.
@myloveismineallmine's meta on Claire, Carmy and chores.
Part 2 and Part 4 of @myloveismineallmine's multi-part meta on song choices and Sydcarmy. Note: this whole series is awesome: Part 1 and Part 3.
Season 3
@outmakingmoonshine's meta: Part 1 and Part 2 on the fact that Sydcarmy has been intentionally written by Chris Storer as endgame from the jump and the superficial role of Clairmy in the show.
@moodyeucalyptus' meta (and ALL the reblogs) on Claire's performance as an ER doctor and her role as an anaesthetic that helps Carmy to numb himself.
@brokenwinebox's meta laying out visually the associations between Claire (in the present) and abusive Donna (in the past).
@brokenwinebox's meta on connections between Claire, mold and death.
@ambeauty's meta on Claire as the personification of the freezer Carmy got stuck in during 2x10 The Bear
@ambeauty's meta on Syd, Carmy and Claire's roles and how they fill the tropes in a romantic workplace comedy.
@yannaryartside's meta on Carmy's relationship with Claire as another example of him not dealing with his past traumas.
@freedelusionshere's meta analysing Claire's role as a dramatic foil: "Donna with a soft voice."
My reblog meta on @espumado's original post about Claire being a reverse-engineered haunt, created by Carmy to keep Michael in his life.
My reblog meta on @mitocamdria's original post about Carmy's sublimation and shame and what this might tell us about his relationship with Claire.
@yannaryartside's meta on why Carmy has a freeze response around Claire
@ciaomarie's meta on Claire's treatment of Carmy over eps 2x10 to 3x09.
@thoughtfulchaos773's meta on Carmy's memories of Claire and Syd and what they tell us about his state of mind with these two women.
@thoughtfulchaos773's meta on repeated connections between Claire and Tiff
@thoughtfulchaos773's meta on Claire being the mother that Carmy wanted.
@yannaryartside's meta on Claire and narcissim.
@freedelusionshere's meta on Claire and gaslighting.
@thoughtfulchaos773's meta (and ALL the reblogs) on Claire, Carmy and S3's horror theme.
@mitocamdria's meta on Carmy's reluctance in his relationship with Claire.
@bioloyg's answer to an ask about Claire's role in S3 as it pertained to Carmy's charcter arc.
@turbulenthandholding's meta on Carmy, Claire and dissociative amnesia.
Season 4
@marianasue20's meta about Claire's propensity for making light of the heavy things that Carmy discusses with her.
@fairestbeard's meta (and @freedelusionshere's reblog meta) on Molly Gordon's acting choices to convey Claire's disdain for Sydney.
@fairestbeard's meta on dialogue in 4x08 Green between Claire and Carmy and how this might point to Claire having two faces when it comes to Carmy.
@bioloyg's meta on the use of Claire in 4x06 Sophie as a confessional for Sydney to disclose her fears.
@brokenwinebox's meta on Claire's controlling language in 4x03 Scallop.
@thoughtfulchaos773's meta on Carmy's use of fire (and Claire) to forget/escape pain.
My meta comparing Pete, Syd and Claire's approaches to the surviving Berzatto children as they navigate their reintroductions to Donna.
Just the simple notion before Claire and Carmy’s scene in s2, Sydney was talking to her dad about how she has a partner. When Emmanuel asked if she trusts him, she answered him fairly confidently. When that trust becomes compromised, Carmy is telling her this. Man…
But where did Claire get this info in the first place? It's clearly not something she was supposed to have heard. It seems like she heard it from Mikey. That is the only person they show Carmy telling. That's why Carmy reacts like he saw a ghost when she says it.
Haunting becomes associated with Claire for all of S3.
We find out this season that Mikey told several people about Carmy, so it would make sense that he told Claire that info, and Carmy spends a lot of this season coming to hard realization he didn't know his brother and maybe doesn't know himself. Because his career is based on proving to Mikey that he should've done the restaurant with him in the first place.
When all these people were hanging out while Mikey was hopped up on prescription drugs (with bottles that don't have labels) and spiraling....I mean, Lee and Mikey suddenly getting along is because Mikey got sad and lost his will to fight, right? That was the implication to me. Richie implies that he came to The Beef because Mikey needed to be watched over it got so bad. Who was giving him the pills?
When Carmy tells Syd she's The Bear, I don't think he' s quoting Claire or thinking about Claire. He might be thinking about Mikey, though. He means the restaurant, I think? The restaurant he wanted to make with Mikey. Syd made his dream come true, and now he's questioning his part in that, but he knows Syd still loves it. Syd is the one that made him question everything and want to make everything good to begin with.
And Syd, in turn, demands basically that he give a piece of it back to Richie which is where they started in a sense back in S1 and honoring The Beef and the origins of the restaurant in the first place.
I had my theories associated with Mikey and Claire too. Maybe we’ll find out if we get a season five.😭
Anyway! I’ll probably talk about this more one day but Carmy’s feeling of inadequacy is most definitely part of the reason we’re here now.
Sydney noticed how weird he gets when she shows how good of a chef she is.
The only issue is that, um, he is kind of a lot and doesn’t like to share. And even though sometimes he’ll be like, “Oh, play this video game with me,” then if I do too well, he acts kind of weird and, like, funky with me. And it’s not always really clear or consistent, like, when he wants to share and why he doesn’t want to, and like what’s going on with his life and the other people he, like, plays games with. (s4e4)
Maybe it’s wishing thinking, but when he mentioned how Sydney doesn’t need him, I wondered if that was his problem. Like she doesn’t need him the way he does her. Because without her, there’s really no chance of it surviving.
Just the simple notion before Claire and Carmy’s scene in s2, Sydney was talking to her dad about how she has a partner. When Emmanuel asked if she trusts him, she answered him fairly confidently. When that trust becomes compromised, Carmy is telling her this. Man…
Syd complaining about how Carmy self-sabotages and runs away when things are good and we get a scene of him running to Claire’s house earlier in the season.
