Some thoughts on the tortured artist trope subversion as brought up by @greymvs
I have been thinking about this quote and how moving forward from the torment and not being shaped by it
‘THEY MAKE EACH OTHER BETTER AT IT’
Carmy pouring his heart out post mikey’s death on the hamachi plate -syd eating it. Literally taking in his trauma . Carmy’s variations of the lamb being his literal tortured sublimated heart which can’t get his feelings out - shaped by a broken marriage of his parents and his own past- coming together on that final lamb being called syd’s second best bite but still the lamb dish falls and breaks -TO BREAK PATTERNS WE MUST BREAK PATTERNS.
Syd needing to break her walls down. Syd being vulnerable by sharing whatever she imagined as the representation of love through food, she had with her mom’s ribs plating her literal heart in the bowls- which looks like carmy’s jacket.
Her not holding on to the trauma of loss , letting people in, serving the closest thing she has known as an expression of love, but changing because she isn’t governed by her trauma- adding in the new love(in the form of Carm’s fish sauce) being not so precious with it- braised ribs (mom’s - my head canon is -it is also Emmanuel’s fav) became cola braised(syd’s) with the added fish sauce(sydcarmy’s) and it replacing the tonnato lamb. (A representation of carmy’s mom dad’s broken marriage- along with how carmy associated the lamb it with syd- the love of his life)
Patterns of hurt, mental illness and the romanisation of depression are broken and are being left behind . They are building something healthy,fulfilling and delicious overcoming their individual and collective trauma and demons.
Which is the complete reversal of the tortured artist- here they are healing, building something, literally pulling themselves out of poverty.
It makes sense that they both have their panic attacks back to back throughout the plating of these dishes and walk each other through it calmly - reassuring how they are there for each other and how far they have come as partners.
I finally cracked the complex puzzle known as what sydcarmy ACTUALLY is within the canon and context of the show
The relationship between Sydney and Carmy has been talked about, examined and widely interpreted in different ways by almost all fans of the show. This meta isn’t to discourage anyone in how they see sydcarmy but Season five of The Bear has been out for two weeks and having finished it and thought very long and hard on the relationship between Sydney and Carmy throughout all 5 seasons, and what the finale season conveyed and portrayed in regards to it, I have come up with a conclusion that best fits how to define sydcarmy: an implicit romance.
Before I go into the details of this relationship, ask yourself this question, when you think of romantic relationships when you watch movies and TV, what do you picture? Like me, you’ll automatically think of two people expressing grand romantic gestures (giving gifts, going on dates, verbally committing to a relationship), enacting physically intimate scenes (kissing on the lips, sexual relations) and some big emotional confrontation between characters that is verbally expressed. What that is, what we are used to seeing onscreen, are explicit romantic relationships. Think about ross and rachel in friends, carrie and big in sex and the city, harry and sally in when harry met sally and any other movie or tv show with a romantic relationship within it. In the context of The Bear and romance, I think of Tina and David Marrero and Natalie and Pete Katinsky.
Now ask yourself again, when you think of a friendship between characters within a movie or a show, what do you picture? Characters who are friends are consistently there for each other through the good times and the bad, friends talk about both easy and difficult things without much barriers between them and friends always have a clear platonic divide that doesn’t impede on their romantic relationships. Think about any of the core four characters in sex and the city, molly and issa in insecure, jon and sam in game of thrones. In the context of The Bear and friendship, I think of Tina and Ebra, Sydney and Marcus and Marcus and Chester.
In our fandom, I think everyone can agree that Sydney and Carmy’s textual relationship existed outside of the realms of both platonic and explicit romance, never quite veering into either area throughout any and all five seasons of the show. Before season 5, I would’ve defined sydcarmy’s canonical relationship as nebulous and undefinable. In 4x10 Goodbye, we all saw that argument scene and at its peak she tearfully claimed that he’s her (business) partner and he angrily rebutted that he’s her friend. Both assertions fall into the realm of platonic. But both assertions are not true, as Sydney had yet to sign the partnership agreement, which would’ve made them official partners (the show even ends without us even seeing Sydney inking her name on the renegotiated agreement, an argument for another day lol). And his claim on friendship is also false, seeing as they never hung out outside of work, as we saw Sydney and Marcus doing (in s1 at Emmanuel’s apartment after they both quit and in s3 making a dead mom’s pact), fully working out their differences after a brief falling out like Tina and Ebra did (s2 when he came back to The Bear) or being there for each other after a difficult time like Marcus and Chester (s4 the latter took care of the sale of his mother’s house). The show consistently went out of its way to pull out all stops in showing Sydney and Carmy not having a platonic friendship. In season 2, when he makes plans to meet her at a restaurant where they would’ve hung out outside of work, he bails. In season 3, he doesn’t join everyone else they work with at a get-together at Sydney’s apartment. In season 4, he doesn’t join her at her father’s bedside in the hospital and she refuses his request to go with her and be with her. They are not friends and only Sydney is aware of that.
So if the show refused to make Sydney and Carmy’s relationship strictly professional and also refused to make their relationship a platonic friendship, I can only make the well informed hypothesis (based on prior knowledge, the observable evidence provided in The Bear, and relevant comments from the cast and crew) that their relationship is a highly intense, uniquely intimate, implied and implicit romance.
Tvtropes defines an implied love interest as “when one character fills the role of a Love Interest to another character in the narrative, or otherwise has a lot of tropes related to being a Love Interest surrounding them, but nothing explicit in the narrative or from the creators is ever stated on the matter.” Sydney and Carmy are each other’s implied love interest as evidenced by the romantic tropes, textual and subtextual content between them. The actors have chemistry, that’s undeniable, but the way they both acted around each other is unique in that their interactions cannot be replicated with any other character. Here’s some reminders if you need to jog your memory (A, B, C, D, X, Y, Z). That’s the text of the show, that can’t be changed or misinterpreted by anyone.
Subtextually, many of instances where we see romance implied is where interpretations will vary by how someone sees the show. The infamous s2 panic attack scene, where Carmy breaks out of it by picturing pivotal moments of Sydney in his life. The repeated and indisputable fact that Carmy made the best meal of Sydney’s life (reinforced by actually showing us this moment in s3’s premiere episode). The once thought abandoned plot of the cola braised short ribs being reintroduced in s5 to highlight that Sydney made the best meal of Carmy’s life. The original under the table scene, framed and shot like a sex scene. The scene where they met, the plot of season 1 only occurring because they meet. The repeated instanced of Carmy recreating Sydney’s attire on a plate of lamb. The star reveal and subsequent hug scene. These were all pivotal moments that showed us their love for each other, a love that no other character had with anyone else onscreen for the entirety of the show.
Both the critics and viewers have highlighted since the show's inception the uniqueness between Sydney and Carmy. After season one, when asked about their relationship, main writer Joanna Calo replied that a hook up between them was floated but ultimately shot down and the show's creator, Chris Storer replied that their relationship was a “partnership”. TVTropes goes on to further say that “One reason for this trope is in a serial work, it allows the author to gently cover their bums when it comes to either Ship Sinking ("Hey, the ship never set sail in the first place") or Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends ("The potential was there from the start"). The writer may state that they Hooked Up Afterwards, or leave it to the reader's imagination. Expect there to be at least some fans who pair the couple up regardless.” Sound familiar?
I want to especially clarify that when sydcarmy became so popular and synonymous with the show (somewhere between s2 and 3), that I think some fans (me included) wanted a clear explicit relationship between them. I would go so far as to say that our wants of explicit romance were known by both cast and crew and were shut down routinely because of the way most romances are portrayed and seen, and they knew that Carmy and Sydney will not kiss, date or be physically intimate onscreen that expresses sexual relations. It is a creative decision that was supported substantially textually and subtextually in the latter three seasons of the show that, for better or worse, solidified the fact that an explicit romance between them was not going to happen.
To conclude, now that season 5 is out and Jeremy himself confirmed there is love between Sydney and Carmy but it is not a romantic partnership, I can only define what they have between them as implied romance and that was the intent from the beginning. It didn’t need to be verbalized and physically expressed onscreen like his relationship with C*****, and it can’t simply be relegated to professional, platonic or familial the way these characters had with others. Sydney loves Carmy. Carmy loves Sydney. That very real but ultimately implicit love exists and is the reason we were invested since the beginning. Their love was written in the margins, indeed.
carmy flashing back to their very first meeting numerous times over the course of the series is enough to solidify their canon status.
carmy has visually etched so many things about sydney into his subconscious.
last season i wrote this post about how carmy's dream is sydney.
last week i wrote this one about how he's actively imprinting memories of her.
the "you look like syd" scene + the "you look nice" scene... are not random. it's an extension of that first meeting + the other dozen times she's walked into a frame he's already wordlessly existing in.
the camera always lingers on his reaction, his expression.
the audience is always a witness to him openly marveling at her.
this is a directorial choice + it's made throughout the bulk of the series so much it becomes a motif.
there is a real narrative + thematic gravitas to the dialogue detail of carmy saying the exact words "it started when you walked in..." the import of which has been seamlessly illustrated by how often he's recalled that very moment within the bones of the story itself.
they weren't just love at first sight. they were incomprehensible at first sight. they were salvation at first sight.
so much of the final season exemplified how sydney is the embodiment of the thing he couldn't see or connect with beneath his trauma, grief + haphazard sense of self.
she was the anchor, she was the connective tissue.
she was the water, to his fire. she was the cool breeze, the calm, the peace. these things were expressly explored via visual symbolism in the narrative.
"i like this..."
he likes being alongside her, he likes assisting her on her mission + dream, which is evident as he speaks in the internship interview.
he likes the moments where he's so outside of himself + his body + all the machinations of existing as this deeply skilled yet complicated chef (person).
when it clicks what her best bite was, we watch his microexpression almost flood with rapturous awe.
immediately the dimensions of this wordless connection is both validated + compounded.
sydney knows about her connection to carmy throughout the length of the series, even if she doesn't verbalize or give credence to it.
she is always very aware of her why, even when it doesn't make sense or falters.
she knows why she's there, why she keeps coming back.
even amongst the pitfalls + agitation.
which is also why there's more emotional distance on her end until the last season + a half.
"you write in the margins." "i appreciate you." "you're supposed to be here!"
but all carmy knows before that revelation is the moment she walked into his life + everything shifted.
he's the legacy, the access, the vehicle. she's the heart, the humanity, the cohesion.
throughout the length of the series they experience the inverse in the other.
in actuality, they found the thing they most hungered for, the thing that was always missing in the lap of the other.
Expanding on this post I made about the blocking of the final birthday party scene in The Original Beef of Chicagoland, another very interesting thing was brought to my attention.
As I noted, Carmy is facing away from the camera and towards Claire during this scene:
Facing backwards, facing his past.
However, @beuck_ on twitter pointed out (to @ambeauty who passed it along to me...thank you again!) that at the very end of this shot, you can actually see someone standing at Carmy's right side, with braids and the same gold earring Syd is wearing in other shots. So Carmy isn't talking to Claire by himself, he's talking to Claire with Syd at his side.
And then, of course, the rest of the scene follows and we see Carmy, facing forward making extreme anime heart eyes at Syd as she cuts the cake, in his last shot of the show:
Facing forwards, facing his future (Syd).
Also highly recommend watching this, which is the same scene scrubbed of music so you can hear the dialogue, almost entirely between Syd and Carmy, much more easily.
To me, this is incredibly conclusive, in the way that the show shows very intentionally and layers in meaning and subtext and symbol and everything else. Claire is the past; Sydney is Carmy's present and his future. It's all here. And I just love that so much.
WHATTTT I had no idea there was this other ending for MQ!!! I only ever saw the "new" one! They made me so crazy because (like SydCarmy) I couldn't understand how I was being asked to believe that these characters and the decisions they made in regards to each other were purely platonic. I would lose my mind if The Bear gave us an alternate ending like this!
There's been a lot of talk about this moment, as there should be. I thought the whole sequence was so beautiful.
Someone on Reddit wondered why they might gone with this shot of Sydney instead of one from the first time she made the cola ribs, and to me this signifies the transition from professional to personal in Carmy's mind. Leading up to this, we saw Chef Terry giving Carmy her spoon and then Carmy passing it to Sydney, and if they had chosen to continue with Carmy's first reaction to the ribs in comparison to how he's reacting now, that would have presented a very logical through-line of Carmy passing the torch and looking back on how far Sydney has progressed professionally.
But, instead, they show us this (new!) moment from when Carmy and Sydney first met. To me, that signals that Carmy is thinking more about Sydney's overall presence there, rather than just her professional accomplishments. The image itself is also very romantic, I think -- like, one person lifting their gaze to meet the other's in this way is something that shows up in a lot of overtly romantic media. I think it's really interesting and revealing that we have this moment that we as the audience have never seen before but that Carmy has apparently been carrying around in his head -- I think it would have changed the tone of that first meeting and how we interpreted it if this shot had been included the first time around. Kind of makes me wonder what other moments Carmy might have a different/expanded perspective of.
I’m gonna be thinking about the way they stare at each other before hugging forever I fear. The mountain of emotion in that pause only for the dam to break and for Sydney to rush into Carmen’s arms so fast that he could barely get a step in toward her. The way he drops what he’s doing the SECOND it looks like she’s gonna move. All that time Carmen spent trying to bridge that emotional gap, to get Sydney to confide in him the way he did in her, fucking it up along the way time after time, all that fighting and in the end she makes up the distance he could never cross —because it was always hers to cover. And so she just barrels into his arms.
It’s the hands on the back of each other’s necks, Carmen cupping Sydney’s face, her burying herself in the hug and squeezing him half to death, rocking back and forth, laughing and crying, knowing they’ll be okay even if and when it hurts. Knowing they have each other! The love was there and they just had to find it again.
Okay, so I’m actually losing my mind over the two-star reveal. They agree to act cool for the crew, but the sheer gravity between them completely takes over. Syd literally running across an empty room to find him is such a massive release of built-up tension.
But looking at it analytically, if the writers never intend to make them romantic, why use the exact visual textbook of a cinematic love story? Like... the camera does not lie:
The Lighting!!!! the room is cast in cold, shadowy blues. But the second they touch? A massive, warm amber lens flare cuts straight across them. It’s classic visual isolation-the camera is telling us they are the only two people in the universe right now. This is by far more intimate than anything we ever saw with Claire.
The Framing!!!! The sequence cuts from extreme wide shots where they look tiny and disconnected, to this sudden, rushing proximity. The blocking deliberately emphasizes the distance right before they collapse it completely.
The kicker is a touch tho. This isn't a just a coworker high-five. Carmy bringing his hands up to frame her face/neck, holding her waist with another???? and Syd doing the same? In standard TV grammar, holding someone’s face like that while looking into their eyes is a threshold behavior reserved for a confession or a near-kiss. We saw what their regular hug looks like and it was not it at all,
And It's not just this hug, either. The sheer amount of beautiful, quiet personal moments we got this season where they completely broke the barrier of personal space was insane. The way they stand near each other, the lingering looks -it is all 100% intentional blocking.
So... are they playing in our faces?
Honestly, the show is completely meta-aware of it. Donna literally asking Pete, "Are they dating?" proves the writers know exactly how this looks to the outside world. They are putting our exact question into the script.
Plus, the fact that Claire wasn’t in the picture at all this season? To me, it let the narrative breathe and made the focus so much sharper. Honestly, it made this season almost perfect, lmao, but for real.
And look at the sheer poetry of how the creators are building this non-classic potential love story. It’s a story about two people who have been through an incredible amount of heavy shit independently, who connect, go through this massive, painful buildup, and end up realizing just how deeply tethered and dear they are to each other. It feels so full and beautiful.
I also really love the direction they took with Carmy potentially staying in the restaurant. That scene where he's talking to the woman during the interview? He was practically using her as a therapist, pouring his heart out. He was essentially giving a love confession to the kitchen without even realizing it. Knowing he belongs back in, means that, in my head canonically, he’s back there for good eventually.
The creators have built something so non-cliché-this beautifully tethered story between these two characters that has evolved and progressed naturally. It feels nice, and honestly, it could go anywhere at this point. Leaving it open to our interpretation like this is kind of perfect.
Was talking to my friend about sydcarmy tattoos and we got into our usual analysis and it’s just so fascinating to me!
Months ago @yannaryartside made this great post about their tattoos and now I want to share some of my favorite thoughts and observations, because the costume and makeup departments didn’t just give them random shit, they designed two matching, contrasting sets of personal iconography.
I have to start with the absolute blueprint of their dynamic.
Carmy’s Pierced Hand: For a chef, the hands are everything!!! Creation, execution, control. Carmy has a knife plunging directly through his hand. It’s the ultimate symbol of self-inflicted sabotage of his own capability. He is one of the best chefs alive, yet he uses his talent as a weapon against himself. He cannot create without bleeding.
Sydney’s Pierced Heart: Syd’s wound isn't in her labor, it’s in her passion. Her shoulder features the Three of Swords tarot motif-a knife and swords piercing a heart. I assume that It represents the grief of a shattered dream from her past business failure. She leads with her heart, but she’s been burned badly.
Carmy hurts himself through what he does (the hand), and Sydney gets hurt through what she cares about (the heart). When Carmy metaphorically stabs himself in the hand (like locking himself in the walk-in or completely losing focus or leaving) the collateral damage plunges straight into Sydney's heart, killing their shared dream.
The part I’m absolutely obsessed with: the potential portrait of their relationships with food
Carmy’s "86'd" Fish: Shoutout to my cousin who works in a kitchen and confirmed this. During an intense rush, they’ll slash an "x" on a container's tape so someone who isn't too bright doesn't accidentally use the spoiled produce. Symbolically, that is so Carmy. He only cooks or tries food when it's a high-stress restaurant obligation. In his personal life we see him eat junk food over a trash can. Like, food is literally just a stressful production line of panic-management and survival for him at this point.
Syd’s Vintage Anchovies: Syd has the complete opposite, beautiful relationship with food. We always see her in and out of the restaurant being so chill, exploring, experimenting, and never afraid to just try new things. Anchovies are a very specific ingredient used to build deep flavor profiles from scratch.
Where Carmy views food as a checklist of potential disasters to control, Syd genuinely appreciates the raw, complex ingredients that make cooking a soulful, creative art.
They are both drowning in intense, crazy anxiety, but look at how their skin maps out their relationship with time and pressure:
Carmy literally has Sense of Urgency tattooed on his fingers, right alongside the dark irony of a snail forced to "Live Fast." As we know SOU is the ultimate «every second counts». Move faster, sleep less, never stop. Carmy has internalized this mechanical, frantic pace so deeply that he wears it on his hands. He operates at a destructive 100 km/h, even though the snail shows that his soul is desperately crying out to slow tf down.
Syd counters all of that relentless pressure with a cursive "C'est pas grave" ("It’s no big deal" / "It doesn't matter"). It’s the literal antithesis to a toxic Sense of Urgency. My girl is chill. That phrase is like her personal grounding tool-the quiet reminder she uses to force her brain to breathe and de-escalate the panic when the kitchen is actively burning down around her.
So, basically, it shows how Carmy leans into the panic that is killing him, while Sydney actively tries to fight it off.
So, to me, these next two show exactly what anchors them to their pasts and the baggage they carry:
With “773" Carmy carries a loud, systemic obligation to a place. Reality of the South/West sides of Chicago and the heavy legacy of the Berzatto family name. His identity is entirely wrapped up in proving himself to his brother, hometown and the ghost of the family restaurant.
Sydney carries a quiet, private grief for a person. Her Volvo tattoo has a license plate that literally reads "MOM." It’s a devastatingly tender piece of nostalgia, the ultimate symbol of family safety and maternal care that she lost way too soon.
Finally, look at how they view their luck, risk, and life in general:
Carmy has the Grim Reaper shaking hands with a liquor bottle. It’s about as dark as it fuckin’ gets lol. It's just total acceptance of self-destruction. He knows his toxic coping mechanisms are walking him straight to an early grave, but he shakes hands with the reaper anyway. (Also might be a nice homage to his mamma)
Syd has a delicate little wishbone. It's a classic symbol of hope, luck, and wishing for the future. But a wishbone only works if you take a gamble and risk breaking it in half to get what you want. It proves that despite her trauma, Syd is still willing to take a massive leap of faith on her dreams, even if it hurts.
Can’t help but thing about this caption by the makeup artist:
