#cleaver lore

[sonoranbumblebee]

His face when she complains about her missing cleaver absolutely kills me because he's like "bitch I'm out here trying to buy us a house and all you want is a knife?"

(Wife is going to get knife, obviously)

[sonoranbumblebee]

So @gingergofastboatsmojito cracked it: The solution to Syd's missing cleaver problem is that she's going to end up using Carm's cleaver.

My personal guess is that Carmy is going to level up to designing and opening and staffing high-end restaurants for an investment group, using his skills but not working in a kitchen for dinner service every night. So he won't need a cleaver anymore, maybe not at all and certainly not in daily use.

Anyway my feeling is that narratively, it will never be mentioned again but that Marcus, who I think has already been abandoned by one dad and was raised by a capable, loving single mom, will miss Carmy more than most people in that kitchen. So even if Syd and Carm are in a fragile stage of their relationship where they really don't want to explain themselves to all their coworkers, I think Marcus will notice that Mom is using Dad's cleaver, which most likely has the initials CB burned into the wood handle and would also very useful for killing bad guys if it comes to that.

Perhaps that observation will offer Marcus some added sense that even if Carmy is no longer physically present in the restaurant every day, he has not truly abandoned his wife and son and left them to face the world alone.

[sonoranbumblebee]

If Adam Shapiro has no haters, I am dead

* He lies incessantly and he's a pervy creep who makes Sydney shrink to protect herself

* I think he sometimes sneaks into the Bear in the dead of night through that broken-ass back service door, and he rifles through things and gathers info on menus and systems and everything and everybody

* There's a school of thought that Carmy stole Syd's cleaver, which she was using as of "Scallop" but I don't think Carmy—although he is sometimes a sneaky bitch—wants anything other than to give her everything he can think of, including knives, spoons, chef whites, houses, restaurants, etc. So if Sydney's cleaver wasn't lost and was probably stolen, then whodunnit? I think stalker Adam Shapiro stole Syd's cleaver

* Next time you watch "Forks," watch Chef Jess during the staff meeting where they talk about the smudge. She looks scared and worried in one shot, and she looks incredibly sad in another. So either, (a) she did the smudge and is not taking responsibility for a mistake (doubt), (b) she knows something about the smudge that she cannot reveal, or (c) the whole smudge discourse is a signifier for a much larger and fairly serious problem. I say it's 85 percent (c), 15 percent (b). Someone made Chef Jess feel fearful and hopeless, and I'm pretty sure that someone is Adam Shapiro.

[sonoranbumblebee]

Sorry I'm still stuck on this cleaver, and will be obsessing until I crack it (in 2026 obv)

Maybe it's Syd's version of nesting? Like in preparation for being stuck in one spot for a while, she needs her emotional support large heavy knife?

[sonoranbumblebee]

Is it a phallic symbol? Biggest "knife" in the kitchen? He's gonna give her his "cleaver"? This show is sick and I'm sick of being fascinated by it.

[sonoranbumblebee]

alarming phrasing from Adam Shapiro, who is 100 percent a fuckin stalker and I think stole Syd's cleaver

Almost the very first thing Adam Shapiro says to Sydney is:

"I probably shouldn't tell you this. I know it's early—but I snuck into The Bear."

He then tells her this insanely unconvincing story about how he was a guest during the first two weeks of service but Richie and Carmy were fighting so that's why they didn't notice him. This story has like 12,009 holes.

It is so so unclear how he knows about her and she clearly barely knows who he is, actually. Later in 3x07 she makes it clear that she's never eaten his food and therefore doesn't know him at all.

Anyway, I've been puzzling over this fuckery since my first rewatch of season three. This guy is weird. What is really going on?

Well, I have one idea gleaned from 4x10 "Goodbye". Shot at night, in what is mostly darkness broken by a few of those commercial outdoor lights, we can barely see the characters sometimes, but what we can clearly see is their entrances, one two three. They are backlit brightly when they cross the threshold from the kitchen–utility spaces into the "backyard." And each time we see that that door is fucked. Just like the freezer, the handle is broken off. There's just a hole you use so you can pull the door open or shut. The deadbolt or secondary lock looks weird. It's not clear that it locks at all, actually. People just manually shove it into place.

I think Adam Shapiro literally did sneak into The Bear, alone, in the dead of night, to spy and snoop. People get there early and stay late, but the 2am to 4am window is most likely a decent break-in time. But that back door is appears to be so useless that there's no breaking necessary, only entering.

I'm not sure about the unlockability of the back door but the way that Shapiro phrases that sounds like a smug little confession disguised as friendly candor. This theory may be way off who knows, but also as you rewatch watch Shapiro as if you know he was a stalker see what vibes and visual information becomes evident.

Now, let's talk cleaver lore. There's talk in the fandom about how maybe Carmy stole Syd's cleaver that she definitely had for 4x03 when she made the Sexual Awakening Scallop. Maybe. Sure. He definitely helps himself to scrunchies. Maybe a souvenir of the experience of her dish. Maybe.

Anyway, in 4x05 they're having a couples meeting and one of the issues she's having is the mysteriously missing cleaver. My take on Carm's reaction is that this request is "not a big enough challenge." He's ordering her a cleaver hand forged in Hokkaido by 22nd-generation metalsmiths who specialize in bespoke cleaver production; they only make 18 each year, they had to kill someone to clear a spot for their buddy Carmen.

When I look at Carmy's facial expression during this segment of intramarital negotiation, I see no sign of plotting other than "this request will be granted in the most extra way possible; this request is my sole life purpose until complete."

I think Adam Shapiro stole her cleaver. She probably cleaned up, washed it, left it on the prep table to dry, and then forgot about it. That night, Shapiro does one of his occasional rounds of entering The Bear in dead of night. He finds Syd's cleaver and keeps it, as a souvenir. The next episode is "Worms" by Ayo and Lionel, which kicks off with Shapiro pestering her to come visit "the space."

[sonoranbumblebee]

What’s your take on the sydcarmy scene in “Replicants”, before Natalie comes in with Sophie?

On rewatch, its really coming across to me that Sydney’s trying let Carmy know she ready for them move forward. The way shes looking at him and the way she whispered “updated agreement” was screaming to me that whenever that conversation happened, they may have finally kissed or at least said something concrete.

I think Carmy was nervous about telling her he’s stepping back, but i think that conversation he kept trying to have with her was going to be him confessing. I think he always intended to reveal his feelings to her when he explained why he’s stepping back. Even in the alley.

She looked SO hopeful, when he started talking, only to look confused when he said the agreement would be good for “everyone”. But before she could ask him what he meant, Nat comes in with the baby and they get distracted. Again. Thoughts?

Also, what were they really talking about during the cleaver convo? Im not sure of what to make from it

My main take from just glancing is we can know his intentions are pure from how he tried to tell her twice and got blocked twice. When they're first talking at the table and she brings it up she looks worried and overwhelmed. For his part, he clearly recognizes that she's going to be mad about the "abandonment" part of it but he starts his talk in about the tenderest, gentlest way we've ever seen from him. Like he knows it's going to hurt her, but if he wraps it in the love that he's using to do all of this it won't hurt so bad. He really screwed himself with the timing and the Pete reveal.

Although I think this disaster speaks to the larger problem that their relationship is soooo weird. They're friends and business partners, but the conversation he seems to trying to have with her is really a heartfelt hand-holding talk about "our future" that you would have with your wife.

The cleaver is funny to me because he's trying to do lifetime-scale deals at this point, like line up big money and secure their future together, and she just has this funny little request that is very doable and a completely mundane normal object. I do think she will eventually use the cleaver Carmy gave her in self-defense in some capacity.