Television

Mission UnBearable #4

LN Lupa

25 Jul 2025 — 3 min read

HotWeen

Season 4, Episode 4: “Worms”

And then Bear stocks went back up again! I can’t take this kind of rollercoaster ride; I fully do not like rollercoasters. But I cannot deny that this was a charming episode.

Critical to its charm is that it was all about Syd, a heroically deadpan yet warmhearted Ayo Edebiri. On her day off, Syd visits her cousin Chantel to get her hair done, stopping off at the new restaurant where she’s secretly considering getting a new job. The proprietor of this joint, Shapiro, gives Syd the hard sell, offering her everything INCLUDING HEALTHCARE. When framing this appeal in your minds, note that the majority of food service workers, including at high-end restaurants, get no benefits at all, despite the fact that they work quite physically dangerous jobs. However, Shapiro is also pretty cringe to Syd in a specifically racialized way, as Nadira Goffe points out in a very astute review of this episode on Slate.

Now, I would probably still go work for Shapiro instead instead of staying at a dysfunctional restaurant ruled by a dysfunctional man who should take up smoking again, but I’m also white, so I can’t know how bad it would be to work for a guy who’s always asking you weirdly pointed questions about how your heritage influences your work. Nobody ever asks me if I have a spiritual relationship with cabbage (though they should, because I do).

Luckily, when Chantel runs out to do errands, leaving Syd in charge of Chantel’s tween daughter TJ, Syd gets the chance to talk her dilemma out. Syd and TJ compare Syd’s two potential workplaces to TJ’s one upcoming sleepover, hosted by friends of uncertain loyalty. TJ, with the unerring clarity of a child, points out to Syd that she doesn’t seem to have any good options here, because working with Carmy is terrible but going into the unknown with a goofball like Shapiro is nerve-wracking.

I must note that this conversation with TJ is couched in an awkward metaphor Syd is trying to make where she frames her two job options as two sleepovers, even though TJ seems to be, like, 11, which I feel is old enough to understand basically about jobs. But Syd is a textually awkward character and I am pathologically incapable of communicating with children, so I can’t judge. Moreover, the metaphor teed up some intentionally funny lines.

Anyway, having had a good time with TJ and Chantel, Syd remembers how nice it is to have a real life. She calls up Shapiro to move ahead with locking in this new job. An equivocated but sincere yay for Syd trying to improve her life!

What I enjoyed most about this episode is that there were no formless, aimless montages set to A Song You Know. There was light music, deployed with intention at specific moments. There were scenes of comfortable relatable human activity which contained both humor and pathos. There were two delightful new supporting characters. There were evocative visuals of non-downtown parts of Chicago. I credit all these good qualities to writers Ayo Edebiri and Lionel Boyce, guest stars Arion King and Danielle Deadwyler, and director Janicza Bravo.

The pleasant qualities of this episode did highlight some of the overarching weaknesses of this season: we have not yet seen a single moment where Syd actually had a good time working at The Bear. Her dilemma does not feel meaningfully difficult because a new job would obviously be better than her current job. Her relationship with Carmy isn’t filled with generative frisson; it’s just not good. He’s not a good boss or a good friend. It’s so obvious a kid points it out to her. I find it hard to believe anybody who’s watching the show is rooting for Syd to stay at The Bear. If you’re reading this review and you want Syd to stay, I exhort you to do some urgent self-reflection about how often you find yourself in unrewarding relationships.

I have avoided saying this until now because I don’t like to drop blame for the failings of visual media productions onto one head: I’m concerned that the problem with The Bear is its auteur. There is a 1-to-1 correlation between episodes I didn’t like so far this season and episodes Christopher Storer closely controlled as writer or director or both. Sorry, Christopher Storer--I am sure you are a nice guy in real life, but even though we both like The Replacements, we don’t like each other.

However, with six more episodes to go, we must remain optimistic! There is still time for Christopher and myself to reconcile. He’s gonna have to do all the work of fixing this relationship, though.