It Made Total Sense to Surprise-Drop 'Gary,' a New Episode of The Bear

"Gary," a new stand-alone episode of The Bear that flashes back to a road trip taken by best friends Mikey (Jon Bernthal) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), was, to put it mildly, unexpected. Hulu didn't announce it in advance. It just showed up on the platform Tuesday, with a promotional boost from an Instagram post by Moss-Bachrach, who co-wrote the episode with Bernthal. (Christopher Storer, creator of The Bear, directed.) 

Why surprise-drop an hour of The Bear prequel more than a month before the fifth and final season debuts on Hulu? (The release date is June 25.) The streamer has not offered an explanation, nor has Storer. But after watching this exploration of the dynamic between Richie and Mikey during what would turn out to be some of Mikey's last days alive, it's obvious "Gary" serves as a reminder that what The Bear does best is simply observe human behavior, in all its beauty, complexity, tragedy, and, yes, I will say it, comedy. It also throws in a hell of a cliffhanger ending for good measure.

As random as it might seem, it actually made sense to release "Gary" now, for creative reasons, as well as some practical and promotional ones.

While The Bear often does stand-alone episodes, this one may have felt a little too stand-alone. 

At least once every season, The Bear takes a detour with an installment set entirely outside the restaurant and focused on one or two characters. Some people (read: me) refer to these as suitcase episodes. Examples include "Fishes" and "Forks" from Season 2; "Napkins" and "Ice Chips" from Season 3; and "Worms" and "Bears" from Season 4. I suspect that "Gary" was originally supposed to be part of Season 5, and, given its ending, possibly even the first episode. But it would be odd to start the season with a stand-alone like this one. Also, despite Richie's 5:15 p.m. deadline, there's a pointed lack of urgency in "Gary" that may have felt too tonally disjointed from the rest of the final season narrative, but that works beautifully as a separate short story. The Bear often has a hangout vibe, but this takes that vibe to Richard Linklater-esque levels. If they had to drop it individually to effectively retain that sensibility, I am glad they did.

The cliffhanger ending seems designed to elicit interest in the final season. 

It is no secret that the past couple of seasons of The Bear — especially the third — were met with more critical backlash than the first two. I have no doubt that Storer, FX (the studio that developed The Bear and airs it on linear television), and Hulu really want to make sure people are invested in watching that final run of eight episodes. The shocking ending of "Gary" certainly makes you want to see what happens next. [Spoilers ahead.] 

In the final few moments, we see Richie in what one can assume is the present, most likely not long after Season 4 ends and Richie gets the news that Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) is leaving the restaurant. Richie looks at his empty passenger seat and seems to be thinking of Mikey, whom he sat next to without speaking on the way home from their ultimately disastrous trip to Gary, Indiana. Then Richie starts to drive, and is immediately struck by a van in a crash that seems serious enough to have at least caused some injuries. The internet has speculated that Richie is killed in the accident — I am extremely skeptical of this theory — but at bare minimum, this event seems poised to throw a monkey wrench in the plans for Richie and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) to immediately take over for Carmy. That conclusion turns "Gary" into more than just a one-off. Suddenly, it's the equivalent of dipping a toe into The Bear Season 5 before fully immersing in its pool.

"Gary" will be eligible for Emmy consideration this year. 

As Sam Adams pointed out in Slate, not only was this episode dropped on the same day that the Tony Award nominations were announced — Moss-Bachrach and Bernthal are currently starring in Dog Day Afternoon on Broadway, which received three nominations — but the timing of its release makes it eligible for Emmy consideration this year, alongside the fourth season of The Bear. Gold Derby reported that "Gary" will be submitted in three categories: Best Comedy Guest Actor for Jon Bernthal; Best Comedy Guest Actress for Marin Ireland, who plays Sherri, the woman Mikey meets at the bar in Gary; and Best Comedy Writing for Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach. (Moss-Bachrach is already in contention for Supporting Actor in a Comedy based on his work in Season 4.)

Both Ireland and, especially, Bernthal do excellent work in this episode. Go back and watch Bernthal in the scene just before Sherri knocks on the window of his car. He's just sitting in the driver's seat, listening to Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid in Full," a track with lyrics that speak to the money problems we know Mikey is battling ("I dig into my pocket, all my money spent/So I dig deeper but still coming up with lint"). The expression in Bernthal's eyes betrays the anxiety and agony that percolates inside Mikey, feelings he can't express to Richie because: men. Even if you somehow don't know what ultimately happens to Mikey, you can feel how fully broken he is purely by looking at Bernthal's face. Whether he wins an Emmy for it or not, it's a deep and moving performance, one that explodes into another realm during his subsequent knock-down drag-out with Richie.

"Gary" clarifies why Mikey's death had such a profound impact on Richie. 

The Bear has spent a lot of time explaining why Mikey's suicide shattered Carmy, but less on the specifics of why Richie was so affected. We know the two were best friends, and that Richie is basically another member of the Berzatto family. But "Gary" clarifies the extent to which they were each other's twin flames, a dynamic symbolized by the objects in that MacGuffin, I mean package, that Jimmy sent the pair to deliver. Inside it are a bunch of plastic pump impellers; when Richie asks what they do, he is told, "They rotate." That's what Richie and Mikey do. They rotate around each other, effectively taking turns at different moods without fully connecting. 

In the beginning of the episode, Richie is Mr. Spontaneous, the guy who's up for anything, while Mikey is surly and in a lousy mood. As the day progresses, they meet each other in the middle for a bit — they impulsively play a game of pick-up basketball, hit up the Koney King, and eventually wind up drinking at the bar. But by the end, Mikey starts to look like the good time guy (note: he only gets there after a bump of cocaine), while Richie, conscious that his wife, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), is about to give birth any moment, is the serious one. Unable to express to Richie all the feelings of frustration and desperation he's just shared with Sherri, Mikey lashes out and tells Richie he's going to abandon his daughter the same way Richie's father abandoned him. Richie slaps him. They fight in ugly and public fashion. Then they do what they came on this trip to do: drop off a bunch of pump impellers. It seems likely that they never reconciled fully after that.

ALSO READ: The complete guide to spring TV

Richie's guilt that he didn't do more to help Mikey is specifically rooted in this trip, when these two best friends had 35 minutes, at least, in a car together, while traveling from Gary back to Chicago, to talk about what's really troubling both of them. They don't. They suppress instead of letting it rip. That seems important to understand, especially if Richie's accident is as pivotal to Season 5 as it seems to be.

I have no idea if Hulu ever considered not dropping "Gary" at all, but this episode ultimately seems significant enough to warrant getting its own special treatment. As a piece of television that deepens our understanding of the inner lives of two of the most important figures in The Bear, this extra opportunity to hang out with Mikey and Richie is a happy, unexpected gift.

"Gary," a special episode of The Bear, is now streaming on Hulu.