What ‘The Bear’ Season 5 Is About

Per the official Disney+ press release, the final season picks up the morning after one of the most significant moments in the show’s run: Carmy, played by Jeremy Allen White, has quit the food industry entirely, walking away from the restaurant he built and leaving it in the hands of Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Natalie "Sugar" (Abby Elliott). With no money, the looming threat of a sale, and a torrential storm bearing down on them, the three new partners must pull together what remains of the team for one final service; a last shot at earning the Michelin star that has defined and haunted the restaurant since the beginning.

The season’s emotional core is signalled clearly in the Disney+ press release’s official synopsis: what makes a restaurant perfect, the show appears to be arguing, is not the food, but the people.

Who Is In 'The Bear’ Cast?

The ensemble cast is set to return in full. Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, and Matty Matheson — who also serves as an executive producer on the series — are back as core cast members, with Ricky Staffieri, Oliver Platt, Will Poulter, and Jamie Lee Curtis in recurring roles.

'The Bear’ Surprise Episode: What 'Gary' Is And Why It Matters

Buried in the May 6 Disney+ announcement — and arguably the more immediately compelling piece of news — is the existence of a standalone episode called "Gary," which Disney+ dropped without prior notice on May 5, the day before the season five premiere date was confirmed.

The episode was co-written by and stars Ebon Moss-Bachrach alongside Jon Bernthal, who plays Mikey — Carmy’s older brother, whose death by overdose set the entire series in motion. "Gary" is a flashback episode, following Richie and Mikey on a work trip to Gary, Indiana.

The decision to release a surprise episode a full seven weeks before the final season arrives has turned out to be highly talked about one. Bernthal’s Mikey has always been The Bear’s most present absence in that he exists in the show almost entirely through the grief and guilt of those left behind, through the restaurant he built, and through the letter he left Carmy in the freezer that sent the story into motion in the first place.

‘The Bear’ At The Emmys

The Bear arrives at its finale as one of the most decorated shows of its era. At the 75th Emmy Awards, the show’s first season won 10 Emmys, including Outstanding Comedy Series and acting awards for White, Edebiri, and Moss-Bachrach, the most wins ever by a comedy series in a single ceremony at that time (of course one must’nt forget the controversy around whether it counts as a comedy at all).

It then broke its own record at the 76th Emmys, winning 11 awards for its second season including additional acting wins for Colón-Zayas and Boyce, per TVLine. That back-to-back record sweep transformed a critically admired FX series into a genuine cultural phenomenon, and has now set an almost impossibly high bar (Season 4 notwithstanding) for its final season to clear.

The fifth and final season of FX’s The Bear premieres June 25 exclusively on Disney+.