Published June 25, 2026, 11:00 a.m. ET

The Bear is letting it rip one last time in its fifth and final season — scheduled to drop tonight at 9 PM ET on Hulu and FX — and it turns out Season 4’s emotionally excruciating finale was simply the calm before the storm.

When we left Christopher Storer‘s Emmy-winning FX comedy, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (Ayo Edeberi), and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bacharach) spent 33 minutes hashing out pent-up feelings, conflicts, and harsh truths. The long-overdue communication followed an unexpected, show-altering announcement: Carmy was leaving the restaurant — and the tortured chef identity that defined him for decades — behind.

Fans debated whether The Bear’s kitchen would thrive or fail to survive without its head chef and his “secret sauce,” aka the dysfunction, mess, and chaos that helped make the show so delicious. But despite the episode’s title, “Goodbye,” Carmy’s promise to help The Bear get back on track before departing implied a substantial transition that would allow him to keep chipping away at trauma, see Syd learn to lead, and allow the team to reach for a miraculous Michelin star. With a stacked cast, critical acclaim, and reliable ratings, The Bear could have feasibly kept cooking for years. But a surprise final season announcement piled on pressure to swiftly wrap the story.

Mild The Bear Season 5 spoilers ahead.

After near-perfect first and second seasons, The Bear began receiving backlash in Season 3 when the plot progressed at a seemingly glacial pace. Its writers excel at extremes and can stretch a oner or speed through an entire month of service in an episode. The uneven narrative pacing made it impossible to predict how much time The Bear’s eight-episode final season would cover. And while I’m not quite sure what I expected, I was shocked to learn the seven episodes made available for review chronicled the events of a single day: the day after The Bear’s menacing two-month countdown clock ran out and Carmy announced he was quitting.

While Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) and “The Computer” (Brian Koppelman) warned that The Bear should cease operations, the team was determined to keep the doors open. Their short-term plan? Carry out service with limited food and depleted finances through a torrential “seventh circle of hell” storm. Some of The Bear‘s most delightfully frantic episodes, “The Review” and “Fishes,” taught us when it rains, it pours — in this case, figuratively and literally. Thunder rumbles in the background like a looming threat. Rain streams from a grey sky, setting the somber mood. The reservation app crashes. The basement floods. A Fak falls through the ceiling. The stove’s suppression system sabotages. Spoons vanish. Morale circles the storm drain with a collection of cigarette butts. And with resources at an all-time low and stakes at an all-time high, a Michelin star man naturally decides it’s the perfect night for dinner at The Bear.

The divisive decision to set the season in a single day is sure to evoke comparisons to today’s real-time storytelling touchstone, The Pitt. Both shows thoughtfully depict experts in respective fields and brilliantly craft molar-cracking tension, but The Pitt didn’t invent the real-time format (Hijack, 24, and more predated the 2025 series), nor does The Bear rigidly abide by it. As someone who longed to explore these characters’ stories far beyond Season 4’s finale, I was initially disappointed by the limited scope, but in honing in on a significant service, Storer and team get back to basics and savor every second of the final family meal with renewed focus.

In an effort to stretch ingredients, Sydney takes each dish down 15%, and to Storer’s benefit, it feels like he does the same with the show. By cooking core storylines in The Bear’s kitchen, the creator shines the spotlight on characters and cuts showy montages, overindulgent flashbacks, and ambitious standalone episodes. Season 5’s subtler callbacks pack more powerful punches while damage control, dinner prep, and two episodes of grueling service give viewers a front row seat to raw human emotions, intimate interactions, and heartening teamwork. With the chefs in a pressure cooker, The Bear fires more of the signature adrenaline-pumping sequences it perfected over the years, but this season’s stress is softened by a more hopeful score, refreshing cohesion, and intentionally positive leadership.

“In an effort to stretch ingredients, Sydney takes each dish down 15%, and to Storer’s benefit, it feels like he does the same with the show.”

Desperate to break free from toxic, self-sabotaging cycles, Carmy makes a concerted effort to loosen the reins and set Sydney up for success. Since it’s been less than 24 hours since Season 4, he still has substantial work to do, but progress is visible. As Sydney sharpens her self-confidence, she strives to keep her cool even when heat rises, exercising admirable control, scaling back swearing, and stepping outside to scream to avoid shouting at others. Carm and Syd’s unique dynamic and effortless chemistry is still The Bear’s secret ingredient, and White and Edebiri never fail to fire on all cylinders.

Though The Bear’s surprise prequel episode, Gary, ended with Richie getting in a car accident, the standalone installment was simply an elaborate way to stress that Mikey’s (Jon Bernthal) still a motivator for Richie. In redefining perfection, he trades his suit for a BERF shirt and looks to his gold standard — the Berzatto house for Sunday night dinner — for inspiration. Sugar (Abby Elliott) still worries about finding a work/life balance as a new mom and though she leaves Sophie with Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), she stalks the baby monitor. Curtis’ character is one of The Bear’s greatest successes. She’s had proper space to reflect, evolve, and better herself. And though most of her work takes place off-screen, Season 5 finds creative, deeply moving ways to strengthen her relationship with her kids without explicitly dredging up the past. 

After Season 4’s infuriating treatment of Tina (Emmy-winner Liza Colón-Zayas), Season 5 thankfully sees her fire her original Brussels dish and start training to be Syd’s CDC. Colón-Zayas’ talents are still woefully underutilized, but it’s only one day! Season 5’s character complaints are reserved for Ebra (Edwin Lee Gibson), who abandons his franchise proposal to search for a spoon thief, and Marcus (Lionel Boyce). Fresh off his Best Chef honor, the pastry artist lets pressure to perform without Carmy and impress his dad get the better of him and brutally lashes out at Luca (Will Poulter). The atypical behavior feels more manufactured to create conflict than rooted in genuine emotion, and the regression comes far too close to the end of the series for my liking.

The show and the restaurant still have their cracks. The Faks still attack, we meet unnecessary new characters, and the series remains a savory drama with comedy sprinkles. Once Emmys category debates sparked and the series started mirroring Carmy’s mental torment, narratively and stylistically, even some formerly fervent fans turned on it in ways I fear can’t be reversed. But even at its worst, The Bear was a true treat.

With a deep understanding of humanity, few series tug at my heartstrings harder. Episodes exude flavor, passion, and are unafraid to take risks. The Bear finds magic in mundane moments, be it a single shot of a candle that inspired my most cathartic cry this year, or a simple hand-holding scene that made me swoon. The drool-worthy visual stunner assembled an all-star cast that delivered career-propelling performances. And the love letter to Chicago and the service industry had an undeniable cultural impact, influencing “Chefcore,” inspiring viral recipes, and making kitchen lingo like “Yes, chef!” household phrases.

It’s impossible to fully judge a final season without seeing the make or break finale, so I can’t say if the series wraps in a satisfying way. Towards the end of Season 5, Richie tells Syd, “We’re beginning a new history right now… All the people in this room, and all the people who have been here before us, and all the people that are coming after us, and all the history, and all that love, they’re not gonna let us fail.” So I’m choosing to believe him.

Does The Bear get a star? Will we ever acknowledge Claire (Molly Gordon) again? Who’s the Unknown Caller that keeps ringing Carmy? Those are a few of many loose ends The Bear needs to tie before saying a bittersweet goodbye. But if the superb, affecting penultimate episode is any indication of what’s to come, The Bear‘s series finale should eat. Even if the series fails to make every second of its final episode count, it was a TV triumph. And come closing time, it will leave an indelible legacy behind.

The Bear Season 5 premieres Thursday, June 25 at 9:00 p.m. ET on Hulu.