The Bear’s final season contains a glaring continuity error, at least according to some disappointed viewers.
The once-popular FX comedy-drama, about an aspiring fine-dining Chicago chef, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), who takes over his family’s sandwich joint, concluded its five-season run with an eight-episode installment released June 25.
*Warning: potential spoilers for season five of The Bear to follow*
In one season five scene, Carmy speaks with fellow chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) and asks her about her favorite meal of all time. She responds, recalling the time she tried a scallop and grapefruit dish.
A few eagle-eyed viewers, however, remembered a moment from the debut season in which Sydney told her co-worker, Marcus (Lionel Boyce), about a “perfect” meal she had years before: a blood orange and hamachi dish. It’s later revealed in season three that the dish in question was prepared by Carmy before the two officially met.
Sydney’s apparent slip-up, describing the dish as grapfruit and scallop, has been called out by fans on X, with one person insisting: “These continuity issues will be the death of me.”
“Syd said it was scallop and grapefruit when she and I both know it was hamachi and blood orange,” a second wrote.
“I was going insane about it,” a third added, “thinking ‘is it not a blood orange hamachi’ and realized she said it anyway but in a different font.”
Meanwhile, others have defended the scene, arguing that it “was an intentional” choice meant to show Sydney’s hesitance toward opening up to Carmy.
“She definitely lied on purpose and he knew,” one fan insisted. “I just wish they could have had an actual conversation about it.”
“The fact that Sydney is still too closed off to even tell Carmy about the blood orange hamachi,” a second commented. “Then we see Donna looking through the notebooks … and it shows the scallop, hamachi drawing, Sydney’s dish, and legerdemain … Syd literally lied to his face. Donna please come fix your son and daughter in law and reveal the truth.”
“I actually don’t think this is a continuity error. If it were, one of the dish montages wouldn’t explicitly show Syd eating the hamachi dish,” another agreed. “I’m certain this is an intentional choice to imply how Syd wasn’t 100 percent ready to open up to Carmy; a ‘show not tell.’”
The Independent has contacted FX for comment.
The Bear first debuted in 2022 to widespread acclaim. It maintained its popularity with viewers and critics through season two, going on to sweep the 2023 and 2024 Emmys. However, its later seasons received a more mixed response.
The Independent’s Louis Chilton recently surmised about The Bear’s downfall: “To some extent, there is also a flaw built into The Bear’s central premise: how do you go from a show about a failing sandwich shop to a show about haute cuisine? It’s a hard change to reconcile, and The Bear has never quite managed it.”
The fifth and final season of The Bear is out now on Hulu.
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