‘The Bear’ Just Dropped a Surprise Prequel Episode

In a move that feels as chaotic as the show, FX and Hulu have dropped a secret episode of The Bear titled “Gary” this morning.

It’s an hour-long prequel film starring Jon Bernthal (Mikey) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Richie) on a road trip together, and the actors wrote it themselves.

You get to go on them for a very character-driven journey and see how these two people function on a road trip together.

Let's dive in.

'The Bear'Credit: FX

A Deep Dive into "Cousin" History

The episode was directed by series creator Christopher Storer and takes us on the road. We're in the distant-ish past before these guys came into their own in Chicago. We follow Mikey and Richie on a business trip to Gary, Indiana, long before the events of Season 1 came to be.

Now, every season we've gotten flashback episodes that have revealed a lot to us, but "Gary" serves as a focused character study. It explores the foundational era of their friendship. And we get some clues into the roots of Richie’s deep-seated insecurity and the early fractures in Mikey’s mental health.

It's sort of the plants to all the payoffs in the later seasons.

What This Means for Season 5

This episode adds a layer of tragic irony to Richie’s arc that we have seen on the show. There's this elegant juxtaposition of seeing him as the man he was in Gary and the man Mikey wanted him to be.

We see the seeds planted, but also focus on the tragedy of Mike and how he crumbled as a person later, again, all before the show began.

This is a reframe of Ritchie's entire transformation at Chef Terry’s restaurant in Season 2, when he's just signing Taylor Swift and learning how to set tables and prepare food.

I'm not sure there are any real season 5 implications in the episode. We get a lot of backstory about these two friends, but no hints. Unless Season 5 is all backstory, I think this is one of the smartest ways to keep fans talking down with me without upsetting the applecart.

Summing It All Up

If you’re a fan of The Bear , stop reading and go check Hulu. Watch the episode and come back here and tell me what you thought of it.

I feel like it's a natural progression of the show, even if it feels like it happens outside the timeline we're used to seeing.

Let me know what you think in the comments.