Violet (The Bear)
"Violet" is the fourth episode of the third season of the American television comedy-drama The Bear. It is the 22nd overall episode of the series and was written and directed by series creator Christopher Storer. It was released on Hulu on June 26, 2024, along with the rest of the season.
The series follows Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, an award-winning New York City chef de cuisine, who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his late brother Michael's failing Italian beef sandwich shop. In the episode, Sydney chooses to move out for a new apartment, while also discovering about an important visit to the restaurant. Meanwhile, Richie questions his role in his daughter's life.
Plot
Carmy reminisces over a conversation he had with Claire, where he relates how he got the mark on his hand from a hot pot. Sydney meets with her father, Emmanuel, as she leases a new apartment. Emmanuel is worried over Sydney's decision, as he believes the apartment is too small and expensive.As Sydney walks on the streets, she runs into Adam Shapiro, the Ever CDC. He reveals he recently visited The Bear and despite witnessing the chaos, loved the food and compliments Sydney. Fak and Theodore decide to mount portraits of multiple important critics for the staff to memorize. When they show it to Carmy, he is taken aback, but likes the idea. Richie takes Eva with Tiffany and her fiancée, Frank. Frank confides in Richie that he feels worried that he did not consult with Richie over his marriage proposal, but Richie states he does not mind it.
Richie shares the dilemma over his presence in his daughter's life to Sugar, but she tells him to be there for her. The conversation is interrupted when they receive a call from the Chicago Tribune informing them a photographer is coming to take pictures of the restaurant. When they question Carmy and Sydney, Sydney realizes that this means a Tribune food critic has already visited the restaurant and will publish a review soon, alarming the rest of the staff.
Context
- Carmy quit smoking May 27 or thereabouts, and he says it's been 41 days, so the kitchen conversation between Syd and Carmy in "Violet" takes place on Friday, July 7, 2023.
- Marcus gets out of his car to photograph a flower that catches his eye. In the next episode, "Children," he tells Nat he's working on an edible violet-based dessert for his mom. Violets are the state flower of Illinois, as decided by a referendum of schoolchildren in 1908.
- The restaurant's Wi-Fi network is TheBear Private, and the password is gofastboatsmojito, same as the old crawlspace passcode.
- Frank is going to take Eva to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park.
- While Natalie and Richie are talking about the Michelin guide star system in the office, Richie tapes up a photo of the "philosopher's path," at a Zen garden in Kyoto. Movie director William Friedkin talks about his visit to Ryōan-ji Temple in Kyoto in the 2019 documentary Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist. Richie then volunteers, "Speaking for myself, I do not give a flying fuck into a rolling doughnut about the gastronomical proclivities of some dusty French tire marketing exec. I mean, I'm a Pirelli guy. I have been from way back. I would say that a Goodyear's probably a more practical choice for Chicago winters. But fucking Michelin... , no?"
Production
Development
In May 2024, Hulu confirmed that the fourth episode of the season would be titled "Violet", and was to be written and directed by series creator Christopher Storer. It was Storer's 11th writing credit and 15th directing credit.Casting
The episode features the first guest appearance by Josh Hartnett, who portrays Tiffany's fiancé. Hartnett previously met with Storer years prior when they discussed a possible role for a film. Later, Storer offered the role to Hartnett and he accepted it without even reading the script. Hartnett was fascinated by the experience, saying that it was "refreshing" to see how quickly they could film the scenes. Gillian Jacobs told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024, "I could watch the scene with Josh and Ebon on loop: Ebon trying to disappear into the wall and Josh cornering him with niceness and care and concern and saying all the right things. It informs so much."Filming
The farmer's market where Tina shopped was set up outside a restaurant called Longman & Eagle near Logan Square. For Tina's produce-buying scene, set decorator Eric Frankel organized a "real" farmer's market with about 14 or 15 vendors who sell at actual markets in the Chicago area. Frankel told a set-decorating podcast interviewer, "All the crew went home with vegetables and bread and fruit, honey." The vendor who tells Tina "what grows together, goes together" is Jerry Boone of Froggy Meadow Farm.Costuming
During the scene where they cut grapefruit together, when Carmy asked what Syd's dad thought about her new place, and Syd tried Carmy's nicotine gum, Sydney wore the Nadashiko Chantilly floral-pattern scarf made by Kapital.Set decoration
- Eva Jerimovich is tucked into bed with an Eras Tour souvenir blanket.
- According to The New York Times, the photographs of critics that are collected by the Fak brothers depict real-world notables "New Yorker writer Naomi Fry, How Long Gone podcaster Chris Black, and Sue Chan, who runs the culinary events and marketing agency Care by Chan."
Film editing and sound design
The film editors Joanna Naugle and Adam Epstein described the collaboration with The BearMusic
The episode featured many songs, including "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" by Cocteau Twins, "Spinning Away" by Brian Eno and John Cale, "Getchoo" by Weezer, "Long Live (Taylor's Version)" by Taylor Swift, and Vincenzo La Scola's performance of "Una furtiva lagrima", a tenor aria from act II of Gaetano Donizetti's opera L'elisir d'amore.Range magazine cited the Cocteau Twins song as a perfect match for the scene "...as it slowly fades in on a pleasant memory of Carmy's now-tarnished relationship with Claire. The track punctuates a tragic hospital story told by Claire that details the odd, extreme lengths humans go to process the worst of emotional and physical pain. It's a tale just as surreal as the song accompanying it." "Long Live" plays in the background of the Richie–Frank conversation; Jacobs said "that was put in because it's a song that Annie, who plays our daughter, was really into at the time we were shooting season three. I think that's sweet, and I love that it's a callback to the other Taylor Swift moments. It makes total sense that Frank would want to be a Swiftie dad. He has his nails painted in that scene, and I'm sure he's got his friendship bracelets ready to go." The episode ends with the alarming news that the restaurant is going to be reviewed by the Chicago Tribune, Weezer's "Getchoo" drops which "then lights up the episode, setting the stage for the restaurant's success. It's an incredibly fitting needle drop from a song whose parent album was initially panned, but has since been critically reevaluated, with some dubbing Pinkerton as Weezer's opus. Yet unlike our favourite albums, restaurants often aren’t afforded the gift of a second chance."
Food
The Bear is serving something with grapefruit, allspice, and hot peppers.Critical reviews
Jenna Scherer of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A–" grade and wrote, "We're used to The Bear showing us how intense and devastating the restaurant business can be. But when Claire tells Carm the story of a particularly awful case at the hospital, the show reminds us that it's nothing compared to being a friggin' ER doctor."Marah Eakin of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star out of 5 rating and wrote, "Not every episode of The Bear can be packed with consequence. Some just have to move the story along. That's the case with "Violet," which follows Syd, Carmy, Richie, Nat, and the Faks as they move through their restaurant-adjacent lives." Nicole Gallucci of Decider complimented Richie's scenes with Frank, "Congrats to Ebon Moss-Bachrach for bringing warmth and depth to another Richie Swift scene. And congrats to Josh Hartnett for manifesting his dream role on The Bear just like Travis Kelce manifested his dream girlfriend."
Josh Rosenberg of Esquire wrote, "Right now Carmy is alone. In fact, it seems as if everyone's alone in their own way. Marcus lost his mother, Sydney is setting out on her own, and Richie's young daughter can tell he's lonely. The only way through is together."
Accolades
TVLine named Ebon Moss-Bachrach as a honorable mention for the "Performer of the Week" for the week of June 29, 2024, for his performance in the episode. The site wrote, "We loved watching Ebon Moss-Bachrach's grumpy slacker Richie turn his life around last season on The Bear, transforming himself into a top-notch restaurant host. But he's not done growing yet, and Moss-Bachrach tugged on our heartstrings in Season 3's fourth episode as Richie reckoned with his ex-wife Tiff getting remarried. Moss-Bachrach brought out Richie's tender side as he tucked his daughter into bed, promising her a hundred candles for her birthday. But Richie's guard went back up as Tiff's fiancé Frank sought his blessing, with Moss-Bachrach's face tightening in anger as he tried to keep his cool. His vulnerability was heart-wrenching, too, as Richie wondered to Nat if he should step back from his daughter's life: "Maybe it's weird that I'm around." Richie has come a long way, but he still has a long way to go, and Moss-Bachrach has made every step of his journey utterly fascinating and ultimately inspiring."Retrospective reviews
In 2024, The Hollywood Reporter placed "Violet" at 13 on a ranked list of 28 episodes produced to that point, describing it as a "beautiful offering...in which Marcus and the others explore their own individual quests for inspiration and innovation." ScreenRant ranked "Violet" 24th out of the 28 episodes produced through the end of season three, calling the addition of Hartnett to the cast the "greatest triumph of the episode, which is otherwise quite tame."In 2025, Vulture ranked "Violet" as 23rd-best out of 38 episodes of The Bear.