The Bear Is A Show Title With More Than A Few Meanings
When "The Bear" first released last year, the choice for the title seemed a little strange. It wasn't until the season 1 finale, which revealed that The Bear was the name of the restaurant Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) planned to build, that the title became clear. Even then, the titular restaurant didn't even open until the very end of the second season. It's an interesting reversal of the common TV situation where the title makes sense in the beginning and then the show moves beyond it: the main character in "Veep" stops being Vice President less than halfway through the show, for instance. The main character on "New Girl" unavoidably stops being new just one season into its seven-season run.
In comparison, the fact that "The Bear" waits so long for its title to officially apply helps give viewers a sense of security. It makes it clear that this is a show with a long-term plan in mind. Season 3 of "The Bear" will be the first season where the titular restaurant is up and running from the start, which helps ensure that this show has a long way to go before it runs out of steam.
Of course, it helps that there are some other reasons for the title, reasons that are quietly explored throughout the first two seasons. Even if Carmy never chose that name for his restaurant, "The Bear" might've still worked, mainly due to a particular common phrase it invokes ...
Poking the bear
The alternate meaning for the show's title reveals itself in the opening scene of its first episode, in which Carmy has a dream where he lets a bear out of its cage. The bear immediately attacks him, causing Carmy to wake up with a start. The metaphor is obvious: by taking on the challenge of fixing his late brother's restaurant, Carmy is letting the bear out of its cage. He's opening himself up to thankless pain and misery, and he knows it.
Season 2 of "The Bear" piles onto this metaphor even more, letting us know in its Christmas flashback episode that it's common for the Berzatto family to refer to themselves as bears. The first syllable of their family name sounds quite a lot like the word "bear," after all, and as we watch their family arguments repeatedly spiral out of control, the phrase "don't poke the bear" repeatedly comes to mind. Everyone in this family knows exactly what to say to set each other off, and they can't help but say it.
Possibly the biggest poke-the-bear moment in the series is when poor Sugar (Abby Elliott) asks her mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) the question, "Are you okay?" To an outsider, this sure seems like a normal question to ask in that scene, but it's been well-established throughout the episode that Donna hates that question. In response, she goes on an angry, emotionally abusive tirade towards Sugar and the rest of the table, before going off to crash her car into the house. Much like an actual bear, the show's characters are all capable of inflicting profound pain on one another, often with little rational explanation. For most of the Berzattos, anger and aggression is a way of life.
But bears aren't all bad
Although that disastrous Christmas dinner episode emphasized the dangerous side of being a bear, it also highlighted their charms. "I was thinking about what you guys said about bears, and how they're aggressive. But they're kind, they're sensitive," says newcomer to the family Stevie (John Mulaney). The kind words bring Donna to tears, and almost manages to save the family dinner from its inevitable disastrous finale.
Of course, Donna has a meltdown anyway, and Mikey (Jon Bernthal) and Uncle Lee (Bob Odenkirk) start fighting the moment she's out of the room. The lesson is that the good times in this chaotic family can never quite outweigh the bad times. If Carmy is smart, he should stay as far away from them as possible. But just as he pulled that bear out of the cage in the pilot's opening scene, Carmy can't resist returning to this family of bears and trying to make things work. Even though the new restaurant offers a fresh start of sorts, it's still intrinsically linked to everyone at that dinner table, for better or worse.
The significance of bears is also reinforced in season 2's fourth episode, "Honeydew," in which Marcus helps a wounded biker out of a life-threatening situation. Despite being seriously injured, the guy gets right back on his bike as soon as he can, much to Marcus's confusion. But Marcus shouldn't be confused because deep down he understands the biker's logic: if you love something enough, it doesn't matter how much it hurts you. Even though there'll be a lot of pain for everyone involved with this restaurant, they'll all keep sticking to it anyway because their passion is too strong. As long as this new restaurant keeps running, these characters will never stop poking the bear.
Seasons 1 and 2 of "The Bear" are currently streaming on Hulu.