The Bear season three came out swinging. In an episode called “Tomorrow,” the past continues to claw away at Carmy (Jeremy Allen White). Repetitive, intrusive thoughts plague his mind, as he struggles to move forward in every which way possible. Episode 301 is a bit of an internal horror show, just thoughts and memories running in uncertain circles. It’s painfully effective and scored by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor.
Recently, in an interview with Immersive’s editor, Jack Giroux, The Bear’s editor Joanna Naugle broke down a bit of The Bear season three premiere:
What’s so cool about working in TV is having multiple seasons and multiple years to return to things, and hopefully, the audience is also bringing their own memories of, “Oh yeah, I remember the first time I watched ‘Fishes.’ It was so stressful watching it with my family. Now when I see that footage reused in the 301 premiere, it immediately makes me stressed because I’m thinking about how horrible it was watching Bob Odenkirk destroy Jon.”
It’s playing on the idea that these are memories for the characters, but also memories for the audience. They also experienced this in a different time. I think that repetition of reusing footage is so great, and 301 especially is so much repetition. We leave Carmy at the end of season two stuck in the fridge, and he’s said all these horrible things about Claire.
I’m kind of not sure where his mind is, so I loved having 301 be a place to get meditative with him. He’s cycling through all these different times in his life. Anybody who is creative or has a creative pursuit has thought about, what are all the little things that made me the artist I am or the person I am? It’s the people who didn’t believe in me. It’s people who did believe in me. It’s the family members who pushed me away. It’s the family members who supported me.
Those are all the things running through his head. We know that Carmy is an obsessive person and has these flashbacks. So, I think it was smart for Chris [Storer] and the whole writing staff to write it that way. You really do get to see that evolution of, okay, he’s trying to grow as a person, but he’s also very stuck. 301 shows he has come so far, yet there are still all these things holding him back.
The Bear season three is available to stream on Hulu.
