#which (if I've got this right) means that the best dish Sydney's ever had was NOT ONLY heart shaped and made by Carmy

[bubblesandpages]

So on the topic of Claire's nearly fatal allergy oversight, isn't there a direct parallel with that in how Carmy, Richie, Sydney, hell, all of the kitchens, servers, and chefs we see over the course of the show treat allergies, and how meticulous they are with finding alternatives for each element in a dish?

[josru]

Analysis of Names

Sydney: means "wide meadow", or "wide water meadow", or "From Saint Denis"

Carmen: means "garden or orchard", or "vineyard of God"

Claire: means "bright, clear"

Luca: means "light"

So from what I've googled and read about, Syd and Carm's names match the most. Obviously it conveys a sort of matching creativity- both characters are filled with the abundance of ideas and passion growing in their personal gardens/meadows.

But a wide meadow is a wild, grassy, overgrown ground, full of plants, kind of like how Sydney is still a little more fresh and new than Carmy, and she's got lots of ideas, but they're not streamlined yet. She's still learning how to trim things down, just like all those scenes in S2 where she's cooking and trying and messing up things.

Now Carmen being represented by a garden/orchard/a vineyard of god makes a lot of sense. He's worked at so many different fine dining restaurants so it checks out that he would be a meticulously crafted, trimmed to perfection garden, just like every perfectly made dish that he served.

Alternatively, an orchard is a bunch of cultivated trees meant to create fruit or some other kind of crop, typically existing for high levels of output. A vineyard of God as described in the Bible typically means that these trees must bear fruit, they're not for decoration. These latter meanings indicate that Carmy is more professional and simply creates a lot more because his process is a lot more streamlined and personally necessary in comparison to Sydney and her meadow.

A small slight connection (but most likely unintentional) between Sydney's "from saint-denis" meaning and Carmy's "vineyard of God" meaning, is that Saint-Denis is a suburb in Paris, France, and they have a massive vineyard there called Morey-Saint-Denis. Saint Denis was also a patron saint of Paris, which connects Saint-Denis and by extension; Sydney, back to God and religion. Interesting that this also represents a vineyard of God, right?

If I had more faith in the show, I would assume this is also a sydcarmy connection. But I have a feeling that this is a stretch/coincidence. Plus I don't remember Syd and Carm ever cooking with wine or talking about Paris (lol).

But otherwise, I think overall, Syd and Carm's names do kind of associate nature, harvest/abundance, and God. Kind of like divine inspiration/creation, which actually checks out. A lot of their important scenes are them bouncing ideas off each other, and then creating together, and you also understand their different skill levels as attributed by their name meanings. I love the idea of them being intertwined in a sort of fateful, holy act of creation.

What I also find really interesting is Luca and Claire's names having a very similar meaning as well. Claire's name might be a very on-the-nose comment of her being the clear choice over Sydney, over the restaurant, but it also ties into this whole thing of giving "peace" Carm and bringing brightness to people's lives (the whole, I just wanna take care of people thing.)

On the other hand, Claire might actually be providing clarity to Carmy in a different way. Like a harsh reality check. She shows him he'll never be normal and that freaks him out. She's tied to his abusive boss for some reason- maybe clarity is more tongue in cheek here, meaning like how anxiety makes you think your worst thoughts are the most clear and true. It would explain Carmy's panic attacks about Claire- he feels like he must meet his familial expectations of being with her, but he doesn't exactly like her, because she's been foisted on him.

Maybe by being the "clear" choice, it also indicates that she might not be the right one. The best choice often isn't the easiest one, and you could argue Claire's existence is meant to provide clarity to Carmy about his feelings on Sydney and the Bear.

Now, Luca meaning light I actually understood almost immediately. (Sorry Claire; the writers did you dirty lol). Because Luca has always had a sort of hopeful presence, like a positive beacon of light reaching out to the other characters. He helps Marcus in finding his way in Copenhagen. He is a calming light to Sydney during the party, to the point where you feel like she's drawn much more to him than Carmy.

So overall I'm kind of thinking of Sydney and Carmy as two sides of the same coin, and Luca and Claire as the two things beckoning to them. Luca is a light for Sydney, as the Bear and Carmy shut her down. Claire is supposed clarity for Carmy, making him feel like things are obviously supposed to be this way, with her.

I feel that Sydcarmy was meant to be tied by being similar in nature, and now we have some (kind of) evidence of that, and that they're being pulled away. The only difference is that Syd's pulling away feels more positive than Carmy's does. Maybe because she's still a relatively unchanged meadow, and she can still pursue other things due to not being permanently changed like Carmen has been.

Anyways take all this with a grain of salt. I know typically things like names are usually foreshadowing, but with Christopher Storer and Co., and how they've left a bunch of hanging threads, I don't know. They may have picked these names purely for the aesthetic.