#with the claire meta

[dearinglovebot]

claire not saying “I love you” back when in the plane is juicy but it’s arguably even more fascinating that she doesn’t say it when they’re reunited. she says “I thought you were dead” but never does she say it back. even thinking he died without hearing her say it back, she doesn’t take the chance to say it back when realizing he is alive. at no point does she stop to say it back.

which is actually the strongest evidence to her making the willing choice not to say it back. pair this with how the line delivery makes it clear that he doesn’t expect her to say it. none of this supports the interpretation that she was too frozen in fear to say something back. instead, you’re given the idea that she was never going to say it back in that scene and they both knew it and they both accepted it.

out of context, you might argue that she just doesn’t feel it, but textually that isn’t the case. the narrative wants us to understand that she genuinely does love her family by establishing two movies of romantic build up + their scenes in the first half of dominion. their relationship is not the problem. it is solely something going on in her thought process.

when comparing it to other scenes of a similar nature (send offs), a pattern starts to emerge. in the deleted jw scene, she doesn’t say a single word. in fk, she urges him to be careful when looking for blue. later in fk, she just tells him to go. in jwd, she tells him to come back. in only one of these scenes does she make a reference to herself (“I’ll be fine” in fk) and never does she explicitly state her feelings about said send off. she just fundamentally never says goodbye on any level. there is no closure or reassurance. there is especially no “I’ll see you again”. that is to say, she has a pattern of avoidant attachment.

now connect that to her self-reliant personality and lack of long lasting relationships. the implication becomes: she is a complex individual who struggles to voice vulnerability in any situation, no matter how dire. the implication also becomes: those who truly love her meet her at her own terms. she doesn’t say it, ever, but she also doesn’t need to. there is an understanding that she does, and it shows in her actions. which is, in my opinion, arguably more romantic than arguing she froze up

[strawberryscare]

can’t stop thinking abt the only time we see carmy wear a The Beef tshirt is when he cooks dinner for claire. you know, the piece of clothing he refused for all of season 1 (when their restaurant was Actually called that) and asked everyone else to switch OUT of (to white shirts and blue aprons).

something something claire fundamentally does not allow carmy to grow as a person + represents carmy’s backsliding into his past something

[yannaryartside]

No thoughts, just Luca looking at Sydney

The second gif, Jesus. The way he touches his mouth…

Like, girl…

[chefkids]

Claire is the physical manifestation of Carmy’s avoidance.

Before he got locked in the fridge Carmy chose to prioritize Sydney over Claire. But at Friends & Family night he ended up picking Claire over Sydney because he was being pressured by Richie and his avoidance kicked in again. This resurfaced his NYC Chef trauma, because Claire was a distraction to getting Sydney her star and the general success of The Bear. Then he tried to over compensate by turning into NYC chef all of a sudden and freaking out at Sydney. Because he wants to get Sydney a star but he’s also terrified of failing and having the NYC Chef “win” and wants to succeed out of spite for how he made him feel.

He left Sydney at Kasama to be with Claire because it was the easier choice for him than to put himself out there and be vulnerable with Sydney. Then he left her to go to that party with Claire and ended up having the Fishes Christmas panic attack. He left Sydney to cook for Claire, then ended up with the alleyway panic attack about Claire and Fishes. He left Syd at service for Claire and ended up with the NYC Chef panic attack then locked himself in the fridge and he is mainly concerned with Sydney and the staff through flashbacks. Using Claire as a distraction from Sydney always comes with a cost. And it always brings up the root cause of his avoidance which is his mother and the NYC Chef.

Carmy promised Sydney that he would not leave her alone after the fridge. And while he physically has not left her alone to be with Claire. He never mentally left Claire. 

Sydney suggested he should make a call after he got out of the fridge, and he thought she was referring to Claire instead of Richie, who is his actual 'family' and who he really hurt with his words. He apologized but in the most generic way possible and Richie knew he was just doing it to get it out of the way, which is why they're still fighting. He's still using Claire to avoid confronting his emotions for people like Richie and Sydney, who he knows he has hurt but who he really cares about. Sydney didn't give Carmy "permission" to call Claire then. He needed Sydney's push in his relationship just to call Claire his girlfriend. He thinks not talking to Claire equals prioritizing Sydney, but in turn he is still prioritizing Claire only just in his head, not physically, because he is still using Claire as an avoidance tool for his feelings for Sydney, his lack of apology for Richie, and even his lack of confrontation with his mother. 

In Season 3 we see him happy and panic free in Claire flashbacks. Because she is in a romanticized version of his past. We know he can be an unreliable narrator and see things that aren't fully there or twist things, and his flashbacks to his relationship with Claire is not the full picture. He's not thinking about all the times that being with her led to a panic attack after. He is using her to be avoidant of Sydney and what she means to him and what doing all of this for Sydney means.

He can't really answer Nat or Sydney when they ask “Why are you doing this?” because he’s still in denial about what he is really feeling for Sydney. But he can answer that he feels guilt whenever someone brings up Claire because that is easier to address.

Carmy is an avoidant. In Season 1 he oscillated between avoiding dealing with his actual grief about Mikey by just focusing on the restaurant and avoiding dealing with what was growing between him and Sydney by using the restaurant and his grief for Mikey, until it blew up in his face. He physically avoided the restaurant itself Season 2 because he needed to avoid his feelings for Sydney, but still projected his feelings for her onto Claire by doing everything Sydney enjoys with Claire until it blew up in his face with a panic attack about the two of them.

Then in Season 3 he couldn't physically avoid Sydney, so he mentally avoided her by trying to reframe his relationship with Claire as something joyful and carefree and peaceful. When we all know that the reality of it was something else. He tells the Fak's he can't apologize because it's too hard. He's avoiding apologizing to Claire for many other reasons too. Cause if he does he'll have to address the fact that Claire said she loved him, which I really don't think he loves her back like that. He'll have to face the real version of Claire and his relationship with her; which was not all sunshine and butterflies. It was filled with panic attacks and anxiety. So he'd rather live in a romanticized version of her in his head, missing her and filling his thoughts with her instead of Sydney, than face what was actually going on.

Sydney is still his muse. He slipped into thinking about Sydney that night by making a dish about her and by inviting her to go to Ever with him. He made that dish that was blatantly inspired by her standing right in front of him. He has been avoiding talking to her, and he clearly wanted to say more, but didn't know how or what to say.

Once Sydney left he started hearing the music from his time in the fridge, he threw the dish out and immediately started to spiral. He stared at the bar cart with party items for Richie's Tuesday Surprise. aka the Amusement and Enjoyment. Which is what he was trying to find with Sydney that day he had planned an inspirational food tour with her, but ended up ditching her for Claire at Kasama. And what he told himself he no longer needed in order to focus on getting Sydney a star.

He stands outside the fridge then Strange Currencies starts playing very quietly under the fridge music, "I don't know why you're mean to me When I call on the telephone." He then goes inside the fridge and "I don't know what you mean to me. And I don't know what you mean to me But I want to turn you on, turn you up, figure you out I wanna take you on" plays a little bit louder, which is basically what his deal with Sydney is right now. He doesn't know what she really means to him. He knows she calms him down and inspires him, but he doesn't ever say what that means to him out loud. Then it grows louder with "These words, "You will be mine""

Then he reached for his phone to try and call Claire. Because he's trying to drown out the song with Claire. The first time we heard it was when he first saw Claire by the fridge and once he rejected her, aka when he chose Sydney, the song got louder. Then when he wanted to take Claire to the restaurant, aka where Sydney was, after the party it played again. He knew it was for sure about Sydney from the panic attack, because with Claire it was backwards, she was his past, but with Sydney it was moving forward.

When he's debating pressing call to Claire, the fridge music overpowers Strange Currencies, because Claire is what keeps him frozen in the past and "haunted" by it. He practices saying sorry as the songs grow louder trying to drown each other out, and we see a clip of present day Claire working and Strange Currencies stops playing.

Then a flash of her in The Bear sitting on the garde manger aka cold prep, which was the same clip we saw of her when he was thinking about her when he was locked in the fridge, Strange Currencies plays again over it. He is still stuck on it even though she's moving on and living her life. Strange Currencies grows louder because he keeps trying to convince himself the song is for Claire and reverts back to the past when he thought it was for her that night he took her to see the kitchen.

Claire's I really love you voicemail plays. Then it cuts to who else but Sydney. I really love you. aka I really love *you*. Sydney. What he is actually thinking but avoiding. What stops Carmy is fearful avoidance, because Claire Sydney is so great she scares the shit out of him.

[ambeauty]

Was it peaceful when she asked somebody else for his number after he intentionally gave her the wrong one? Was it peaceful when she interrupted his day of work to ask him to help her move some furniture? Was it peaceful the way she tried to joke about his brother’s suicide when he clearly hasn’t grieved properly? Was it peaceful when she brought him to a party full of people from high school when they are grown ass adults and she knows he didn’t have friends like that in high school? Was it peaceful when she left her best friend grieving a break up for a man? Was it peaceful when she begged the chef to cook for her? Was it peaceful when he kicked everybody out who was working towards his dream just so he could be alone with her? Was it peaceful when he had a panic attack after sleeping with her? Was it peaceful when she stormed the back of the kitchen after friends and family when he was having a meltdown? Was it peaceful when she made the entire meltdown about herself? Was it peaceful for her to be talking shit about him to anybody that would listen? Was it peaceful for her to not ask is he even ok? Was it peaceful for her favorite day to be Monday? Was it peaceful? Was it?

Or is she just speaking in a low tone of voice in an almost dream like quality? Is her existence to him only peaceful in his mind? Don’t let soft voices and pretty faces fool you. They are full of fallacies. Like sirens.

Thank you to my pookie @sydneys-adamu for letting me scream everytime I get annoyed 🥴

[veryberryjelly]

alarm

carmen berzatto x fem!reader

lyric prompt ; 'we lost track of time again' - maroon - taylor swift

𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ⚜︎ 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

dating carmen could be difficult sometimes with how hard and long he worked at the restaurant, but that was definitely made up for by the times when he was here.

the times when he could knock off of work early for a movie night with you.

or the mornings he had worked into his schedule once a week to sleep in with you.

you had made a deal a few weeks ago that you just wanted one morning a week when you were both free so carmy was able to catch up on sleep and general health.

when he was working it was very obvious how drained and exhausted he could get, so this one morning was for both of your benefit.

you got to see more of your boyfriend and he got to recharge for one morning a week.

waking up before carmen on these mornings was not a difficult task.

while the first time you tried to slip out he always pulled you back against his chest, the second time you were much slicker about it.

you'd slip out of bed, shower and get dressed and then make coffee and start breakfast.

you always wanted to make these mornings as easy as possible for carmen so he could actually enjoy them rather than worrying about something you could easily do for him.

and today was no different. you slid out of carmen's arms and did a quick and quiet morning routine before sitting yourself at the kitchen counter with a coffee and some paperwork you had to get done today.

you were sat there in the morning glow of the kitchen for about an hour before you heard a rustling in the bedroom that brought your attention.

your eyes were pulled from your papers at the creaks you recognised as the noises your bed made and a smile spread across you lips as you spotted your very disheveled boyfriend emerging from the rumpled sheets.

you shuffled your papers together and slid them back inside your bag before moving across to the coffee pot to make a fresh one for both yourself and carmen.

as you were pouring two fresh mugs you felt a set of strong arms winding around your torso.

a warmth spread up your back and a weight settled on your shoulder causing a smile to bloom on your lips.

" morning, bear " you muttered quietly, halting what you were doing momentarily to lean back against his broad chest.

" morning, beautiful " he replied, his face briefly buried in the crook of your neck, pressing a short kiss to the skin before pulling back so you could continue what you were doing.

you picked up both mugs, offered one out to him and then lead him towards the couch so you could both enjoy your morning.

a morning that consisted of drinking coffee, having a bagel and promptly falling asleep tangled on the couch, your head pressed against his chest, relishing in the steady thumping of his heart.

it was only a vibration of carmen's phone underneath your stomach that woke the both of you.

you only shifted slightly when he reached to grab it for between you and then rested back as he answered.

" syd?...what..." he pulled the phone back from his face to check something on his screen " oh shit, my bad, we lost track of time again...we'll be there in 20 " he explained before hanging up the phone.

he set the phone down on the couch before his hand lifted to brush some hair from your face.

" we gotta go, baby. shouldda been down at the restaurant 10 minutes ago " he said, moving to ease you up slightly

" shit. " you replied with a laugh, sitting yourself up against the couch to gain your balance before standing. " we really need to start setting an alarm "

@con-gee

[the-krakens-bitch]

One of the aspects of season 1 and 2 that made them my favourite were the portrayal of the dynamics of the characters with each and themselves in their adult life.

Give me Klaus having a breakdown cause he’s starting to forget what Dave looks like and the sound of his voice. Show me him begging Five to just go back and save him, as he’s just one person, it won’t matter. But it will. Klaus knows that. He just doesn’t want to believe that.

Show me how Allison sees her daughter refusal to going to bed as something alike herself. Show me the doubt and fear that might come from her seeing herself in Claire.

Show me Luther trying to socialise with other people without it sounding like a formal report.

Show me Five having a hard time opening up entirely with anyone, especially his family. Show me Victor and him both relating that they feel like outsiders with their siblings, that no matter how good they are now, they will never know how it feels to be completely comfortable and secure with them. That deep down, they will always be alone.

Give me the honesty between Diego and Luther, the outraged desperation of Diego wanting to be the leader, to be seen as an equal to Luther, and Luther telling him that he always knew how that affected him. And deep down Luther enjoyed that his leadership was able to ignite some sort of emotion, even if it was disdain, just something to prove to him that what he was doing was worth a reaction.

Show me victor not being used of people calling on him to make the shots.

Show me Allison and Diego bonding over how it feels to lose their voice, to feel weak and defenceless in a world that is so quick to take away their power and anatomy

Show me Luther and Lila undermining anyone older who gives them guidance or are authoritative in fear of becoming susceptible in becoming mindless obedient soldiers again.

Show me Victors tedious relationship with the violin. How he wants to entirely forget how to play the violin, but hating himself by how easily it is to regain that skill. It feels like Reginald’s hand will always be holding his shoulder every time he holds that god forsaken thing.

Show me how Allison is able to conceal her insecurities and guilt with her award wining smile, on and off set.

Show me a quiet bonding moment between Diego and Victor showing each other’s littered scars on their hands, either by failed knife tricks and tightening strings. Both brought upon by an absent father that each other will never quite understand the others perspective

Show me Lila first thought fleeing anytime her and Diego get into a fight, thinking that it’ll be easier to ran away then to face him.

Give me Diego trying so hard trying to be badass but failing, because intrinsically he isn’t a whiskey shooting cold blooded ‘lone wolf’, he’s just someone who loves his family and wants to be truly close to someone

[maidenvault]

I can’t even be that mad that Jamie’s still mad at John. The more I think about it, the more it’s clear it’s not just about what happened with him and Claire or the deliberately indelicate way John said it was all about him. Some big upheaval between them has always felt inevitable because of their differences, and they need to start over on better terms tbh. Their connection’s always had kind of an uneven power dynamic going both ways - John is a lord and Jamie was his prisoner, but Jamie’s a big weakness for him, someone he’ll compromise his principles for and love no matter what. So seeing John actually shout at Jamie, Jamie demanding to know all the details while beating the shit out of him and John saying “No,” John understanding his anger but nonetheless refusing to apologize for loving and grieving for him…After fearing John might end up under-served in the long run and never get a real arc, this is beyond my wildest dreams lol. It feels like John’s starting to grow more of a spine while Jamie’s finally fed up for now with that redcoat asshole and it’s kind of beautiful to see.

And I’m never disappointed to get a reminder that at the end of the day, Jamie’s still a man of his time. As a rule he’s not a judgmental person. He’s always respected and cared for John deeply, knowing the feelings he has for him. But some things he still doesn’t have the framework to properly understand.

This and his trauma over Randall don’t excuse the traces of homophobia this brings out of him, but they make it believable. Obviously he’s not naive about these things and knows Claire isn’t, but in this world she’s still a “respectable” if unconventional woman. From a 1700s perspective, knowing that John let her into that world of his he usually keeps entirely private in such a way makes it seem that John basically used her like a whore. He says as much in his uglier comments about it to Claire. Even from a modern perspective, John and Claire of all people sleeping together is very strange and speaks to how desperate they were for any kind of momentary comfort. To him it sounds depraved.

And without a doubt it must be vaguely triggering, too. It’s meaningful that the morning after their hellish long dark night of the soul, John tells Claire that accepting Jamie’s offer of himself all those years ago would have ruined everything between them so he doesn’t regret it. To Jamie it has to feel like John finally crossed a boundary with him he thought he was too honorable to cross, which in a way was the foundation of them having such a strong friendship.

And truly John did. Going up to Claire’s room that night to let them console each other as if his pain compared to hers was crossing a boundary. But Jamie will never know the horrible wailing screams John heard coming from her room because he was gone, how losing him was so hard for John because it came with the impossible task of having to be there for Claire, who he also cares for. The truth is in every other moment he was forced to put his own grief aside because Claire’s loss was so much greater and she was literally suicidal, but as Claire says actually sharing the grief was the only thing that saved them.

So yeah, of course he’s not sorry. After Jamie comes back and acts like everything’s fine now, John’s feelings that he couldn’t keep private in his grief can’t just neatly be put right back into the same compartment as always. When he’s just had the added stress of William learning the truth and he unloads on Jamie for asking “Why?” it’s like he just can’t keep suffering in silence for everyone else’s comfort, not after fucking everything he’s now done for this man and his family.

And it rankles a lot that Jamie can seemingly forget all that now, and he’s being kind of a huge fucking baby about marking his territory for a man in his fifties who knows perfectly well this will hurt his marriage 0%. But then John can’t be normal about this and about Jamie either. He knows he fucked this up, he betrayed the person who’s everything to him even if he didn’t mean to, and he expects nothing less than Jamie’s violent reaction. To him he “had a right to touch him” and almost permanently damage his eye. :/

And because John’s character, as I understand, has been softened a lot in his show portrayal, it’s easy to forget their friendship has always been kind of unhealthy on both ends. John is immensely privileged and wasn’t sensitive to the power imbalance in their early relationship, which has always partly remained a factor until now. He kept and cherished the sapphire Jamie “gave” him as his prisoner; Jamie obviously doesn’t remember that time so fondly even if John was sometimes a great comfort to him. Jamie relied on maintaining a friendship with him to have any connection to William, and now that the truth’s out it doesn’t matter. Jamie’s anger at him is explosive because he’s never felt free to show it before. When he later calls him “that bloody Englishman” it shows his sense of betrayal but also some long-pent-up frustration.

Now Jamie is part of the occupying force in Philadelphia, on the winning side of a war this time, and John ends up his prisoner. Jamie seems mostly annoyed to be in this position and doesn’t treat him with cruelty or contempt. Their short exchange about being in chains says everything. As much as he adores John, Jamie’s never forgotten what that felt like. But he also remembers what it meant that John treated him kindly when he had power over him. It’s fucking complicated.

Jamie’s never one to let go of his anger easily, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t still love and respect John. He calls William “our son” when he doesn’t have to, and he looks so conflicted hearing Claire say John saved her life, but he can’t see these two people who mean so much to him together without thinking about what happened and all the ways their friendship has been a little fucked up for both of them all along. They can’t go back to the way things were and that’s a good thing.

[josru]

a little rant:

If you need to understand one thing about the Bear subreddit, here it is.

It's not a supportive place for women, let alone black women/women of colour. (Not surprising, as reddit is male and white dominated.) Sydney gets mad hate for daring to be apart of the main relationship in the show (that is now defunct), something that the writers wrote for her? Regardless if you see Sydcarmy as romantic or not. The whole point of the Bear is their partnership.

And yet the Bear fandom on reddit loves to diminish her role, and act as if Sydney is an uppity black woman who needs to be rid of. They act like it's surprising that people want to talk about her or like her. And they also think Sydcarmy is mad overrated and implausible. They bring it up constantly because it pisses them off that a sizeable portion of us love it.

Probably because Sydney is an actual character we can relate to and root for. But oh no, men don't like that because that means she isn't a perfect little white fantasy, and she has actual problems and ideas and speaks on them, and she's BLACK, god forbid!! And they could never have empathy for someone who wasn't themselves. Sydney is annoying to them because it reminds them they don't care about other people.

It's barely a place for white women too, because they only like you if you're a gf/therapist/not your own person. A flat, 2-D image with no problems. They don't care about Jess or Claire, they just want to fuck them. Even in this post, the respect of relatability and empathy is given to Richie in the title, because he finally "got some", despite the picture being of Jess. Like, great, guys, you diminished a woman (a PERSON) to being a "win" for a man, because that's all that matters, right? Whether or not a woman is a fuckable prize?

Even the writing of the show actually just pushes the whole "if women = gf, = only gf, nothing else" trope. So in a weird way, I guess I know where they're getting it from, but I expected more from adult men? My bad.

Women deserve to be more than someone's fantasy!! I am sick and tired of this misogynistic drivel. I also think it's fucked up how much of these dudes on reddit love Richie this much. Like, we get it, you think he's a self-help sigma alpha chad king now. Just keep ignoring the problems he keeps creating, how irritating he can be sometimes, as well as the fact that men picking up their lives will always have way more support than female characters. Richie is not some underdog character lol. The narrative of the show has made it clear he is very beloved and will have a nice, sweet arc.

Unlike Sydney, and Marcus, and apparently maybe even Tina. But yes, keep talking about how your white male character is the underdog who is being sooo mistreated and finally got something he deserved, even though in actuality, Syd and every other POC got treated like shit this season. It's like they swapped them, the real main characters, and made them the underdogs/tertiary while Richie has become so important. But it's key to reddit's white male victim complex that Richie is finally getting "good treatment" when he never suffered being completely ignored by the writers at all, and he was never at risk of that either.

[thoughtfulchaos773]

We're not done with this Richie thing.

Richie is the film director and observer of Carmy's love life.

He’s likes setting up a scene—he checks the lighting; I'd say he's almost more excited than Mikey about setting Claire up with Carmy because he observes that Carmy needs to loosen up a bit.

Richie also serves as an observer, primarily focusing on Syd and Carmy's relationship. In his typical fashion, he gives Carmy a hard time about his relationship with Sydney, like he did with Carmy's drawings of Claire.

As an observer with Sydney and Carmy, it's almost as if Richie makes comments for the audience, and that's the only time he gets involved as a director. He let's the two stars do their thing and will occasionally make observations and comments like he's an audience member but also immersed in the scene.

When Sydney makes this fruedian slip

Richie comments on the light or lighting levels - he says terms like, "Let's shoot." William Friedkin is his favorite director - he's the character that relates to the viewers.

So I wonder if this role for Richie changes in season 4. Will he step in like a director and orchestrate a moment for Sydney and Carmy- especially once he finds out Sydney is thinking about leaving?

Will he help Carmy resolve his relationship with Claire?

Thanks for reading!

Shoutout to:

@whenmemorydies for the back turned- director observation for Richie

@currymanganese for the genius meta on Richie being a avatar- Chris Storer inset.

@fresaton for calling out Richie's theories in his notebook.

Are you into the topic of Cinema and The Bear?

Check out:

Richie: The Director & Observer of Carmy's Love Life Part 2

You Don't Think I Can Do It Part 2

The Bear Season 3 & Cinema Inspiration

The Bear S3 & A Conversation with The Viewer

Claire Carmy Syd: The Haunting

Is There Meaning Here

Sleight of Hand

Season 3 -Surrealism and its Psychoanalysis of Carmy Berzatto

[freedelusionshere]

Someone should edit the Faks out of S3 and The Bear rankings for Best of 2024 would instantly go higher.

[brokenwinebox]

Have we ever discussed the possibility that Carmy basically threw both, Claire and Sydney, away? Carmy slammed the door on Claire’s declaration of love the same way he cut the tether to his partnership with Sydney.

He didn’t talk to either of them about it, constantly leading him back to the fridge. A simple apology with words of affirmation could’ve solved both situations but those particular words were probably always stuck at the roof of his mouth, wasting and rotting away until he had to chew it back down because he felt it was already too late.

[yannaryartside]

does someone else suddenly remembers that Carmy YELLED for Sydney while having a mental breakdown, asking people to get her to him, all while his official girlfriend was actually a few meters by?

Because I do, and every time I am like

[chefkids]

Claire is Carmy's projection of Sydney.

Costuming is one of the most straightforward ways to tell an audience what a character is like and what their role is. Claire's costuming choices show how she was literally just a clear blank slate for Carmy to project Syd onto. So come peel this onion with me.

When he first sees her after being away from him for a while she's wearing a green jacket, who else famously has worn a green puffer jacket all throughout the series and when she reconnected with Carmy after she left?

When he takes Claire on that post office trip drive through Sydney's favorite UPS route, Sheridan Road, she's wearing a brown jacket which looks very similar to the kinds that UPS drivers like Sydney would wear.

When Claire is at the party with him trying to get with Carmy and pursue a new relationship, she just had a denim jacket. Which we have also seen Sydney wear a denim jacket around him when they were trying to start a new relationship aka partnership together by building the new restaurant.

And then we see her white button shirt, dark pants, and the blue denim jacket when Carmy takes her back to the restaurant, which is basically all Carmy saw Syd wearing for most of the time while at the restaurant when she was in her white button down, dark pants, and blue apron.

When he cooks for Claire we see her for the first time in a tank top at the exact same time we see Sydney the most undressed she's ever been in a bra.

When she's in his kitchen she's in his white t-shirt she tries to have a somewhat vulnerable moment with him. She asks him what he is thinking about when he's clearly stressed and he deflects to just complement her. Later when he is with Syd in her white t-shirt in their kitchen at The Bear, he is vulnerable with her about his mother and tries to get her to be vulnerable with him and she finally tells him about her mom dying.

At Friends & Family night is the one time we see her dressed in the most uniquely herself way in a black dress, and she looks like she's ready for a funeral. Which it essentially was the death of her and Carmy's relationship that night. We also know that this is what Sydney will be doing at the start of Season 3, going to a funeral with Carmy. RIP Claire. (yes i know it's marcus' mom but the metaphor is still there and this is still a comedy after all)

Claire has very little identity of her own because Carmy never bothers to know her like he knows Syd. When Claire is on her own she's always in her scrubs, because he doesn't have much else of an image of her besides the fact that she's a doctor now. But he knows Syd well enough to know the exact designer brand she likes to wear and make her a custom jacket.

He knows about Syd's mom dying because he repeatedly asks her about her family and parents without even knowing them. Claire told him about her cousin dying and he basically said "damn that sucks" even though he knew him personally. He knows about Syd's struggles with her job history through catering and fine dining. Claire told him about her life as a doctor and the only thing he came out with was that it was a time intensive job and that he thought she liked taking care of people by helping to fix them. Which is exactly what he tells Sydney he notices about her later on. She likes to take care of people and to fix things like she tried to fix the restaurant.

He didn't give af about Claire's life or personality, he just wanted to project Sydney's onto it. Carmy wanted to want to be with Claire, because everyone around him told him it was what he should want from Mikey to Fak to Richie. So he chose to see and project as much of Syd, who he already knew deep down he liked but was too scared to pursue, on to Claire. That's why he took her on that drive and why he made her the Sydney's pasta recipe that he knew Sydney already liked. Because he doesn't bother getting to know Claire, he just assumes Sydney's identity on to her. And what he did come to know and do with her that was her choice, like going to a party with drunk friends, only ended up associating her with his alcoholic mother and his brother at their Christmas party.

And in the end he still realized he couldn't just replace Sydney in his mind with her.

[gingergofastboatsmojito]

Fun Carmy

Fun Carmy is relaxed Carmy, the other one is Logan, his social alter ego.

I was wondering if Carmy ever had a day of fun in whole life because IMO he has always been that anxious lil kid around others, that we saw in Fishes (02X06), I’m sure. He’s better at the tête-à-tête like the one he briefly had with Michelle that evening

OR as part of small close-knit groups, like that scene in the kitchen (Ceres 01x06).

These assumptions, I think, are also completely backed up by his S1 -Emmy Winning- monologue (Braciole 01x08).

And what I ended up realizing is that FUN CARMEN is not the one we might think we haven’t really seen yet, and that fun for him does NOT look like it may look for us or for a more extrovert type of person.

I happen to be listening to Nina as I type this, and she once said:

I think that quote fits Carmy and his "sense of fun" perfectly.

Fun Carmy is relaxed Carmy, and at peace Carmy.

This is fun Carmy

Fun for Carmy doesn't look like this

Fun Carmy is relaxed Carmy

Logan is not "fun", he is actually a source of anxiety for Carmy, and that's why he can't keep him "on" for long. He wasn't lying when he said he wasn't remotely OK at the party (Pop 02x05) because at that point he hadn't turned Logan on yet.

Logan is "The other one", the one most people would label as "fun", because it better fits the social CONSTRUCT of what fun looks like, but Logan Fernello Berzatto is actually his functional alter-ego.

His functional or social alter - ego explained from a behaviorist perspective

We all have functional alter egos, this is related to the PERSONAL constructs concept developed by Psychologist George Kelly. These are formed at a fairly early age, even well within our 20s we are still forming our personalities and constructs or ideas of how the world works and what everything means, and thus how we should interact with and/or react to this world we live in, in other words, how to adapt or not to our environment. Then comes our career that can prolong this formative period even more, for instance, celebs of any age are required to have an alter ego for those occasions on which they have to "turn it on" for the camera or the stage → "the stage persona" that is NEVER the same person as the real one behind the wheel of the "functional alter-ego" and this persona has been formed based on their ideal of what has worked best for them in the past, what their PR team or Managers require of them to get them jobs, etc. They may come across as genuine and relatable but celebs are usually always "on" when we see them even off camera, so they are not, not completely. We all have the "office construct", the "school construct", the "mom chat group construct", etc. That is actually a sign of being well-adjusted to fit in society, and that is why we do not act the exact same way in all those different situations even though we are the same person, because we are not the same "persona" and that's OK. It's not a sign of phoniness, or lack of honesty, although it can definitely turn into that and become dysfunctional when there's an underlying mental health disorder, although it doesn't always turn out like that, thank dog!

In Carmy's case in particular, he can handle Logan and turn him on / off at will, which means he's in that aspect still well-adjusted despite his multiple mental health conditions, probably because none of them is a personality disorder, so it's safe to assume that he somewhat knows what's he's doing, he's choosing it to a certain extent and it's not 100% unconscious, only partially.

His lines are becoming blurry because he let Syd in, whether he admits it or not. And deep down, he knows this but he's not fully willing to go there (yet). That's what S4 is for.

This aligns with the rest of his behavior I already went over in previous posts:

Fun Carmy is the one that California, Copenhagen, and Chicago post-Sydney Adamu brought out in him. He's what most people, not me, would call relaxed, chilled, etc.

Relaxed Carmy, at peace Carmy, coloring Carmy, talking about food and cracking lil jokes under a table Carmy, is FUN CARMY.

We know him already. We've seen him. He just turns him off when he's The Bear or Logan.

Remember to follow my tag #Gingerpovs 💋

[ambeauty]

Minor major thoughts on Part III of The Bear

I’m not sure if this has been said and honestly we’ve all had so many feelings coming out of this season it’s hard for me to wade through it all right now. So if you’ve said something similar just let me know so I can link back to it.

I have this really small or really big theory. It’s quite simple and I’m not a gif maker so if you are and can illustrate with gifs that would be perfect.

To me and to most of us I’m sure it’s clear that Carmy is still mentally stuck in the fridge this entire season. Even from the initial teaser, he’s alone in the restaurant and everything is blue. He’s stuck. I think we all understand that.

My theory has to do with Claire as the personification of that freezer. When Carmy met Claire it was in the refrigerated section of that store. I was triggered by this meta which includes a clip of a podcast where Chris explains how that motif of the fridge is reoccurring and going to continue to be thorough out.

Ok so Carmy meets Claire at the fridge. Once he’s with her that’s when he starts fucking off with everything around him. They have sex, it’s blue lighting (the fridge). He goes to a party with her, he’s not even himself (a mental fridge). Then he gets physically locked in the fridge because she called and distracted him when he was about to call to get it fixed.

Then we get to s3. Almost all of the Claire flashbacks are in blue lighting (the fridge). He even goes inside of the fridge to find enough will power to call her but he can’t do it because he’s stuck. He’s frozen in a Claire shaped prison. Until he breaks free of Claire, which is also the personification of his past and familial expectations. He’s not going to be free to see the fire in his life. That’s Sydney. He can’t cook without the heat. He thinks he can but he can’t. All he’s doing is illustrating/sketching but the results are not working because he’s still frozen.

To get out of the fridge he has to get out of the prison that is his familial expectations of Claire being his peace. When really she is his version of hell.