The Bear Season 2: A Haunting Christmas Tale

The Bear's Christmas Episode: A Haunting Portrait

The Bear season 2's hour-long Christmas episode, 'Fishes,' delved deep into the haunting and traumatic family backstory of the characters. This episode, set outside the titular restaurant, takes the series back five years in time as members of the Berzatto family tree gather for Christmas at the home of Carmy, Sugar, and Mikey's mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis).

Tiff and Richie at the dinner table in The Bear season 2 episode 6

The Christmas episode followed the Berzattos as their deep-rooted traumas and unresolved conflicts rear their ugly heads. As Donna hectically cooked the intensive Seven Fishes meal, familial tensions escalated, and the characters' unresolved issues came to the forefront, ultimately culminating in a chaotic and disastrous Christmas dinner.

Carmy and Mikey talk in a closet in The Bear season 2 episode 6 Fishes

The Bear's Christmas Episode: Uncompromising Realism

The Bear's Christmas episode presented a raw and uncompromising portrayal of the Berzatto family's psyche during the holiday season. Rather than depicting a peaceful resolution of conflicts, the episode delved into the intense familial anxieties and heightened conflicts that often accompany Christmas in dysfunctional families.

Mikey Berzatto (Jon Bernthal) in The Bear season 2, episode 6, "Fishes."

By dinner time, the real roles that each member of the family plays and their trauma responses are known, which return in The Bear season 2's chaotic ending. The episode brilliantly and painfully establishes the Berzattos' tragic family dynamics that have been festering unresolved and unchanged for years, if not decades, before this episode.

Bob Odenkirk as Uncle Lee Layne holding a drink and looking angry in The Bear season 2

The Bear's Christmas Episode: Breaking Tropes and Expectations

The Bear's Christmas episode brilliantly subverted the expectations of a typical holiday-themed episode. Instead of portraying a feel-good story, it delved into the characters' lowest and most traumatic moments, exposing familial resentment and feuds exacerbated by the holiday.

Closeup of Jon Bernthal as Mikey Berzatto in The Bear season 2.

The episode rejected the dream of a Christmas miracle and presented a darker, more truthful reality, authentically capturing the Berzattos' story and the growth still to come several years later. It served as a rejection of the nostalgia-filled Christmas episodes more prominently featured on TV.

Carmy standing next to a Christmas tree looking annoyed in The Bear