Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Bear Season 2The hit Hulu series The Bear has some of the best writing and storytelling on television. The show follows the daily grind of a restaurant as it aspires to improve its recipes, efficiency, and overall quality and performance. But the restaurant isn’t the only thing in need of improvement. What keeps audiences hooked on The Bear is the diverse cast of characters who each face individual challenges in their lives in and out of the kitchen. While Season 1 explored how these characters could work together successfully, Season 2 delves into how each character can work by — and on — themselves.
For example, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) struggles to focus on the restaurant while having a relationship with Claire (Molly Gordon). Cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) also has a transformative journey this season, as he goes from a rowdy storefront worker to a refined, well-dressed restaurant floor manager. But another two of The Bear’s essential crew members undergo their own personal journeys this season, and they shouldn’t be overlooked: Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) and Ebra’s (Edwin Lee Gibson) respective reactions to going to culinary school are integral to Season 2’s theme of change.
‘The Bear’ Season 2 Sees Tina and Ebra Enter Culinary School
Part of Carmy and Sydney’s (Ayo Edebiri) plan of turning The Original Beef of Chicagoland into The Bear is to transform the traditional family-owned sandwich shop into a fine dining, Michelin-star restaurant. While the physical space of the restaurant is getting a fancy redesign, Sydney tells Tina and Ebra that they’ll be brushing up their skills at a culinary program, with tuition paid on top of their hourly wages. While Tina is enthusiastic about it, Ebra is hesitant. “But I already know how to [cook],” he says, and “I don’t want to wear a uniform.” Because he is one of the oldest members of The Original Beef staff, Ebra’s hesitance to adapt to all these changes at The Bear is understandable. Tina is also one of the longtime line cooks at the restaurant, but she is totally open to the opportunity, immediately asking, “When do we start?”
Right away, the two start at the culinary school, wearing the white chef uniforms that Ebra was so reluctant to put on. But Ebra is visibly anxious. Even as he’s slowly cutting celery alongside Tina, sweat drips from his forehead as he chops sparingly, unsure of himself. “You got this baby, you got this,” Tina assures him. But while Tina meets the expectations of their instructors, Ebra can’t manage to meet her at her pace. So, Ebra disappears. He abandons Tina and the program altogether, and for much of the middle portion of the season, he spends his time wandering the city all by himself — without any purpose or drive that he grew accustomed to at the restaurant.
What Tina and Ebra’s Response to Change Reveals About Their Characters
While we don’t get dedicated episodes for either Tina or Ebra, like how we spend time with Marcus (Lionel Boyce) and his creative explorations of desserts in Copenhagen, or with Richie and his drastic growth as he realizes his true purpose of making people feel good about food, we can piece together a few things about their characters that explains their respective approaches to culinary school.
Tina understands the phrase “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Of course, she learned this back in Season 1. While Tina initially rejected Sydney’s new vision for the restaurant as the sous chef, she later accepted it. Sydney believed in Tina and gave her the validation she needed to do better. It’s no surprise that when her son was suspended from school, Tina brought him to the restaurant to learn a thing or two from Sydney. In Season 2, when Sydney appoints her the leadership position, Tina rises to the challenge. Taking a note from Sydney, Tina gives Ebra the same support, validation, and motivation to improve himself, even if he is resistant. Ultimately, Tina wants the same thing for her and Ebra — for them to be their best selves. When some of the other culinary students invite Tina out for drinks and karaoke, Tina accepts the invitation. Though she might be older than them, she can still keep up and belong. Her character is a testament to the notion that it is never too late for anyone to change, improve, and chase after their dreams.
Ebra, on the other hand, seems to think that it is too late for him, or rather he doesn’t want to change at all. He’s grown comfortable with the way he’s been cooking at The Original Beef, so much so that he is stuck in his old ways. But that comfort might also come from a more personal, traumatic background. We never explicitly find out what Ebra’s life was before he was a line cook, but the show has hinted that Ebra may have been a soldier turned refugee from Somalia. In Season 1, when Sydney first introduces the idea of a culinary brigade, Ebra has reservations. “I was in a brigade once,” Ebra says. When Tina asks what happened, Ebra explains, “Many people died.” Later, when Sydney accidentally stabs Richie, Ebra is the one who helps stitch up Richie’s wound. While he does so, Ebra retells the story of the Somali civil war to Richie — part of which was adapted into the 2002 film Black Hawk Down. It would make sense that Ebra hates wearing uniforms because it likely reminds him of the war. How he got from Somalia to Chicago is vague, but it’s easy to see how The Original Beef gave Ebra a sense of comfort and purpose that he wouldn’t want to let go of.
Tina and Ebra Capture ‘The Bear’ Season 2’s Theme of Self-Improvement
But Ebra does eventually come around. After Tina completes the culinary program and comes back to The Bear, Ebra pays her a visit to apologize and admits he is afraid of change. Tina understands, of course, but she also wishes that Ebra knew how the best “old bitches…surround themselves with bad motherf*ckers who take care of them and push their ass.” As the sous chef, Tina recruits Ebra to come back to the restaurant and run the drive-thru window. At the end of Season 2, we see Ebra watching a video tutorial on his phone about keeping the kitchen clean and organized, a lesson he might have learned back at the culinary school. However, now Ebra is willing to learn and improve as a chef in a modern restaurant, and this time at his own pace. “I accept,” he says, willing to change.
There might be louder, more prominent characters who steal the spotlight in The Bear, like Cousin Richie, but Tina and Ebra shouldn’t go unrecognized. While their character journeys might be understated, their stories play a significant part in enriching the show’s dramatic stakes. Because Season 2 is specifically about the varying degrees each character is willing to embrace change, Tina and Ebra’s differing experiences with culinary school and their eventual return to the restaurant perfectly capture this season’s themes of transition and self-improvement. Both Tina and Ebra show that it is never too late to change and reinvent yourself, and it’s even better when you have someone alongside you pushing you towards the best version of yourself.
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