Spoiler alert: The following involves plot and character details from the fourth season of The Bear, which premiered on June 25.
The Madrigals. The Sopranos. The Thrombeys. The Pritchetts.
Lots of movies and TV shows are about eccentric extended families. But are any of them as convoluted as the one from The Bear? Christopher Storer’s dramedy is about the Berzatto siblings and their relatives who work at what was once an Italian beef stand known as the Beef and what may one day become a Michelin-starred brasserie called the Bear, but these aren’t always relatives in the literal sense. The Berzattos like to take in strays and have a habit of turning everyone from a childhood friend to a pastry chef into an uncle or cousin.
This can make it hard for viewers of the Emmy-winning series to fully understand their family tree — but we are going to try. To quote cousin-by-marriage Stevie (John Mulaney) in season four’s wedding/extended family reunion episode, “It is going to be fine.”
The first Bears that the other Bears go to if they need a kidney.
Michael “Mikey” Berzatto (Jon Bernthal)
The now-deceased eldest sibling of a boisterous (if we’re being polite) Chicago family, Mikey was loved and/or hated by many — including himself.
Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White)
Considered the one who “got out” by becoming a high-end chef, he returns home after his older brother’s death to help save his family’s sandwich shop. Instead, he convinces everyone in his orbit to help him turn the place into a respected dining establishment. Has a bit of a messiah complex.
Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto (Abby Elliott)
She is the middle Berzatto sibling, but she’s got some major eldest-daughter energy, which means she has to (and, honestly, wants to) fix everything for everybody else. She has a new daughter, Sophie, who will probably turn out just like her.
Pete Katinsky (Chris Witaske)
Married to Natalie. Despised by most of her family. Kind of a doofus. But, for the most part, a nice guy and a top-notch pain sponge.
Donna Berzatto (Jamie Lee Curtis)
Narcissistic matriarch of the main family. Realtor. Destroyer of Christmas dinners. Also had a crummy mom of her own.
Unnamed Berzatto Dad
Walked out on the family probably sometime in the 1990s and has little to no contact with them. Liked an Irish pub named Kerrigan’s. Natalie inherited his ass.
People who grew up with the Berzattos and are therefore de facto family.
Richie Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach)
Once the stand-in for all middle-aged white guys who blame others for their own shortcomings, Richie had been Mikey’s best friend and was the most reluctant to Carmy’s big renovation plans for the restaurant. Richie is in the process of cleaning up his act by becoming a charming front-of-house manager for the new restaurant.
Tiff (Gillian Jacobs)
She may not have grown up with the Berzattos, but she endured enough of their traumatic family gatherings as Richie’s former wife and mother to their daughter, Eva (Annabelle Toomey), that she earns lifetime cousin status. Since divorcing Richie, she is now with the more financially stable Frank (Josh Hartnett), but that doesn’t mean she — or Frank, for that matter — is out of the family, or that she isn’t going to invite every last one of the Bears to their wedding. Perhaps because she has her own family drama (her mom is largely MIA from her life), one of her biggest fears about her breakup with Richie was that she would lose her “relatives.”
The Faks: Neil (Matty Matheson), Teddy (Ricky Staffieri), Sammy (John Cena), and Francie (Brie Larson)
Neil and Teddy work at the restaurant in various capacities. Sammy works for the family’s repair company, Matter of Fak Supply. Francie and Natalie were best friends who had a falling-out and didn’t reconcile until Tiff’s wedding. Doesn’t matter why, but Francie can get fucked.
Claire Dunlap (Molly Gordon)
A medical resident with a long-harbored love for Carmy. They dated for a while but broke up when he chose work over her. Her roommate, Kelly (Mitra Jouhari), is dating Teddy Fak. Francie doesn’t approve.
Michelle and Stevie (Sarah Paulson and John Mulaney)
As Stevie explains to an understandably confused Frank at the wedding, Michelle was one of the second set of kids adopted by Big Phil’s wife, Estelle, and is now “their cousin the way Spooky’s their cousin”; Spooky does something with motorcycles now. Michelle’s work took her away from Tiff and Frank’s wedding early, but Stevie stayed behind to tease his and Michelle’s former NYC roomie Carmy — and because he lives for the Berzatto drama.
The older generation
Jimmy “Cicero” Kalinowski (Oliver Platt)
Just a normal guy who made his money in a totally honest way and who now lives in Wilmette, Illinois, with his second wife, Carol, and their son. He was friends with the Berzatto kids’ dad and, out of some patriarch-by-default obligation, he is willing to invest in this money pit of a restaurant.
Nicholas “The Computer” Marshall (Brian Koppelman)
The mathematical genius who can tell you exactly to the minute when the restaurant must cease operations. Except he didn’t seem to factor the restaurant’s lucrative sandwich window into that number.
Lee Lane (Bob Odenkirk)
An old friend of Donna’s who, it’s implied, became more than friends after her husband left. He and Mikey didn’t get along, but, if Lee is to be believed, they made up before Mikey died.
The staff willing to sacrifice their own personal lives after catching one glint of Chef Carmy’s pretty blue eyes.
Sydney “Syd” Adamu (Ayo Edebiri)
Carmy’s talented right hand in the kitchen who is following in her mentor’s footsteps by neglecting her dad, Emmanuel (Robert Townsend), and cousin, Chantel (Danielle Deadwyler), as well as her own credit score, in the hopes of keeping the restaurant going.
Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas)
A line cook who quickly took to Carmy’s vision, despite no formal training of her own. Her relationship with the Berzatto family dates back to when Mikey saw her crying at the Beef and offered her a job. She has a great husband (played by Colón-Zayas’s actual husband, actor David Zayas) and a kid who is (in his mother’s own words) kind of an asshole.
Marcus Brooks (Lionel Boyce)
A sweetheart of a guy who really committed to becoming a pastry chef. This came with some perks (he was included among Food & Wine’s list of best new chefs) and some big losses (his mother died and he is guilt-ridden that he wasn’t there for her enough). He also has a fraught relationship with his father.
Marcus also has a roommate, Chester (Carmen Christopher), a designer who has a side hustle in real estate. Chester is mostly peripheral to this story, but he somehow snagged an invite to Tiff and Frank’s wedding.
Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson)
A veteran line cook from the Beef who couldn’t handle the pressures of working in the kitchen at the Bear, but who almost single-handedly turned the restaurant’s lunch counter into a destination of its own.
Chi-Chi and Chuckie (Chris Zucchero and Paulie James)
We say Ebraheim did this “almost” on his own because his staff includes these two goofs, who are played by actual restaurateurs (James owns Uncle Paulie’s Deli in Los Angeles, and Zucchero has Mr. Beef, the Chicago restaurant that inspired the show).
Gary “Sweeps” Woods (Corey Hendrix)
Similar to Marcus and his pastries, Sweeps was an inexperienced sommelier but a quick study. He seems to know what he’s talking about by the end of the fourth season.
Luca (Will Poulter)
An experienced pastry chef and old buddy of Carmy’s from their days working in fine dining. He always has Marcus’s back.
Richie spent one week staging at a fine-dining establishment called Ever. Now he can’t work without those people.
Jessica (Sarah Ramos)
The woman who keeps the service running on time seems prickly at first but is smooth as long as you don’t slow her down. She inherited her dad’s love of car racing and is good at talking Richie down from his histrionics.
Rene and Garrett (Rene Gube and Andrew Lopez)
More staff the Bear inherited when Ever closed. Also more staff who are way overqualified to have these jobs.
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