Spoilers

Wow. These two episodes were fire. I have to say, they felt more like a series finale than just a season finale. Most of the main storylines were wrapped up ion the eighth episode.

E7: “Review”

E8: “Braciole”

Episode seven was amazing, but I swear it was over like a snap. I paused writing this to look up the run time for the episode and it was only 20 minutes. So much was packed into that 20 minutes though that it really had a frantic pace, which really emphasized the breakdown that the characters were having in the show. It was set in real time and that added to the nature of the chaos happening in the restaurant.

The end was as anxiety-filled as the entire episode as I couldn’t believe that it was over. I had just mentioned how the crew had been starting to really blend as a team heading into this episode, but that went straight out the window.

“Review” was an outstanding episode and, probably, the best episode of the series so far.

Then, episode eight had some amazing work too. First, we kicked off with one of the best monologues you are going to see on TV from Jeremy Allan White. His seven minute monologue was so powerful and filled with amazing character admissions that had been building all season.

White had another astounding moment when he accidentally set the stove on fire and he was suddenly lost inside his head. You could almost hear his thoughts thinking that this would end the problems of the restaurant.

Richie had wound up in jail waiting to see if he would be charged with manslaughter because he had punched a guy who was tearing up the restaurant and the guy had hit his head. Thankfully, the guy awoke and Richie was not facing a manslaughter charge. You could see how this affected Richie and he made some realizations of his own.

Then Richie gave Carmy the letter he had found a few episodes ago from Michael. Another dramatic moment from White as he finally opened the letter.

It read “I love you dude. Let it rip.” and then on the back was a recipe for the family spaghetti and that which indicates that they should use smaller cans of tomatoes for their taste.

Another thing I had speculated on earlier in these posts was what Michael was doing with all the money that he had been borrowing or taking in. We discovered that answer here as when Carmy had opened up the tomato cans, he found bags of money in it.

Closing down The Beef and announcing the soon-to-be opened The Bear was very satisfying as a closing scene. Episode seven and eight really work well together and highlights the best parts of this series.

Season two is next up, featuring 10 episodes instead of the 8 like season one received.