A flashback to five years ago, it's Christmas at the Berzatto household. In this episode, introduces the audience to Donna Berzatto (Jamie Lee Curtis), the matriarch of the Berzatto family, Tiffany Jerimovich (Gillian Jacobs), Richie's ex-wife, Uncle Lee (Bob Odenkirk) Donna's on and off boyfriend, Michelle (Sarah Paulson) Carmy, Michael and Sugar's cousin, her boyfriend Steve (John Mulaney). Most of these characters are only in this episode.
Donna is working tirelessly in the kitchen on her traditional Seven Fishes dish.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Donna is very emotionally abusive. Throughout the episode, she guilt trips Carmy over him working constantly and only coming home for Christmas. Her breakdown at the end of the episode over Sugar constantly asking if she's fine and claiming everyone doesn't care about her dish is a clear demonstration.
- The Alcoholic: Donna can really throw them back.
- Angry Chef: With the scream-prone Donna as a mother directing him around the kitchen, it's no surprise how Carmy treats cooking.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: While Lee calls out Mikey's pill addiction and the fact that every business he starts ultimately fails, the first thing he takes issue with is the fact that Mikey... repeats the same stories.
- Berserk Button:
- Don't ask Donna if she is okay. Because she is definitely not. Sugar asking her one time too many triggers the final scream-off, resulting in Donna crashing her car into the living room.
- Don't tell Mikey he repeats the same stories over and over again; this pisses him off and causes him to antagonize Lee at Christmas dinner.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: While we've known since Season 1 that Carmy, Mikey, and Sugar had a few screws loose, this episode shows just how dysfunctional the Berzatto family truly is.
- Car Meets House: After an emotional outburst, Donna crashes her car into the side of the house.
- Christmas Episode: A particularly dark one that focuses on the dysfunction of the Berzatto family as they prepare for Christmas dinner.
- Coordinated Clothes: The Fak brothers show up to Christmas dinner in matching green plaid shirts and orange shawls.
- Didn't Think This Through: What dish does Pete bring to Christmas dinner? A tuna casserole. The others berate him for bringing an eighth fish dish to Seven Fishes.
- Extra-Long Episode: This episode checks in at 66 minutes, while most episodes of The Bear are around 30 minutes.
- Extremely Short Timespan: In fact, not far removed from Real Time, as various Berzatto family members scream at each other over a catastrophic Christmas dinner.
- Formula-Breaking Episode:
- This episode is a Whole Episode Flashback set five years before the main timeline. Consequently, several of the regular characters associated with the restaurant—namely, Sydney, Marcus, and Tina—do not appear.
- Conversely, this episode features several other characters never seen before, all played by big guest stars: Carmy's mother Donna, Uncle Lee, Fak's brother Theodore, cousin Michelle, Michelle's husband Stevie, and Richie's ex-wife (at the time this episode is set, his wife) Tiffany.
- Also, at 66 minutes, this episode is more than twice as long as most episodes of The Bear.
- Hope Spot: After an entire episode of the characters yelling at each other, Stevie gives a heartfelt speech before dinner that seems to genuinely calm everyone down and appreciate the holiday. And then Sugar makes the mistake of asking Donna if she's okay, causing everyone to start screaming once more and Donna to crash her car into the side of the house.
- Ignored Expert: Despite making his career in the food industry, Carmy is constantly shut down by Donna in the kitchen.
- Impossibly Delicious Food: Tiff and Richie are shocked that Carmy's homemade Sprite is as good as it is.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Lee is a petty asshole, he isn't wrong for calling out Mikey for his bad business practices, or his addiction.
- Manchild: Lee and Mikey come off this way, Fak and his brother do in a more comedic sense.
- Mistaken for Gay: Donna insists that Michael's boyfriend Stevie (whom Donna thinks is merely Michelle's friend) is gay.
- Nice Girl: Michelle understands Carmy's stresses and even offers to let him crash in her NYC apartment to get away from the stresses of home.
- One-Shot Character: Uncle Lee, Michelle, and Steven only appear in this episode.
- Pregnancy Makes You Crazy: Subverted, Tiff is pregnant with Eva, her and Richie's child, but her craziness stems from being nauseous and more emotional. In fact, while away from the party, Richie and her actually have some genuinely tender moments.
- Rage Breaking Point: Mikey throwing forks at Lee causes him to give Mikey a full "Reason You Suck" Speech.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Interesting in that it's a single, two-worded line repeated several times to Mikey by Lee, and a very brutal one at that: "You're nothing."
- Running Gag:
- The Faks trying to get people at the party to buy their baseball cards. By the end of the episode, Steve buys into it. Not because he thinks it's a good investment, but it amuses him.
- The other is nobody understanding the significance of the Seven Fishes. Steve gives a genuinely heartfelt interpretation toward the end of the episode, only for it to be dashed away by Donna's outburst.
- Serious Business: The Berzattos are furious at Pete for bringing a tuna casserole and inadvertently adding an eighth fish dish to the Seven Fishes dinner. While he's apologetic and Steve defends him for making an honest mistake, Sugar winds up grabbing it and tossing it out the front door.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: The episode ends with one from Carmy in the aftermath of Donna driving her car into the living room.
- Whole Episode Flashback: This episode is set five years before the show's main timeline of Carmy starting a new restaurant. The story involves a chaotic, nightmarish Christmas dinner at the Berzatto house that shows the family in all its dysfunctional glory.
