Episode 5, Pop: Is this secretly a Coke commercial?

Read at Untimely Essays.

To what does the episode’s title refer? If consistent with the other season two episodes (“Beef,” “Pasta,” “Sundae,” etc.), “Pop” is a noun referring to something food-related, which means it’s not a reference to the fireworks shot off at the house party or Claire’s eyes when she gazes at Carmy. “Pop” doesn’t refer to the fuses blowing when Richie plugs extension cords into the building next door in a misguided attempt to increase amperage for the HVAC system. “Pop” can only refer to the bottle of Coca-Cola Claire hands to Carmy upon arriving at the party. Did Coca-Cola pay extra for the title? Is this episode secretly just a long and brilliant commercial for Coke? A nervous introvert goes to a party. He feels uncomfortable and out of place, but then he has a Coke. And bam! He’s the life of the party, and Coca-Cola belatedly assumes the mantle of its ancient rival summed up in the slogan: Be Young, Have Fun, Drink Pepsi.?

Here’s another question: Is “Pop” the third-best episode of The Bear’s sophomore season? Here’s my rundown: 1. “Forks,” 2. “Fishes,” 3. “Pop,” 4. “Honeydew,” and 5. “The Bear.” I change my mind every time I attempt a list because so many of the episodes are astounding, but I can say with certainty that “Pop” is the most underrated episode of the season. It flies under the radar because, unlike “Forks” or “Honeydew,” it splits its focus between two characters, Tina and Carmy. It also doesn’t get a boost from guest stars like Jamie Lee Curtis, Bob Odenkirk, Will Poulter, or even John Mulaney. And this episode doesn’t employ camera tricks film nerds won’t shut up about, like the one unbroken take that begins the final episode. I love this episode because it relies on simple storytelling and has layers that reveal themselves if you’re paying attention.?

“Pop” pays homage to high school party movies like American Pie, Superbad, and Can’t Hardly Wait, where adolescents have one last night to emerge from the stifling, joyless personas they have been trapped in for the past four years of high school and finally kiss the girl, whether she is Mena Suvari, Jennifer Love Hewitt, or Emma Stone. In this episode, Carmy and Tina are the awkward students stepping out of their comfort zones.

Student #1 (Demetria Dee), a younger chef training in the culinary program with Tina, invites her to a bar. When Tina gets there, Student #1 flashes her a huge smile. Is the young woman just being friendly, or does she want a piece of Tina? It’s hard to say, but one thing to note is that there’s a lot of fake wood paneling in the bar, which more than one gay friend claims is a strong indicator of a lesbian bar. This observation is a bit flimsy and seems a bit ridiculous (much like my conspiracy theory that this episode is just a long Coke commercial) because it would mean half the dive bars in America, as well as the basement of my childhood home, are lesbian bars. Also, if Tina is going to get down with anyone, that fortunate person would have a name, unlike Student #1.

And what about Tina? Is she into Student #1? Again, it’s hard to say, but it’s unlikely. For karaoke night, Tina wins over the room with “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” where the singer addresses a beloved woman: “If he ever breaks your heart/if the teardrops ever start/I’ll be there before the next teardrop falls.” It would be a mistake to read too much into Tina’s song, but I’m sensing mild lesbian vibes (which is also the name of the marijuana strain I’m smoking right now). We don’t see how her night ends, but even if my gay detective work is completely off the mark, just stepping out to a bar without the security of her Original Beef posse and then just killing her karaoke song is a triumph worthy of the episode’s theme of second chances and social emergence. This episode also shows us how little we know about Tina. We briefly met her son in the first season, but we know nothing about her home life or how she ended up working at the Original Beef. I’m hoping for much more of Tina in season three.?

Carmy’s story gets a lengthier buildup, starting before Claire drives him to Winnetka to drop off the liquor license application. (Errand dating should be a thing with an app combining Tinder, Uber, and TaskRabbit.) Sugar asks Fak in her sweetheart voice to keep Timmy, the drywall contractor, around on the off chance they can resolve a scheduling clusterfuck. Timmy can’t start on the drywall until the electrician finishes his work. However, the electrician is standing around making sandwiches because he can’t begin wiring the building until the plumber, who is MIA, does his thing. Stalling for time, Fak chats up Timmy about his favorite album, Pleased to Meet Me by the Replacements, and how it has the greatest high school song ever written: “Can’t Hardly Wait.” As I mentioned earlier, the 1998 movie by the same name is the kind of coming-of-age movie that inspired this episode.

The buildup to Carmy’s story truly begins long before this episode--decades ago--when he was a shy adolescent quietly crushing on Claire. His brother, Mikey, was cool. “Like, he would set something on fire,” as Claire describes him. Carmy was weird and lonely. He occupied himself, obsessively drawing very short pants “like Dickies, but cuffed and made with worsted wool, done at a very high level.” In a rare moment of vulnerability, Carmy admits to Claire he wishes he had more friends back then and that she had talked to him more. He got busy with cooking and eventually left for Copenhagen, so he missed out completely on the high school/college social scene. Left unsaid is that he wishes he had made a move on Claire.

Carmy fulfills all of his high school fantasies when he goes to a party with Claire. It’s a rager, with a crowd spilling out the front door. People are playing beer pong and later shooting off fireworks. The kitchen is a disaster area overflowing with half-empty bottles, snacks, and red solo cups. It’s the kind of mess that gives heart palpitations to anyone over 35. Claire’s friend (Mitra Jouhari) is crying on the couch because her boyfriend broke up with her. This is a legendary high school party, except everyone is approaching middle age, which makes it weird and sad, but also hilarious.

Carmy’s high school party moment arrives when a group of guys mistake him for Logan, who did something “incredible” with spoons in senior year and was one of the first to make a website. Suddenly an improv performer, Carmy goes with it. Pretending to be Logan, he regales the grown-up kids with a made-up story of an Amelie-style prank where he gradually raises the hem of a guy’s pants, making him think he’s growing rapidly and out of control. When Claire leads him away from the group, they praise Logan for still having a way with the ladies. Like all good high school parties, this one is broken up by the cops, who arrest KJ, an eternal man-child Carmy used to know from wrestling, for shooting off Roman candles.

There’s a long buildup to the kiss. Claire gently touches Carmy’s face at the party, showing him what he missed during high school, but the cops interrupt them. Instead of calling it a night, as the old Carmy would have done, he persists. They go to the restaurant in her car, which might as well be a Delorean, taking them back to the future after revisiting and correcting Carmy’s past.

At the restaurant, Carmy, who, through cooking, transformed from a shy, powerless outsider who suffered quietly through high school to being the boss, disperses the gang so he can be alone with Claire. When he’s finally about to kiss her on the garde manger, Fak emerges from the roof where he had been waiting to help Richie with something dangerous and stupid to take credit for bringing them together before slipping away. And when they finally kiss, what song is playing? “Can’t Hardly Wait” by the Replacements. It took a long time to get here, but it’s perfect. Carmy gets a second chance at high school and kisses the girl.?

Observations I couldn’t shoehorn anywhere:

• We can practically see Carmy’s mental processes at work when he overhears Claire consoling her sad, drunk friend, telling her that no one has ever made dinner for her either, setting up episode 8, “Bolognese.“
• Uncle Jimmy wants to tell the story of complete and utter failure, but he’s cut off by Syd, Fak, and then Richie. We have to wait until the second-to-last episode to hear the great story about how Steve Bartman was not the one to blame for the Cubs’ failure to reach the World Series in 2003.?
• Sugar’s oversharing with contractors is a pleasing running joke. To the plumber in this episode: “Just wrestling with what it’s going to be like to bring a child into this never-ending hellfire of a planet.” Also, Abby Elliott (daughter of comedian Chris Elliott, who I always found unsettling) was pregnant in real life during taping.
• Carmy sees KJ, whom he knew from wrestling, at the party. Jeremy Allen White plays a wrestler in his upcoming movie, The Iron Claw. I think this counts as an Easter egg.
• R.E.M.’s “Strange Currencies,” a song about longing and fumbling towards love, is used in this episode and throughout the season as Carmy and Claire’s theme song.
• Was Fak going to hook up the power cords via the roof, kind of like what Doc Brown did on the courthouse clock? Am I detecting just a soup?on of Back to the Future in this episode?