‘The Bear’s third season is stained with grief’

“Grief is the river that runs through all of us,” says Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Richie. “It’s maybe one of the only common things we share in the human experience.”

For employees at The Beef, the restaurant that went through drastic changes in the first and second seasons, it’s the death of Mikey, the manager and owner. When his brother, Carmine (played by Jeremy Allen White), returns to run the place, there’s a shift in attitude and purpose.

Natalie (played by Abby Elliott) processes the loss while anticipating the birth of a child. “She’s grappling with the fact that her brother had this horrible demise and her relationship with her mom and her brother is not in a good place,” Elliott says. “So she’s dealing with the grief in that way.”

Ayo Edebiri, who plays Sydney, one of the chefs, says grief has touched the characters in different ways. “It’s in the process of being dealt with by different characters in different ways.”