To be absolutely fair to Bayless, a lot of "The Bear" is stressful; some industry workers and veterans had trouble watching the series in the first place, unable to spend their relaxation time listening to shouts of "hands!" and "corner!" when they spend all day doing that anyway. In many ways, Season 2 doesn't let up where that overwhelming stress is concerned. As Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) and his motley crew try and turn The Beef into a fine dining restaurant to be called The Bear, they're all plagued with constant stress, much of which comes to a head as the season heads towards its finale.
In the sixth episode of the season, "Fishes," White is flanked by an all star cast as the show flashes back to Christmases at the Berzatto household, where his deeply troubled mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) overtakes the kitchen and creates the most tense environment you could ever possibly imagine. Then, in the show's season finale, titled "The Bear," the restaurant hosts a friends-and-family night of their new fine dining venture, only for Sydney (Ayo Edibiri) to get overwhelmed by the tickets while running the pass and Carmy to freak out and promptly get locked in the walk-in from the outside. These definitely aren't relaxing episodes of television, but Season 2 of "The Bear" does provide some catharsis during its run.
