The Divisive Claire Returns in 'The Bear' Season 3 Trailer

By Kaleena Rivera | TV | May 29, 2024 |

By Kaleena Rivera | TV | May 29, 2024 |

Our annual summer helping of anxiety is here. Yes, a year after the excellent second season of The Bear premiered, season three is nearly upon us—pause for a moment to marvel over a currently airing series not requiring years in between seasons—and with it, a full-length trailer. We’ve seen what it takes to get a fine dining restaurant up and running, but keeping it going is a whole other battle:

From the look of things, it’s only been a matter of weeks at most since their triumphant-ish opening night, judging by Natalie’s (Abby Elliott) baby bump. To the surprise of absolutely no one, fists are on the verge of flying. What is probably a surprise to many viewers is that Claire (Molly Gordon) is still around, undoubtedly attempting to make sense of their breakup and Carmy’s self-loathing.

Claire proved to be a shockingly divisive addition to this ensemble when one considers that her biggest offense seems to be, uh, falling for an emotionally unavailable man? From my standpoint, the character of Claire is underwritten, a situation that can be amended with time. Judging by large swathes of social media, however, Claire is little more than a horrific defacement of this otherwise glorious work of art, a hellish stereotype brought about to infuriate the masses. Reasonable criticism is within grasp, though I find the feverish “manic pixie” finger pointing to be based less on reality and more on the fact that there’s few convenient labels to slap on a female character who falls short of expectations.

This isn’t the result of Carmy/Syd (Ayo Edebiri) shippers, either—a group who, while in the minority, have a justifiable basis for their position (whether other viewers agree or not is a whole separate matter). When it comes to the audience’s reception to Claire, the worst of it is, unsurprisingly, fueled by misogyny. For the more reasonable objectors, I would argue that we have no way of knowing yet what her impact is going to ultimately be, and although it’s unlikely to have anything to do with the high-octane happenings in the kitchen, I suspect there’s a well-thought-out storyline ahead. Claire’s return is fitting in that it’s at least one piece of Carmy’s past that he’s not going to be able to avoid.

The Bear season three premieres June 27th on FX/Hulu.

Kaleena Rivera is the TV Editor for Pajiba. She can be found on Bluesky here.