With the recent release of The Bear season three, there have been many discussions and debates broached about certain plotlines being left unresolved, and its execution borrowed a very similar – and famous – scene from another show with 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. The show follows a young chef, Carmy, returning home from working in fine dining to his family’s sandwich shop after the death of his brother, forming a found family through the hardships of managing a restaurant. For years, The Bear’s characters and cast have done a great job at giving the show life, investigating the characters’ past to see why they sometimes do things that others wouldn’t think they would do.

Over the course of the series, Carmy is haunted by flashbacks to his time in the fine dining industry that reveal why he does and doesn’t do certain things in the The Bear‘s kitchen. This confuses his fellow chefs throughout the show. The moment finally came for Carmy to confront a ghost from his past, a moment that has been building up since season one.

Carmy Confronting David Fields References Mad Men – And It Took Me Right Out Of It

Throughout The Bear, fragments of Carmy’s professional cooking past are unpeeled layer by layer, revealing the tedious work that goes into the job as well as the abusive nature of the kitchen, especially at the hands of his old boss, David Fields (Joel McHale). For years, I have been waiting for the moment when Carmy gives David a piece of his mind, relaying just a fragment of the pain David caused to his employees. In season three of The Bear, Carmy and David’s confrontation finally happens, but Carmy’s monologue is shattered by David’s nonchalant response: “I don’t think about you.”

The interaction – surely knowingly – references the famous shady Mad Men burn between Don Draper and Michael Ginsburg, an altercation turned meme. Michael tries to one-up Don after a monologue by saying “I feel bad for you” only for Don to look offended at the gesture, cooly responding: “I don’t think about you at all.” The scene had become its own moment – as well as a meme – in pop culture, so when I heard almost an identical exchange in The Bear, all I could think about was Mad Men, and the build-up to Carmy’s confrontation with David was ruined because the similarity pulled my focus.

Carmy & David’s Showdown Was The Bear’s Biggest Moment Of Payoff

Carmy and David’s relationship has been building up since season one, the dynamic between the growing chef and the merciless boss being a token I’ve been most interested in seeing fleshed out. There are numerous storylines The Bear season 4 has to resolve, since many were left unanswered – and Carmy’s confrontation with David was the biggest moment of a plot closure in the finale. The tension through flashbacks and through Carmy’s tedious actions in the kitchen built up the showdown since we saw what David put Carmy through, and there was finally an opportunity for Carmy to let go of that experience.

However, when the confrontation arrived, Carmy’s monologue was great – don’t get me wrong – but David’s Mad Men-esque response took away from Carmy’s spotlight, a moment I’ve been anticipating since David was introduced. The response itself is perfectly blunt in both shows, but since the moment was so big from Mad Men, its use in The Bear took away from the real aspect we needed to focus on, which was the significance of Carmy standing up to his trauma. This interaction resolved the tension built, but its execution should have been more original – instead of cheering, all I was thinking about was Mad Men.

The Bear season three concluded with the giant plotline of Carmy versus David, even if its execution was remarkably similar to the famous Mad Men exchange. Carmy didn’t win the scene in any shape or form, especially with David shutting him down immediately – just as Don did to Michael – but I feel the moment did resolve years worth of anticipation. The Bear’s use of the famous exchange definitely pulled me out of the moment, as I was thinking of Mad Men instead of focusing on the importance of the confrontation, though it is hard to deny the simplicity and effectiveness of the “I don’t think about you at all” response.