The Bear’s Berzatto Family Tree Explained

After introducing only a few members of Carmy Berzatto’s family in season 1, The Bear season 2 dedicates an entire episode to explaining the Berzatto family’s dynamics and relationships. In season 1, The Bear uses the culinary arts as a narrative device to portray how Carmy deals with grief after his older brother Mikey dies by suicide and leaves him his small sandwich shop. On the surface, The Bear, especially in season 1, revolves around how Carmy makes ends meet and manages his restaurant staff to keep his brother’s restaurant afloat.

However, on a deeper level, the series is more about how familial ties can extend far beyond blood relationships. For instance, Carmy calls Richie “Cousin” in The Bear even though they are not actually related and even runs his kitchen as a whole family unit where everyone depends on one another. A similar complex dynamic reflects in Carmy’s blood relations when The Bear harkens back to his time with his family. Unfortunately, since these flashbacks are a brief part of The Bear‘s runtime, it can be hard to comprehend who’s who.

Related

The 30 Best TV Shows On Hulu (December 2023)

Hulu has a wealth of television shows and the top 30 series users should check out can be found here.

Donna “Don” Berzatto

Played By Jamie Lee Curtis

The Bear‘s Donna “Don” Berzatto is the matriarch of the Berzatto family. Although she has been referenced several times throughout The Bear, especially when Carmy and Sugar recall their troubled childhood, she first appears in The Bear season 2, episode 6, which flashes back to a Christmas evening at the Berzattos. Although everything initially seems fine as Donna works hard in the kitchen to prepare the Feast of the Seven Fishes for the family, things turn grim as the evening progresses.

That episode highlights how Donna tries her best to make the evening worthwhile for her family but she cannot help but despair about how no one appreciates her. In a final blowout, after her daughter asks if she is ok, Don loses her temper and crashes her car through the living room wall. The way things escalate throughout The Bear season 2, episode 6, clearly shows why Carmy and Sugar carry deep emotional scars rooted in their torrid relationship with their mother, Donna Berzatto. By perfectly portraying Don’s mental illness and struggles with alcohol, Jamie Lee Curtis makes the family drama feel incredibly authentic and disturbing.

Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto

Played By Jeremy Allen White

Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto is one of Donna’s three children. When he arrives home for Christmas in The Bear season 2, episode 6, he comes off as a fish out of the water, often looked down upon by his family for settling into a different city and working as a big-time chef. In many ways, Carmy also contrasts his elder brother, Mikey. While Mikey is loud and aggressive, Carmy carries a calm demeanor, always trying to ignore the troubling behavior of his dysfunctional family.

Because of how he carries himself, Carmy seems to get along well with Natalie, who, like him, tries her best to de-escalate the family drama. To their dismay, their voices get buried under their family members’ loud arguments and bitterness. The Bear season 2, episode 6 establishes how, despite being the younger siblings, Carmy and Natalie try to be the mature ones. Although Carmy still struggles to come to terms with his brother’s death and his family’s tumultuous past in The Bear season 2, he finds temporary peace with his restaurant family and new-old love interest Claire (played by Molly Gordon).

Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto

Played By Abby Elliott

After making only a few brief appearances in The Bear season 1, Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto becomes a primary character in the series when she joins forces with Carmy on his new restaurant business endeavors. Although she holds up well, she struggles to deal with the immense stress and anxiety of starting a restaurant. The flashback from The Bear season 2, episode 6 also shows Natalie’s perspective on the whole family argument, emphasizing how she tries to make the evening better by coercing Mikey to calm down when he picks a fight with Uncle Lee. Unfortunately, things escalate anyway.

Sugar and Carmy’s childhood experiences explain how they work together in the new restaurant without tainting their relationship. Since they have always been the “mediators” in their family and never the “initiators,” they navigate their personal conflicts with patience, even when things get a little too heated (as they always do) in the kitchen. For instance, Natalie vocalizes how she felt bad when Carmy moved to New York and lost touch with her but embraces working with him in The Bear season 2.

Michael “Mikey” Berzatto

Played By Jon Bernthal

In The Bear season 1, Jon Bernthal’s Mikey appears only in flashbacks, but his death serves as the trigger that sets off the events of the show. After he dies by suicide and leaves his restaurant, “The Original Beef of Chicagoland,” to his younger brother, Carmy returns to the south side of Chicago. The Bear season 1’s flashbacks do not reveal much about Mikey’s characterization but portray how he was a charismatic man who everyone looked up to. Even Carmy initially wanted to work at his brother’s restaurant, but Mikey did not let him. Mikey’s rejection is what inspired Carmy to move to New York and work hard to become a master chef.

The Bear season 2 delves deeper into Mikey’s past by showing how his drug addiction possibly changed him and made him more erratic and impatient. He steps up to help his mother when she rams her car into the living room but seems a little too confrontational moments before that when he picks a fight with Uncle Lee. Mikey is not a primary character in The Bear, but his shadow and influence loom over the show’s storyline and characters. Not to mention, Jon Bernthal’s performance makes Mikey’s characterization all the more memorable, despite his limited screen time.

Michelle Berzatto

Played By Sarah Paulson

The Bear‘s season 2 family Christmas dinner episode also introduces Michelle Berzatto, who is Carmy, Mikey, and Sugar’s cousin. She attends the family gathering with her friend, Steven, who plays a crucial role in subduing the Berzatto family’s conflict. Although Michelle does not get a lot of screen time, she seems to have played a significant role in Carmy’s past, given how she reaches out to him and insists that he should stay at her place to relax before he can go back to work. Flashbacks in The Bear‘s future seasons could further explore her characterization and the importance of her role as Carmy’s cousin.

Pete

Played By Chris Witaske

Natalie Berzatto’s husband, Pete (Chris Witaske), is another recurring character who appears in both seasons of The Bear. As seen in The Bear season 2’s Christmas flashback, Pete’s relationship with the Berzattos is contentious in many ways. He shows up with tuna at the Berzattos’ traditional seven-fish dinner, which gives the family another reason to dislike him. Natalie even gets mad at him for showing up with the eighth fish and throws his food package out of the house. Throughout the rest of the episode, Pete just timidly disappears behind all the Berzatto family woes, which shows how he is an outsider in the family despite being a part of it.

Cicero “Uncle Jimmy”

Played By Oliver Platt

As shown in The Bear season 1, Cicero, usually called “Uncle Jimmy,” helped Mikey sustain his business by loaning him a lot of money. Mikey never paid him back but stored all the money in tomato cans, hoping Carmy would eventually find it. Carmy finds the money in The Bear season 1’s ending moments, but instead of keeping it a secret, he trusts Jimmy and tells him that he found the cash he had loaned to his brother. Leveraging his truth, Carmy also makes him his business partner and convinces him to invest even more in his new restaurant.

For someone with so much money and influence, Uncle Jimmy seems surprisingly unassuming and also among the more level-headed members of the Berzatto family. During the Christmas dinner from season 2, episode 6, he avoids contributing to any confrontations and covers for Richie in front of his wife. Even when Carmy asks him for money in The Bear season 2, he takes a giant leap of faith by trusting Carmy Berzatto, given how Mikey let him down.

The Berzatto Family’s Unofficial Members Explained

In an episode 1 scene from The Bear season 2, Carmy scoffs when Sugar calls Lee “uncle.” He claims that Lee (Bob Odenkirk) is not their real uncle even though all Berzatto siblings refer to him as “uncle” during the flashback Christmas dinner. Sugar responds by saying that even Richie is not their cousin with that logic. Considering how Richard “Richie” Jerimovich is not related to the Berzattos by blood, Sugar is right when she says he is not an actual cousin. However, he is still unofficially a part of the Berzatto family because he and Mikey used to best friends and almost like real brothers.

The Bear season 2 does not clarify Uncle Lee’s role in the Berzatto family. Carmy’s reaction to Sugar calling him uncle confirms that, like Richie, he is not related to them by blood, but is still close enough to be called “uncle.” Since Richie’s wife, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), and Michelle’s friend, Steven (John Mulaney), are also a part of the family Christmas dinner in The Bear season 2’s episode 6, they, too, can be considered unofficial extensions of the Berzatto family tree.