Holiday family gatherings are rarely stress-free. But in FX’s “The Bear,” it’s a dizzying experience.

The majority of Season 2 of the show, which streams on Hulu, is about tortured chef Carmen “Carmie” Belzatto (Jeremy Allen White), head chef Sydney (Ayo Edeviri), and the restaurant’s old-school reverie. It follows the efforts of the rest of the team to quickly transform the sandwich shop. The centerpiece of the show is a fine dining restaurant. But the anxiety-filled, stomach-churning holiday episode shocks a milder season than the first by focusing on the dysfunction of the Belzat family.

In the previous episode, Carmie reopened the restaurant, sparked a romance with someone from her past, Claire (Molly Gordon), and was on the verge of getting everything she wanted. Episode 6, titled “Fishes,” will take you almost five years before the main event of Season 2 and unfold its dramatic, epic story. traumatic Dinner at Carmie’s childhood home. His family gathered to celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fish, a traditional Italian-American event on Christmas Eve.

“We knew from the previous episode that [‘Pop’]”When Carmie and Claire go to a high school party, we see that Carmie has the potential for a quiet, calm, and lovely relationship,” said The Bear creators, who directed the episode. One Christopher Storer said. (With the Writers Guild of America strike continuing, he agreed to speak strictly to The Times in his capacity as director.)

“And we wanted a quick follow up on why he wasn’t ready. And I just thought it would be cool for the halfway point of the season to jump into a Christmas flashback that I felt was probably representative of every Christmas at their home.”

This episode is almost twice as long as other episodes this season, at just over an hour. And it’s packed with notable guest stars playing various members and friends of the kinship and titular Berzat family. Jon Bernthal returns as Carmie’s late brother Mikey. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Donna Belzat, Mikey and Carmie’s troubled mother. Bob Odenkirk is Uncle Lee. Sarah Paulson is cousin Michelle. John Mulaney is the cousin of Michelle’s partner, Stevie. Gillian Jacobs plays Richie’s then-wife Tiffany. Also present at the dinner are recurring Natalie Belzatto (Abby Elliott), Mikey, and Carmie’s sister. Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt). and Neal (Matty Matheson).

“I wanted to distract myself,” Storerer said. “I wanted the audience to think, ‘What is Bob Odenkirk doing here?'” I wanted it to feel like I don’t even know who’s related to whom, I always feel it’s the most true — everyone calls each other cousins ​​and doesn’t know what’s going on — what’s really going on But you know it, strange even through all their relationships, they love each other no matter how dark it is. “

In particular, Donna is a notable character that we meet for the first time. “I’m not sure, is she alcoholic? Is she mentally unstable? [unwell]Jamie has pulled off this really tricky thing in his acting, and it’s still funny, it’s still scary, but it’s still human,” Storer said.

He added that getting Curtis to play the pedigree-strong matriarch was not a lengthy process. “We send her her script and we’re talking to her about it in five minutes,” he said. “She knows what her nails are, what her hair is, and she built a lot into this character.”

The series’ culinary producer Courtney Stoller (who is also Christopher’s sister) spent a lot of time with Curtis, guiding her through scenes in the kitchen preparing food. Christopher Storer said Courtney would explain to her actor “‘Brangino here, sauce here’, just get her used to the kitchen.”

“Because the way we shoot our shows is a lot of really long takes. We often do 12 pages a day for a big scene like this. I think it will help,” he said. “So it wasn’t that different from training Ayo or Jeremy. It was just Kourtney and Jamie Lee destroying this kitchen for a few days, and it was really fun to watch.”

Storerer said that once casting was complete, the focus shifted to the episode’s other protagonist, food. The elaboration of the Feast of the Seven Fish supported the episode’s theme of people working too hard to care for other people. Courtney Storer and prop master Laura Roper built a “little restaurant” inside the house.

“One of the reasons the food is so impressive is that I have always felt that home cooking is much more beautiful than food prepared by a three-star Michelin chef – and this is not disrespectful. But I know the woman has been at the stove the whole time and doesn’t have the equipment to do it,” said Christopher Storer. “I’ve been to many dinners at Seven Fishes in my life. Many of my friends in Chicago are Italian and I grew up in an Italian family. And every time I see this ceremony And you’ll think, ‘No one would eat all that stuff.

Storerer emphasized the actors’ exceptional performances throughout the episode, stating that he aimed to keep them in key scenes for as long as possible to maintain momentum. Three cameras with long lenses orbited around the group during the big dinner table scene.

Abbie Elliott as Natalie “Sugar” Belzat in the dining scene in “Fish.” Christopher Storer called directing the film “the most fun I’ve ever had”. It was getting more and more out of control. “

(Chuck Hawes/FX)

The scene of the group around the dining table provided one of the episode’s most stressful moments, as a hostile outburst erupted by Mikey, Uncle Lee, and then Donna. Tensions between Mikey and Lee quickly escalate over Lee’s furious that Mikey retells a story that everyone has heard, and the two yell at each other, eventually ending up with Mikey. threw a fork at Lee.

“This is our father’s house, my father’s house, so we can throw a fork,” Lee said, noting that Mikey lives at home with his financially divorced mother. Did. “You are nothing,” Lee tells Mikey.

“At some point, when we started working on it, I know Bob thought, ‘I want to make fun of him,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah!'” They come in and say something like, ‘Boss, I want to throw this table,'” Storerer said. “Method, as the word says, was the most fun I’ve ever had. It just kept getting out of control.”

Bernthal was initially given a heavy rubbery fork to throw at Odenkirk, but it didn’t look good on camera, so he ended up using a plastic fork with added sound effects. . “John was really trying to whip,” said Storerer. “And the thing is, he was getting stupider and dumber because throwing a fork at someone is inherently so stupid.”

Storerer said he sees different aspects of the table and the partnership in that scene. ’ As the scene progressed, we wanted to scale it down, get closer and closer to Bob and Johnny, and build tension. And because he and Bob were pushing each other, it made it even more uncomfortable and childish, like, ‘OK, this is something else, and it’s more scary,’ and some kind of drawer. I knew I could. ”

At the same time, Storer said the scene highlights why Natalie, for example, wants to be with Pete. “This is why Carmie could never accept love from Claire, because he thinks things like this happen. Bob said something really clever, and it was, “I don’t think this guy actually wants to fight.” [Mikey]. ” [Mikey] As much as they have a strange history, they actually want a fight. So it was really nice to get all these things in place and start slowly zooming in on the two of you. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, comes Donna. “

Filming for this episode took five days, and the dining scene took about half a day. But the most difficult part of directing this chaotic episode was actually the food.

“It’s like, ‘Okay, I need to zoom the timer,'” Storerer said. “It literally means, ‘Oh, I can do it.'” [Courtney] Reheat the tomato sauce because the previous take was weird? What we learned from this show is that food is always just food. We filmed part of the show and then had the actors outside and tried to film the food up close. It looks really complicated when you look at scenes like what happens at the end of this episode. But the truth is, we had some of the best actors in the world. “