The Bear Season 2 Episode 6, titled Fishes, had the show's emotional Christmas dinner scene with Pete's well-known tuna casserole as an unwanted focus. The casserole, while being innocuous, inadvertently violated an important Italian-American tradition known as the Feast of the Seven Fishes.
This action proved that, no matter how much Pete adjusted to this troubled Berzatto family, he was actually and inherently not part of the family. Introducing a real "eighth fish" to this dinner was considered a painful reminder of Pete's distance from the Berzatto family.
Everyone received the message that Pete's good intentions meant he had learned nothing about the family's complicated history and culture. Bringing the casserole, when Natalie cautioned him to get out, tended to nail Pete firmly onto the side of Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis).
As one Reddit user pointed out, it might even have been seeing Pete's casserole that sent Donna down the road to her catastrophic car crash into the house.
Let's discuss why this infamous scene on The Bear led to heated discussions.
Meaning behind The Bear's Feast of the Seven Fishes
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is one of the most beloved Italian-American traditions practiced on Christmas Eve. Traditionally, seven varieties of seafood dishes are served. They symbolize religious and cultural concepts such as abstinence from meat, the Seven Sacraments, and completeness given by God.
The careful planning and preparation show how much the family cares about this tradition. Pete’s casserole, although made with good intentions, interrupted this carefully planned ritual, as seen in The Bear.
Fans say the casserole’s simple ingredients—canned tuna, frozen peas, and cream of mushroom soup—did not match the complexity of the traditional dishes. His dish was as simple as him, and the Berzattos', as winding as them.
By adding an "eighth fish" heedlessly, Pete not only broke a cultural rule but also risked making Donna angry—a scary idea because of her unpredictable nature.
According to Chris Witaske who played Pete, his character is treated as an outcast in the family. They treat him like a "fly on the wall" watching their damaging relationships, probably well into season 4. He can't understand how the family feels. When he tries to help, he shows all the issues the Berzattos don’t want to face about themselves.
Why does the Berzatto family hate and target Pete?
Pete's stabilized, middle-class upbringing is starkly contrasted with the Berzattos' chaotic, trauma-ridden background. Of course, this makes him an easy target for the family's frustrations on The Bear.
As one The Bear fan observed,
"They don’t know how to deal with a nice kid that doesn’t have some hidden agenda or craziness to him, so they project those things onto him because they assume he has to be weird like them since their default setting is to be insane.”
In this phenomenon in Fishes, Pete's casserole portrays a bigger issue of the family. The innocent gesture reveals he does not belong with the Berzattos. Donna reacts so strongly to the casserole with the family's disdain, and this shows how Pete feels like an odd one out in their entirely chaotic world.
Pete mirrors the family’s dysfunction in The Bear
Even as others make fun of him, he still has romantic feelings for Abby Elliott's Natalie and wants to fit in with Natalie's family. His determination, even as others are mean to him, and kindness at last reward him in The Bear finale.
In the soft opening of the restaurant, when Pete tenderly requests something from Donna, it shows how much he cares and wants to get along with the Berzattos.
In an interview with Vulture, Chris Witaske stated that it was seeing what Natalie went through growing up, that made him tear up in the finale.
“Seeing his wife and feeling how much he loves her... it finally just comes out of him,” Witaske said.
This moment shows that Pete is a quiet hero. He helps keep the family steady during tough times on the Emmy-winning show.
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Catch up on Pete's casserole calamity on The Bear, only on Hulu.
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