The Berzatto family has complex dynamics caused by troubled childhoods that were further explored in The Bear season 2, but one of the reasons The Bear is called The Bear is its core message that family, blood or otherwise, is what drives its central characters. The bear that Carmy sees doesn’t just represent the restaurant or his dreams or his family, but himself, as Carmy “Bear” Barzotto. By the end of The Bear season 1, Carmy has finally started to accept the bear within him, giving a double meaning to the sign he put up that reads “THE BEAR IS COMING.”