While I firmly believe When Harry Met Sally is one of the best rom-coms ever made, I don’t agree with Harry’s integral claim that men and women can’t just be friends. Sometimes, when I watch something where a man and a woman are friends, that’s all I want them to be, and that’s the case with Sydney and Carmy on The Bear. Ayo Edebiri agrees with that, too. However, many fans do not, and she recently gave a perfectly logical explanation about why she won’t change her stance.
For years, Ayo Edebiri has been explaining why Sydney and Carmy won’t be together. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, she addressed the topic again. She was asked how she views fans’ desire for her character and Jeremy Allen White’s chef to be more than friends, and in response, she said:
I feel like we've been saying since [season] one, but I don't know if people are starting to believe us now. I do think that like there's something about seeing people where they're really passionate or where they're excelling at something, it can feel exciting and charged. It's a hard thing to talk about because we never get it right.
Since day one, I’ve thought these two didn’t belong together. With every passing season (which you can stream with a Hulu subscription), that belief becomes even more solidified for me.
Spoilers for Season 4 of The Bear are ahead!
Season 4 of The Bear, and that ending involving Sydney, Carmy and his choice to leave the restaurant, really put out any sort of ember that may have existed in terms of the possibility that they’d ever be something more than co-workers. The finale left them at a crossroads, and Sydney seemed betrayed by her professional partner's choice. Moving forward, I have a feeling that them even just being friends might be hard.
However, I guess others still think a romance could happen, and the Bottoms actress did say that the way people interpret the show, naturally, will be different. She explained:
I don't know, my job is to do the thing, and then how you interpret it is how you interpret it. But I do think it's professional, and I do think if anything were to happen, it would not be the show that we're making.
While she noted that her interpretation could differ from viewers’, she also made her stance abundantly clear. She explained that the notion of them being romantically involved is “crazy,” and if anything happened, nothing good could come of it, saying:
And I also think it would be so crazy. That man is crazy and that girl is a bad communicator! The restaurant would blow up in like three seconds if anything ever happened.
I totally agree, there’s no way a romance would end well for Syd and Carmy. They both have a lot to figure out personally and professionally – especially after the events of the episodes that aired on the 2025 TV schedule. And they need to do that without adding a complex and, frankly, unnecessary element into the mix.
Let’s let Carmy be with Claire, and let Sydney live life how she wants, whether that’s with a partner or not. They both deserve to be happy, and they are not in a position to do that for each other romantically.
In Season 5, hopefully, they’ll work things out as business partners and friends so they’re on solid, healthy ground by the time Carmy either leaves The Bear or doesn’t. And that’s all. According to Ayo Edebiri, it won’t go past that point, and it’s for good reason, too.
