Children (The Bear)

The series follows Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, an award-winning New York City chef de cuisine, who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his late brother Michael's failing Italian beef sandwich shop.

In the episode, The Bear staff prepares to welcome a Tribune photographer as they await for the review, while Carmy and Richie receive devastating news.

Later, Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) sends a news article to Carmy (Jeremy Allen White); Chef Terry has surprised by announcing the closure of Ever after 30 years.

To help the restaurant, Cicero (Oliver Platt) brings in a friend, Nicholas "The Computer" Marshall (Brian Koppelman), an accountant, to check on the costs and offer some possible cuts.

As Fak (Matty Matheson) and Theodore (Ricky Staffieri) argue, they are joined by their brother Sammy (John Cena).

In May 2024, Hulu confirmed that the fifth episode of the season would be titled "Children", and was to be written and directed by series creator Christopher Storer.

"[8] Marah Eakin of Vulture gave the episode a 2 star out of 5 rating and wrote, "When you see Carmy digging through a box of photos in the basement labeled “DD,” you just know something's coming soon in the pipeline.

The Washington Post considered his appearance "distracting",[12] while Ben Travers of IndieWire wrote, "Cena is just... too polished for this clan of charmingly schlubby Chicagoans.

"[8] Alan Sepinwall wrote, "When past episodes brought in notable guest stars like Bob Odenkirk or John Mulaney, they instantly felt like people in this world; Cena's the first one to play as stunt casting.