Twitter Is Here For The Bear Christmas Episode & Jamie Lee Curtis Cameo

Spoilers ahead for The Bear Season 2. There’s nothing like indulging in some holiday cheer in the middle of summertime — but, um, The Bear’s Christmas flashback episode is not that. Episode 6 runs more than an hour (making it the longest entry of the show so far), and virtually every minute is spent depicting the tense, conflict-fueled makings of a holiday feast five years before the opening of The Bear.

The episode, aptly titled “Fishes” after the Feast of the Seven Fishes, serves as a microcosm of the Berzattos’ fraught family dynamic. While it gets pretty sad and stressful at times, there’s one element of “Fishes” that makes it very fun to watch, too: all the guest stars!

In an already cameo-filled season, Episode 6 delivers an extra heaping — including Jon Bernthal reprising his role as Mikey, who is no longer alive in the show’s main timeline; Sarah Paulson as a cousin, Michelle, and John Mulaney as her partner, Steven; Gillian Jacobs as Richie’s then-wife, Tiffany; Bob Odenkirk as Uncle Lee; and Jamie Lee Curtis as the Berzatto siblings’ mom, Donna, from who they are estranged in the present day.

Fans reacted to the chaotic, cameo-filled episode on Twitter.

Many viewers heaped praise on Curtis, in particular. In one especially heartbreaking moment before dinner, Donna laments to Carmy how unloved she feels. “I make things beautiful for them,” she says. “And no one makes things beautiful for me.”

The confession is echoed in Carmy’s own personal conflicts later on, when he decides in the finale that there’s no place for “amusement or enjoyment” in his life. Richie even calls him Donna at one point, implying that Carmy is shutting others out like his mom.

Curtis herself took to Twitter to express her gratitude for being included in “Fishes.”

“I guess the secret is out as all family secrets have a tendency to do,” the Everything Everywhere All at Once Oscar winner wrote. “Exploring family dysfunction through the art of television and film is one of the great privileges of civilized society. I am honored to have been a small part of this family of creatives.”

Interestingly, The Bear came up in a March interview with Extra, where Curtis coyly said she “might like it a lot” and said Ayo Edebiri was on her “wishlist” of people to see at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. The pair even got to hug on the red carpet! It’s not clear if Curtis’ appearances were filmed before or after the interview — but in hindsight, it certainly seems like she might have been keeping a very fun secret about her involvement with the show.