FX dropped a surprise hourlong episode of its critically-acclaimed series The Bear earlier this week, and it shows us once again how good the show can be when it focuses on one or two characters at a time, especially when it takes them out of the frazzled restaurant environment of The Bear, the show’s main setting.

And even more importantly, especially when main character Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), whom his family calls “Bear,” is either relegated to the story’s back burner or left on the shelf entirely.

It’s not exactly because Carmy as a character is insufferable I mean, he is, but the show takes great pains to show us why he’s his own worst enemy. It’s more that there is no joy to be had when Carmy is the main focus of the episode.

Any fan of the show, when compiling a list of the top episodes, would probably come up with a list of stellar character studies that put Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Carmy’s cousin, or Marcus (Lionel Boyce), or even Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) in the spotlight, rather than any of the ones where Carmy is self-destructing.

In “Honeydew,” arguably one of the series’ two best entries, Marcus goes to Denmark to study the art of making desserts with Chef Luca, played by Will Poulter, who recurs on the series. Full of quiet moments, it’s a revelatory episode that turns one of the show’s background players into one of the most interesting characters. Out of the chaos of The Bear’s crowded back-of-house setting, Marcus has a chance to really shine, and truly endears himself to the audience.

In the other contender for top two, “Forks,” Richie goes to work in another kitchen just before The Bear’s transformation from sandwich joint to fine dining, to see how service works in an upscale restaurant. Richie finds his calling in table service, and that blossoming of his talent affects not only his work but his entire personality. In the best possible way, it affects his character for the rest of the series.

In “Gary,” a prequel set before the restaurant The Bear exists, we see the old Richie, boisterous, impulsive, talkative, (and also still happily married to his one-day ex-wife Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), who is about to give birth to their daughter. He and his cousin Mikey, Carmy’s brother (Jon Bernthal) take a road trip to Gary, Indiana, to deliver a mystery box to a mystery person.

By the first episode of The Bear, Mikey has committed suicide, an event which spurs Carmy to take over the family restaurant and thus leading to everything else that happens throughout the series. Bernthal as Mikey appeared in a few flashback episodes, but this is the first time we really get to see who he really is.

“Gary,” written by Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach, puts us in the car with the cousins, and the two fight, make up, get competitive, get drunk, have fun, but then things eventually get nasty. In one pivotal scene, Richie makes a bunch of new drinking friends in a neighborhood bar. Mikey, seeing Richie having a great time, goes into the bathroom and gets high with a woman he met at the bar (Marin Ireland).

Afterward he tears into Richie, attempting to humiliate him in front of his new friends. It’s incredibly hard to watch, but no matter how much mud Mikey tries to sling at Richie, he only sullies himself.

“Gary” doesn’t really feel like an episode of The Bear, but it is time spent with a favorite character (Richie) out of the restaurant and – importantly – away from the always-sullen Carmy, and that’s enough to put it head and shoulders above most of season 4.

“Gary” is streaming now on Hulu.