[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Bear Season 4.]

The Bear‘s fourth season is serving up some seriously tasty plotlines, but none so much as the evolution of Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) and Richie’s (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) dynamic.

The pair has come a long way from where they started, which was pretty much at each other’s throats when viewers first met them in Season 1. And now, for fans who have finished Season 4, they have seen Sydney request that Richie be added to the restaurant agreement paperwork, making him part-owner alongside Syd and Natalie (Abby Elliott), as Carmy plans to step back from his head chef duties.

While we grapple with the weight of Carmy’s choice, it must be acknowledged that no matter where you sit on the current plotlines of The Bear, one of the show’s most satisfying story arcs has been the growth between Sydney and Richie. Admittedly, I formerly believed the show may use their love-hate dynamic to explore a potential (and certainly controversial) romance, but I like the path the series is currently sending them down even more.

Before The Bear, the restaurant was The Beef, and Richie’s hostility towards Sydney came from his hesitancy towards change in the wake of losing his best friend, Mikey (Jon Bernthal). When Carmy returned to Chicago so he could take over the establishment his brother previously ran, he and Richie also butted heads in their grief, but as Sydney worked to implement Carmy’s fine-dining ways in The Beef’s kitchen, Richie wasn’t having it.

Things came to an extreme head in Season 1’s episode, “Review,” when an online ordering system is tested. After an unexpected review for the restaurant blows up, Sydney, Carmy, and Richie are left in chaos. The intensity reaches fiery levels when Sydney and Richie get into a screaming match, with him blaming her for the stress in the kitchen and her calling him a loser, which she says, “Your daughter probably knows it, poor f**king girl.”

That over-the-line moment pushes Richie to get in Sydney’s face, and she ultimately holds a knife up to him and eventually stabs him accidentally in the kitchen. These characters have come so far from where we originally met them, and it’s genuinely beautiful to watch.

We got a taste of their evolving relationship in Season 3 as they became more in-tuned with one another’s working styles, especially after Richie’s self-improvement arc. And while Sydney and Carmy have been the main duo at the heart of this series since it started, Sydney’s dynamic with Richie is much smoother by comparison.

Both of them have the same goal, which is to deliver the best service they possibly can for their guests, and their non-negotiables are far less strict than Carmy’s. They’ve found a kind of harmony that would have been nearly impossible to believe when thinking of their Season 1 dynamic.

FX

Sydney and Richie proved to be even stronger in Season 4 as friends when he invites her to be his plus-one to ex-wife Tiffany’s (Gillian Jacobs) wedding to Frank (Josh Hartnett). He panics about walking into the event, and she does her best to calm him down, and continues to do so as they wander the halls of the venue. When they spot a photo of Richie’s daughter with Tiffany and Frank, he wonders if there’s a reason he shouldn’t be bummed out about the trio’s closeness without him. “That seems like a real happy kid,” Sydney tells Richie.

Richie’s resulting smile seems to say it’s exactly what he needed to hear, which only adds to their strengthening bond. That bond resurfaces in Season 4’s finale when Sydney is blindsided by Carmy’s plan to step away from the restaurant, as he plans to leave it under Sydney and Natalie’s ownership with Jimmy (Oliver Platt) holding half of the shares for himself.

Sydney insists that Richie be added to her and Natalie’s half sans Carmy, and initially, he’s reluctant. “I appreciate the gesture, but… this is my home. I’m not going anywhere,” he tells Sydney and Carmy.

In response, Sydney says, “Who the f**k has time for gestures?” And as Richie considers this very real offer, after reassurances from her and Carmy, he agrees.

Reaching over to Sydney he says, “F**k yes, Chef Sydney. It is a f**king honor.” The emotional exchange conveys the depth of their friendship, which has reached a point so far beyond expectation, I am dying to see what could be next for the pair should we get a glimpse of The Bear kitchen with them at the helm.

Do you agree that their arc has been the show’s most satisfying so far? Sound off in the comments section.

FX’s The Bear, Seasons 1-4, Streaming now, Hulu