The Bear's Abby Elliott Explains The 'Beautiful Peace' Natalie Found In The Final Season, Reveals Her Favorite Episodes

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Season 5 of "The Bear." 

Abby Elliott doesn't want to say goodbye to "The Bear" any more than you do.

Hulu's Emmy-winning kitchen dramedy signed off last week after five seasons — read our finale recap here — and Elliott, who plays Carmy's sister and restaurant manager Natalie, tells TVLine that while "we knew for a long time that this was the final season," that didn't make it any easier to walk away. "I mean, if it were up to me, it would not end, ever. I think these characters, we've watched them evolve in a way that is just so beautiful and true to life, and human, and subtle."  

In fact, she's still conjuring up new scenes for Natalie: "I fantasize about where Natalie is all the time in my head. I text Jamie Lee Curtis [who plays Natalie's mom Donna], and I'm like, 'Natalie and Donna are making chicken picatta tonight. They are together, hanging out, listening to the Ronettes with Sophie in the kitchen, and dancing.' So in my head, they're still there. They're real."

The fifth and final season of "The Bear," most of which takes place in one night, sees the staff all pitch in when the restaurant gets crushed by a massive influx of diners, and even Natalie had to put on an apron in the kitchen. Shooting the final season "was a very emotional ride," Abby Elliott recalls: "One thing I was really grateful for is that we got to spend a lot of time together. There's a lot of teamwork this season, and I think that helps, because we were together all the time." She adds that "I hadn't really been cooking in the kitchen before this season," and she was learning just as her character Natalie was: "Jeremy [Allen White, who plays Carmy] was teaching me how to plate something for real, as Carmy's teaching Natalie."

Natalie also had to face her fears by handing over her baby daughter Sophie to her erratic mother Donna to babysit while she went to work. (She listened in on them using a AirPod, but eventually put it away after getting emotional while hearing Donna read a bedtime story to Sophie.) Elliott points out that "it's unrealistic to say" that Natalie and Donna have completely mended fences, "but it is this catharsis, right? It is this moment of, 'I know she's not going to do this. Why am I like this? I know she's not going to do anything weird. Why is this voice in my head?'" 

She could relate to Natalie's struggles as a mother herself, she notes. (Elliott has two children with husband Bill Kennedy.) "I get that as a new mom, going back to work, and not wanting to leave your kid with a sitter, wanting to leave them with a grandparent or someone that loves them," she says. "That's such a real feeling, even though they're not perfect, and I think that's something that Natalie is going to have to deal with her whole life. But in that moment, there was beautiful peace."

If "The Bear" felt like a family on TV, they felt like one off-camera, too. "Just saying goodbye to everybody was intense," Abby Elliott admits as she reflects on filming the final season. "The whole time, we were milking dinners out. You know, 'This is one last dinner before this person wraps, and we got to do another one before this person wraps,' and so on. There's a tour of Chicago restaurants that we did... I mean, we're gonna hopefully be in each other's lives forever."

Looking back, Elliott does have a few favorite episodes of "The Bear" that stand out. "The birthing episode [aka Season 3's 'Ice Chips'] was such a gift. To be able to do that, to work with Jamie [Lee Curtis] in that way, and to learn from her. That was my favorite to do. But also, I love when everybody's together. [Season 2's] 'Fishes' sticks out, the dinner scene. I wouldn't say it was the most fun to do, but it sticks out, like, 'Oh, this was like a really special moment where we were all there, and we all experienced it together.' We'll always have 'Fishes.'"

Let us know what you thought of the final season of "The Bear" — and name your favorite episodes — in a comment below.