bear

Writer Alex O’Keefe, whom police detained last month in a viral seating dispute on a New York City train, is off the hook for alleged disorderly conduct.

A New York City administrative judge dismissed a civil summons against former “The Bear” writer O’Keefe on Tuesday, ending its case against him. O’Keefe informed his Instagram followers that “the charges against me were dismissed” and “deemed by the judge facially insufficient.”

“That’s legal-ese for [‘BS’],” O’Keefe says in the video as he stands outside the courthouse. “They never had anything on me … they were trying to make an example of me.”

O’Keefe attorney Lindsay Lewis said in a Wednesday statement that the writer’s legal team “commends the Court for reaching the only just and correct result based on the law — a complete dismissal of the case.”

Last month, O’Keefe uploaded videos of the Sept. 18 incident to Instagram. He documented MTA police in New York placing him in handcuffs for alleged disorderly conduct. In the caption of his post, the speechwriter — who is Black — alleged that officials detained him on a train after an “old white woman” complained about how he was sitting. He claimed the woman took issue with the “one Black person on the train.”

The MTA Police Department confirmed it responded to a “report of a disorderly passenger” at the Fordham Metro-North station in the Bronx. A conductor reported that a 31-year-old passenger occupied two seats and “refused to remove his feet from one of the seats.”

Police accused O’Keefe of placing both his legs across an adjacent seat, violating the rail line’s rules. They also accused him of refusing police directions to exit the train onto the platform and to board a following train. O’Keefe delayed service “for several hundred other riders for six minutes,” police alleged, and was handcuffed and removed from the train.

In his Instagram post about the incident, O’Keefe alleged that a friend of the woman who scolded his manner of sitting told him, “You’re not the minority anymore.” He added that police “arrested” him without “even talking to the Karen who reported the one Black person on the train” and that only other Black passengers recorded the dispute.

Police refuted that and said O’Keefe “was not placed under arrest at any time” during the incident.

O’Keefe doubled down on his previous denials of wrongdoing in a statement shared Tuesday, writing, “I was harassed and detained for sitting while Black.

“Today, the court made a clear judgement: I did nothing illegal on September 18. Like millions of New Yorkers, I was going to work to earn a living and support my family,” he added. “Even though this absurd case was dismissed today, I will continue to defend the civil rights of every New Yorker. Every worker has a right to a safe commute.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Prime Minister of Malta Robert Abela spoke of the youngest victims of Israel’s war in Gaza who are given medical treatment in his country.

A hiker who was attacked by a bear — probably a grizzly — in Yellowstone National Park this week has been released from the hospital.

The 29-year old man had been hiking alone on the remote Turbid Lake Trail when he apparently surprised the bear, according to park officials. While trying to use bear spray, he sustained “significant but not life-threatening injuries to his chest and left arm,” according to officials.

National Park Service medics responded to the scene, and the victim was able to walk with them to the trailhead, where he was loaded into an ambulance and taken to a nearby clinic. From there, a helicopter flew him to a hospital. He was released Wednesday.

As is true in the rest of the U.S., bear attacks are exceedingly rare in Yellowstone. Since the park was established in 1872, eight people have been killed by bears, according to the park’s website. For comparison, 125 people have drowned and 23 have died from burns after falling into hot springs.

Even seeing a grizzly bear is pretty uncommon in the lower 48 states. Prior to 1800, they were much more common, with an estimated 50,000 roaming the American West. But European settlers viewed them as a mortal threat to people and livestock and hunted them to near extinction, reducing their number to less than 1,000 in the contiguous U.S.

Thanks to recovery and conservation efforts in recent decades, the population has increased to nearly 2,000, mostly in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Still, the specter of a bear attack, especially by a grizzly, is enough to make most hikers’ blood run cold. While experts tell backcountry travelers to stand their ground and fight back if attacked by a black bear, the standard advice for years has been to lie down and play dead in the face of a much larger, more aggressive grizzly.

That advice has been updated lately, but not by much. A national parks website providing guidance on what to do says, “If you surprise a grizzly/brown bear and it charges or attacks, do not fight back! Only fight back if the attack persists.”

The hiker who was attacked on Tuesday told park officials he thought it was a black bear, but the location, behavior and size of the bear made park staff suspect it might have been a grizzly.

Discovery of an animal carcass near the attack, and confirmation that bear tracks found nearby were left by a grizzly, support that conclusion.

The trail has been closed indefinitely and rangers swept the area to make sure there weren’t any other hikers in imminent danger.

As for the bear? Parks officials say it was probably surprised too and merely acting in self-defense. So the park, “will not be taking any management action against the bear.”

Last year, Jon Kyle Mohr faced a similar encounter with a black bear in California’s Yosemite National Park.

He was less than a mile from the end of a 50-mile ultra-run he had started 16 hours earlier in Mammoth Lakes when he saw a huge black shape charging at him.

In an instant, he said, he felt “some sharpness” on his shoulder followed by a powerful shove that sent him stumbling in the dark. When he turned around, people about a hundred feet away were shining their headlamps in his direction and shouting, “Bear!”

It worked. The bear disappeared into the darkness and Mohr was left with torn clothes and a few scratches, but no more serious damage.

Asked how he felt about the experience, Mohr said he was incredibly shaken at first, and lucky it had happened near the Vernal Falls trailhead, one of the most populated places in the park.

But after a day or two to reflect, he had settled into a more zen frame of mind.

“It was just a really strange, random collision,” he said. “If I had rested my feet for 20 seconds longer at any point,” during the 16-hour run, “it wouldn’t have happened.”

Sept. 17 (UPI) — A man suffered serious injuries after being attacked by a bear Tuesday while hiking by himself in Yellowstone National Park.

The attack occurred while the man was hiking Turbid Lake Trail, which is located east of Yellowstone Lake, according to a press statement. Park officials have since closed the trail and are investigating the attack on the unidentified 29-year-old man.

The man deployed bear spray but still suffered “significant but non-life-threatening injuries to his chest and left arm,” the statement said. Park medics responded to the incident and walked out with the hiker, who was transported to Lake Medical Clinic and later flown to a hospital.

The hiker thought the bear was a black bear, but park officials suspect it was a grizzly bear considering its size and behavior, according to the statement. Bear management staff plan to attempt DNA analysis to confirm the species.

“Because this incident was a defensive reaction by the bear during a surprise encounter, the park will not be taking any management action against the bear,” the statement said.

The park occasionally sees visitors injured by wildlife. A Florida man was gored by a bison in May after getting too close to the animal.

Elsewhere, a hiker in Japan was found dead over the summer from a brown bear attack while hiking in the country’s rugged Hokkaido region. In Canada’s western province of British Columbia, a man was severely injured during a grizzly bear attack.

However, bear attacks remain vanishingly rare. A 2019 article published in Nature found there are about 40 brown bear attacks per year globally, about a dozen of which occur in North America. Yellowstone is home to more dangerous grizzly bears. But a 2022 paper found that the per capita risk of being killed by a grizzly bear while visiting the park was one out of every 26.2 million park visitors.

Yellowstone National Park saw its busiest May on record with more than 566,000 recreational visits that month.

Despite so many people flocking to the park’s roughly 3,500 square miles, the attack on Tuesday is the first time a bear has injured someone in Yellowstone in years, according to the press release. The last time a bear injured someone was in 2021 when a solo hiker was attacked by a grizzly bear.

Television’s biggest night is here and with it comes some of the best red carpet fashion of awards season.

This year’s Emmy-nominated stars include the always stylish Kristen Bell (“Nobody Wants This”), Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”), Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”), Keri Russell (“The Diplomat”), Carrie Coon (“The White Lotus”), Cate Blanchett (“Disclaimer”) and Michelle Williams (“Dying for Sex”). Meanwhile, Adam Brody (“Nobody Wants This”), Jeremy Allen White (“The Bear”), Colman Domingo (“The Four Seasons”), Bowen Yang (“Saturday Night Live”), Sterling K. Brown (“Paradise”), Pedro Pascal (“The Last of Us”) and Javier Bardem (“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”) are among the men who are sure to impress. Here’s hoping that host Nate Bargatze dresses as George Washington at one point in the night to revive his hit “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Washington’s Dream.” Hollywood (and red carpet) veterans Kathy Bates, Jean Smart, Catherine O’Hara, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Harrison Ford, Martin Short and Gary Oldman may school them all on sartorial taste.

The 77th Emmy Awards will be broadcast from the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live at 5 p.m. Pacific on CBS. Apple TV+’s “Severance” leads all nominees this year with 27, followed by HBO’s “The Penguin” with 24.

Here are the best looks from the 2025 Emmys, updating live:

Taylor Dearden

Taylor Dearden steps out of “The Pitt” and on the red carpet.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Jackie Tohn

Jackie Tohn wows at the Emmys.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor

Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor are back in black at the Emmys.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Jeannie Mai

Jeannie Mai hits the Emmys red carpet.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Krys Marshall

“Paradise” actor Krys Marshall stuns in a strapless Sebastian Gunawan gown.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Walton Goggins and Nadia Conners

Walton Goggins and his wife Nadia Conners share a sweet moment on the red carpet.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Phaedra Parks

“The Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Phaedra Parks waves hello.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Zuri Hall

Zuri Hall stuns in a metallic burgundy dress.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Kit Hoover

“Access Hollywood” host Kit Hoover is effortlessly chic on the red carpet.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Haley Kalil

Social media influencer Haley Kalil is serving looks.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Derek Hough

Leave it to “Dancing With the Stars” judge Derek Hough to bust a move on the red carpet.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Justine Lupe

“Nobody Wants This” star Justine Lupe sparkles in Carolina Herrera on the Emmys carpet.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Shanina Shaik

Shanina Shaik looks chic in a black long sleeve Carolina Herrera gown.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Bresha Webb

Bresha Webb, one of the hosts of E!’s Emmys red carpet live show, arrives in style.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Aug. 15 (UPI) — A 26-year-old man was found dead on a mountain of Japan’s northernmost island on Friday, one day after the hiker was reported missing in a brown bear attack.

The body was found in eastern Hokkaido, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Police said rescuers found his shirt with bloodstains earlier in the day. Hokkaido, which is bordered by the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean, is the second largest, but least developed, of Japan’s four main islands.

The victim was identified as Sota Keisuke, a company employee from Tokyo’s Sumida Ward, NHK reported.

The man and a friend, also in his 20s, were descending the 5,450-foot-tall Mount Rausu on the Shiretoko Peninsula, when a bear approached.

The friend said the man was walking ahead of him.

“He was trying to fend off the bear but was dragged into the forest,” NHK quoted the man.

Fearing the bear dragged his friend away, he called the police.

Authorities then closed the trail.

Seventy-one people were airlifted out of the area.

A man’s body was found on Friday morning, and his identity was confirmed at 3:20 p.m.

Hunters searching for the man shot and killed three brown bears at 1 p.m. Friday in the area where the body was later found.

On Sunday, another hiker was followed by a bear. A 68-year-old climber from Shikoku said he encountered the bear while hiking down the mountain. He said he was about 16 feet from an adult bear with two cubs.

He said he retreated with other hikers, but the bears returned to the trail and followed them uphill. When they reached the entrance to the Osawa area, they disappeared.

“It was the first time I encountered a bear on a hiking trail,” said the man, who has climbed mountains in Japan and elsewhere, told The Asahi Shimbun. “Although they didn’t show any signs of attacking, I felt tense.”

Fifty-five people have been attacked by bears in Japan between April and July this year, according to the Environmental Ministry by the Japan Times.

Mount Rasau has a high population density of brown bears. The mountain was given World Heritage Status in 2005. The mountains straddle Rausu and Shari towns.

If people encounter a bear, the Hokkaido Prefectural Government advised them to slowly and quietly step backward.

“Don’t throw rocks or shout and run way since it may provoke the bear,” it said on its website.

The Guardian reported that experts said attacks increased last year because of the scarcity of acorns and other staples. In addition, bears have traveled farther because of development.

But incidents dropped in March as food became more plentiful

In April, the government allowed bears to be shot in urban areas.

Five Al Jazeera journalists, including correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, were killed in an Israeli strike on a press tent in Gaza. They had lived the story they told, from hunger and displacement to the relentless bombardment. As Israel plans to seize Gaza City, what will the world lose without the ears and eyes who bore witness from inside?

Every man, woman and child deserves only the best fan experience at the Rose Bowl.

Too few are getting it, leading to dwindling UCLA football attendance over the last decade-plus.

The sad phenomenon is only partly attributable to mediocre teams. In 2022, the Bruins got off to a 6-0 start, rising to No. 9 in the national rankings, and still averaged just 41,593 fans for home games over the season.

There’s an endless list of excuses for not making the drive to Pasadena. It’s too far. Traffic’s too bad. Games are too expensive. The weather’s too hot. The opponent is from the Sun Belt Conference. The Bruins are out of contention for anything meaningful. The game’s on a Friday. The game time wasn’t announced until less than a week before kickoff. The game starts too early. The game starts too late.

Since it’s not possible to move the stadium closer to campus or lower the temperature in August or September, we’re offering eight ways to make a day of Bruins football more enticing. Some of these suggestions might seem as realistic as moving the San Gabriel Mountains, but who ever imagined that UCLA would play in the Big Ten?

Give freebies: The best way to help fans stretch their entertainment dollar is to let them keep it.

Tickets are reasonably priced given they sometimes go for next to nothing on the secondary market and currently can be bought for as low as $43 for some games through UCLA, but how about offering free parking? Even if this is a cost the school has to subsidize, free parking would be a tremendous lure and goodwill gesture.

Students also should get in free. While student attendance has been robust since athletic director Martin Jarmond and his staff implemented several initiatives, it would make sense to have even more of the stadium packed with a segment of fans who tend to make the most noise and create the best atmosphere. It would also build lifelong loyalty and help pack the Rose Bowl with alumni in future seasons.

Eliminate six-day selection: Just tell us the kickoff times already. People need to plan their lives.

As of early August, the only home games with known kickoff times are the opener against Utah on Aug. 30, which starts at 8 p.m. (yikes), and a Friday game against New Mexico on Sept. 12 that starts at 7 p.m. (good luck getting to the Rose Bowl in weekday evening traffic).

The other four home games — against Penn State, Maryland, Nebraska and Washington — all come with the dreaded TBD tag.

The uncertainty is, of course, a function of television running the sports world, waiting for the best matchups to fill prime-time slots. Fox executives don’t want to miss out on possible surprises, such as undefeated Maryland coming to the Rose Bowl in mid-October to face nationally-ranked UCLA.

Some kickoff times will be announced once it becomes clear how good the Bruins are; others won’t be known until six days before the game. The indecisiveness hurts attendance given that many fans like to plan their schedules way more than a week in advance.

No more Friday night lights: This is something else that can be blamed on greedy TV execs and conference commissioners.

Fridays should be reserved for high school football, not college games that seem out of place. And the fans seem to agree.

Recent UCLA games played on Fridays haven’t generated big crowds. Even a showdown between unbeatens when the Bruins faced Washington in 2022 drew just 41,343.

When it comes to Friday college football games, just don’t do it.

Start every game in the afternoon or early evening: Nobody wants to be getting home from the Rose Bowl after midnight.

Games that start too late also miss one of the most glorious sites in college football: sunset over the San Gabriel Mountains.

Ideal kickoff times are early to mid-afternoon, which don’t make you set an alarm clock and allow you to get home in time to watch some game involving Hawaii or Boise State.

Bring in a live bear cub mascot: How much fun would it be to have a baby bear on the sideline at the Rose Bowl?

Imagine the possibilities involving “Fuzzy,” our preferred nickname. Snuggle with Fuzzy. Get your picture taken with Fuzzy. Put your fours up with Fuzzy.

Since we can feel the outrage from animal-rights activists, let’s point out that Colorado has a massive buffalo running onto the field at its home games and that UCLA once had its own live-bear mascots for games at the Coliseum into the early 1960s.

Attacked by a bear in 1932

(Los Angeles Times)

Fuzzy could probably only stick around for a season or two until he got too big and possibly tempted to chomp on someone (which actually happened in 1932). Then it would be time to introduce Fuzzy II.

Get the towel waver back on the sideline: In more than a century of UCLA football, Ed Kezirian holds the distinction of being the school’s only unbeaten coach.

OK, so he coached just one game, taking over for the Las Vegas Bowl in 2002 after the dismissal of Bob Toledo. But Kezirian is even more widely known for waving a white towel on the sideline to get players — and fans — juiced.

It was a tradition that started in 1994, coinciding with a missed Stanford field goal and a Bruins win, and formally ending in 2007 with Kezirian’s retirement as the football team’s director of academic services. It’s time to get those towels flapping again.

Wear more alternate uniforms: Fans love this stuff.

Need we remind you of all the uniform and helmet combinations at Oregon, where the Ducks sold out 110 consecutive games between 1999 and 2016?

Partnering with Nike and Jordan Brand means that there’s no shortage of cool (and marketable) possibilities for the Bruins when it comes to getting creative. Wearing all white uniforms or Gary Beban-era throwback blues once a season isn’t enough.

Bring back Geoffrey Strand on a limited basis:

Imagine the fourth quarter of a taut game, the Bruins needing to drive 75 yards for the go-ahead score against Penn State.

That would be the perfect time to unveil a secret, deafening weapon.

“All right, I need every man, woman and child on their feet!” Strand would yell through a microphone, triggering a huge roar.

The world’s oldest cheerleader hung up his tattered blue-and-yellow sweater and newsboy cap after the 2013 season, a year after he was briefly suspended for referencing the Taliban in cheers and allegedly using a golf cart without authorization.

But no one loves UCLA more, and no one could revitalize his alma mater quite like him.

Finding a new voice

Josh Lewin, UCLA’s lead radio announcer, has gone Hollywood.

Don’t worry, not in that way; he’s just taking a cue from his environment.

“This is L.A.” Lewin said, “and this is where creative things get made.”

Given an extended break in his schedule after calling his last Major League Baseball game in 2019, Lewin has pivoted to producing a series of soccer documentaries in his free time between the end of the Bruins men’s basketball season and the start of the football season.

His latest project, a series on Cambridge United Football Club’s attempt to extricate itself from hard times, will air its third and final segment Saturday on CBS Sports Network. It’s the sixth documentary that Lewin has produced, including others on English and American soccer.

“I’m building the airplane as I’m flying it — I mean, I never went to film school, never went to business school,” said Lewin, who earlier this year launched Josh Lewin Productions. “I really only trained to be a play-by-play guy and that’s been great, it’s made me a nice living and I love doing it, but this is just a really interesting way to learn how to connect with fans at kind of a deeper level.”

Lewin’s first project, “Five Dollar Derby,” pitted three American owners of English soccer teams against one another in a manner reminiscent of “Trading Places” — the owners placed a $5 bet among themselves to see who would fare the best. You can watch a trailer for “Five Dollar Derby” here.

When he started making documentaries, Lewin fully immersed himself in every aspect. He wrote, produced, directed, narrated and served as musical director — “everything but key grip,” he quipped — but has since ceded some of those duties to others with more experience to enhance the production quality.

“It’s been a really interesting side hustle, I guess you could call it,” Lewin said. “I’ve learned so much about soccer, England and filmmaking, three things that I really didn’t have on my plate before all this happened.”

After calling the Rams’ game against Dallas on Saturday at SoFi Stadium for Compass Media Network, Lewin will savor the airing of his soccer documentary before preparing to shift back into his usual work flow.

“That’s the perfect time to hit the pause button,” Lewin said, “because Bruins season begins exactly two weeks later and there are 19 new starters to learn about, so it’s time to shift back into Bruins mode.”

Olympic sport spotlight: Women’s soccer

UCLA women’s soccer coach Margueritte Aozasa gets water dumped on her after winning the Division I title in 2022.

(Eakin Howard / Getty Images)

Curt Cignetti, Indiana’s football coach, once said that he wins, just Google him.

Well, Margueritte Aozasa can top that.

She only wins championships, just check her assortment of trophies.

In her three seasons guiding UCLA’s women’s soccer team, Aozasa has won one NCAA championship and two conference titles, including a Big Ten tournament championship last season that made her team the first in UCLA history to take home a Big Ten title. The Bruins went on to reach the second round of the NCAA tournament.

UCLA should be back in contention for another national championship this season thanks in part to the return of skilled midfielder Emma Egizii and forward Lexi Wright, members of the 2022 national title team who were lost for much of last season because of injuries. Also returning are defender Nicki Fraser, the reigning Big Ten freshman of the year, and midfielder Val Vargas, who was a third-team all-conference selection a year ago.

Pulling it all together will be Aozasa, one of Jarmond’s best hires. Her team will be the first on campus to open the 2025-26 UCLA sports calendar when it travels to face Georgia in Athens, Ga., on Thursday.

Mount Rushmore results

Jonathan Ogden with his bust during the induction ceremony at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

(David Richard / Associated Press)

A mountain of a man might be the preeminent face of UCLA football.

Jonathan Ogden was the leading vote-getter in our Mount Rushmore of UCLA football survey, the 6-foot-9, 345-pound offensive tackle named on 282 of 417 ballots. The others who made the cut were coach Terry Donahue (named on 227 ballots) and quarterbacks Troy Aikman (191) and Gary Beban (182).

The next four were safety Kenny Easley (136), linebacker Jerry Robinson (100), coach Red Sanders (93) and halfback Jackie Robinson (82).

Others named on at least five ballots: Maurice Jones-Drew, DeShaun Foster, John Lee, Marcedes Lewis, Cade McNown, Jim Mora, Ken Norton Jr., Tommy Prothro, John Sciarra, JJ Stokes, Bob Toledo, Wendell Tyler and Dick Vermeil.

Opinion time

Which UCLA football player not named Nico Iamaleava will be the team’s most important in 2025? Is it offensive tackle Courtland Ford, part of an offensive line that must protect its new quarterback? How about running back Jaivian Thomas? Wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer? Defensive tackle Gary Smith III? Linebacker Isaiah Chisom?

You can vote in our survey here.

Remember when?

The last time UCLA faced Utah in a season opener, the Bruins featured a highly touted quarterback making his first start with the program.

Sound familiar?

It was 2006, and Ben Olson, who had not started a game since his senior year at Thousand Oaks High in 2001 after making a Mormon mission, lived up to the five-star hype in shredding the Utes for 318 yards and three touchdowns. You can watch highlights from the game here. UCLA went on to finish 7-6, the season highlight coming in a 13-9 upset of second-ranked USC at the Rose Bowl.

In case you missed it

No man of mystery, UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava dazzles at training camp

Bringing the juice, UCLA safety Key Lawrence infuses a new defense with passion

Have something Bruin?

Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on X @latbbolch. To order an autographed copy of my book, “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die,” send me an email. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Glacier National Park, Mont. — JOHAN looked up. Jenna was running toward him. She had yelled something, he wasn’t sure what. Then he saw it. The open mouth, the tongue, the teeth, the flattened ears. Jenna ran right past him, and it struck him — a flash of fur, two jumps, 400 pounds of lightning.

It was a grizzly, and it had him by his left thigh. His mind started racing — to Jenna, to the trip, to fighting, to escaping. The bear jerked him back and forth like a rag doll, but he remembered no pain, just disbelief. It bit into him again and again, its jaw like a sharp vise stopping at nothing until teeth hit bone. Then came the claws, rising like shiny knife blades, long and stark.

Classic stories from the Los Angeles Times’ 143-year archive

Johan and Jenna had been on the trail little more than an hour. They had just followed a series of switchbacks above Grinnell Lake and were on a narrow ledge cut into a cliff. It was an easy ascent, rocky and just slightly muddy from yesterday’s rain.

Johan took some pictures. Jenna pushed ahead. It was one of the most spectacular hikes they’d taken on this trip, a father-daughter getaway to celebrate her graduation from high school. There were some steps, a small outcropping, a blind turn, and there it was, the worst possibility: a surprised bear with two yearling cubs.

The bear kept pounding into him. He had to break away. To his right was the wall of the mountain, to his left a sheer drop. Slightly behind him, however, and 20 feet below the trail, a thimbleberry and alder patch grew on a small slope jutting from the cliff. As a boy growing up in Holland, Johan had roughhoused with his brother and had fallen into bushes. He knew it would hurt, but at least it wouldn’t kill him.

So like a linebacker hurtling for a tackle, he dived for that thimbleberry patch. The landing rattled him, but he was OK. His right eye was bleeding, but he didn’t have time to think about that. Jenna was now alone with the bear.

She had reached down to pick up the bear spray. The small red canister had fallen out of the side pocket of his day pack, and there it was, on the ground. But she couldn’t remove the safety clip, and the bear was coming at her again. She screamed.

“Jenna, come down here,” he yelled.

She never heard him. She was falling, arms and legs striking the rocky cliff, then nothing for seconds before she landed hard.

The bear did hear him, however. It looked over the cliff and pounced. Johan had never seen anything move so fast in his life. He tucked into a fetal position. The bear fell upon him, clawing and biting at his back. His day pack protected him, and his mind started racing again.

His daughter didn’t have a pack. He always carried the water and snacks. If the bear got to her, it’d tear her apart.

He turned, swung to his right and let himself go. Only this time there wasn’t a thimbleberry patch to break his fall. It was a straight drop to where Jenna had landed, and instead of taking the bear away from her, as he had hoped, he was taking the bear to her.

JOHAN Otter lived with his wife, Marilyn, and their two teenage daughters in a two-story home in a semirural neighborhood of Escondido, Calif. He worked as an administrator at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. He ran in marathons and bred exotic birds. He knew the love of his family, success at his job, good health. At 43, he had dreams of a long and happy life. But dreams are often upended. Johan knew this, and whenever possible, he tried to distance himself and his family from risk.

It was Aug. 25, 2005. Seven days earlier, Johan and Jenna had packed up the family pickup truck and driven north through Nevada and Utah. In September, she would begin her freshman year at UC Irvine. Hiking was their special bond. He was a runner, she was a dancer; they both were in good shape for the trail, and it wasn’t unusual for Marilyn and Stephanie, their younger daughter, to stay home.

Johan Otter, top photo at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park on Aug. 24, 2005. A day hike that he and his daugther Jenna took. “My last day with hair,” Otter said. Bottom photo shows Jenna Otter in of the last photos taken by Johan Otter before being attacked by a Grizzly bear on the Grinnell Glacier Trail in Glacier National Park, Montana.

(Jenna Otter)

Johan and Jenna checked into a motor lodge on the east side of Glacier. Johan was eager to experience the wildness of the park, and the first night he did. A black bear, just outside the lodge.

For millenniums, bears have lurked on the periphery of everyday life, dark shadows just beyond the firelight. On this continent, they have been our respected competition and greatest threat. Even though close encounters with bears, especially grizzlies, are rare, they trigger a conditioned response, a reflex of fear and flight that is seldom called upon in modern life. Sometimes we get away. Sometimes we can’t.

But most of all, bears inspire a deep fascination. Johan remembered how, as a boy, he would go with his family on vacations to Norway and how his parents, his brother and he had always wanted to see a bear. The curiosity never left him. Three years ago, during a trip to Canada with the family, he and Stephanie saw a cub. Marilyn and Jenna stayed back.

On this trip to Glacier, they had an ambitious hiking schedule, and they were disappointed when it rained their first full day. They contented themselves with driving to various sights. The next day was beautiful. The sun cut through scattered, misting clouds. Johan was eager to get out on the trail before anyone else. It was 7:30 a.m.

The path wound through a lush carpet of thimbleberry, beargrass and lilies growing beneath a mix of Engelmann spruce and Scotch pine. They skirted Lake Josephine, and in less than an hour, Johan and Jenna were above the tree line. Surrounding peaks were lightly dusted with snow. At one point Johan spotted a golden eagle trying to catch a thermal. They talked loudly, just as you’re supposed to do in bear country. Jenna was trying to figure out how she could be both a dancer and a doctor. He wondered if he’d be able to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

As they made their way along the southern flank of Mt. Grinnell, a glacier-carved cliff that rises nearly 3,500 vertical feet from the valley floor, they fell silent, lost in the sounds of the wind and the water, the beauty of the moment. Ahead of them were the Gem and Salamander glaciers. A ribbon of water cascaded into the forest below. A river flowed into the turquoise stillness of Grinnell Lake.

Penstemon, columbines and fireweed bloomed amid the low-lying alder scrub. They passed through Thunderbird Falls, a landmark on the trail where a stream often pours from the cliff above onto a platform of flat stones. Today it was only wet and slippery, but the drop-off was unforgiving.

(Doug Stevens / Los Angeles Times)

TEN minutes past the falls, they ran into the bear. In a matter of minutes, they had all tumbled 30 feet down a rocky V-shaped chute, landing on a ledge beneath the trail. Jenna had scrambled away, and the grizzly was on top of Johan.

The attack had just started, and it had been going on too long. He grabbed the bear by the fur on its throat. The feeling of the coarse hair, as on a dirty dog, was unforgettable, and for a moment the animal just stared at him, two amber-brown eyes, its snout straight in his face. It showed no emotion, no fear, no anger. There were just those eyes looking down at him.

Johan considered fighting. He reached to his left for a rock. A piece of shale, it crumbled in his fist. He tucked his knees to his chest and tried to cover his head.

The bear bit again and again on his right arm. So this is what it feels like to have your flesh torn, he thought, still trying to comprehend the attack. He tussled about, trying to avoid greater injury.

“Aaagh,” he screamed.

Now the bear was tugging on his back. It felt as if someone were jumping up and down on him, and he found himself growing angry. Throw it off the mountain. If only he could throw it off the mountain.

He felt a sharp pressure on the top of his neck and his head. The bear was biting into his skull, chewing into the bone. This could be it, he thought. This could be his death, and his right hand was useless. He could not push the bear away.

If only this were a movie or one of those old episodes of “Bonanza” he used to watch on TV. He’d be a stuntman, and they’d stop shooting any time.

But this was real. He’d die if he didn’t make another move, so he rolled and fell again, sliding 20 feet down the slope to a small ledge and then over that and onto a narrow shelf. Right foot, left foot. He landed on his feet. He was lucky he stopped. He wouldn’t have survived the next long straight drop.

He was silent. The bear stood above him, unable to reach him. It felt good to be left alone. Water flowed down his back. Cold water. He’d fallen into a small stream, runoff from yesterday’s rain.

Jenna heard the bear panting as it came closer to where she lay beneath the branches of a low-lying alder. She felt woozy from her fall. She had a knot on her head. Her back ached, and her ankle was bleeding.

She tried to stay tucked in, but when the bear got close to her face, she had to push it away. It nipped at the right corner of her mouth, at her hair, her right shoulder. Each bite was quick, followed by a slight jostle.

Her screams split the morning silence like an ax.

Source: National Park Service. Graphics reporting by Thomas Curwen

(Thomas Suh Lauder/Los Angeles Times; Photo by Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

JOHAN pressed himself against the mountain. There was no room to sit or lie down. He heard Jenna, but he couldn’t do anything. He would remember the sound as the worst he had ever heard, and then there was nothing. All was still.

He was wet and dirty, soaked with blood and starting to shiver. The attack had lasted at most 15 minutes. He looked at his right arm and saw exposed tendons. His medical training as a physical therapist told him no major nerves or arteries had been cut. They can sew that together, he thought, and that, and that.

Then he touched the top of his head and felt only bone. He stopped exploring. It was enough to know that his scalp had been torn off. His neck hurt. He wondered if something was broken.

He couldn’t see out of his right eye. He reached up. It was full of blood and caked over. Was his eyeball hanging out? No, it was still in place. He carefully parted his eyelids. The sweet turquoise stillness of Grinnell Lake shimmered nearly 1,500 feet below him. He could see. He was relieved.

“Jenna,” he eventually called out.

“Dad.”

She had played dead, and the bear had moved on. She assessed her injuries. A bite on her shoulder as deep as a knuckle. Lower lip torn down to her chin. Hair caked with blood.

Her father’s voice was the best sound she’d ever heard.

“Are you OK?” he asked.

“I’m OK. How are you?”

“I’m bleeding a lot.” He thought of his own injuries and of his daughter’s appearance. “How’s your face? Did it get you?”

“Just my mouth.”

“And your eyes?”

“They’re fine.”

He could tell by the sound of her voice that she was OK. Thank you, God.

He gazed up into the sky above Mt. Gould on the far side of the valley. He thought of the people he knew who were dead. His mother and father. Thank you, Mom, and thank you, Dad, for being an energy that he could draw on. Somehow it made him less afraid.

And thank you, Sophie. She was a patient of his, an 80-year-old woman who had died last year. They had grown close as Johan worked with her. She would complain — I’m going to die, she’d say — and he’d tell her to be quiet. You’re not going to die, Sophie. And to think he nearly had.

And thank you, Steve, his father-in-law, Marilyn’s dad, who had become his own dad in a way.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Then he called back to Jenna. “It got me kind of bad.”

It was the only time he told her how he felt. After that, he turned stoic. No complaining. No despairing. He knew his dad would have reacted the same way. He chalked it up to being Dutch: You take care of yourself and your children. Jenna would do the same.

Together, unprompted, they began to call out.

“Helllp.”

“Helllp.”

GLACIER National Park straddles the Continental Divide. Popularly thought of as North America’s Switzerland, famous for its snowy peaks, alpine meadows, rivers and lakes, the park attracts nearly 2 million visitors each year. On the east side of the park, the Grinnell Glacier Trail is one of the most popular day hikes.

“Helllp.”

Johan knew he couldn’t stand here much longer. He took off his day pack and camcorder. His digital camera was gone, lost in the chaos. He pulled a jacket out of his pack and put the hood over his head. The night before, he’d read a book about bear attacks: how a woman in Alaska had stopped the bleeding of her scalp by covering her head. He also thought it might be easier on Jenna or anyone else who might happen to see him.

He wanted to climb to the ledge above. He didn’t know how he’d carry his pack and camcorder. Then it came to him, what they say on airplanes. Leave your luggage and take care of yourself. It made sense. He clambered and crawled off the narrow shelf and up to the ledge. He felt dizzy, so he sat down.

Johan and Jenna alternated their calls. Jenna had decided to stay where she was. She too was dizzy and uncertain of her injuries. Perched on the side of the mountain, about 75 feet apart, they looked down into the valley. Their cries disappeared in the vast open space. It was windy and cold, and the quiet seemed unreal after the intensity of the attack.

“Helllp.”

Then Jenna called out. “Dad, the boat just got to the dock. I see people getting off.” It was a water taxi that ran a regular service across Lake Josephine.

Johan knew that with the arrival of the boat, hikers would soon be streaming along the trail and their shouts would be heard. He was tired. He stopped yelling and tried not to think about how badly injured he was. Nothing a little surgery can’t fix, he told himself. Besides, he was alive, and his daughter was fine.

Amid the isolation and the cold, he grew sore and stiff and numb. Lying down, sitting up, nothing helped. Forty-five minutes later, he heard Jenna talking with someone. She called to him. “Dad, there are people here now. They’re getting help.”

Still it seemed like forever. Then Johan saw a man cutting through the bushes and sliding down toward him. The man’s eyes were wide open. The expression said everything.

“Are you OK?” the man asked.

“Do you see a camera?” Johan replied.

Jim Knapp was surprised by the question, but very little was making sense.

Knapp and his wife had started their hike that morning a little past 8, well ahead of the water taxi. After an hour on the trail, they heard what sounded like a coyote or a hawk or some animal being attacked. Then there was more, and it sounded human. They started running. Someone must have fallen or sprained an ankle.

Knapp told Johan he would look for the camera, but his attention was focused on the injured man before him. It was the most gruesome sight he had ever seen.

Blood covered Johan’s face. His arms and legs oozed blood. His voice and sentences were jerky and repetitive. He reminded Knapp of Dustin Hoffman in “Rainman,” and with his sweat shirt pulled up over his head, he looked like Beavis in an episode of “Beavis and Butthead.”

“Jenna’s OK,” Knapp said, as he began to get a sense of Johan’s injuries. He noticed the day pack — but no camera — on the shelf beneath them, and he climbed down to retrieve it. Inside were a sweat shirt and four water bottles. He covered Johan and tried to make him drink. He took off his T-shirt and wrapped it around a deep gash on Johan’s leg. He laid out some nuts and a granola bar and took some water up to Jenna.

Then Johan saw a girl. She was sliding down to him. Her name was Kari.

Kari Schweigert and Heidi Reindl had been car-camping in Glacier. They were just starting on an 11-mile hike when they ran into Jim Knapp’s wife, running down the trail, screaming for help.

Then there were two teenage boys. Johan couldn’t keep track of everyone, but one of the boys — the one who wore a beanie — did get his camera. It was the camcorder, and Johan was glad to see it. He was also glad that people were finally getting there, but he felt bad for them. He knew stumbling upon a bear attack — and finding him as bloody as he was — couldn’t be easy for them. A fall or a sprain, sure, but a bear attack? He tried to tell himself that it would be OK. He tried to console himself. If he and Jenna had not been attacked, then these other hikers would have.

What can we do, everyone asked. How can we help?

The rock at the back of his head felt like it was digging into his skull. He squirmed about. He wanted them to help him sit up, but they didn’t want to. They were worried about his neck.

Then he’d have to do it himself. He simply wanted to sit up, have a drink of water and then maybe lie down again.

But he was fading.

Grinnell Glacier at Glacier National Park

(Ryan Herron/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

VOICES told him that help was on the way, only he was losing interest. He didn’t want to deal with any of this anymore. It was all too much: wondering how they’d get him and Jenna off the mountain; wanting to be cleaned up from the dirt and sticky blood; saddened that their trip was ending this way.

Kari Schweigert sat beside him, talking. Her curly hair was tied back in a ponytail. She was in a tank top; Johan was wearing her jacket. He was shaking and numb with cold.

“How are you doing?” she asked.

“The pain is OK,” he said. “I’d just like to take a nap.”

Then she started to move in closer to him. She knew he was cold. She said she wanted to warm him up. She angled around him and covered his abdomen and chest with her body, her legs off to a side.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked. He didn’t want her to get covered with blood; it would be impossible to wash out.

She couldn’t cover him completely, but she did shield him from the wind. It was a moment he would never forget. How strange, he thought, to be hiking along on this trail one moment, thinking about running in a marathon, and then suddenly not being able to walk, being so dependent upon strangers, and now this girl so close to him, so tender and different from the savagery of the attack.

His mind kept going back to Jenna. Everyone told him that she was not as badly injured as he was. He felt guilty. Why had he wanted to go hiking here? Why wasn’t he a better parent?

Schweigert kept talking to him. She told him not to fall asleep. It made sense. He knew he’d lost a lot of blood, and he knew he was in shock. The wash of voices and movement of people around him, once reassuring, began to blur.

A park ranger and a dozen hikers were on the trail above them. The ranger radioed a report on Johan and Jenna’s status to the ranger station at Many Glacier, where an incident commander was assembling a rescue team.

A few of the hikers peered over the edge.

“Do you need anything?” they yelled.

“More jackets.”

Someone tucked one under Johan’s head.

His neck felt broken.

“WHAT’S your name?”

“Johan Otter.”

“Where are you?”

“Glacier National Park.”

“What time of day is it?”

“Late morning.”

“What happened?”

“Bear attack….”

The name badge said Katie. She wore the green and gray uniform of the park service. She had slid down the slope, balancing a medical kit and a shotgun in her hands, and once she determined that he was alert and oriented, she started dressing his wounds.

Katie Fullerton had pulled into the Many Glacier parking lot expecting just another summer day. Then she heard about the attack. She and another ranger were ordered to get to Johan and Jenna as soon as possible. Since opening in 1910, Glacier National Park has had only 10 bear fatalities, and they were enough.

The incident commander at Many Glacier had put a call out for additional rangers, some stationed on the west side of the park, 70 miles — a two-hour drive — away. A helicopter, chartered from Minuteman Aviation, would ferry those rangers to the site of the attack and would be used to shuttle equipment and personnel up to the mountain.

Whup, whup, whup.

Katie Fullerton looked up. At 9,000 feet, the white chopper had negotiated a U-shaped notch in the Garden Wall, a narrow filigree of stone crowning the Continental Divide. As it drew close, it circled, looking for a place to land. Johan and Jenna Otter could not have fallen in a less accessible place.

Three hours had passed since the attack, and Johan’s metabolism was slowing down. The blast of adrenaline triggered by the attack was long gone; the 15-minute torrent of thought and reaction had dissipated in a miasma of pain, discomfort and boredom. Why was the rescue taking so long?

Crashing mentally and emotionally, he knew he needed to stay warm and awake. Gusts of wind ghosted along the cliff; temperatures shot from warm to freezing as clouds drifted beneath the sun. Hikers on the trail were tossing down energy bars, water and more outerwear. A ranger was talking on the radio.

A second ranger crouched beside Johan. He had arrived with nearly 50 pounds of gear, including a life-support pack with IV fluids, medications and an oxygen tank, and he began cutting away Johan’s jackets and clothing. He introduced himself as Gary, Gary Moses. Johan appreciated his calm and confident manner.

Moses explained that the plan was to place Johan and Jenna on litters, have them lifted up to the trail and then carried down to a landing zone, where the chopper would take them to the Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Kalispell, Mont., in the Flathead Valley on the west side of the park.

Rangers on the trail set up a belaying system. They knew they had to move fast. Moses took Johan’s vitals. His blood pressure was 80 over 30, his pulse 44, his temperature dropping.

Moses prepared an IV line. Johan tried to lie still, but he was shivering uncontrollably. Then he heard something. It was Katie Fullerton; she was crying. The sound startled him at first.

“Do you want to stand down?” Moses asked his fellow ranger.

She shook her head.

Johan was glad. She had worked hard to make him comfortable and safe.

This was her first season as a patrol ranger, her first major trauma. Just last year, she’d been collecting user fees, and she had grown up near the park. She and her family had hiked these trails. This could just as easily have been her father.

Her tears reminded Johan how grave his situation was.

THE helicopter was making a second landing, and all Johan could think was: Hurry up. A second medic had joined Moses and Fullerton.

“How’s Jenna?” It was his steady refrain.

“There’re people with her.”

Moses and the other medic put a C-collar around Johan’s neck and got ready to insert a urinary catheter. Johan reminded them about a scene in “Seinfeld” in which an embarrassed George Costanza is caught naked and complains about “shrinkage.” They burst out laughing, and Johan relaxed a little. This is who he was: not just a bloodied man but someone always there with an easy line, ready to lighten the mood, to give to others.

Moses reassessed the rescue plan. It had taken nearly an hour to find a vein and get the IV started. Carrying Johan out, lifting him to the trail and then down to the helicopter landing zone was going to be too traumatic, and the afternoon was getting on.

He thought a helicopter could lift Johan directly off this ledge, in a rescue known as a short haul. It would be quicker but riskier. Still, he didn’t see any way around it. He radioed in his recommendation. The incident commander agreed. They called in the rescue helicopter operated by the hospital in Kalispell.

As they waited, Johan remembered an Air Force chopper that had crashed during a rescue on Mt. Hood little more than three years earlier. Everything — the foundering, the dipping, the rolling down the slope in a cascade of snow — had been televised on the evening news.

It made him nervous.

“Am I going to die?” Johan asked.

“You’re not going to die up here,” the second medic said.

RED against the blue sky and white clouds, the short-haul helicopter was easier to spot than the Minuteman.

“Hear that?” Gary Moses looked out over the valley. “That’s the sound of your rescue.”

Pilot Ken Justus adjusted the foot pedals and hand controls to bring the Bell 407 closer to the cliff. Travis Willcut, the flight nurse, sat next to him, calling out positions, monitoring radio traffic. Jerry Anderson, a medic, dangled 150 feet beneath them on a rope with a red Bauman Bag and a body board at his waist.

Piloting a helicopter at moments like this is like pedaling an exercise bike on the roof of a two-story building while trying to dangle a hot dog into the mouth of a jar on the ground. Lying on his back, Johan watched.

The IV had kicked in. Though stiff and still cold, he was wide awake and in no pain. Anticipation was everything, and he remembered feeling a little afraid. He hated roller coasters and worried about his stomach.

“You’ll have the best view of your life,” Moses said, hiding his worry. He knew getting Anderson in would be tricky. Because helicopters can’t cast sharply defined shadows on steep terrain, pilots flying short-haul missions have trouble judging closing speeds and distances.

Johan Otter is airlifted from the Grinnell Glacier Trail with medic Jerry Anderson, after being attacked by a grizzly bear and her two cubs in Glacier National Park, Montana on August 25, 2005. Johan tumbled down a steep chute about 75 feet where he almost died.

(Heidi Reindl)

Anderson, dangling at the end of the rope, had a radio in his helmet. He was using it to direct Justus lower and closer to Johan. Abruptly, the radio died.

“I’m at your 11 o’clock position, a mile out,” Moses broke in with his radio, once he understood the problem. “Half mile, 12 o’clock.”

“Do I need to come up or down?”

“Up about 10 feet.”

Then just as Justus got closer, he caught Anderson’s shadow on the ledge and set him down about 20 feet to the right of Johan. The other rangers shielded Johan from the rotor wash and dust.

Anderson unhooked himself. Justus moved the helicopter away. With the rangers’ help, Anderson slid the body board beneath Johan and strapped the Bauman Bag around him. He waved Justus back in.

“We’re ready to lift.”

“Roger, ready to lift.”

Johan couldn’t tell when he was off the ground. Dangling with Anderson beside him, 150 feet beneath the helicopter, all Johan would see was Anderson’s face, the blue sky and the belly of the chopper. The wind whistled around him.

“Woo hoo!” The hikers and rangers on the mountain started cheering and clapping.

With Johan and Anderson still beneath him, Justus accelerated down the valley to the helipad at Many Glacier. A waiting crowd was asked not to take pictures. Johan was transferred into an ambulance while Justus went back to pick up Jenna. Finally Johan was out of the wind and in a warm place.

Then he heard the news.

“Jenna is here,” someone said.

“Hi, sweetie,” he called out as they prepared to fly him to the medical center in Kalispell. With his head wrapped in bandages, mummy slits for his eyes and the C-collar on his neck, Johan couldn’t see her. “Make sure when they call Mom that you talk to her.”

He knew he wouldn’t be the one making that call.

“Otherwise she’ll totally freak out,” he said.

About this article

The accounts in this article are drawn from interviews over a span of 18 months with Johan, Marilyn and Jenna Otter. Additional interviews were conducted with the following individuals:

National Park Service: Jan Cauthorn-Page, Katie Fullerton, Rachel Jenkins, Kathy Krisko, Gary Moses, Rick Mulligan, Melissa Wilson, Amy Vanderbilt and Andrew Winslow.

Hikers on the Grinnell Trail: Julie Aitchison, Colin Aitchison, Kathleen MacDonald, Jim Knapp, Marla Moore, Robin Malone and Heidi Reindl.

Minuteman Aviation: Jerry Mamuzich.

Kalispell Regional Medical Center’s Advanced Life Support and Emergency Rescue Team (ALERT helicopter): Jerry Anderson, Addison Clark, Ken Justus, Travis Willcut, Patricia Harmon and Keith Hannon.

Additional reporting came from the National Park Service’s investigation report concerning the attack.

July 28 (UPI) — A man was hospitalized in Canada’s western province of British Columbia following a bear attack over the weekend, officials said.

The man had sustained “significant injuries” and underwent surgery at a hospital in Cranbrook, a city located about 523 miles east of Vancouver, the province’s Conservation Officer Service said in a statement Sunday.

According to officials, the man and his wife were riding e-bikes along the Kootenay River near West Creston when, at about 4:30 p.m. PDT Saturday, the wife heard her husband scream and saw a grizzly bear running toward her.

“She used bear spray and then noticed a second grizzly bear attacking her husband. She again used bear spray and both bears ran off,” it said.

Emergency crews were then called to the scene, and the man was transported to the hospital.

Though both COS personnel and Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers swept the area, no bears were located, it said.

“Three major trails in the area were closed off and signage installed. Traps were se last night. No bears were captured overnight,” it added.

When Eric Bana is not filming, he’s more than likely riding a motorcycle in a remote part of Australia. He’s been doing it since he was a kid, having grown up in a semi-industrial part of the suburbs of Melbourne on the verge of farmland. Now, it’s his solace on days off.

“It’s a vulnerable feeling, it’s an exciting feeling,” he says on a video call. “You have to be self-sufficient. You have to think worst-case scenario. What happens if I get a flat tire when it’s 120 degrees and there’s no water around? It keeps you awake.”

So when, back in 2019, Bana was given the pilot script for the Netflix limited series “Untamed,” he was immediately attracted. He would play the role of Kyle Turner, an agent in the Investigative Services Branch of the National Park Service in Yosemite — essentially a park detective. It’s a murder mystery yet set against the kind of wilderness that Bana loves.

“I just felt a kinship for Kyle immediately,” he remembers. “I don’t know if it was just like the shared love for the outdoors and how that affects our psyche and our well-being, our sense of self, our emotional journey in life — I just immediately felt very strongly for Kyle.”

In “Untamed,” Eric Bana plays Kyle Turner, an agent in the Investigative Services Branch of the National Park Service. The show is set in Yosemite National Park, though it was filmed British Columbia.

(Ricardo Hubbs / Netflix)

Bana stuck with the project through the COVID pandemic and the Hollywood strikes, allowing the series created by Mark L. Smith of “American Primeval” and daughter Elle Smith to finally hit the streaming service on Thursday. The show finds Bana’s character investigating the death of a young woman who plummets off El Capitan and into two rock climbers. The case unexpectedly connects two other traumatic incidents that have happened in the mountainous wilds — at least one of which directly involves the taciturn Kyle, grieving the death of his young son.

“He exudes that kind of sensitivity and strength at the same time,” Elle Smith says. “It allowed him to just really embody Turner. Because he’s been living in this show for so long, so many years and kept it alive and has remained passionate about it, once we got into production, he was Turner.”

“Untamed” also marks the latest in Bana’s unconventional career that has seen him touch nearly every corner of the Hollywood machine, even though he has always chosen to live in Australia when he’s not working. It never made sense for him to move to Los Angeles when many of his shoots were overseas anyway. When we chat, he’s briefly in town for “Untamed” press.

Though he started his career as a comedian in his home country, he was part of the superhero craze before it was a craze, playing the title role in Ang Lee’s “Hulk,” a movie that’s now undergone a critical reassessment. He’s been a “Star Trek” villain and a Steven Spielberg protagonist in the historical drama “Munich.” (Over the past 12 months, more and more people have been bringing up the role of the Mossad agent tasked to respond to the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics: “With the passing of time, you realize how incredible some of the observations were,” he says.)

Though his career has touched nearly every corner of the Hollywood machine, Eric Bana has continued to live in Australia.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

More recently, he ventured into the world of television, playing the sociopathic John Meehan in the first season of the anthology series “Dirty John.” Bana says he tends not to think about specifically playing characters that contradict his previous work, but he understands that coming off that role probably was one of the reasons he gravitated toward Kyle in “Untamed.”

“There was no doubt that the character of John had a level of toxicity to him that was just so high,” he says, adding, “I realized that Kyle was a warmer character for the audience to follow than John.”

Before he actually got to play Kyle, he started a mini-franchise in Australia with producing partner and director Rob Connolly thanks to “The Dry” and its sequel, in which he plays another investigator reeling from a traumatic past.

For creator Mark Smith, Bana was the ideal person to embody Kyle because of his ability to convey a lot with very little dialogue.

“We felt like he was just so expressive in his eyes and his face,” Mark says. “He can do so much without saying anything, and that was crucial to this guy who really doesn’t want to speak — he doesn’t want to talk to people. He just wants to be kind of off on his own, doing his thing in the wilderness.”

Because Bana got on board early, the Smiths could start writing the rest of the scripts with him in mind. One of Bana’s requests: The more he could be on a horse, the better. In the show, Kyle eschews motor vehicles for a trusty steed, which gives him more access to the less traversed areas of the park. Bana ended up loving his horse.

“I desperately wanted to smuggle him on the plane and take him home,” he says.

Eric Bana and Lily Santiago are often seen on horseback in “Untamed.”

(Netflix)

Mark and Elle Smith conceived of the series after being sent articles about the National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch. They were not familiar with that world but were nonetheless fascinated by this strange profession that is part FBI agent and part park ranger. Bana had visited Yosemite years ago as a solo tourist but didn’t have the chance to go again before the shoot, which took place in British Columbia.

Still, he spoke to rangers and ISB employees to get a sense of “just how crazy” some of their work can be.

“When you mix drugs, when you mix people coming from all kinds of different backgrounds and having different entitlements to the places that they’re in, it’s really interesting,” he says.

Bana understands from personal experience that the attraction to the outdoors is partially based on the fact that danger is almost always lurking around the corner. In Australia, he adds, “there’s always something trying to get you, whether it be two-legged, four-legged, eight-legged or whatever.”

On the set of “Untamed,” he was incredibly eager to see a bear — and was disappointed when it never happened.

“We had a bear guy on set who was responsible for our and the bears’ safety,” he says. “We had very strict rules around food and all that sort of stuff. I was desperate, desperate to have an encounter with a bear of the positive kind, and I never saw one.”

Elle Smith confirms that most everyone else got to see a bear. “He had really bad bear luck,” she adds.

“We felt like he was just so expressive in his eyes and his face,” says “Untamed” creator Mark L. Smith.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

But even with his lack of bear sightings, Bana’s love of being outside was crucial for the entire production. Mark explains he’s not the kind of star who returns to his trailer, instead pulling up a chair to hang out.

“This was a tough landscape that we were shooting in,” Elle Smith adds. “I think it really helps in terms of tone setting if your movie star is willing to get out on the rock and do the climb. It really helps the crew also feel like they’re able to do the climb.”

Bana was intoxicated by his environment — so much so that he wouldn’t want to go back to the sterility of a soundstage.

“Going to work in a studio after doing something like this — the thought of it is just debilitating creatively,” he says. “There’s something about a camera coming out of a box when the sun rises and going back when the sun goes down. There’s an energy, there’s a cadence to that.”

For his follow-up, he went back into the elements for “Apex,” an upcoming film opposite Charlize Theron, where they play a pair of rock climbers. He says he did intense training in the skill or else he would have looked like a “fool.”

And just like how Bana is willing to let the weather dictate his shooting days, he is also patient with his career. It’s one of the reasons he was willing to wait for “Untamed.”

“I’ve been in this business for a period of time now where I realize you really do have to go with the ebbs and flows and you really do have to pace yourself, but at the same time when you find something that you love you just have to try and protect it,” he says.

It’s something you could also say about the natural world, and Bana hopes that “Untamed,” even with all its dark deeds and buried secrets, encourages audiences to go see for themselves.

“I hope people enjoy the feeling of being in that space, and in a perfect world, feel motivated to go and seek them out,” he says.

He certainly will be.

Emmy nominations arrive Tuesday, and there will be plenty of time for us to argue about who should win (let’s start with “The Pitt”) and why this could be the year (though probably not) that we’ll have a surprise or two when the trophies are handed out on Sept. 14.

In the meantime, if you love “Severance,” “The White Lotus,” “The Pitt,” “The Studio,” “Hacks” and “Adolescence,” you will find plenty of reasons to smile. These are the shows that are going to steamroll through the nominations. If you belong to the “What We Do in the Shadows” cult and want a tip of the hat for its final season, you’re probably in luck. And if your comic taste embraces the absurd, and you have complicated feelings about air travel, you might be disappointed that Nathan Fielder’s “The Rehearsal” is left out of comedy series, though Fielder could earn a nod for his direction. Attaboy, Captain!

Who else will be flying high when nominations are announced? Let’s take a look.

COMEDY SERIES
“Abbott Elementary”
“The Bear”
“Hacks”
“Nobody Wants This”
“Only Murders in the Building”
“Shrinking”
“The Studio”
“What We Do in the Shadows”

Possible surprise: “The Four Seasons”
Possible “snub”: “What We Do in the Shadows”

“The Bear” won 11 Emmys last year, the most wins ever for a comedy series in a single ceremony. But that record was lost on viewers when “Hacks” won the final Emmy of the evening, besting “The Bear” for comedy series. “The Bear” has been sliding with critics, going from a 92 rating on review aggregator Metacritic for its second season to an 80 for its third and a 73 for its just-released fourth season. Sometimes I wonder if the naysayers are taking the time to consider the whole picture and the patient, deliberate way “The Bear” shows the difficulties in breaking free from addiction and familial dysfunction.

Because the show’s new seasons arrive in June, there’s some overlap between what voters are watching (the latest episodes) and what they’re supposed to be voting for (the episodes that came out a year ago). The new season was exceptional, ending in a showcase for its primary actors and providing well-earned catharsis for their characters. I don’t know if “The Bear” will win any Emmys this year, but the nominations will still be plentiful — and deserved.

COMEDY ACTRESS
Kristen Bell, “Nobody Wants This”
Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”
Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”
Natasha Lyonne, “Poker Face”
Jean Smart, “Hacks”

Possible surprise: Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building”
Possible “snub”: Lyonne

As always, it’s an honor to be nominated. And in a category that includes Smart, a nomination will be as far as it goes for the four women joining her. Edebiri and Brunson are sure bets to return. Bell has never been nominated, though she was a delight on “The Good Place.” She should break through for “Nobody Wants This,” the most easily binged contender this Emmy season. But voters could go any number of ways here, opting for past Emmy favorites like Tina Fey (“The Four Seasons”), Kathryn Hahn (“Agatha All Along”) or Uzo Aduba (“The Residence”). Or they could re-up Gomez, who received her first acting nomination last year, or Lyonne, recognized two years ago for the first season of “Poker Face.”

COMEDY ACTOR
Adam Brody, “Nobody Wants This”
Seth Rogen, “The Studio”
Jason Segel, “Shrinking”
Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”
Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”

Possible surprise: Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”
Possible “snub”: Segel

As with comedy actress, this category has one less nominee slot this year, which could be bad news for veterans Martin and Ted Danson (“A Man on the Inside”). If Bell earns a nomination for lead actress, how could you leave out Brody? And if you laud Short, how do you neglect Martin? (That happened two years ago, when the field was five.) But if Emmy voters were paying attention — and that is, admittedly, a big if — they’d remember that it’s Martin who carried the emotional weight of the past season of “Only Murders,” his character grieving the guilt from the loss of his longtime stunt double and friend (played by Jane Lynch).

COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Liza Colón-Zayas, “The Bear”
Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”
Kathryn Hahn, “The Studio”
Janelle James, “Abbott Elementary”
Catherine O’Hara, “The Studio”
Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary”
Jessica Williams, “Shrinking”

Possible surprise: Megan Stalter, “Hacks”
Possible “snub”: Hahn

There’s more room in the supporting categories, which sport seven spots. That should be good news for Hahn, consistently the most delightful actor working in television today. She could well be a double nominee for her profane, force-of-nature marketing exec on “The Studio” and for her lead turn in the Marvel spinoff “Agatha All Along.” She could also somehow be shut out completely. (Let’s not go there.)

COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ike Barinholtz, “The Studio”
Paul Downs, “Hacks”
Harrison Ford, “Shrinking”
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”
Tyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary”
Michael Urie, “Shrinking”
Bowen Yang, “Saturday Night Live”

Possible surprise: Colman Domingo, “The Four Seasons”
Possible ”snub”: Urie

“The Four Seasons” was a bit of a snooze, but I was nudged awake every time Domingo came onscreen. Will older voters have a soft spot for this featherweight Gen X friends drama, or were they just watching to take notes on places to visit in upstate New York? Netflix campaigners excel at vacuuming up nominations, so it wouldn’t be surprising if “The Four Seasons” outperforms expectations.

DRAMA SERIES
“Andor”
“The Diplomat”
“The Last of Us”
“Paradise”
“The Pitt”
“Severance”
“Slow Horses”
“The White Lotus”

Possible surprise: “Squid Game”
Possible “snub”: “Paradise”

The first season of “Andor” earned 8 nominations and it could well surpass that for its second and final go-round, one that leaned into a pointed critique of authoritarianism, showing how easily a democracy can erode into fascism. The category’s last spot is a toss-up between the disappointing second season of “Squid Game,” which felt bloated even at just seven episodes, and “Paradise,” another dystopian drama, but a lot more fun, even with all the overwrought ’80s covers.

DRAMA ACTRESS
Kathy Bates, “Matlock”
Britt Lower, “Severance”
Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale”
Bella Ramsey, “The Last of Us”
Keri Russell, “The Diplomat”

No “snubs.” No surprises. These are the nominees. And jumping ahead, to answer your question: Yes, Kathy Bates has won an Emmy — two, in fact. If you saw her on “American Horror Story: Coven” somehow making a serial killer and slave abuser almost sympathetic, you know that particular Emmy was earned. And I’m not sure if she had more than two minutes of running time for the guest turn on “Two and a Half Men,” for which she won her first Emmy, but watching her spot-on imitation of Charlie Sheen as the ghost of Charlie Harper, I can’t argue with the choice.

DRAMA ACTOR
Sterling K. Brown, “Paradise”
Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”
Pedro Pascal, “The Last of Us”
Adam Scott, “Severance”
Noah Wyle, “The Pitt”

Again, no “snubs.” No surprises. Unless the nerds in the actors branch go all in for Diego Luna in “Andor.”

DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Carrie Coon, “The White Lotus”
Taylor Dearden, “The Pitt”
Allison Janney, “The Diplomat”
Katherine LaNasa, “The Pitt”
Parker Posey, “The White Lotus”
Natasha Rothwell, “The White Lotus”
Aimee Lou Wood, “The White Lotus”

Possible surprise: Leslie Bibb, “The White Lotus”
Possible “snub”: Dearden

“The White Lotus” snagged four nominations in this category for its second season, with Jennifer Coolidge winning. I’d expect the widely seen third season to at least equal that and possibly exceed it if voters go with Bibb. Meanwhile, “The Pitt,” featuring an ensemble with more fully realized characters, will have to settle for a one or two nods. (I’ll need Dr. King’s calm, caring support if Dearden isn’t nominated.) What will it take to break through this two-show category blockade? Just an actor owning seven Emmys. Janney doesn’t need a spot on “The Pitt” or “The White Lotus” to make it in, though wouldn’t it be fun if she showed up on the next season of one of these shows?

DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTOR
Walton Goggins, “The White Lotus”
Jason Isaacs, “The White Lotus”
Jack Lowden, “Slow Horses”
Sam Rockwell, “The White Lotus”
Patrick Schwarzenegger, “The White Lotus”
Tramell Tillman, “Severance”
John Turturro, “Severance”

Possible surprise: Patrick Ball, “The Pitt”
Possible “snub”: Schwarzenegger

Do all the “White Lotus” men make the cut too? Possibly. Though, again, it’d be nice to even things out a bit and include Ball, so good as the troubled Dr. Langdon on “The Pitt.” Given the character’s ambiguous fate, this might be the only chance to nominate Ball. Lowden earned his first nomination last year, alongside “Slow Horses” castmate Jonathan Pryce. With the show’s latest season hinging on the emotional relationship between their characters, there’s a chance they both could return.

LIMITED SERIES
“Adolescence”
“Dying for Sex”
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”
“The Penguin”
“Say Nothing”

Possible surprise: “Disclaimer”
Possible “snub”: “Say Nothing”

Perhaps I’m underestimating “Disclaimer,” Alfonso Cuarón’s pulpy psychological thriller. Expectations were high; Apple TV+ had the chutzpah to show it at both the Venice and Telluride film festivals last year. But its pleasures and narrative momentum dissipated rather rapidly over the course of its seven episodes. I don’t know anyone who managed to finish it. Yet, in a weak year for limited series, it might make it in on name value alone.

LIMITED SERIES/MOVIE ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, “Disclaimer”
Kaitlyn Dever, “Apple Cider Vinegar”
Cristin Milioti, “The Penguin”
Michelle Williams, “Dying for Sex”
Renée Zellweger, “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy”

Possible surprise: Ellen Pompeo, “Good American Family”
Possible “snub”: Dever

Zellweger won an Oscar for playing the plucky farmer in “Cold Mountain” and a deteriorating Judy Garland in “Judy.” And, given the film academy’s aversion to humor, it might surprise you to learn that she earned a lead actress nomination for the first “Bridget Jones” movie in 2002. Now, more than two decades later, Zellweger has a shot at her first Emmy nomination for the fourth film in the series. It’s her signature role. Give her the nod and the Emmy too.

LIMITED SERIES/MOVIE ACTOR
Colin Farrell, “The Penguin”
Stephen Graham, “Adolescence”
Brian Tyree Henry, “Dope Thief”
Kevin Kline, “Disclaimer”
Cooper Koch, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”

Graham figures to be nominated for “Adolescence” as a producer, actor and writer. (He wrote all four episodes with series co-creator Jack Thorne.) He’s excellent playing Eddie, the shell-shocked dad, particularly in the series’ final episode, which has his character dealing with the aftermath of his son’s arrest, trying to have normal life, a happy birthday, while plagued by doubts that what happened was somehow his fault. Graham deserves the Emmy for the last scene, where Eddie goes into his son’s room, tucks in his teddy bear and whispers, “I’m sorry, son. I should’ve done better.”

LIMITED SERIES/MOVIE SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Erin Doherty, “Adolescence”
Deirdre O’Connell, “The Penguin”
Imogen Faith Reid, “Good American Family”
Chloë Sevigny, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”
Jenny Slate, “Dying for Sex”
Christine Tremarco, “Adolescence”

Possible surprise: Lesley Manville, “Disclaimer”
Possible “snub”: Reid

Doherty will likely win for the series’ third episode, the taut two-hander with Owen Cooper. But, again, the fourth episode is just as good — maybe even better — featuring a heart-rending turn from Tremarco as the mom trying to hold it together.

LIMITED SERIES/MOVIE SUPPORTING ACTOR
Javier Bardem, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”
Owen Cooper, “Adolescence”
Rob Delaney, “Dying for Sex”
Rhenzy Feliz, “The Penguin”
Peter Sarsgaard, “Presumed Innocent”
Ashley Walters, “Adolescence”

Possible surprise: Clancy Brown, “The Penguin”
Possible “snub”: Sarsgaard

Cooper will soon become the fifth teen actor to win a Primetime Emmy. Next up: A juicy role in Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of “Wuthering Heights.”

Emmerdale spoilers for next week have confirmed huge twists and big decisions, sad hints at what’s ahead and the final goodbye of a tragic character on the ITV soap

There’s big moments ahead on Emmerdale next week, with spoilers teasing sad scenes, twists, and unexpected news.

There’s some potentially life-altering news from one village resident, Charity Dingle, as she makes a decision that could impact her and others. The funeral of murdered Nate Robinson arrives, and the scenes lead to the comeback of a past character after years offscreen.

Robert Sugden is left unnerved by a familiar face, leading to a discovery by someone else. John Sugden is playing the hero again too, while Paddy Kirk must face his fears amid a worrying scene involving his AWOL father Bear.

Back to John, and he makes a decision that could expose him, while Lewis Barton is a success at the café and Nicola King is “blindsided” by something. Let’s kick things off with Charity’s big announcement.

The news could cause havoc for her relationship with her husband Mackenzie Boyd, while it could also impact her family as a whole. Her granddaughter Sarah Sugden is desperate to find a surrogate to carry a child for her, after her devastating health news recently.

After undergoing an operation after being diagnosed with cervical cancer, a complication meant doctors had to perform a hysterectomy. Sarah is now unable to carry a child in the future, with her family keen to help find her a surrogate.

READ MORE: Emmerdale Joe Tate star lets slip identity of blackmailer – and it’s not Dr Crowley

Charity asks Sarah’s aunt Victoria Sugden if she’ll consider being a surrogate next week, leaving her overwhelmed. Offering her a proposition, she tries to guilt trip her into saying yes by telling her she’s Sarah’s only hope.

But Robert Sugden is horrified by this when his sister tells him all, and when Sarah finds out she’s mortified and fumes at her gran. As Charity and Cain try to keep surrogacy options open, Sarah prepares to give up her hopes of becoming a mum – only for a possibly life-changing decision by Charity.

She impulsively offers to be Sarah’s surrogate leaving Cain furious, already devastated to learn he’s been scammed by a potential surrogate from an agency. Cain raises his concerns about the fact she hasn’t even discussed it with her husband Mack.

Sarah’s uncomfortable when she realises that Charity still hasn’t told Mack about her plans, but will he find out and how will he react? There’s more drama for the Dingles when Cain’s son Nate Robinson’s funeral gets underway.

The character was murdered months ago and his body was dumped on a lake, while only fans know John is the killer. Nate’s funeral brings the return of his grieving mother Cara who wastes no time in slamming Cain for what’s happened.

With Cain and Nate’s wife Tracy still blaming each other for his death, John is worried about the truth coming to light especially as his husband Aaron Dingle, Nate’s cousin, is determined to attend. Aaron and John try to unban the Dingles from the funeral but Tracy won’t budge. Soon there’s a discovery as Tracy learns she’s entitled to Nate’s life insurance, and ahead of the funeral getting under way the following day, the Dingles hold a memorial in the pub.

Cain’s back to fuming at Tracy though, claiming she’s robbed him of a proper goodbye only for Cara to walk in and confront him. As news about the insurance policy comes to light, Cain explodes at his daughter-in-law and refuses to stay away from his son’s funeral.

When DS Walsh arrives at the church on the day of Nate’s farewell, Tracy is unnerved and soon the Dingles show up. An argument ensues but no one detects John’s nerves as he clocks the detective.

Watching the chaos unfold and knowing it’s his fault, he gets emotional and appeals for a truce – only to find himself being asked to read the eulogy, of his own victim. As the pressure gets to him and he remembers what he’s done, will he end up confessing all? Later in the week he’s reaching out to a helpline again but could this backfire?

Someone is onto him, as his brother Robert lets it be known he doesn’t trust him at all. When the date, Owen, who spiked him recently shows up at the surgery, Robert is stunned to see John throwing him out and thanks him. But later in the week Liam Cavanagh realises Owen is on his list of call-outs.

Also next week, Lewis proves to be a hit at the café with a new menu but Nicola is furious knowing Brenda is still reaping the benefits, despite leaving for her cruise months ago. But she’s soon left blindsided, so what has she uncovered?

We also see Bear again next week after he fled the village amid some odd behaviour. Ahead of the show revealing what’s going on with him, we see the character in a random field and it’s clear he can’t feel as though he can reach out to his son Paddy.

Speaking of Paddy, he’s still struggling after being attacked by a dog. Paddy calls in sick at the vet, too scared to treat the dogs coming in as he’s left in a panic.

Soon he opens up to stepson Vinny Dingle about what’s going on, after his meeting with Vinny’s friendly dog Chip. Finally next week, Jacob lets some news slip – but who is it too and what is it about?

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

Rev. Jason Cook, a minister at Tapestry, a Unitarian Universalist congregation, wore his traditional white collar and a colorful stole resembling stained glass when he arrived at immigration court in Santa Ana last Friday.

For several weeks, Cook and clergy members from a cross section of religions have been showing up at courtrooms in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego to stand with immigrants during their deportation hearings. The practice was launched after faith leaders learned that many immigrants seeking asylum were being whisked away by federal agents after what had been billed as routine court appearances, and locked up in remote detention facilities without a chance to prepare or say goodbye to family.

They have sought to use their presence to comfort migrants and lend a sense of moral authority to the proceedings. They have also taken to the courtroom benches to bear witness with silent prayer.

On Friday, clergy members roamed the courthouse halls in search of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. If plainclothes agents sat outside a courtroom, it was a good indication that the migrants inside had been targeted for expedited removal once their cases were heard.

Clergy members hand out informational fliers to immigrants arriving for deportation hearings at a Santa Ana courthouse.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Cook knows the presence of clergy won’t necessarily change the outcome of the legal proceedings — though in at least one instance last month, ICE agents scattered when clergy showed up at a courthouse in San Diego. If nothing else, they hope to offer spiritual comfort, so the immigrants know they’re not forgotten.

“There’s a big piece of [our faith] that’s about welcoming the stranger, about treating immigrants with compassion and care,” Cook said. “We’re there trying to appeal to a higher authority than ICE.”

Many of the immigrants being detained at immigration court are asylum seekers who came into the country using the CBP One mobile app that the Biden administration had employed since early 2023 to create a more orderly process of applying for asylum. Migrants could use the app once they reached Mexican soil to schedule appointments with U.S. authorities at legal ports of entry to present their bids for asylum and provide biographical information for screening.

President Trump shut down the CBP One app hours after taking office in January. His administration has given ICE officials the power to quickly deport tens of thousands of immigrants who were granted legal entry to the U.S. for up to two years through the CBP One program, and is waging legal battles to roll back protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who were granted temporary parole while seeking asylum.

Faith leaders say the work is an extension of their services for immigrants, who often attend their churches in sizable numbers. In the past, some places of worship have opened up their doors to shelter undocumented immigrants at risk of being deported. In L.A., faith leaders have organized food drives for immigrants afraid to leave their homes, as well as vigils and peaceful marches at the downtown Los Angeles federal building.

In the Inland Empire, clergy members have gone into grape fields to hand out “Know Your Rights” cards.

“Throughout history, across the world, clergy and faith leaders and spiritual leaders have played a really catalytic role in bending the arc toward moral justice,” said Joseph Tomás Mckellar, executive director of PICO California, the largest faith-based community organizing network in the state. “When they do it right, they leave space for others to walk the walk, as well.”

On June 11, the Catholic Diocese of San Diego reached out to area clergy to ask for help in expanding efforts to accompany migrants to their hearings.

Father Scott Santarosa, of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, said the letter garnered so much interest, they had to limit the number of clergy who could attend. That Friday, which also coincided with World Refugee Day, they held a Mass before arriving at immigration court.

“We weren’t planning to block or get in the way or do anything to disrupt. We just planned to be present and observe and say with our presence to migrants and refugees, ‘Hey, you’re not alone,’” he said.

One Venezuelan asylum seeker, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution if she is deported back to her home country, had a hearing scheduled in L.A. County in early June with her children. She arrived in the U.S. in December after entering through the CBP One app. The June hearing would be her first.

She knew she was at risk of deportation and wondered whether to attend her hearing. She shared her fears with an area pastor, who offered to go with her. On the morning of her hearing, she arrived at court accompanied by three pastors and a translator. She felt protected, she said, when the judge granted a future court hearing and she was allowed to leave.

“Everything went well,” she said. “I feel as if it was because of the Christian support that I had at that moment.”

Cook, the Unitarian Universalist minister in Orange County, said he attends court at least twice a week.

Initially, ICE agents seemed averse to confronting religious leaders, and in some cases, left the courthouse when clergy members arrived.

But over time, Cook said, the agents have gotten more confrontational, telling clergy they must stay 10 feet away from agents. He said he watched one ICE agent push a clergy member against the wall after she tried to escort an immigrant out of court.

Members of the Orange County Catholic Worker community offer a silent prayer of consolation and justice for migrants who would appear in immigration court that day.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

They have carried on, he said, because the work feels important and aligned with their mission of faith.

“What we are is conscience on display for these folks, and if that triggers shame or reflection, that’s a good thing,” Cook said outside a courtroom, not far from ICE agents.

Dave Gibbons, founder of the Newsong Church in Santa Ana, said he took a break from court visits after a Central American couple he was escorting got pulled away and detained in front of their child. He broke down in tears recounting the episode for his congregation. But he was determined to return.

“We believe it’s at the heart of the gospel,” Gibbons said. “There’s nothing more sacred than standing alongside those being marginalized.”

Rev. Terry LePage, a community minister in Orange County, has attended immigration hearings nearly daily. She spent Friday morning handing out fliers that notified migrants headed to hearings of their rights and warning that ICE agents were present.

That morning, clergy members encountered a Haitian man who had been granted temporary protected status during the Biden administration. He arrived for his asylum hearing without an attorney. He wore a crisp white shirt and carried his documents in a black case.

Clergy leaders urged him to contact his family and let them know that he might be detained. But the man, who spoke Spanish, was sure he would be allowed to return home.

Inside the courtroom, a Department of Homeland Security attorney argued that the man’s case should be dismissed, a request the judge granted despite the migrant’s pleas. Seated in the audience, Thomas Crisp, an Orange County chaplain, watched in dismay and offered a few last words of comfort: “May God bless you.”

The Haitian man made it two steps out of the courtroom before he was swarmed by federal agents and ushered down an emergency exit stairwell.

This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California’s economic divide.

Disney Plus new shows and series have been revealed for summer 2025, including new Marvel series Ironheart, The Bear season 4, Washington Black and Ocean with David Attenborough

With UK temperatures reaching huge heights some of us wanting to hide away in doors, Disney Plus has all you need.

With a new summer line-up of shows including new seasons of some fan favourites, new Disney shows and some new additions from elsewhere, there’s something for everyone. We have a new Marvel show, season four of a hit favourite and some nature too, as well as some thrillers, animation and intriguing new entrainment.

Of course not everyone wants to stay indoors with summer finally here, so there’s always the option of watching some classics or the new and latest additions to Disney Plus on the go. For those who are hiding out from the heat, there’s plenty to stream on the big screen.

Arriving in August, there’s FX’s Alien: Earth which sees a space research vessel crash-land on Earth. It leads to a group of tactical soldiers making a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat.

It’s the year 2120, and humans are living beside cyborgs and synthetics – but a new technological advancement changes everything as hybrids are created, marking a new dawn in the race for immortality. As the series goes on, the hybrids encounter mysterious life forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined.

READ MORE: This week’s must-watch TV: Wimbledon, property glow-ups and Fern Britton

Viewers can see this series on August 13. Also coming soon is the third part of Abbot Elementary season four. The workplace comedy following a group of dedicated, passionate teachers in a public school in Philadelphia, and a slightly tone-deaf principal, continues with seven new episodes on July 2.

As ever there’s drama and comedy and plenty to keep you watching. On July 1, fans of the hit show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives will get to watch the reunion special. After a shocking end to the second series, secrets and scandals will apparently come to the forefront of the special episode when it drops next week.

With new footage that has yet to air, a surprise announcement and the usual drama, there’s plenty of twists and turns ahead no doubt, hosted by Nick Viall and starring some of the show favourites. Also coming very soon, July 23, is limited new series Washington Black.

Based on the bestselling novel with the same name, the series, according to Disney Plus’ synopsis, “follows the 19th-century odyssey of George Washington ‘Wash’ Black, an eleven-year-old boy born on a Barbados sugar plantation, whose prodigious scientific mind sets him on a path of unexpected destiny.”

The youngster is thrust into a globe-spanning adventure that “challenges and reshapes his understanding of family, freedom and love” after a harrowing incident at the start of the series. The synopsis continues: “As he navigates uncharted lands and impossible odds, Wash finds the courage to imagine a future beyond the confines of the society he was born into.”

Its cast includes Sterling K. Brown, Ernest Kingsley Jr., Eddie Karanja, Tom Ellis and Sharon Duncan-Brewster. Also coming soon is National Geographic series JAWS @ 50, arriving on July 11. A documentary celebrating the hit film 50 years after it launched in Hollywood, featuring director Steven Spielberg.

The inside story will “chart the extraordinary journey from Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel to one of the most iconic films ever made”. There’s behind-the-scenes footage, rare archival footage and interviews, as well as comment from top shark scientists.

This is certainly one for Jaws fans, or anyone interested in film… or even sharks. Chris Hemsworth’s Limitless series is returning with another instalment soon too, with a date not yet revealed.

Titled Limitless: Live Better Now, the series will “will delve into a series of physical and mental obstacles that people across the world face daily”. Chris will apparently be pushed to “explore and grow” like never before, travelling to the ends of the Earth to check out some of the world’s best-kept secrets to a better life, while checking out the latest science too.

The final upcoming series, arriving on 11 July, is ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires. The fourth instalment of the movie series sees Zed and Addison take an unexpected detour on a road trip, landing them amid a monster rivalry.

This time tensions will flare as it’s Daywalkers vs Vampires, with the characters having to do what they can to convince sworn enemies to unite to take down an even bigger threat. There’s plenty of summer content already up on the streaming platform too, including Spanish original series I, Addict, National Geographic series Underdogs and David Attenborough’s latest series, Ocean.

If that isn’t enough, Disney’s live action remake of Snow White is ready to stream, as well as new action and science fiction series Predator: Killer of Killers, while Marvel’s latest show Ironheart is ready to watch too. In this series, set after the events of the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a young, genius inventor named Riri Williams is ready to make her mark on the world, only to get caught up with the mysterious yet charming Parker Robbins, known as ‘The Hood’.

There’s also a new season of hit animation Phineas & Ferb, which sees the crew tackle another 104 days of summer and are set for exciting new adventures featuring some unforgettable milestones. The synopsis read: “The boys will break several world records, Candace will take her driver’s license test, and Perry will finally make a trip to the vet!”

Finally, fans waiting for the latest season of hit series The Bear are in luck too as this is now on the platform. As it kicks off, the characters are “pushing forward, determined not only to survive, but also to take The Bear to the next level.” The synopsis reads: “With new challenges around every corner, the team must adapt, adjust and overcome. This season, the pursuit of excellence isn’t just about getting better – it’s about deciding what’s worth holding on to.”

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In the beginning there was chaos.

Three years ago, FX’s “The Bear” splattered across our screens and made it impossible to look away. The yelling; the cursing; the gravy-slopping, bowl-clattering, grease-slick, jerry-rigged anxious sweaty mess of the Chicago sandwich shop the Beef and the wildly dysfunctional group of people who worked there, including elite chef Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who inherited the Beef from his dead-by-suicide beloved brother Mikey (Jon Bernthal), wowed critics and raised the culture’s collective cortisol count to eye-twitching levels.

Critics used terms like “stress bomb” and “adrenaline shot”; current and former restaurant workers described symptoms not unlike those of PTSD, and viewers ate it all up with a spoon.

Season 2, in which Carmy follows through on his plan to turn the Beef into a fine-dining establishment, only increased the anxiety level. With real money on the table (courtesy of Carmy’s uncle Jimmy, played by Oliver Platt), along with the hopes, dreams and professional futures of the staff, including Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Marcus (Lionel Boyce), Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), Sugar (Abby Elliott) and, of course, Cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), stakes were cranked to do-or-die.

When the episode “Fishes,” a stomach-clenching holiday buffet of trauma, revealed the twisted roots of a family forged by alcoholism — Carmy’s mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis) — and abandonment — Carmy’s father — viewers could not get enough.

This being television, we knew that all the wild dysfunction would inevitably coalesce into triumph — you cannot achieve greatness without driving yourself and everyone else crazy first, right? When, at the end of Season 2, the Bear somehow managed to have a successful opening night, despite Carmy locking himself in a refrigerator and having a full-on existential crisis, our deep attachment to “yes chef” pandemonium appeared vindicated. Fistfuls of Emmys and dopamine cocktails all around.

Except being able to open is a rather low bar for success, even in the restaurant business. Carmy is, for all his talent, an utter mess, and creator Christopher Storer is not, as it turns out, interested in celebrating the time-honored, and frankly toxic, notion that madness is a necessary part of genius — to the apparent dismay of many viewers.

When, in Season 3, Storer and his writers opted to slow things down a bit, to pull each character aside and unsnarl the welter of emotions that fueled the Bear’s kitchen, some viewers were disappointed. Which, having become dependent on the show’s stress-bomb energy, they expressed with outrage. “The Bear” had lost its edge, was getting dull, boring, repetitive and reliant on stunt-casting; it should have ended with Season 2 or, better yet, become a movie.

Thus far, the reaction to Season 4 has run the gamut — where some condemn what they consider continuing stagnation, others cheer a return to form. Which is kind of hilarious as this opens with the staff of the Bear reeling from an equally mixed review of the restaurant from the Chicago Tribune. (Shout out to the notion that a newspaper review still has make-or-break influence, though the Bear’s lack of a social media awareness has long been worrisome).

Season 4 of “The Bear” starts with the restaurant’s crew reaction to the Chicago Tribune review and how it will affect the restaurant. “They didn’t like the chaos,” Sydney says.

(FX)

Turns out that Carmy’s obsessive determination to change the menu daily, and keep his staff on perpetual tenterhooks, was perceived as disruptive, but not in a good way.

“They didn’t like the vibe,” he tells Syd in a morning-after debrief. “They didn’t like the chaos,” she replies. “You think I like chaos?” he asks. “I think you think you need it to be talented,” she says, adding, “You would be just as good, you would be great … without this need for, like, mess.”

Coming early in Episode 1, Syd’s message is a bit on the nose, but addiction does not respond to subtlety, and “The Bear” is, as I have written before, all about the perils and long-range damage of addiction. That includes Donna’s to alcohol, Mikey’s to painkillers, Carmy’s to a self-flagellating notion of perfection and, perhaps, the modern TV audience’s to cortisol.

As Season 4 plays out, with its emphasis on introspection and real connection, viewers might consider why “addictive” has become the highest form of compliment in television.

It’s such a sneaky bastard, addiction, happy to hijack your brain chemistry in any way it can. Our collective attention span isn’t what it used to be and the adrenaline rush unleashed by crisis, real or observed, can create a desire to keep replicating it. Even on broadcast and cable television, most dysfunctional family series take a one-step-forward-two-steps-back approach to their characters’ emotional growth. The mess is what viewers come for, after all.

Particularly in comedy, we want to see our characters get into jams for the pleasure of watching them wildly flail about trying to get out of them. Early seasons of “The Bear” took that desire to a whole new level.

But having amped up the craziness and the stakes, Storer now appears to be more interested in exploring why so many people believe that an ever-roiling crucible is necessary to achieve greatness. And he is willing to dismantle some of the very things that made his show a big hit to do it.

Frankly, that’s as edgy as it gets, especially in streaming, which increasingly uses episodic cliffhangers to speed up a series’ completion rate — nothing fuels a binge watch like a jacked up heart rate.

Like Carmy, Storer doesn’t appear content with resting on his laurels; he’s willing to take counterintuitive risks. As an attempt to actually show both the necessity and difficulty of recovery, in a micro- and meta- sense, “The Bear” is an experiment that defies comparison.

At the beginning of this season, Uncle Jimmy puts a literal clock on how long the Bear has before, short of a miracle, he will have to pull the plug. Carmy, still addicted to drama, claims they will still get a Michelin star, despite evidence to the contrary, which will solve everything. (Spoiler: A gun introduced in the first act must go off in the third is one of many tropes “The Bear” upends.)

The rest of the staff, mercifully, takes a more pragmatic approach. Richie, having become the unexpected sensei of the Bear (and the show), does the most sensible thing — he asks for help from the crackerjack staff of chef Terry’s (Olivia Colman) now defunct Ever. Watching chef Jessica (Sarah Ramos) whip the nightly schedule into shape only underlines the absurdity, and damage, of the auteur theory of anything — greatness is never a solitary achievement.

As Carmy loosens his grip, other outsiders pitch in — Luca (Will Poulter) shows up from Copenhagen to help Marcus and also winds up aiding Tina; Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) drafts an actual mentor (played by Rob Reiner) to help him figure out how he can grow the Beef sandwich window and Sweeps (Corey Hendrix) finds his own in another sommelier (played by retired master Alpana Singh).

Donna (Jaime Lee Curtis) apologizes to Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) for her actions and the harm she caused.

(FX)

Carmy, thank God, not only returns to Al Anon, but he finally visits his mother, which allows a now-sober Donna (in another potentially Emmy-winning performance by Curtis) to admit the harm she has done and try to make amends.

It is, inarguably, a very different show than the one that debuted three years ago, with far fewer cacophonous kitchen scenes, and many more Chicago-appreciating exteriors. When the long-awaited wedding of Richie’s ex, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), reunites many of the characters from the famous “Fishes” episode, fears about a gathering of Berzattos and Faks prove unfounded. Despite a high-pitched and hilarious spat between Sugar and her ex-bestie Francie Fak (Brie Larson), the event is, instead, a celebration of love and reconciliation and includes what passes for a group therapy session under the table where Richie’s daughter Eva (Annabelle Toomey) has hidden herself. (This scene, which involved all the main characters, was more than a little undermined by said table’s TARDIS-like ability to be “bigger on the inside” and the fact that it held the wedding cake, which did not fall as they all exited, is proof that “The Bear” is not a comedy.)

Not even the digital countdown could generate the sizzling, clanking, sniping roar of chronic, organic anxiety that fueled the first two seasons. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss it — I love my adrenaline rush as much as the next person.

But that’s the whole point. Real change doesn’t occur with the speed or the electricity of a lightning bolt; as many addicts discover, it’s about progress, not perfection. Recovery takes time and often feels weird — if you want to have a different sort of life, you need to do things differently.

That’s tough on a hit TV show, as the reactions to Season 3 proved (we’ll see how it fares when Emmy nominations are announced in a few weeks). Few series have made as large a shift in tone and tempo as “The Bear,” but its intentions are clear. To illuminate the necessity, and difficulty, of breaking an addiction to anything, including chaos, you can’t rely on talk; for your life to be different, you have to do things differently.

FX on Hulu has asked that a spoiler alert head any detailed reviews of the new, fourth season of “The Bear.” And while this review is not really detailed, everyone has their own idea of what constitutes a spoiler. So, read on, if you dare.

Most television series, and not just the best ones, are organic. You can plan in a vague way, but you learn as you go along — what the actors can do, what characters are going to demand more screen time, what unexpected opportunities present themselves, what the series is telling you about itself. This can make a show feel inconsistent across time, but often better in the end, as much as it may irritate viewers who liked how things were back at the beginning.

Early in the fourth season of “The Bear,” premiering Wednesday on FX on Hulu, the staff of the series’ eponymous restaurant finally sees the Chicago Tribune review they were anticipating throughout much of Season 3, and when it comes, it contains words like “confusing,” “show-offy” and “dissonant.” (It’s beautiful to see the review represented in a physical newspaper.) The show’s third season was accused by some fans and critics of similar things, and whether or not creator and showrunner Christopher Storer is drawing a comparison here, it’s true that “The Bear” doesn’t behave like most series — the recent shows it most resembles are “Atlanta” and “Reservation Dogs,” both from FX, and going back a little, HBO’s “Treme,” which, like “The Bear,” are less invested in plot than in character, place and feeling.

For all the series’ specific detail and naturalistic production, the eponymous Bear is a fairy-tale restaurant, staffed by people who not long before were hustling to get beef sandwiches out the door but, encouraged by Jeremy Allen White’s brilliant chef Carmen, have revealed individual superpowers in relatively short time. (Carmy asks Marcus, a genius of dessert played by Lionel Boyce, how he achieved a certain effect in a new sweet; “Legerdemain,” Marcus replies.) If you want to see real restaurants in operation, there are plenty of options, from Netflix’s “Chef’s Table,” to Frederick Wiseman’s “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros,” a four-hour film about a Michelin three-star restaurant in central France. (It streams from PBS.org; you have until March 2027 to catch it there, and should.) But this invented place, which is real enough for its purposes, is primarily a stage for human striving, failure and success — and love. Come for the food, stay for the people.

After the first two seasons, which involved transforming the Beef, the sandwich shop Carmy inherited from his late brother Mikey, and creating the Bear, the third looked around and over its shoulder, flashing back and stretching out and developing themes that are taken up again in Season 4, which begins so hot on the heels of three they might as well be one. (They were filmed back-to-back.) The chaos and expense created by Carmy’s “nonnegotiable” decision to change the menu every night; the prospect of the Tribune review; and a participation agreement for sous-chef-turned-creative partner Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) are still working their way through the story. It begins more prosaically, certainly when compared with the impressionistic montage that occupied the whole of last season’s opening episode. And, apart from an opening flashback in which Carmy tells Mikey (Jon Bernthal) of his vision for a restaurant (“We could make it calm, we could make it delicious, we could play good music, people would want to come in there and celebrate … we could make people happy”), it stays in the present, facing forward.

Once again, we get a ticking clock to create pressure; installed by the “uncle” they call Computer (Brian Koppelman), it’s timed not as before to the opening of the restaurant but to the point at which backer Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) will pull out and the Bear will “cease operations.” (It’s set to 1,440 hours, or 60 days.) But deadlines come and go on this show, and though we’re treated to repeated shots of the countdown clock, it doesn’t create much actual tension. There is always something more immediately concerning, in the kitchen or out in the world.

Ticking clocks remain a motif in Season 4 of “The Bear.” Ayo Edebiri, left, with Liza Colón-Zayas in a scene from this season.

(FX)

For all his messing with the menu in search of a Michelin star, Carmy is stuck in a rut — cue clip from “Groundhog Day” — and has also become maddeningly inarticulate, almost beyond speech; much of what White does this year is listen and react, doing subtle work with his face and fingers, interjecting an occasional “Yeah,” while family or colleagues unburden themselves or take him to task. “Is this performative?” Richie asks a moping Carmy. “You waiting for me to ask if you’re OK?”

Some of his self-flagellation feels unearned — which I suppose is often the case with self-flagellation. (“You would be just as good … without this need for, like, mess,” says Syd.) Carmy can be a handful, but he’s led his team into this land of milk and honey, and if the Bear is dysfunctional, it nevertheless manages to put food on the table, create delight and pay its people. Still, this is a season of apologies — even Uncle Jimmy is saying he’s sorry, through a closed door, to his teenage son — and reconciliations. (You didn’t suppose you’d seen the last of Claire, Carmy’s on-again, off-again romantic interest, played by Molly Gordon?)

Some developments can seem abrupt, possibly because so many of these characters are bad at communicating or lie about how they’re feeling, saying that everything is OK when everything is not OK. But in the long view, the view that extends even beyond the end of the series, whether it comes sooner or later, everything will be OK. Whatever Emmy nitpickers might have to say about its category, “The Bear” is most definitely a comedy; there’ll be obstacles, but everyone’s on a road to happiness. A double-wide episode, set at the wedding of Richie’s ex-wife, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), mirrors the calamitous “Fishes” Christmas-dinner episode from Season 2, with most of that extended cast present again. But here, there is dancing.

Richie, running the front of the house, continues on his journey of self-improvement, crafting inspirational addresses to the staff, meditating on a photo of a Japanese Zen garden and dealing in an adult way with his soon-to-be-remarried ex-wife and daughter; the Bear has become his lifeline. Gary (Corey Hendrix, getting some deserved screen time) is being educated as a sommelier; Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) is working to put pasta on the plate in under three minutes; Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) is killing it at the sandwich window and looking to “create opportunity” with a new delivery app, a robot called Chuckie and a business mentor (Rob Reiner). Come for the food, stay for the people.

Above all, this is Syd’s year, which is, of course, also to say Edebiri’s. She’s got decisions to make and has been given long, often intense, two-person scenes, not only with Carmy but with Jimmy and Claire and an 11-year-old girl she suddenly finds herself babysitting, and with whom she spends most of an episode; Syd describes her dilemma in terms an 11-year-old might understand and receives the blunt advice an 11-year-old might give.

Carmy, for his part, thinks he knows how to fix things, which he will finally get around to sharing. Is it a good idea? Will it work? Will we ever know, and do we need to know? Is this the final season? (No one has said.) It closes on what is not quite an end — that not everything ties up feels very on brand for the series, and like life, which doesn’t run on schedule — and a sort of beginning. (I would just point out that R.E.M.’s “Strange Currencies,” or as I have called it, “Love Theme From ‘The Bear,’” playing very quietly in a scene behind Richie and highly evolved Chef Jessica [Sarah Ramos] may be a gentle nod to their unseen future.)

It can be corny, it can be obvious. It indulges in gestures as grand and unlikely as creating snow for a guest, and as small as a sandwich being cut to make it a little more friendly, a little more fancy. Both are moving.

Good restaurants serve a reliable version of familiar food, food anyone can like. Great ones do something peculiar that won’t be to everyone’s taste, won’t even make sense, but might inspire love. So it is with television shows.

DOWNIEVILLE, Calif. — Patrice Miller, 71, lived by herself in a small yellow house beneath towering mountain peaks on the edge of a burbling river in this Sierra County village. She doted on her cats and her exotic orchids, and was known to neighbors for her delicious homemade bread. One fall afternoon in 2023, after Miller had failed for several days to make her customary appearance at the town market, a store clerk asked authorities to check on her.

A short time later, a sheriff’s deputy found Miller’s lifeless body in her kitchen. Her right leg and left arm had been partially gnawed off. On the floor around her were the large paw prints of a bear.

Months after her death, officials would make a stunning disclosure, revealing that an autopsy had determined that Miller had likely been killed by the animal after it broke into her home. It marked the first known instance in California history of a fatal bear attack on a human.

But amid the contentious politics around black bears and other apex predators in California, not everyone accepts the official version of how she died.

“We don’t believe the bear did it,” said Ann Bryant, executive director of the Bear League in the Tahoe Basin. “And I will go on record as saying that. … We’ve never had a bear kill anybody.”

The story of Miller’s grisly end — and the increasingly heated battles around predators in California — have come roaring into the state Capitol this spring. Lawmakers representing conservative rural districts in the state’s rugged northern reaches argue that their communities are under attack, and point to Miller as one example of the worst that can happen. One solution they have pushed is changing the law to allow people to set packs of hunting dogs after bears to haze them. A similar measure has been floated — for now unsuccessfully — to ward off mountain lions considered a threat.

Wildlife conservation advocates are aghast. They say turning dogs on bears is barbaric and won’t make anyone safer. They contend the proposed laws don’t reflect a scientifically backed approach to managing wild populations but instead are pro-hunting bills dressed up in the guise of public safety. The real solution, they say, is for humans living near bears to learn to safely co-exist by not leaving out food or otherwise attracting them.

“These people are using [Miller’s death] to try to start hounding bears again,” said Bryant, who maintains that Miller, who was in poor health, must have died before the bear came into her home and devoured her. “She would roll in her grave if she knew that in her death people would create a situation where people were going to mistreat bears, because she loved bears.”

In a recent report, the Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates there are now 60,000 black bears roaming California and notes a marked increase in reports of human-bear conflicts.

(John Axtell / Nevada Department of Wildlife)

Founded in 1849, Downieville, population 300, is one of California’s oldest towns, and also one of its quaintest. Colorfully painted wooden buildings sit at the junction of two rivers, beneath majestic pines and mountain peaks.

Along with tourists, who flood in in the summer for rafting and mountain biking, the town also receives frequent visits from bears and mountain lions. More recently, wolves have arrived with deadly force, snatching domesticated cattle off the open pastures that stretch across the plains on the other side of the mountains east of town.

Miller wound up here about a decade ago, at the end of a rich, complicated life. She had worked in an oil refinery, and also as a contractor. She was a master gardener, expert at transplanting Japanese maples, according to her neighbor, Patty Hall. She was a voracious reader and a skilled pianist. But she also struggled with a variety of serious ailments and substance abuse, according to neighbors and officials.

Longtime residents in the area were used to the challenges of living among wild animals. But in the summer of 2023, Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher said he started getting an overwhelming number of calls about problem bears.

“We had three or four habituated bears that were constantly here in town,” said Fisher. “They had zero fear. I would say, almost daily, we were having to go out and chase these bears away, haze them.”

But bears have a sharp sense of smell, a long memory for food sources and an incredible sense of direction. If a tourist tosses them a pizza crust or the last bits of an ice cream cone, or leaves the lid off a trash can, they will return again and again, even if they are relocated miles away.

That summer, Fisher said, no matter what he did, the bears kept lumbering back into town. It was unlike anything he had experienced, he said, and he had grown up in Downieville. “A police car with an air horn or the siren, we would push the bear up out of the community. Fifteen minutes later, they were right back downtown,” he said.

Founded in 1849, Downieville, population 300, is one of California’s oldest towns and also one of its quaintest.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

And then there were the bears harassing Miller and her neighbors.

“There were three bears,” recalled Hall, who lives just up the hill from the home Miller rented. “Twice a night they would walk up and down our [porch] stairs. The Ring cameras were constantly going off.”

Fisher said some of Miller’s neighbors complained that she was part of the lure, because she was not disposing of her garbage properly. Some also alleged she was tossing food on her porch for her cats — and that the bears were coming for it. Miller’s daughter later told sheriff’s officials that bears were “constantly trying” to get into her house, and that “her mother had physically hit one” to keep it out. One particular bear, which Miller had nicknamed “Big Bastard,” was a frequent pest.

Fifty miles from Downieville, in the Lake Tahoe Basin, the Bear League was getting calls about Miller, too. The organization, which Bryant founded more than two decades ago, seeks to protect bears by helping residents coexist with them. This includes educating people about locking down their trash and helping to haze bears away from homes.

“We got calls [from her neighbors] that told us she had been feeding the bears, tossing food out to them, and let them come into her house,” Bryant said. She added that some thought, erroneously, that the Bear League was a government organization, and “maybe we had the ability to enforce the law” against feeding bears.

Hall, Miller’s friend, told The Times that Miller was not feeding bears. Still, the problems continued.

Eventually, officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were called and told Miller she could sign a “depredation permit,” after which authorities could kill bears trying to get into her house. But Miller declined to do so, Fisher said.

In early November, Miller stopped showing up around town, prompting calls for a welfare check.

A little before 3 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2023, Deputy Malcolm Fadden approached Miller’s home, which was a short walk from the sheriff’s office. The security bars on the kitchen window had been ripped off. The window itself had been busted from the outside.

“I knocked on the door,” Fadden wrote in his report, but got no answer.

Patrice Miller was found dead in her rental cottage in November 2023. Bear advocates take issue with an autopsy report that said she probably was killed in a bear attack.

(Jessica Garrison / Los Angeles Times)

Through the window, he saw blood streaked across the living room floor. He took out his gun and burst into the house, where he was greeted by a giant pile of bear scat. He found Miller in the kitchen, her half-eaten body surrounded by food and garbage, which, Fadden wrote, had been “apparently scattered by bears.”

Fisher was horrified. Already frustrated at what he saw as the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s lackluster response to the escalating bear incursions that summer, now he wanted the bear that had fed on Miller to be trapped and killed.

He said the department told him that for the bear to be killed, “the person who lives at the house has to sign the [depredation] permit.” Fisher said he responded: “How many times do I have to tell you the person who lives at that house was eaten by the bear?”

This was the start of a long-running conflict between the sheriff and agency officials that would complicate the release of the autopsy findings about Miller’s death, and also convince Fisher that more aggressive steps were needed to protect his community.

Eventually, Fisher managed to get a depredation permit for the bear that had fed on Miller; his deputies tracked down her landlord, who as the homeowner could sign it. Wildlife officials set up a trap near Miller’s house, and in short order, a bear was caught.

But, according to Fisher, officials initially said it wasn’t the same bear. They said DNA tests showed that the bear who had eaten her was male, and the bear they had caught appeared to be female. They intended to release the bear, he said.

Fisher padlocked the cage, and threatened to call the media. In response, he said, wildlife officials sent a biologist, who determined the bear in the trap was male. It was shot that night.

At that point, few people, including Fisher, believed that the bear had actually killed Miller, as opposed to feeding on her after she died of natural causes. Though there are recorded instances of fatal black bear maulings in other U.S. states, they are rare, and there had been no reports of one in California. Fisher issued a news release saying that the death was under investigation, but that “it is believed that Patrice Miller passed away before a bear, possibly drawn by the scent or other factors, accessed the residence.”

After performing an autopsy, however, the pathologist on contract with Sierra County came to a different conclusion. She issued a report that found that Miller had “deep hemorrhage of the face and neck“ as well as “puncture injuries (consistent with claw ‘swipe’ or ‘slap’).” These injuries, she noted, were “characteristics more suggestive of a vital reaction by a living person.” In short: The pathologist found that Miller was probably killed by the bear.

Because of Fisher’s feud with Fish and Wildlife, that autopsy report, dated Jan. 4, 2024, wouldn’t become public for months.

Fisher said the state agency was refusing to provide him with copies of the DNA analysis of the bear that had been trapped in Miller’s yard. He wanted to see for himself that it matched the DNA evidence collected at her home, saying he hated the thought that a bear that had feasted on a person might still be roaming his town.

“I requested DNA from Fish and Wildlife, and they refused to provide it to me,” he said. “So I withheld the coroner’s report. We stopped talking.”

He said he verbally told department officials that the pathologist believed Miller had been killed by the bear — a seemingly noteworthy development. He said that officials responded: “I guess we’ll see when we get the report.”

In an email to The Times, state wildlife officials confirmed that Fisher had verbally shared the results of the autopsy report, but said they felt they needed to see the report to do their “due diligence before making an announcement about the first fatal bear attack in California.” The agency had sent an investigator to the scene after Miller’s death, who like Fisher and his deputies, thought the evidence suggested she had died of natural causes, said agency spokesperson Peter Tira.

By the time Fisher got the autopsy report, it was deep winter in the mountains, and bear activity decreased. Then came spring, and along with the blossoms, the bears came back to Downieville.

Bears were knocking over trash cans and breaking into cars. In May, residents on Main Street reported that a bear had broken into multiple houses, including one incursion that involved a bear standing over 82-year-old Dale Hunter as he napped on his couch.

A few days later, a bear tried to break into the cafeteria at Downieville High School while students were at school.

Fisher declared the bear a threat to public safety. Fish and Wildlife eventually issued a depredation permit, and the bear was shot.

That led to a story in the Mountain Messenger, the local paper. In it, the sheriff dropped a bombshell: “Miller was mauled to death after a black bear entered her home,” the paper reported. The story went on to say that the sheriff had made “numerous attempts” to inform Fish and Wildlife “about Miller’s death and more recent dangerous situations.”

After the story ran, state Sen. Megan Dahle, a Lassen County Republican who at the time served in the Assembly, set up a conciliatory meeting between Fish and Wildlife and Fisher. They have been meeting regularly ever since, Fisher said.

Fisher got his DNA results confirming that the bear trapped in Miller’s yard was the same bear that had eaten her. And Fish and Wildlife officials finally got a copy of the pathology report, which said Miller was probably alive when she encountered the bear.

The revelation made headlines around the state. “We’re in new territory,” Capt. Patrick Foy of Fish and Wildlife’s law enforcement division told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Bryant and other bear advocates found the release of such a significant finding so long after the fact confounding.

“I absolutely do not believe it,” Bryant said. If the bear had killed her, Bryant added, “the evidence should have been so clear, like immediately.”

“We don’t believe the bear did it,” Ann Bryant, executive director of the Bear League, says of Patrice Miller’s death. “We’ve never had a bear kill anybody.”

(Max Whittaker / For The Times)

The Downieville saga unfolded as bears seemed to be making news all over California.

To many, it seemed there were just many more bears encroaching on human settlements. A Fish and Wildlife report released last month estimated there are now 60,000 black bears roaming the Golden State, roughly triple the figure from 1998, the last time the department issued a bear management plan. That’s the highest population estimate for anywhere in the contiguous U.S., although the report also suggests that California’s bear population has been stable for the last decade.

In the Lake Tahoe area, where 50,000 people live year-round and tens of thousands more crowd in on busy tourist weekends, bears were breaking into houses and raiding refrigerators; they were bursting into ice cream shops and strolling along packed beaches.

State and local officials went into overdrive, trying to teach residents and tourists how to avoid attracting bears. The state set money aside for distribution of bear-proof trash cans and “unwelcome mats” that deliver a jolt of electricity if bears try to break into homes.

The Bear League will loan Tahoe Basin residents “unwelcome mats” that deliver a little jolt of electricity to bears if they try to break into homes.

(Max Whittaker / For The Times)

The Bear League stepped up its efforts. From a small office on Bryant’s property, the organization’s 24-hour hotline was ringing, and volunteers were rushing out with paintball guns to haze bears and to advise people on how to bear-proof their houses.

The tensions continued to escalate, nonetheless, between people who wanted to protect bears at all costs and those who wanted some problem bears trapped and relocated — or killed. In 2024, after a homeowner in the Tahoe area fatally shot a bear he said had broken into his home, many people were outraged that the Department of Fish and Wildlife declined to file charges.

Advocates also complained that the state has fallen behind in its efforts to help people and bears coexist. In recent years, the state had hired dedicated staff to help people in bear country, but the money ran out and some of those people were laid off, said Jennifer Fearing, a wildlife advocate and lobbyist.

“We have the tools to minimize human-wildlife conflict in California,” Fearing said. “We need the state to invest in using them.”

In Sierra County, the sheriff had come to a different conclusion. “We’ve swung the pendulum too far on the environmental side on these apex predators,” Fisher said.

Earlier this year, Fisher found common cause with newly elected GOP Assemblymember Heather Hadwick. “Mountain lions, bears and wolves are my biggest issue. I get calls every day about some kind of predator, which is crazy,” said Hadwick, who represents 11 northern counties.

In February, she introduced a bill, AB 1038, that would allow hunters to sic trained dogs on bears to chase them through the woods, but not kill them. While California has a legal hunting season for bears, it is strictly regulated; the use of hounds to aid the chase has been banned since 2013.

Hadwick argued that hounding bears would increase their fear of humans, which she said some are starting to lose: “We’re keeping them in the forest, where they belong.”

Bears have a long memory for food sources and an incredible sense of direction. If a tourist tosses them a pizza crust or leaves the lid off a trash can, they will return again and again.

(California Department of Fish and Wildlife)

Wildlife advocates showed up in force last month to oppose Hadwick’s bill in an Assembly committee hearing. Sending hounds after bears is cruel, they said. Plus, hounding bears in the woods would have no impact on the bears knocking over neighborhood trash cans and sneaking into ice cream stores.

Fisher testified in favor of the bill, and spoke of Miller’s death.

Lawmakers listened, some with stricken looks on their faces. But in a Legislature controlled by Democrats, Hadwick did not garner enough votes to send her bill on to the full Assembly; it became a two-year bill, meaning it could come back next year.

Fisher returned to Sierra County, where he has continued to advocate for locals to have more power to go after predators. The current situation, he said, is “out of control.”