“Fishes” is intense, to say the least, and one of the main sources of that intensity is Bob Odenkirk’s Uncle Lee. Lee and Michael are at each other’s throats throughout the evening. Lee (acting like a real “jagoff,” to use Chicago parlance) calls Michael a drug-addled failure, and Michael responds with fiery bursts of violence at the dinner table, culminating with him flipping the table upside down.

For Odenkirk, the entire experience was an exercise in mutual respect. “Everyone respected each other, every one of those actors, and [creator] Chris Storer runs a set that allows for freedom to discover, and invent, and bring things to life,” he continued in the same Deadline interview. Ultimately, each actor — both the series regulars and the new “Bear” characters – worked to elevate their peers. “Our greatest dream is that everybody else in the scene looks f**king awesome, and that was just such a joy to do.”

That joy may not exactly be evident among all the intense staring and fork throwing, but Jon Bernthal concurred that the sense of trust on set made the episode possible. He also loved having Odenkirk as a sparring partner. “With Bob, I’m such a huge fan of his,” Bernthal told Variety. “I thought it was just such a perfect choice. He was so down to come at me, and vice versa! When you have an environment like that, everyone is willing to be a little bit dangerous, because there’s so much trust. There’s so much love and everybody’s so dedicated.”