Well, here we are everyone, time for a standing ovation, as “Barry” has come to an end.
Daniel Prakopcyk / For The LA Times
The story that started out as a simple dark comedy about a hitman who wanted to become an actor, continued evolving with each season into something much greater. A story that included murder, of friends and foes, mobsters, mystery, revenge (a lot), business deals gone wrong and acting class. Directed by Bill Hader who would also co-write and executive produce alongside Alec Berg. Hader also starred in the show as Barry Berkman for which he won two Emmys. The main cast also includes Stephen Root as Monroe Fuches, Sarah Goldberg as Sally Reed, Anthony Carrigan as NoHo Hank and Henry Winkler as Gene Cousineau. There aren’t many shows out there that would make you root for a Marine turned hitman or a Chechen mobster with a heart of gold, while you secretly despise one of the only normal people in the show, an actress falling in love with a serial killer. “These are the moments with these guys where I was like, “I’m so lucky to have these people for this thing that I wanted to do for so long, write and direct and do this” Says Hader “I’m so lucky.” Hader has showcased his incredible acting prowess playing the many different sides of Barry Berkman, as well as his impressive creative directing skills, and of course his skills as a writer throughout the four seasons of Barry with his blend of comedy, drama, action, suspense, never ending plot twists and entertaining characters which is what made this show a script for sucess.
A lot has happened in this past season. We started with Barry in Prison, but as expected, no prison could hold Barry Berkman, he escapes finds Sally and the two run away together. Hank tries to build a perfect life with Christobal, but his loyalty to the Chechens gets Christobal killed. Meanwhile Cousineau’s paranoia over Barry escaping causes him to accidentally shoot his son. Skip ahead 8 years Gene’s been missing all this time, he resurfaces to stop a Barry Berkman biopic from being made. Hank has his own company called Nohobal and he wants to partner with a newly released from prison Fuches aka The Raven for a job but when Fuches makes fun of Hank killing Christobal Hank tells him to leave. Meanwhile Barry and Sally have been living in solitude under fake names raising their son John. But when Barry Sally sees a Google alert that Gene is going to consult on the Barry Berkman movie he realises he has to kill him. But before Barry can get to Gene he is captured by Jim Moss.
Now, where were we. When we last left Barry we saw that he was tied to a chair by Jim and undergoing a kind of torture, but not the kind you think, it was all in his head. And when Barry saw Gene in his head he accidently let it slip that he gave Gene the $250,000 that he got from the Chechen mob. This makes Moss completely forget about Barry and set his sites on Gene. Salls calls Gene and asks him for help, he says she can meet him at his house. With the help of an actor posing as Daniel Day Lewis’s agent Moss, Gene’s son Leo and the DA manage to set him up. They confront him about the possibility that Gene might be working with Barry and the Chechens. With Moss distracted Barry manages to escape from the chair, but he doesn’t get far. Meanwhile Hank is trying his best to get rid of Fuches, but to no avail, so he decides to look for Barry, by using Gene. When Sally arrives at Cousinea’s Hank’s men capture her and John. Then they call Barry. The episode ends with Hank telling Barry he has his family and if he wants to see them alive, he has to meet him, no doubt to kill Fuches himself. Hank just woke the beast.
Read the Season 4 Episode 7 Recap Here
The final episode of Barry sees him out for revenge, After years of holding all his rage in, the killer inside him and his thirst for revenge at bay, one call from Hank threatening the only thing he cares about, his son, was enough to send him back to his old self, angry and out for vengence. But does he get it? The episode is titled “Wow” and fittingly so.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BARRY SEASON 4 EPISODE 8
The episode begins with Fuches who doesn’t seem to have a care in the world relaxing in a bubble bath, until he is interrupted via video call by Hank who claims he has something he wants. A way to get Barry. Fuches seems uninterested until Hank shows him Sally and John. Fuches is immediately interested and says he’s on the way. We then get to see The very first proper interaction between Hank and Sally. Hank indirectly tells Sally he’s been where she is, and wishes her luck. She then asks him what will happen to her and John, he simply replies “It’s not for me to decide.”
Barry Berkman is back to his being his usual enraged and out for vengence self. We see him back at the same supermarket as in episode 6 this time he demands guns, and walks out with an arsenal strapped to his back. Once again no one bats an eye. This is Hader’s way os subtly including a message on gun control whil still making the scene amusing. He struggles to get into his car, amusingly so.
Following the accusations made on Gene in the previous episode, the D.A. announces at a press conference he’s reopening Janice’s murder case with new evidence, Jim Moss then accuses Gene of being the mastermind behind Janice’s death, saying he manipulated Barry into killing her.
We then see Sally and John who are still being held hostage share what turns out to be a sweet and tender moment, when John asks Sally what is going on, she decides to tell him the truth. She tells him Barry escaped from prison, and he wasn’t just a soldier he was a murderer, but surprisingly she goes on to admit that she’s a killer too. She then starts sobbing as she tells John he’s a good person, and she apologizes for being such a bad mom. John then embraces his mother as she continues to sob, but in that moment they are ripped apart by Hank’s men as Sally is taken away from John as Fuches has arrived at the compound.
Courtesy of HBO
As Fuched walks into Nohobal you can see he is backed up by a his men who are all armed, but so is Hank. As Hank’s men bring Sally forward, Fuches demands to see John. The two then start a long intense conversation, and once again Fuches brings up Christobal. He offers a new deal, he claims he doesn’t care about Barry, he simply wants Hank to admit his part in Christobal’s death, and if he does, he will walk away and leave Hank alone forever. This causes Hank to bursts into tears confessing “He was the love of my life” he says, “It wasn’t supposed to happen. I just wanted to be safe.” When Hank’s men bring out John, Hank pulls himself together and tells Fuches the deal is off. If only he knew the series of events he’d just unraveled. We start with Fuches pulling out his gun and shooting Hank! This causes both sides to immediately open fire. Fuches immediately throws himself on top of John to shield him from the bullets. Once the firing stops, we are left with a massacre and dead bodies lying everywhere. I know what you’re thinking, a massacre and no Barry Berkman, something’s not right. But as we see the camera pan over the dead and somewhat alive bodies, you’ll notice that Hank has fallen at the feet of Christobal’s statue, and as Fuches takes John outside he tells him not to look, as he does we hear Sally calling for him in the background.
Meanwhile Barry has finally arrived at Nohobal. Being the religious man he now is takes a minute to say prayer before enters Nohobal for what he assumes will be his final fight. He prays for the strength to sacrifice himself so that John can live a long life. But just as he is doing that he hears his son calling him, Fuches has delivered John to Barry, that was his only reason for taking Barry’s son. Once again Barry awkwardly gets out of the car because of the artillery strapped to his chest and runs to his son kneels down and hugs him. He then spots Fuches. The two look t each other after not having seen one another in years. Without words, Fuches simply gives him a nod and leaves. Offscreen we hear Sally reunite with Barry and John.
We then get one last moment with Noho Hank, as he lay at the foot of Christobal’s statue, he looks up at the statue of the love of his life, despite his bad shape, with all the strength he had he reaches out and puts his hand over the hand of the statue. And with that, Noho Hank’s story came to and end. Excuse me while I go cry forever. Hank was no doubt a fan favourite, this one was not just a shock but the way his death happened is what hurt the most.
Courtesy of HBO
Barry, Sally and John are finally back together. The three are on a motel room bed all together having a moment of peace, sally then tells Barry that she saw Gene, and that he was about to be framed for Janice’s murder. She suggested she turn himself in. Barry on the other hand does not think that is what God wants of him. After being saved from death tonight, he beleives he has been redeemed. Sally reminds him you have to earn that redemption. Which as you may remember is something Hank told Barry in season 3. Barry wakes to an empty bed and to find Sally and John gone.
Courtesy of HBO
Meanwhile at Gene’s house, we see he has locked himseld inside his room and he is going through online articles about himself. He then picks up his old gun. The same gun he tried to shoot Barry with in the first episode of season 3, but missed. Barry comes charging into Gene’s house looking for Sally and John but Tom informs him they are definitely not there, he tells him Gene is in a bad place, and Barry is the only one who can help by Turing himself in. The tension builds as Barry makes his decision, he then tells Tom to call the cops so he can turn himself in. Just then we hear a gunshot, did Gene shoot himself? No, Gene shot Barry, in the chest, as Barry sees what has happened and realizes that it was Gene who did it, a look of hurt and grief comes across his face and only two words come out of his mouth “Oh wow”, before Gene shoots him right between the eyes. And that ladies and gentlemen was the end of Barry Berkman. We see a great shot of a dazed Gene holding a gun and with Barry’s body in the Chair beside him. A full circle moment from where the two of them started.
We then see another time jump, the scene opens to applause and then we see an older Sally who has just finished directing a high school production of Our Town, with a teenage John played by Jaeden Martell (IT, IT 2) in the audience. She gets into her and places a bouquet of flowers she received on the seat next to her, for a moment she looks at the flowers in the empty seat, a callback to when Barry gave her flowers (or more likely she asked him to) in the first episode of season 3, she then drives home alone, but happy. John is hanging out with a friend, the two are about to do something that John is forbidden to do. Watch the Barry Berkman movie, but they do anyway. The movie is called The Mask Collector and is basically a work of fiction, the story depicts the life of a Marine named Barry who straight after the war, found acting class in LA. In the movie, Gene is portrayed as the villain (with a British accent) who has ties to the
Courtesy of HBO
mob, and when Barry finds him standing over Janice’s dead body and refuses to help cover it up, Barry ends up in prison, after breaking out and rescuing Sally and John from armed thugs he confronts Gene shoots only to be shot multiple times on the stage. Talk about dramatic. The Barry Berkman movie ends with by letting us know that Gene is now serving a life sentence for killing Janice and Barry, and the final card reads “PFC Barry Berkman Was Laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with Full Honors”. The final shot of the series sees John with a satisfied smile on his face, no matter if that film was fiction. For him, his dad was still a hero. Despite the film painting a false image of Barry, it saved John from ending up like his father was. This last shot is a powerful and heartbreaking one.
Bill Hader and the incredible cast and crew of Barry have delivered and incredibly emotional and tense series finale, one that ticks all the boxes. No loose ends, a good properly wrapped up ending, emotional character deaths, yup check, time jump and most importantly closure. Hader made sure that each character was given a proper ending. He has done justice to the show that Alec Berg and himself created as well as to all the fans. This show has been one hell of a roller-coaster ride, some might be disappointed with the loss of Barry and Hank, but the way each part of this episode and this season was done was top tier storytelling.
So to do a quick recap, we lost Barry and Noho Hank. Barry is now remembered as a hero thanks to the movie. Fuches of all people redeemed himself by saving Barry’s son. After that we don’t know what happened to him. Sally and John got a happy ending, one that Barry always wanted for them.
“Barry” might just be one of the best dark comedies we’ve seen on TV.
Watch all the episodes of Barry on HBO Max.
It’s curtains down on Barry, Starting now!
Fangirl and Writer with a huge passion for entertainment.
