The second episode of season 4 sees Barry get an unexpected visitor. Hank and Cristobal attempt to restart their operations, while Hank secretly tries to rescue Barry. Gene tells his story. Sally deals with now having everyone know she dated a serial killer. This episode continues to follow the events of the premiere and deals with the aftermath of Barry’s imprisonment and Sally’s explosion at Natalie in Season 3.
Read the Recap of “Barry” Season 4 Episode 1 “Yikes” here
This particular episode is a very busy one for all our main characters as each one gets their own storyline that is key to the plot and each character is highlighted in this episode. Unlike the premiere which was a bit darker, this episode, is a bit more comedic. Mostly thanks to Noho Hank (Anthony Carrigan) and Christobal (Michael Irby).
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BARRY SEASON 4 EPISODE 2
The episode opens with Barry (Bill Hader) standing in his cell with his back facing us, we then hear the sound of a boy playing, as Barry turns, you can see the injuries on his face from the beating the guard gave him in the previous episode. We then see that Barry is witnessing a flashback, as he sees his father introduce his younger self to Fuches for the first time. For one moment, we see Barry smile as he loses himself in the memory.
Courtesy of HBO
We then see Fuches speaking to the FBI agents to back out of the deal he made with them, a deal that they inform him is already in place, but Fuches refuses to betray his friend, again that is. Moving on to one of the funniest moments in the episode, while a group of inmates are watching Yellowstone, Fuches introduces himself as The Raven, and introduces Barry as a cop killer and tries to recruit inmates for a gang, giving them nicknames and as expected annoying them, whiles Barry watches from afar. Once that was over, and Barry and Fuches were alone, Fuches once again apologizes for trying to betray him, telling him the feds offered him a deal.
Now on to our favourite semi stable couple, Hank and Christobal who are, you guessed it, back in L.A., and ready for business. Cristobal who as you will remember wants to get in the sand business hopes to partner with local mob leader, Bong and the Guatemalans, the only problem is, they are at war, but according to Hank and Christobal, that’s nothing a trip to Dave n Busters cant fix. Cristobal and NoHo Hank deliver a compelling pitch to both gangs about joining forces for his and NoHo Hank’s latest business venture. This scene was so well written and hilariously excecuted by Carrigan and Irby. These two really are a great duo onscreen. Although there is something Hank is not telling Christobal, and that is that he is looking into getting Barry out of prison, after Hank gets a text from someone called Toro reading “It should be np to get your friend out, all I need is the manpower”, Later on Hank tries to convince the two gangs to help him break Barry out of Prison. Which does not go over well with Christobal.
Courtesy of HBO
In what was probably the best scene in the episode, Barry gets a very unexpected visitor in prison – Sally (Sarah Goldberg). At first Sally appears to be talking in code, asking Barry where their dog Muffin is, and if Barry had ‘taken care of him’, this of course is in reference to the man that Sally killed at the end of Season 3 whom Barry then had to dispose of in the dessert. Barry claims he’s safe and that Sally is okay. Things get emotional after Barry asks, “Is that the only thing you came here for?” Sally replies with a cold “Yeah”, but Barry asks “Then why arent you leaving?” After crying about her recent visit home, after an emotional conversation between the two, Barry goes on to tell Sally how he never deserved her, in what was a painful quote, Barry tells Sally “I am a piece of shit, and you gave me the life I don’t f***ing deserve.” After spilling his guts to Sally, she finally says, “I feel safe with you” which clearly means a lot to Barry as you can see him hold on to that, but sadly as soon as she says that she leaves before Barry can say I love you. At the start of the series, fans would ship these two, but later on it became more apparant what a toxic couple Barry and Sally are, and this season truly proves it. Each character is damaged, Barry longs for Sally’s affection and Sally longs for Barry’s approval. We saw this in season 3 and now in season 4 its clear that although they can do better, they wont. Once again we see a brilliant and emotional performance from Bill Hader, dialed down from the usual intensity of Barry to a more human, and such incredible work from Sarah Goldberg as well.
Lon O’Neil (Patrick Fischler), the writer from Vanity Fair receives a cryptic handwritten note which asks him to go to a secondary location, Canter’s Deli for a mindblowing story of his career. When he arrives he runs into Gene who had sent him the note, and was in the process of setting up the second one. he reveals the location of the meeting.
Once again we see Barry have another one of his musings as he watches his younger self play with Fuches, but that’s not all that is happening, we see a bridal party runs through the desert and into a wedding reception. This soon leads to a glimpse at an older Barry and Sally dancing together. Once again we see Barry smile as the thought of a perfect life crosses his head.
Sally is in a meeting with her ex agent Lindsay who tells Sally excatly how bad things have gotten for her and why her image is so tarnished. After Sally was caught on video shouting at Natalie in filth, she was known as “the c*nt girl”, now that Barry has been arrested, she is known as the girlfriend of a murderer. Lindsay is honest about Sally’s career prospects and they don’t look good.
Lon finally arrives at the location, and would you beleive it, it’s the theater where it all started. Gene is on stage, ready to tell his story, or his version of the story of how he met and caught Barry Berkman, in the only way he knows how, acting.
Meanwhile Barry speaks to the FBI about snagging the same deal that Fuches had, offering up the Chechens, Bolivians, LA kings and more. He claims to have been a part of an international crime syndicate. He only asks that he is allowed to take one person with him.
After Gene’s long and somewhat fictional performance, Lon all he needs for his story on Barry Berkman for
Vanity Fair. After he leaves, Sally confronts Gene. “Why didnt you tell me about Barry? How could you know and now warn me?” She demands to know. At first he tries to make excuses, but then Gene questions how Sally never saw a single sign while they lived together. He claims they’re both victims. Gene believes the real reason Sally returned to the theater is because it’s home. He gives her the idea that maybe she should consider teaching “When the world is against you, your back is against the wall, there is only one thing you can do, teach.”
Fuches soon notices Barry’s is missing from his cell and learns he has moved to speacial housing, which can only mean one thing, he struck a deal with the FBI, the look on Fuches face says it all. We then see Christobal and Hank having a conversation about Hank wanting to get Barry out of prison, in trying to convince him of the fact Barry is not his friend Christobal goes on to tell Hank “Barry doesn’t care about you, he never has”, and in what can be considered perfect timing , Fuches then calls to tells Hank of Barry’s betrayal. More accurately he called because he had no one else to talk to, but once Fuches tells Hank that Barry is working with the FBI, Hank immediately changes his mind, instead of trying to mount an escape to rescue Barry, the episode ends simply with Hank saying the words “We need to kill Barry.”
Like I said, a lot happens in this episode, and it definitely sets up a lot in the upcoming episodes. For example, is Hank actually going to kill his best friend? Could that angry phone call from Barry to cousinea in the trailer be the result of that Vanity Fair article? Is Sally really going to be an acting teacher? So many questions such a little time.
Barry streams new episodes every Sunday at 10 pm on HBO and HBO Max.
Read the Recap of Barry Season 4 Episode 3 here
Fangirl and Writer with a huge passion for entertainment.
