In the previous episode of Barry we see him agree to be a snitch for the cops, and Hank decided they needed to have Barry killed. Meanwhile Cousineau spoke to a Vanity Fair reporter telling him the story of him and Barry leading upto his arrest despite Jim Moss’s warning against it, and Sally returned home, now with the idea of teaching in her head.
Read the Season 4 Episode 2 Recap Here
In episode 3, things get intense, friendships are broken and roles are switched around. We also get to see a very special cameo. It was announced earlier in the week that one of Bill Hader’s Saturday Night Live cast mates would be appearing in this episode, so of course the speculation began. Would it be Armisen, Meyers, Mulaney or Samberg? But it wasn’t just an SNL alumn who we got to see guest star on the show, as there was a famous director who made a special appearance.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BARRY SEASON 4 EPISODE 2
The opening shot of the episode shows a gangster riding on top of a truck holding a rifle through the roads, something which is so normalized and Bill Hader makes sure to depict that. After the truck enters Hank’s compound and starts spraying the sand on the ground, Hank and Christobal finally meet Toro who was played by Guillermo Del Toro himself, whom if you will remember from the previous episode was trying to help Hank get Barry out of prison. But now, his guys who do a podcast about gadgets that don’t work are tasked with taking him out.
“Guillermo sent me a funny text, ‘Could I be in ‘Barry’?” Hader said, “I think he didn’t think I would ask him, People say they want to be in the show sometimes, and it never happens. But then I thought, ‘Actually, there’s a part that he’d be really good in.’ I called him and said, ‘Yeah, I have a character for you. His name’s Toro.’ And he went, ‘Oh, man. Really?’” Del Toro himself is a big fan of the show as he has demonstrated on multiple occasions through his supportive tweets. So having him guest star was every fans dream.
Courtesy of HBO
After learning that Barry is making a deal with the feds for an early release, Cousineau and his agent realize that they need to stop the Vanity Fair article from coming out. At the mean time Barry is telling the feds everything he knows, and he wants to take Sally with her, but Sally has plans of her own. When the Vanity Fair writer tells Barry Gene has been making accusations against him, this sends him into a rage spiral and after a heated conversation with the reporter Barry shouts “Tell Gene Cousineau to shut his f****** mouth!” and walks away. Soon after we see Barry breaking down in Prison, talking to himself as his rage at Mr Cousinea grows.
Following Gene’s advice, Sally has become an acting teacher, and she manages to inspire her students to stay, but she starts using gene’s methods to train her students. How ever that does not work out well for her.
Meanwhile Lon approaches Jim Moss and informs about having spoken to Barry and Cousineau. A surprised Moss invites Lon to his very shady Garage for a drink.
When Fuches calls Hank in prison, Hank tells him about what’s going to go down, and tells him to keep his mouth shut. Something to remember for future episodes is that Batir is back! Hank’s previous boss who we last saw in Season 3 approaches Hank is a very ominous way, warning him that the chechen elders have a new plan to run LA, and Hank either has to join them or it’s goodbye to their gangsters paradise.
In this next scene, we see Cousineau and Tom break into Lon’s house. One must applaud Hader’s directing and the camerawork during this scene. Instead of one focused scene we see a follow through movement of the house with the characters voices heard in the distance. This scene leads to Lon’s wife revealing he was meeting Moss.
As you may remember, in season 1, Gene used a method where he would constantly criticize and push his students to their breaking point and then tell them to use that emotion onstage, however when Sally did the same, her younger students called her abusive and left, only one named Kristen who Sally helped, had stayed.
Courtesy of HBO
In what was the most intense scene of the episode, a very emotional and heated phone call between Hank and Barry comes to pass. When Barry’s anger at Cousineau reaches a boiling point he calls Hank and in code, asks him to get rid of Gene because he’s talking to the press. However we see a whole new side of Hank in this scene, because no longer is he that fun loving sidekick who can be pushed around, this is the Hank who has seen and been through shit, lost his family and still survived. So he simply replies “Why are you lying to me Barry?”, and in that moment, things get intense. Hank finally calls Barry out how selfish he had been in the past, and even though Barry tries to be sincere, pulling the friend card, but Hank finally brings up the fact that Barry is talking to the Feds, and that’s when he explodes. Hank and Barry’s phone call, is painful to to listen to for anyone who has been watching the show since the beginning because it symbolizes the end of their friendship. But Hader and Carrigan’s performance in that scene was exceptional.
The next question to answer is, what is up with Jim Moss? Janice’s father. When Gene goes to tell Jim the truth about his Vanity Fair interview, that he did a one man show for Lon, which Jim already knew, Jim tells Gene he can’t be trusted and that he has to be isolated. When Gene says he wants to clear everything up and they should go talk to Lon, a very ominous Moss says that Lon won’t be talking to anyone for a Long time. We then see Lon and his wife at his editors house, Lon looks bruised, he begins talking in German, the only problem, he doesn’t know German.
Courtesy of HBO
Surprisingly Fuches suddenly grows a conscious and tries to warn Barry about the hit. This is when things get really interesting. As Barry and a few agents are in a room discussing his witness protection deal, he notices one of the agents seems a bit off, that agent is the assassin hired by Toro, played by none other than Fred Armisen! The last few minutes of the episode provided a hilarious cameo by Armisen, Bill’s SNL and Documentary Now co star that was sure to bring a smile to a lot of faces. However Toro’s assassin fails to take Barry out, the one played by Armisen’s pulls out a peashooter, fires, and screams as the gun explodes in his hand. Barry takes out the other one who was in the ceiling with a gun and silenceer with a gun from one of the dead cops which leaves him hanging from the ceiling, and leaves the door wide open for Barry to walk out of.
“Fred is just one of my favorite people in the world. And when I was writing that, I went, ‘oh man, it’d be so funny to cut to Fred, all sweaty, looking scared, kind of knowing that his thing’s not going to work,’” Hader laughed when talking about that casting with TV Insider. “None of their gadgets have ever really worked. And so he knows there’s like a 50-50 chance that the gun was going to work, the pin gun or whatever.”
The episode ends with the warden looking upon the site and saying “Where the hell is Berkman?”, the perfect way to set up not just the next episode but the rest of the season. Barry is sure to be blamed for all the dead agents in the room. Somehow Barry manages to make a massacre something to laugh at.
Since season 1, Barry has been someone who did horrible things, but could never accept that they were a bad person. And in this season in particular that has never been more true. It is almost as if Barry is caught in a delusion, not simply avoiding acceptance but trying to get rid of the people in his life who say he is anything but a good person.
After this episode one thing is for sure, Barry is back! With a vengeance.
“Barry” Season 4 airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on HBO and on HBO Max
Fangirl and Writer with a huge passion for entertainment.
