Episode 5 starts after an 8 year time jump, Barry and Sally have escaped Los Angeles for a life cut off from their families and the ghosts of their past. We don’t know where they are but they no longer go as Barry and Sally, rather Clark and Emily and they have a son named John (Zachary Golinger), who doesnt know who they really are.
The previous episode of Barry saw the characters still reeling from Barry’s escape, episode 4 delivered a heavy blow to the show and the fandom, with the murder of Christobal, bringing Hank and Christobal’s story to an end, but marking the beginning of a new chapter for Hank as the Kingpin of the Chechen crime family in LA. This was probably the most violent episode we’ve seen so far. We also saw Fuches being beaten up by the prison guards for information on Barry. Jim Moss hot on the trail, searching for Barry. Meanwhile Cousineau who was isolated at his cabin had accidentally shot his son Leo, thinking it was Barry. After finding out he had escaped from prison, Sally heads home to find Barry there, and without a word, she leaves with him. The most important thing to remember is that the end of the episode sees a young boy who we soon learn is Barry and Sally’s son.
Read the Season 4 Episode 4 Recap Here
This episode mainly follows their life and routine as we see how the once hitman and actress have now adapted to life in hiding. According to Hader this was one of his favorite episodes of the season.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BARRY SEASON 4 EPISODE 5
As the episode starts, Barry or Clark takes John to apologize to their neighbor who he had hit because he was made fun of for not knowing what Call Of Duty was. Clark explains that their house is video game free, he pushes John to say “I hope we can be together next time in harmony.” Despite Barry trying his best to make sure his son does not end up like him, it would appear he still has violent tendencies like Barry. Barry homeschools his son and uses principles he learns from people like Lincoln who he has recently started idolizing to teach his son.
Courtesy of HBO
Sally or Emily, has a job and a new look, we see her getting ready, putting on a brunette wig and heading out to Lynette’s Country Diner where she works as a waitress. Things at the Diner move fast as they go from serving coffee to her fellow waiter needing pills to Emily stealing money from the register, and finally Bevel, a cook at the Diner hitting on her. At home, Sally is obsessed with Natalie’s hit TV show Just Desserts, which is on its last season. As she watches her former assistant get the fame and glory that should have been hers she continuously drinks glass after glass of wine.
Barry truly has become a changed man, he is trying to live by Lincoln’s principles of pragmatism, optimism, and compromise. After making up with his neighbor the two talk about baseball, but fter Barry finds the baseball mitt his neighbor gave John, Barry makes him watch videos of children getting hit with baseballs and running into fences on YouTube, which results in John having nightmares, he runs into his parents room saying “I don’t want to get killed by a baseball” and Sally ends up sleeping in his bed, but Sally wasnt too happy about that. She seems completely detached from her own son. Living in the middle of nowhere, with only one paycheck coming in, they weren’t exactly living a life of luxury. Eating undercooked potpies or cereal for dinner, no money for a heater or comforter for their son. For Barry it’s not the material that matters, it’s what’s right there.
While on another YouTube binge Barry learns of all the “messed up shit Lincoln did” from a channel called Heroes Exposed. He seems to
Courtesy of HBO
cling on to the character of Lincoln because if he could change and become “Honest Abe,” maybe there’s hope for him.
Meanwhile while watching another one of Natalie’s interviews, Sally decides she needs a way to let out all her anger. The next day, she sees Bevel at work and hatches a plan. The two have a drink together and she talks to him about his life and a recent job his brother pulled robbing a bank, where people died. What he didn’t realize was Sally was testing him. Sally heads to the bathroom and he follows. She starts by giving him a taste so he would let his guard down, but then she starts choking him, he accidentally pulls her wig off. She makes him keep her secret, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. So she has him fired by telling their boss he was stealing money from him.
When John finds an old medal box of Barry’s from his time in the Marines, (which Barry most likely planted) Barry takes the opportunity to not just tell his son he was in the Marines, but rewrite history a bit. As you may remember what originally happened to get Barry discharged from the Marines was, well a little insane. After his friends Albert was shot in the face, he charged into someone’s house and shot them, basically he got away with murder, like Mr Cousinea said. But in the version that Barry tells his son, after Albert got shot, Barry who was a medic in his story, saved Albert’s life.
When their doorbell rings, Barry’s worst fears are realized, he immediately tells Sally and John to go hide in the bathtub. There was no one outside though, we simple hear a group of people laughing, they had been died dong ditched. In that moment we see Sally cling on to her son as they hide in the tub, while Barry remains outside with a pistol fiercly protecting his family.
Courtesy of HBO
We then go from Barry or Clay’s empty land to a Warner Bros building, where apparently Gene Cousineau who has been missing for the past 8 year is. But the people from Warner Bros can’t seem to be sure if it’s him. Except it is. Long haired and worn out, Mr Cousinea had heard that a Barry biopic was being made and he says to an executive at Warner Bros “You’re going to want to talk to me.”
Sally suddenly receives a Google alert for the name “Barry Berkman”, she screams “Barry”! There on her phone is an article that reads “Gene Cousineau Resurfaces – May Consultant on Barry Berkman Biopic” in that moment we see him immediately switch from Clay back to Barry, “I’m gonna have to kill Cousineau” says Barry as the episode ends.
With all the dreams Barry had in the previous episodes, most assumed that the ending of episode 4 was a dream too. The fact that it was an 8 year time jump was a huge surprise. We see such great performances from both Sarah Goldberg and Bill Hader. Sarah channeling a much darker side of Sally, and Bill channeling his paternal side to portray the emotion and heart we saw in this episode.
This episode was a bit slower compared to the rest of the season so far, and slower than all the other episodes of Barry in general, with less action and comedy and more deeply rooted in family and emotion. For Hader this was a welcome change of pace. In an interview with The Wrap Hader said “There are certain moments in the show where I’ve just kind of gone off and written it quickly,” Hader said, referencing the “ronny/lily” episode from Season 2 and the motorcycle chase from Season 3. “It was nice to do something that felt completely different from anything we’d done in the show so far, and that’s important to keep it fresh and interesting for the story but also for yourself. It’s definitely an episode that I understand if people are like, ‘What the f–k was that?,’ but it’s my favorite. That and the finale are my two favorite episodes.” That ending is going to lead into an exciting new chapter of Barry.
“Barry” Season 4 airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on HBO and on HBO Max
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