“Barry” Season 4 Episode 6 “the wizard” – Reunions, Podcasts & Nohobal

In the previous episode of Barry, the series had jumped forward 8 years, and we saw Barry and Sally living a simple life with their son John. At the very end of the episode we see Mr Cousinea who has apparently been missing, ever since he accidentally shot his son, speak to a representative at Warner Bros about a movie on Barry’s life. This immediately causes a Crack in Barry’s perfect life as he realises he now has to kill Mr Cousinea.

Read the Season 4 Episode 5 Recap Here

In Barry season 4 Episode 6, we realize, not everything is as it seems. Shifting from the more serious tone of the previous episode, episode 6 takes on a lighter and more amusing tone especially since we get a look at Fuches and Noho Hank since the time jump. Ending with a plot twist and a big cliffhanger combined.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BARRY SEASON 4 EPISODE 6

The episode starts with Barry trying to teach Sally how to load a gun. Insisting she needs to learn to use one while he’s away, but Sally prefers to simply move again. As Barry reminds her, you can’t outrun a movie. She reminds Barry that killing is a sin, something he continues to ponder throughout the episode. As we saw in the previous episode, they are a very religious family and Barry constantly gives thanks for what he has. Before he leaves he prays with John that he may return safely and that Sally will take care of him.

Meanwhile, back in LA a car pulls up in front of the prison and we see a new and improved Fuches, bulked, covered in tattoos with slicked-back hair and sports black nail polish on his fingernails. Prison definitely changed him. He gets into the vehicle waiting for him courtesy of the friends he made behind bars. On the way they stop at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Fuches stares at the barista behind the counter like a man obsessed. She leaves everything and joins the crew as they drive away.

Fuches and the others meet with Hank at Nohobal, (That name though) the headquarters of NoHo Hank’s company. There’s a golden statue of Cristobal (RIP) in the lobby. (That was enough to get us emotional) We also see a glass display case where the origin story of Nohobal is laid out. We also see a quote from the late Cristobal Sifuentes: “Every day can be like Dave & Buster’s.” Hank has hired Fuches and his men for a job. Aside from money Fuches also asks Hank for his best house for him and his men, and most importantly he asks Hank to find Barry. Hank catches Fuches up and tells him that Barry is old news and he is nowhere to be found, claiming claiming he might even be dead. Hank and Fuches have very much switched placed after the time jump. Hank is now a businessman with a wardrobe to boot, while Fuches has accepted the role of The Raven and is now very much like a gangster of his own making. A complete role reversals from where they were in season 1.

Courtesy of HBO

Meanwhile, as we see Barry on his way to kill Gene, while he is in the airport, in the car and buying a gun we see him listening to a series of conflicting podcasts about sinning and whether or not murder is a sin. Moving away from his Lincoln obsession from episode 5. This follows a similar theme that Hader has explored throughout the series of Barry killing people but trying to find a way to justify his actions, we saw this very clearly in season 3. Similarly, we see Barry facing an internal conflict of whether he should or should not kill Cousineau, but Barry remains steadfast on his mission and he ends up outside Gene’s house.

Gene and Tom, who has moved into Gene’s house house while he was away meet with the Studio PA from Warner Bros about the Barry Berkman biopic. She tells them it will be a cat and mouse story about an acting teacher and his student who is a killer. Barry will be the star but they will portray him as the villain and Gene as the hero. Gene reveals the only reason he returned was to stop this film from happening because he didn’t want them to glorify Barry and tarnish Janice’s memory.

Gene is ordered to meet with DA Buckner who we last saw in episode 3. Buckner asks Gene where he’s been after shooting his son Leo, who is apparently still alive! Didn’t see that one coming. Gene tells Buckner he spent the past eight years on a Kibbutz in Israel. Although we already knew how long it had been, this establishes how much time had passed since episode 4. Buckner tells him they lost track of Barry 8 years ago. Gene tries to convince him the reason he is back is to stop the movie. He then asks Gene how his son felt after seeing him. Which leads Mr Cousinea to go see Leo.

Sally, who does not have a maternal bone in her body and as we saw in the previous episode, suffers from a drinking problem is struggling to care of John, who misses Barry. She is trying to get him to eat but he misses Barry so he buries his face in his hands and sits at the kitchen table. When John refuses to eat the food she worked hard to make him, she gets annoyed, while his head is still buried on the table, she pours a tiny bit of Vodka into her sons orange juice, and then tells him to drink it…. Yeah just take a moment to take that in.

Back in LA Hank is giving Fuches and his men a tour of their new home. He then tells them Nohobal will be hiring them as security. Once again Fuches asks about Barry, at which poing Hank informs Fuches that Gene had resurfaced, and asks Fuches to let him handle it, considering they really don’t need any heat on them right now. Following DA Bruckner’s advice, we see Gene reunite with his son Leo. To say he is suprised to see him is an understatement. Gene apologizes for shooting him, in the shoulder it turns out and then dissappearing, and he explains that he returned to kill the movie. Barry is parked outside, he sees Cousinea enter the house, taking it as a sign he grabs his gun and cocks it, but just as he’s about to head inside a school bus drops off a young boy at the house, it’s Gordon Cousinea’s grandson. Barry stops, and heads back to his car. You can see that this affects him on a personal level, now that he is a father himself.

Courtesy of HBO

We then see a poor knocked out John, asleep, with some help from the vodka, on the couch. Sally who is definitely drunk herself, tries to get John to go nap in his bed, but to no avail, what happens next may seem unimportant, but if you’re listening closely, you’ll hear a very important sound that is key to what comes next. As Sally goes and falls on to bed, tired and drunk, she seems to have forgotten, that is where Barry was assembling the gun. Which is why as she plops herself on the bed, when she does we hear the sound of a piece of metal rolling on the floor. Suddenly, things start to escalate, we then hear a man’s voice shouting at her in the distance and calling her a b*tch, saying “I’m coming for you and that boy of yours.” After wandering through the living room, she proceeds to lock the door and shut the windows. She then checks on John, we then see a man covered in full black behind her, Sally still doesn’t a thing. She then hears a door slam behind her, she is locked in her bedroom. We cannot see what is going on but we can hear a commotion happening outside the room where John is. We hear them screaming “You poked me in the eye?” this was the same thing Sally heard in the finale of season 3 just before she killed the man from the motocross crew, and she then hears “He’s not waking up” referring to John, as if her two worlds are colliding. Meanwhile Sally while locked in her room is trying to assemble the gun as Barry taught her, but if you’ll remember, there’s a piece missing because the moment she lied on the bed, it rolled on the ground. The commotion continues, we hear the man shouting “You f****** b*****” and then suddenly the house starts to shake almost flipping to a side. Someone is ramming their car into the side of the house. We then see the culprit through the damaged wall speeding away. When she manages to open the door, sees the living room is trashed, John is still asleep on the couch thankfully. Was this just an alcohol induced dream or was this this real is the question? The way Hader has directed the scene it almost feels like a classic horror movie sequence, continuously building up tension, and then including a jump scare, a classic horror movie trope.

Fuches and Hank sit down to dinner with their buddies, his new girlfriend and her daughter eats dinner with his girlfriend and her daughter. Fuches toasts his new family and their future together. Things soon go sideways though when Fuches starts talking about Hank killing Christobal. Even after Hank corrects him with, a lie by saying their enemies murdered Cristobal, Fuches wouldn’t let go of the topic. Which pissed off Hank to the point where he asked them to leave by morning and said he was ending their partnership.

We finally see John waking up, only to see his mom leaving a message for someone named Barry, a person who he doesn’t know, asking him to come home.

Courtesy of HBO

As Gene enters his house, he accidentally (or was it an accident?) leaves his front door open, Barry follows him, his gun at the ready. Just as he’s about to enter, we see someone place a sack over his head and he is taken away. He wakes up tied to a chair, and sitting across from him, is Jim Moss, Detective Janice’s father. The episode ends with a look at the two of them sitting across from each other. One intense final shot that leaves viewers on edge. This should be good. Some great directing from Hader right there.

If there’s one thing Hader has proven over the years it’s that he is excellent at both plot twists and cliffhangers. The ending of this episode delivered both and in an excellent way. Hader would definitely do a great job directing a feature film, especially a horror movie or thriller considering his penchant for building up tension, as he has demonstrated in every one of his episodes, and he never fails to deliver the big punch that comes after.

After a very serious plot in episode 5, season 6 felt like Hader was going back to Barry’s roots by delivering more comedy and focusing more on the light hearted side of the main characters One thing is for certain, Bill Hader really knows how to end an episode leaving you craving more. This episode was written by Duffy Boudreau, and directed by Hader. The two have taken a very creative approach to telling this story, by keeping fans questioning will he or wont he kill Mr Cousinea only to have something completely unexpected happen at the very end, now that is good story telling.

Barry streams new episodes every Sunday at 10 pm on HBO and HBO Max.