April has been kind of a bad month for this blog because of my final exams. I have watched a lot of stuff but I wasn't able to write a review for them. But I am back now (hopefully) to review Barry season 4 which I am so excited about!
Barry is a TV series on HBO about a hitman becoming an actor and finding a new life in Los Angeles. It stars Bill Hader, Sarah Goldberg, Henry Winkler, and Anthony Carrigan. There have been 3 previous seasons before the final season. Read the review here!
I did miss reviewing the first 3 episodes but I will try to talk about the storylines and characters in all the episodes and then go on to review each episode weekly.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
Barry Season 4 started off with a two-episode/one-hour premiere. It picks up immediately after Barry gets arrested and shows the process of him getting into his jail cell. Sally hears the news about Barry's arrest once she lands back home in Joplin, Missouri, and goes back to LA to see Barry and Cousineau, their acting teacher. Hank and Cristobal start a new business, selling sand.
Barry is very unrecognizable this season. Like there is no hope left for him from the viewers. Barry is trying to get out of prison but I've noticed that it would be bad for him if he did. I just don't think he could cope after being in there and losing everyone he loved/idolized. But, Sally in the second episode gives him all the hope and passion he needs to get out when she reveals to him that she feels safe with him. Barry then finds a way to get out earlier by telling the feds about Hank and the Chechen mob. I do miss season 1 Barry where we were able to root for the anti-hero as he tries to be better. Now Barry is trying to run away from his problems without facing the consequences.
E4: It Takes A Psycho
April 30, 2023
Episode 4, "It Takes A Psycho", is the latest episode while I'm writing this section. And my god was it fantastic. Episode 3 ended with Barry escaping from prison after a failed assassination attempt. The whole episode we never see him and rather see the reaction of everyone else. Gene gets put into the same cabin his girlfriend was killed in by Barry in the season 1 finale. Jim Moss is out hunting him and Sally is unaware of the news until she comes back home to find him. Both decide to run away together.
But the main story isn't about Sally and Barry. I mostly was in shock about Cousineau and Hank's storylines in this episode. While Cousineau is hiding in the cabin, he prepares himself for Barry's arrival with a gun. Unfortunately, the shadowy figure in the door was not Barry but in fact his son, Leo. Hank and Cristobal are excited about their new business and let the employees enjoy themselves. However, it is revealed that Hank has betrayed the business to be a part of the Chechen mob, which leaves Cristobal upset and causes him to break up with Hank. But he is unable to leave as he knows too much and is then killed.
"It Takes A Psycho" was so fantastic to watch because of the suspense it put the characters and the viewer through. The viewer is in the dark as the characters are when waiting for Barry to show up. Cousineau, for me, was especially hard to watch. I thought Barry would show up to the cabin to confront Cousineau because of what he did in episode 3. It was also because of the suspense of the episode and what was being predicted by everyone. It felt like an elimination game with the characters, wrapping up their storyline for the episode. I really enjoyed this episode because it felt like a guessing game of what's going to happen next to the point where you cannot predict the ending. And really, you cannot predict the ending of this episode. (though it is foreshadowed in the previous couple of episodes and season 1)
This episode is the halfway point of the season. I looked back on the trailer and every clip in it has been in these past 4 episodes. So everything now beyond this point, we have no knowledge of. And that is horrifyingly amazing. I can't wait. :)
E5: Tricky Legacies
May 7, 2023
I would just like to start off by saying Sally and Barry are horrible parents like, oh my god.
Tricky Legacies takes place after the last episode after Sally and Barry run away. There's an 8-year time jump and they now live in the desert with their son, John. Sally works at a diner and Barry, who goes by the alias Clark, is a stay-at-home dad.
This felt like a quiet episode but it had a lot of references from previous episodes and seasons. From them living in the desert to Barry's dreams, it all sort of connected to Barry's dream life with Sally from season 1. In season 2's infamous episode, "Ronny/Lily", we see Barry in the desert, coming back from the war where Fuches (Stephen Root) is waiting for him. The desert comes back in the season 4 premiere, where Barry stares at a wall and imagines the scene that takes place between two little boys. This is also the same scene that takes place at the beginning of this episode. There's also the season 1 daydreams of Barry and Sally being married and having children. That has also been played out in the final season with them running away together. The difference is Sally is not happy. She feels trapped and is playing a role, Emily, to still have her dream of being an actress. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that Cousineau is making a movie about Barry.
There is also a new discovery about Barry/Clark liking Abraham Lincoln. I read online that Abraham Lincoln was a terrible person, but people still idolize him. This is in relation to the person Barry is since fans of Barry hope for a good ending for him to be happy, but won't get it because deep down, he is a terrible person. Barry/Clark talks about Lincoln to his son, hoping that when the truth comes out about him, his son won't see him as this bad person but as someone who has flaws but is ultimately a good person.
This episode felt like it was setting up the next 3 episodes and the demise of Barry. He got his dream life for 8 years but now has to go back to killing to stay in that dream. I feel like we can predict now that Barry is going to fail and either go back to jail or die. The hero in this story is Cousineau. This episode was mostly important for character development and will help move this story forward. Kind of like a bottle episode. Overall, still great and now we watch how Barry will fail.
Series Finale: wow
May 28, 2023
I so regret not writing about the last episode because it was so good. I will not skip on the finale though because this was fantastic.
RECAP OF E7: Barry goes to LA to kill Gene after he resurfaced with a potential biography for a movie based on him and Barry. While there, Barry gets caught by Jim Moss and is then held in his garage, connected to a ketamine drip and dreaming about his loved ones. Barry mentions the $250,000 from season 3 he gave to Gene. Jim sees that as a bribe and creates a string operation to lure Gene and get him arrested. Sally and John leave the desert to find Barry. Sally contacts Gene to help them out and Gene tells them to go to his house. They go and are soon kidnapped by NoHo Hank and his team. Sally and John are used as bait to get Barry so Fuches can kill him as part of his revenge after prison.
Series Finale Recap: Barry heads out to Nohobal headquarters. Fuches and his men are already there waiting for Barry but Fuches asks to see John instead. Hank doesnt let John get close to Fuches though since he brought up Cristobal's death and called Hank his murderer. A shootout happens, killing Hank and most of Fuches' men. Fuches protects John and walks out with him to find Barry. Sally and John are safe with Barry beside them in a motel room. Sally asks Barry to go to the cops and take responsibility. The next morning, Sally and John are gone and Barry goes out looking for them. The first place he looks is Cousineau's house. There we see Gene looking at the news of his potential arrest and the article Leo, his son, wrote about him and the $250,000. Gene sees his gun and opens it when Barry storms into the house looking for Sally and John. Cousineau's agent is there trying to calm Barry down and tell him they're not there. Barry then asks for the agent to call the cops when Gene shoots Barry in the chest. Barry looks up to see Cousineau and then gets shot in the head. There is another time jump where Sally is now a high school theater teacher and John is a teenager. Sally gets asked out by another teacher after the show, but she declines. John asks to stay over at a friends house and Sally drives back alone, ending her story. John, at his friend's house, watches the documentary of his dad. The documentary portrays Gene as the murderer of Janice Moss, his girlfriend, and Barry as an american hero.
It was heartbreaking to watch Hank die right beside the Cristobal statue, but it also felt very "Romeo and Julliet". Two ill-fated lovers finally meeting in the afterlife. But to see Barry die shook me. I just kept thinking he was going to live because I actually like Barry. Is it because I have a crush on him? Yes, very much so. Do I call myself a Barry apologist? Maybe, I don't know. I clearly know he is a murderer. That's it. Maybe I more so have a crush on Bill Hader. Seeing him shown as a hero though after his death was good enough for me. It was also kind of a full circle moment as well with him being remembered as a good person. He tried to be good and see if he could redeem himself. That biography sealed his legacy for him as a hero, and heroes are good people in everyone's eyes. Except, Barry is an anti-hero.
And to see Sally finally be at peace and doing what she enjoys? That was also a good ending for her. She did want to be an actress but instead, became Gene. She also finally accepted John into her life and started being an actual mom to him, after the events that took place at Nohobal. Both of them are there for each other and it's shown when they each ask the other if theyre going to be okay for the night.
The show started as a comedy and ended as a drama, making it unrewatchable. But it was fun while it lasted. I love Barry (the show) and I forever will.
Rating: 10/10
