Barry recap: Fuches and Hank endure the gauntlet of pain to self-actualization
Barry heads to Los Angeles, Sally fails to make lunch, and the Raven flies to freedom
TV Reviews Barry
An alluring prospect for any show’s final season, time jumps impose closure on a form that defies it. No one changes on television except when we can view things from afar. The God’s eye view of a time jump can be frustrating as it attempts to close gaps neatly, offering distance for characters and creators to construct a conclusion. Nevertheless, it’s a move Better Call Saul pulled after years of teasing. Before that, Riverdale, Parks & Recreation, and The Americans moved ahead before saying goodbye.
At best, a time jump can allow characters to reflect on their past and conclude with some finality. At worst, it can feel like a hackneyed cliche. It’s a balance “the wizard” mostly nails, pushing the world-building to the edges and forcing “self-actualized” versions of these characters into the gauntlet. The ego death Sally and Barry experienced in “tricky legacies” can be felt throughout the greater Los Angeles area this week, wiping out the past lives of Gene Cousineau, NoHo Hank, and Fuches, all of whom descend on L.A. in “the wizard” trying to convince each other and the audience that they’ve changed.
As much as the characters like to think they’ve evolved, Barry hasn’t, and neither has Barry. Opening on one of the show’s favorite images, a gun, Barry stands before Sally, timer in hand, demanding she assembles the firearm because he’s going to Los Angeles to kill Cousineau, and it’s up to mama bear to protect the cub. Sally refuses, pleading they should move again—a sly bit of world-building that makes the last eight years seem even more harrowing than they already were. (What other close calls did they escape?) Silly Sally, you can’t outrun a movie. Still, after eight years inside Barry’s bubble, Sally knows how to plant seeds of insecurity that will drive his moral panic. Sally triggers Barry’s most profound fears with the question and verbalizes them: Barry wants to kill Gene for revenge and calls it a higher calling. It works. In pod, he trusts.
Barry can give as good as he can take, even if it’s inadvertent. Sally’s questions rattle his resolve, but when Barry tells Sally that John knows the “real you,” he hits a nerve. The real Sally killed Shane. The real Sally ran off with a wanted hitman, responsible for the death of Ryan Maddison and Detective Janice Moss. The real Sally is the Entitled Vagina Woman. With Barry gone, Sally will be left with a child she cannot face, and John will be left with a mother who cannot parent. No wonder John’s depressed.
The “real you” reflects the identity crisis many of the characters experience, especially Fuches. “the wizard” derives its name from the Black Sabbath song that blares on the soundtrack as the criminal buffoon formerly known as Monroe Fuches leaves prison, with Ozzy’s harmonica matching the flashing of his twiddling his black fingernails at the guard, who offers a twiddle in return. Fuches has transcended his old body and reached his final form, with the illustrations on his torso offering a roadmap from his gauntlet of pain to perverse pleasure. Fuches is dead. Long live the Raven.
Fuches is something of a master of blending into the scenery. In Chechnya, he carved out a little piece of heaven with his beloved goats; in prison, he made himself a supernatural force. After Livewire (Andre Hyland) and Groove Tube (Tobie Winham) pick him up, Raven’s powers are on full display at Coffee Bean. With an eyebrow raise and a wink, he enchants a barista (Carrie Gibson) into his merry band of misfits. As Ozzy Osbourne sings, “Without warning, a wizard walks by, casting his shadow, weaving his spell. Funny clothes, tinkling bell. Never talking. Just keeps walking. Spreading his magic.” Forget the Raven. Fuches is “The Wizard.”
Honoring the past is vital to many characters—it’s just not always done honestly. Barry has his shadowbox, Fuches has his tattoos, and NoHo Hank has a shrine to Cristobal in the lobby of his real estate firm Nohobal. When Raven arrives, he gazes upon the bronze statue and written tributes to Hank’s fallen lover. “Everyday can be like Dave & Buster’s,” thanks to the sand operation that Cristobal founded. The company is a tribute to the man Hank let die, whose memory lives on through every glass of small-batch kombucha served. The Raven is unimpressed.
This idea of tribute, and more importantly, who is and isn’t allowed to pay tribute, also become a sticking point for Cousineau. Following eight years on a kibbutz in Israel, where he learned the importance of community, Cousineau returns to Hollywood to stop the movie. The old Cousineau might have been doing this selfishly, probably hoping to play himself, nab a one-line cameo, or, at the very least, get a “Story By” credit. But today, he says he’s doing this for Janice. The movie glorifies a murderer for mindless entertainment and disrespects the memory of the woman he loved. Fuches and Cousineau have always been reflections of each other, which remains true. Cousineau can see through the Hollywood bullshit as quickly as Fuches sees through Nohobal. The only question is, how long will it last?
Visiting the crime boss you protected in prison is one thing; visiting the son you shot is another. Last seen grasping for life outside Cousineau’s front door, Leo welcomes his father to L.A. with unexpected ease. Maybe time heals all wounds, or he thinks there’s been an honest-to-goodness change in the man, but Leo seems more willing to meet than in the past.
The scene kicks off a series of instances where people must face and defend their versions of the past. Cousineau is now the egoless guru who, like Fuches, transcended his old wants and desires and replaced them with a new understanding of the world. The old Fuches was crafty and dishonest, but the Raven is a straight shooter. Cousineau is too. Taking him at his word—and before he can let us down again—Cousineau’s right. The Barry movie would make mindless entertainment out of Janice’s death. As always, violence is a mindless amusement on Barry—one needs only look at Barry’s dismissive chuckle at the “what guns do” poster for proof. There is no practical reason for Cousineau to sabotage the movie except it’s the right thing to do.
As clear-eyed as Cousineau is with his history, NoHo Hank is delusional. The Raven unsettles Hank as soon as he arrives, bringing the criminal element roaring back into Hank’s life. Now the owner of a trendy real estate firm, NoHo Hank is the stylish entrepreneur he always fancied himself. His colorful suits finally fit his surroundings. But, unfortunately, the Raven threatens to undo all that. So despite the hardy “let’s fucking go,” Carrigan looks as if he’s about to cry as he gazes into the canyon. Fuches’ arrival opened old wounds even before Fuches took out the knife.
While the Raven can shake off his ruffled feathers, NoHo Hank’s still wearing the same old suit. Hank might be living his best life as the savvy owner of some stunning Malibu properties, but his “NoHo Hourglass” is the stuff of legends. The Raven knows which way the trade winds blow as he lays the blame for Cristobal’s murder at Hank’s feet, cracking open the now-legitimate businessman and shucking out the grimy center with a mere mention of the silo slaughter. Finally, Raven reveals the truth: Hank’s Selling Sunset makeover is as unconvincing as Barry’s.
The reunions stand in direct contrast to Sally in this episode. Everything that happens in Nowheresville is a testament to how good Bill Hader has become at building suspense. Each scene is layered with such a gross display of parental neglect and abuse that every shot is the prelude to a disaster. Watching Sally burn the grilled cheese, pour some vodka into John’s juice, and then fight him for the good spot on the couch is cringe-inducing enough to break a bone.
Surprisingly, none of the expected disasters occurred after she passed out. She didn’t burn down the house. John didn’t overdose. The gun didn’t go off. Instead, Hader turns in another surreal home invasion, a darker version of Gene and Tom’s bumbling break-in earlier this season, featuring a slender dark figure and truck that drives into her house. It’s not entirely clear what even happened. When Sally escapes the room, her home is in shambles, but John remains passed out on the couch. He only comes to when Sally calls Barry, overhearing her use his real name.
Through all of this, Barry’s in Terminator mode. Well, if The Terminator was addicted to podcasts from megachurch pastors that can put Sally’s ridiculous “God’s anti-killing” theory to bed. He hunts Cousineau from Burbank airport to his home, shuffling through any show he can find that might offer some justification for murder. Barry barely had a plan for killing Cousineau, offering Sally some vague explanation that Cousineau’s version of things won’t be the truth. What even is the truth at this point? Because from our vantage, it mostly seems like Cousineau does know what happened. Barry is isolated and alone, fueled by revenge and self-righteousness. The glasses aren’t fooling anyone.
How much people can change is a constant tension in “the wizard.” No matter how much their hair, body, or jobs change, these characters are fundamentally the same people they’ve always been, especially Barry. Barry hasn’t changed. The disguise he’s been wearing is as childish as his understanding of good guys and bad guys. After all, he basically ripped the whole bespectacled man named “Clark” thing from Superman. Deep down, Barry can turn it back on. He needs the right reason and a purpose. So when he stumbles upon Pastor Nick Santangello’s podcast (Bill Burr’s dulcet tones are unmistakable), he finds it, taking every open door as a sign that he should go through with the killing. But still, when Cousineau’s grandson comes home, he hesitates and blows his chance.
Though it feels less revolutionary than last week’s descent into the sickly underbelly of Barry’s nightmares, this week doesn’t lack innovation. Trading the slow fades for abrupt cuts, the show threads its frayed strands into a single fuse and lights it. At its best, “the wizard” bends time, making Sally’s solo-parenting adventure one of the series’ most harrowing set pieces. Other times, though, “the wizard” can feel like a setup for next week. To that end, it’s surprising the episode ends with Barry in Moss’ garage instead of cutting to black after getting bagged outside Cousineau’s. But “the wizard,” as the song says, “just kept walking,” leaving us with a big unresolved knot in our stomachs.
Stray observations
- “Gene Cousineau, the D.A. would like to speak with you. Take two bites of that salad and come with me.”
- Hank has a lot of respect for Pepperdine University’s volleyball program.
- After the horrific fail videos from last week and the proximity to Sally’s parenting this week, I’m getting very concerned about John.
- After watching the home invasion with headphones, I’m pretty sure the slender man is Bevel. However, considering the paranoia in the household, Sally probably suspects something much larger at play.
- What’s so hard to understand, Gene? Tom needs a white glove moving service for his collection of rare Howdy Doody toys.
- Bill Burr was such a good choice for that final podcast. “On today’s podcast, we’re going to talk about how murder is definitely not a sin. Now, the Bible is filled with tons of righteous, justified killings. Most of them are my favorite parts of the book.”
- “I was there with the sand, yes.”
- “I worked really hard on that,” in reference to a burnt grilled cheese, is maybe the saddest thing ever said on the show.
- “You can’t really rank sins. You can’t say this one’s worse than that one. That’s not really how it works unless you’re talking about murder, of course.”
124 Comments
I still don’t like the time skip, I think it was a copout and disrupted the flow of the last 4 seasons. However, I still like the show a lot, but there’s now a Season Four dichotomy: The first half is excellent, and so far, the second not so much. I will say this episode was a large improvement over the last.
I feel exactly the opposite: The first part of this season was by far my least favorite run of episodes in the whole series, drawn-out and repetitive (how many different times can Fuches flip-flop about whether he loves or hates Barry?), and full of lazy contrivances (why is Barry in full-on prison if he hasn’t yet been convicted of anything?). Though there were a few elements I really liked in the early going—Sally’s final Hollywood adventures, and the way Hank and Cristobal’s relationship was resolved—I thought the time jump helped to kick the show out of a pretty bad rut, and the last couple episodes have been a lot more substantial and more inventive than the first four.
I agree. The first half of the season was the finale. The second half, after the jump, is the epilogue. Now we’re seeing what happened after the dust settled.
or do we?
That’s the thing with Hader the Director—we’re never quite sure, are we?
I’m with you. First half felt like an epilogue, and the show was just spinning its wheels until the end (up until the 4th episode). This back half now feels like a final season worthy of the show’s first three seasons.
He was convicted or he took a plea deal. That’s why he’s in prison. The season has been in a good flow since the premiere.
No, he definitely didn’t get convicted or take a plea. He gets thrown in the penitentiary immediately upon arrest (the corrections officers are watching the press conference announcing his arrest when he arrives), and one of the major storylines in the first few episodes is Gene meeting with the DA to plan Barry’s still-impending prosecution. If he’d already been convicted, the whole storyline about how Gene might fuck up the case by sharing his story with Lon O’Neil wouldn’t make sense.
you think people just get sent to prison without a conviction or a plea deal? Those press conferences could have been old press conferences.
I’m sorry, what? My point is that people don’t get sent to prison without conviction or a plea deal, so it’s a lazy contrivance that Barry does.And, no, it’s not an old press conference, because once Barry gets to prison, he immediately asks for a phone call and calls Gene, who’s still at the press conference. And Sally, who got on a plane at the end of last season before Barry got arrested, is still on the plane when that Barry/Gene conversation takes place, and learns about Barry’s arrest at the first time when she lands in the next scene. There is zero ambiguity that all these things are taking place simultaneously.
“(why is Barry in full-on prison if he hasn’t yet been convicted of anything?)“
*smh*
I need to watch the rest of the season to see if the time skip was worth it or not, because so far, I don’t see the point. Fuches going after Barry, Barry going after Gene, Moss catching Barry; it’s business as usual. The changes brought on by the time-skip are largely superficial. Marvelous Ms. Maisel is also doing time jumps right now, and it feels kind of like I’ve missed 10 seasons of the show, but in a good way. It doesn’t feel disorienting or confusing because of all the exposition. Its like the story we were following continued without us. It feels like the writers wrote decades worth of stories in broad strokes. Here, it feels like the story stalled and it didn’t progress for years, and now it’s picking up from where it left off, making the time-skip feel unnecessary. My guess is that Barry will die. Having him be older, married, with a kid makes it feel more satisfying, as opposed to him dying young and never getting with Sally.
I still don’t like the time jump. It feels like a copout and disrupts the flow of the last 4 seasons. Now the current season has a dichotomy: the first half is excellent, the second not so much. However, episode six was a large improvement over five.
I like how the name of Hank’s company is his relationship portmanteau. He must feel Cristobal’s presence always, and not just because of the statue to him.
And on today’s podcast we’re gonna talk about how murder is definitely not a sin. Now, the Bible is filled with tons of righteous and justified killings. Most of them are my favorite part of the book.
Bill Burr was a great choice for that pastor because the pastor is kind of a mirror image of him. Burr’s persona is definitely angry; he definitely has anger problems; but as far as I know he’s not actually a violent person. The pastor doesn’t sound angry at all, but he is an unrepentant murderer who is much too comfortable with that.
Guaranteed that “pastor” has a good two dozen podcast episodes in which he rationalizes Trump as a man of god.
I mean… yeah, probably, but I think murdering someone during a hockey game and showing no remorse or repentance for it is worse.
I saw Bill Burr yesterday, at the restaurant where we were having mother’s day dinner! If I’d known he was on Barry I would have… probably not done anything different.I didn’t get a chance to talk to him but if I did I’d probably have said, “Hey, you’re the guy from Zombeaver!”
Burr has been my favorite working standup for about a decade now, but I probably still would’ve done something stupid like yell out “Oh, it’s BRUTAL!” in a terrible Bill Burr impression.
Another scene that feels like we’re playing GTA-starring-Barry-Berkman.
Excellent directing by Hader in the home invasion scene. The abrupt reveal of the black-clad slender man behind Sally was a good horror movie surprise. I don’t know if every thing that followed was exactly real. Sally did hear the last words of the guy she killed. Likely over a real ripping out of her wall and a real guy in black messing up her house. But maybe Sally in her misery got drunk and messed up the house herself and imagined the truck tearing a hole in her wall, as a light metaphor for her real, angry self kept repressed. Though we didn’t get any indication that she passes out and sleepwalks last episode, and the intruder being Bevel would fit the guy who rang Barry’s doorbell last episode.Last we saw Fuches he realized he loved Barry and tried to protect him. Maybe spending eight years in prison made him blame Barry and hate him. Or maybe he wants to find Barry for non-revenge, brotherly reasons.
There’s nothing quite like following up a “Excellent directing by Hader” with 2 paragraphs illustrating complete confusion, uncertainty and bafflement about what actually happened in the scene and ep, complete with 3 “maybe”s.
She did hear the last words of the biker she stabbed in the eye. There is literary tradition, I think, of a person’s shadow following them. Ok, that may be a reach. How did the guy lock her in the bedroom and how did she escape? Did we see her removing an obstacle from the door? Who would do this? Bevel? I guess he could be upset with her for getting him fired. Yeah, probably real but I like the idea that Sally is so repressed that she had a dark side she doesn’t know about (like a character in Yellowjackets) doing these things. Interesting to guess what the point of giving Sally an enemy would be in these final episodes. It might end with her actually killing another person.
I read an interview with Hader in The Wrap this morning that confirms the shadow man was a figment of her imagination, “a manifestation of her guilt,” as Hader put it. The voices started with the biker she killed, followed by other cast members. The only people in the house were Sally and John.He only talked about how they shot the truck scene, so it seems that may have been a real, totally random coincidence.
ok that’s exactly what transpired so good.
He confirmed what I thought it was, but it could just as easily been something else.Seriously, with the right scripts Hader could be the 21st Century Hitchcock.
Here’s a thought: that scene was supposed to be confusing because Sally lives in a haze of alcoholic despair and PTSD. So writing and directing a scene where the audience is as disoriented and scared as Sally immerses us in the world of the show more fully and gives us more empathy for the characters of Sally and John. Sometimes “excellent directing” means doing something off the wall and interesting.
yeah some people take things too litterally that’s annoying.
Yeah I keep wondering if everything involving their life out in the middle of nowhere like that is ultimately going to be revealed to be a hallucination. Seems purposefully dream-like. Or nightmare-like, I suppose.
There’s nothing quite like following up a “Excellent directing by Hader” with 2 paragraphs illustrating complete confusion, uncertainty and bafflement about what actually happened in the scene and ep, complete with 3 “maybe”s.Not a big David Lynch fan?
so the exact feelings he was trying to convey; what’s your point?
You do realize that’s the point, yes?
Eat shit and die, pleb. Ever think that maybe the scene was supposed to be confusing? Maybe you’re not fucking smart enough to watch tv so maybe you should guzzle some bleach instead. Stick to watching Big Bang Theory, you worthless ball prolapse of a human being.
I wondered if Sally had destroyed the house, too. Initially, when the shadow man was behind her, I thought she knew he was there and was going to lure him away from John into the bedroom, where the gun was assembled and ready, and dispatch him with precision. That would have been completely out of character for her, but I still kind of wanted to see her do *something* that indicates she wanted to protect that poor kid. Fuches is the one that really throws me. Maybe he feels like Barry abandoned him? I thought his Rainman realization was his great epiphany and didn’t think he’d turn on Barry again. I guess we’ll find out next week.
Huh, I never considered the possibility that Sally hadn’t destroyed the house or that there really was a third person there.
In hindsight, I guess I should have realized it for sure wasn’t a person in the house with them. Because this show tends to throw curveballs (ala the sand swallow in the silo), I had myself convinced Sally couldn’t have done all that damage on her own, but I was for sure wrong.
I’m still confused on what exactly is Sally scared about losing.
She’s clearly miserable, treats her child like less than a pet (although there hasn’t been a real confirmation that she birthed him…hmm…), doesn’t have much going with her life…so what the hell is all this fear over?
That scene gave me echoes of the believed kid who witnesses the car bombing in twin peaks: the return.
yeah that’s what I thought too. I think kids rang the bell in the last episode; you can hear them giggle.
Don’t like what’s being said about a topic? Keep trying different speakers until you find the one you like.
I was thrown by the barista subplot and it took me a bit to just dismiss as quirky. Also what proof was that vodka? And what was “The Gimp” doing at Barry’s house?I dunno, of course going to watch how it all plays out, but they sure seem to be throwing a lot at the wall to see what sticks such as if Hank is running a real b
When the barista joined them— and the way Fuches talked about her and her daughter at dinner— I assumed she’d been writing him on the inside, something like that. (Sort of a Selma / Sideshow Bob situation, if you will.)
“I dunno, of course going to watch how it all plays out, but they sure seem to be throwing a lot at the wall to see what sticks”Careful – I dared to point this out last week (and this week’s ep backs the assessment up) and faint-hearted fanbois are *still* crying at me in fragile comments.
I don’t think this show, or Hader, have the kind fanatical following of uncritical fans you seem to think they do. You called him “the beloved Hader” last week, and I just don’t see it. Also I just went back to last week’s review and read that comment thread. One guy did reply today, probably because he just caught up, but no one is crying. You’re really mischaracterizing the response to your post. People replied because they didn’t agree with your assesment of the show.
yeah also the only reason we like hader so much is because of the creative growth he’s shown working on this show specifically. it’s not like we were huge fans of bill hader’s directing before this – this is the first real thing he’s done!the thread was also largely people talking amongst themselves, not calling OP out.
Yeah, I don’t know why he’d lie about something that anyone could go back and read for themselves.
And you bringing up a week later that people disagreed with you? That doesn’t read fragile at all. Not even a little bit.
Oh, I see your schtick. You’re a lifeless loser who doesn’t have the balls to jump in front of a car, like you should, so you spend your entire life trolling comments sections of shows with a following, to be contrarian, because it’s the only way you’ll ever feel important in your sad and lonely life. It must suck to have accomplished nothing and to be nothing, so you spend your days in a cloud of jealous inadequacy, swinging at the world that others love. You’ll die alone and you know it but you want the rest of us to suffer through your words while you’re still here.
“Also what proof was that vodka?”Was this your first episode?
Huh?(I’d guess 80 proof. Most vodkas are.)
I don’t think they’re saying they don’t believe that it’s vodka. They’re asking the alcohol percentage (or, double the alcohol percentage, technically, since that’s what “proof” is).
Ha! “The Gimp”.
it was all going on in Barry’s head as he was living his final moments in the prison; shot by a guard.
(I wrote this as the joke before reading all the mad theories around this)
That’s exactly the end of “Jacob’s Ladder” from years ago. I hope Hader doesn’t go that route.Maybe something more Lynchian. Summon the Log Lady!
Not another Jacob’s Ladder scenario!
And, Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
I thought the home invasion was a nightmare at first, it was so awful. I do think that Bevel was out for revenge.
I honestly don’t think Bevel has the balls to confront Sally. She scared the crap out of him.
While the time jump seemed a little surreal at first, it’s making a lot more sense as other characters are reappearing. – Gene living in a kibbutz for eight years actually seems like something he’d do. – NoHo Hank building a shrine to Cristobal is something I’d expect him to do. – Fuches fully embracing his Raven persona after eight years in the can seems reasonable.And finally, Moss staking out Gene’s house for eight years waiting for Barry to make his move is something I can totally see him doing.As for Sally’s experience in the house while John slept off his buzz, I think it was in her head. Did a truck actually hit her house? Maybe, but I think the masked intruder was a manifestation of her guilty conscience.
Re Moss, my guess is that he hadn’t been continually staking out Gene’s house for eight years, but heard that Gene was in town and guessed (correctly) that Barry would go there.
That’s most likely the case, but I like the idea of Moss diligently keeping watch.
Oh for sure; and I wouldn’t blink twice if this show did reveal that Moss had been staking it out for eight years. It’s the kind of show where that kind of thing works.
The man’s nothing if not thorough.
I thought the masked man might have been her imagination, but how can she hallucinate something thats not in her field of view?
I think it was a visual representation for our benefit—a way to show what she was feeling.
I noticed James Austin Johnson listed in the credits for tonight. Don’t recall seeing him and IMDB doesn’t list a character, was wondering if he provided a voice? Burr has credit for his voiceover but after obvious Bill he was listening to other preachers. I am not sure about the home invasion sequence either, he announced himself but snuck in with a catsuit? Then slammed the door in the bedroom but ended up outside the room and said she did something to his eyes? Upset the kid was not breathing but attacked the house with a truck? A lot of disconnects during the whole piece, not sure if it was true or not?
I also sawr Chris Parnell listed in the credits but couldn’t figure that one out.
It was Charles Parnell, from The Venture Bros. and Top Gun: Maverick.
ahh shoot, you’re right. Eh, it was a long day, what can I say?
I just know him from Archer.
Also Noah and Nicky’s dad on Grand Crew, which is a pretty good network sitcom I don’t think many people watch.
Admiral Bates is a Blackula hunter – he hunts blackulas! He don’t know what the PC term for that is!
Charles Parnell is DA Buckner, not Chris.
I thought the same. I believe Johnson was the second preacher/podcast.
Yes! I just read an interview with Hader about JAJ being the second Preacher.
Johnson was one of the podcast pastors.
Thank you! I read The Wrap interview with Hader this AM recapping the episode and he gave credit to him as the second Pastor voice. I am usually great with voice-over recognition but do not know Johnson well enough to pinpoint it. I listened again and will have to study him more. Even amateurs can I.D. Burr!
Johnson is a skilled mimic, almost as good as Darrell Hammond. He can sound like anyone he wants. I didn’t realized it was him until I read the Wrap article.
I could recognize Hammond a good percentage of the time but he puts a lot of work into pace, tone and inflection and still is underrated as a superb imitator. Hader has his talents too but I think as young as Johnson is and as hard as he works on submersing his own vocal qualities with a character, he might pass them both.
I think you’re right. I didn’t know Johnson is only 33. He’s already a vocal chameleon. He’s only going to get better.As for Hammond, I wondered how he would sound when they named him as the new announcer after Don Pardo died. I didn’t realize he’d already been filling in for Pardo for years. His impression was that good.
I’d thought that the whole ‘walking through the house with the shadow behind her’ was what was going on inside Sally’s head when the scumbag from last week showed up to attack her. She completely disassociated from herself as they had the brutal fight that tore up the living room and she stuck something in his eye. The shadow being the ‘dark Sally’ who murdered someone, which is why it locks her in the bedroom, i.e. a protected part of her mind.
Very effective segment, put me on edge and creeped me out even though I realized a lot of it didn’t make sense, he was yelling, disappeared, and then popped in behind her while the audio and visual seemed like a manufactured reality; she is drunk but in her own world. Thinking about what you mentioned, if she is disassociated to such a degree she destroys the house and puts the kid in danger she is way more broken than clueless Barry suspects.
Someone needs to make a list of NoHo Hank’s malapropisms. Anthony Carrigan delivers them so confidently and nonchalantly that it would be easy to miss them (“place de resistance”).
“Look what the cat brought in the house.” (Not a malapropism per se, but still made me chuckle.)
it’s funny because the correct “pièce de résistance” americanism is something we french never use; we say “plat de résistance”. remind me of the “petty bourgeois” expression when we say “petit bourgeois”.
To me a lot of this time jump seems like a delusional fantasy. As though we’re going to find out that we’re seeing Barry’s break from reality once he was arrested. Too many things are just wrong about the story we’re being told.
I agree. His hair and entire look seems different when he’s trapped in the chair.
His being clean shaven at the end really has me wondering if we’ve been watching Jim’s psychological rewiring of Barry. The single pink doughnut, the lone house in the middle of nowhere, the blankness of the kid, the James Wan home invasion…Jury’s out until Sunday, I guess. But yeah, Barry’s reality doesn’t feel like reality.
What if…the end of this episode was Barry playing Barry in the film that is coming out.
the break from reality would be most likely when he goes to get Sally two episodes ago. The FBI psycho follows him here (I think?), and we never question how they go away without him arresting them. Although it was at Sally’s apartment; not Gene.
The fact that he goes straight to prison instead of jail and apparently without a trial is ridiculous. I think Moss turns to the swat guys and says, “I’ll take it from here fellas” and what we are seeing in the time jump is what Barry is doing to cope with the torture that Moss is putting Barry through. Like the movie Brazil.
my favourite use of a time-jump is in Battlestar Galatica and in No Country for Old Men. both soooo cool.
I think Parks & Rec actually used it to great effect!
i liked it in the ending of six feet under a lot.
Also in Jane the Virgin, but in all those cases, except for Parks and Rec, I wonder: was the rest of the series actually set X years in the past, or is the post-jump series set in our future? The bulk of Barry can’t reasonably be 8 years in the past, if only because the industry wasn’t at its crazy “cancel a streaming show the second day” point yet; so is it now 2031 on the show?
It’s the smartest thing a long-running show with a high school or college setting can do, given how old the actors usually are when the show debuts.
BSG’s time jump blew my mind, although that was creeping up on 20 years ago at this point, and so many shows have done time jumps since then that it’s not nearly as stunning a technique. The vagaries of TV production mean that you can’t really do something audacious like plan a multi-season show with large time jumps in it, unless it’s something close to a sure thing for multiple seasons and/or based on preexisting material (e.g. House of the Dragon, on both counts—note that I am not endorsing that show’s quality; in fact I hate it). I bet if you mapped the use of time jumps, they would be disproportionately weighted toward the final season of a show, when you already know it’s going to end so you can do something “audacious.”
Barry’s facial hair and overall look seems entirely different in that last scene. Was the time jump just a fantasy?
Did anyone else notice that Barry is cleanshaven once the bag is taken off of his head when in Jim’s garage? I wonder if that scene is actually a flashback. Maybe Jim “reprogrammed” Barry to be a good Christian like he reprogrammed the reporter to be German. Or maybe all the “flash forward” stuff is just some sort of psychoanalysis tactic caused by Jim. I’m not really sure but I’m curious how it all plays out.
Definitely noticed his shave. He looked younger too but maybe it was just the beard that made him looked aged. Your guess is as good as any…the show is too smart to miss something like Barry’s beard lol
That ending scene made me think the time jump was just another one of Barry’s fantasies, just really drawn out.
that’s an explanation worth consideration (a lot of things are way too outthere since last episode; including the “home invasion” and meal with the barista and her daughter politely smiling at accounts of murders)
The show has never been grounded in reality though, it’s always been totally ridiculous. Things happen that would never happen in real life, and we go with it because that’s how the show works. Remember the little martial artist girl? The motorcycle chase or all the other times Barry should have been caught. The whole reason the motorcycle people wanted revenge, not cause of the dead brother, but because of a hot-tub debt. The client of Barry’s who forgave the guy he wanted dead in like fifteen seconds when Barry walked to his car?
absolutely. but it’s been more and more surreal since the time jump.
“Remember the little martial artist girl?
Yes.
Do you, um, think that girl is not real?
“The whole reason the motorcycle people wanted revenge, not cause of the dead brother, but because of a hot-tub debt.”
And? Some people don’t have a great relationship with their brother but do need money.
Are you *at all* familiar with “real life”?
“The client of Barry’s who forgave the guy he wanted dead in like fifteen seconds when Barry walked to his car?”
Some day you’ll have actual interactions with real people.
oh boy I went to see the show’s reddit and it’s raging there.
The more exposure we get to the future, the more I like it. NO ONE HAS DIED in the past two episodes, which has ratcheted the tension way up. Even when “The Raven” challenges Hank no one moves to hurt him, which is not how things would have gone down in the past. I’m so excited to see the last two episodes. The end is either going to be long and painful or a total bloodbath. Or maybe both.
Counterpoint: This show kinda sucks now. Much like Ted Lasso, I’m only continuing to watch because I already have so much time invested. I don’t like any of the characters. Which is fine. I don’t like any of the Roy kids either. The difference is, I don’t particularly care what happens to any of the Barry characters, either.
I definitely feel like both shows have lost their way a bit the last two seasons, although they still have their good elements and episodes. In each case, they’ve both gotten away from the tight plotting that made them great and bought into their hype a bit too much: Ted Lasso that it’s a feel-good show that should teach life lessons; Barry that it’s a prestigious show that should do all the flashy directing and plot stalling all those other prestigious shows do.
Entitled Vagina WomanlolCome on, now, we’re all adults here.
Didn’t someone actually call her that in the show instead of the actual word, though?
Her acting student’s agent used that. I think it’s funnier.
It might even have been “UNtitled vagina woman.”
I’m waiting for The Raven/Social Distortion memes.
Bad, bad luck
Does anyone know what the home invader actually did? I’ve watched the scene several times, and *he* is the one to close the door behind Sally, so everything that happens afterwards doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense if it’s real.
kinda feels like how in the shining the guy in nicholson’s head lets him out of the freezer. thought it might be a reference.
The most terrifying moments of Barry have no soundtrack. No music to deflate or create dramatic distance. Just pure ambient sound to make everything that much more disturbing. The time jump has been the least gripping element to this series, but that’s compared to the stratospheric heights last season achieved. So, still pretty terrific. Sally’s PTSD scene was fantastic. The screams, the creepy shadow, the upended house. All of it was pitch perfect. And man am I ready for some Jim Moss action.
I think sure the “home invasion” didn’t happen and was playing in Sally’s head. the whole line of the guy about the eye is the exact same as the one she killed in the sound booth. No way she didn’t hear the grotesque masked man. what I understand is she goes berzerk and locks the relatively sane version of her in her room. However you look at it this scene has no ground in the reality of the show; however surreal it already is.
The show’s kind of jumping the Director’s Chair now.. The last two episodes have played out like one of Barry’s fever dreams (like the brilliant beach scene) but when you couch OTHERS in reality around it, it becomes a narrative mess. The idea he has been brainwashed in to imagining Sally trashing the house in her own hallucination, and all of the machinations with the other characters… that’s what is implied by him waking up clean-shaven and looking younger in the end scene. You lose your investment in the story when you feel like the writers are just making shit up – and that has happened a LOT of late with streaming shows and star-vehicle miniseries. The directing is still very creative, and the acting is fantastic, but they lost the plot somewhere.
Brilliant episode. Does anyone else get a Cohen Brothers vibe for the whole series this season? Hader is stealing form the best and his directing has been one of the best surprises of the season.