Barry (Season 4) Episode 3: The two-episode premiere of Barry Season 4 followed his early days in prison. We see him enter with rage for getting betrayed by the acting coach, Gene Cousineau. Barry reflected on the past events where he was indoctrinated to become a morally ambiguous hitman.
Sally returned from Joplin after getting hostile treatment from her parents. Somehow, she ended up saying that she felt rather safe with Barry, which created its own set of complications. After realizing her reality post-dating Barry Berkman, she had a hard time accepting her fate. In the end, Gene advised her to pursue teaching acting to other aspirants.
Now, the latest episode mostly follows Barry’s plan of getting out of prison. While Hank and Fuches are plotting revenge on him for ratting them out, Sally is trying to embrace her new profession as an acting coach.
“Spoilers Ahead*
Barry (Season 4) Episode 3 Recap:
Episode 3: You’re Charming
Earlier, we saw NoHo Hank (played by Anthony Carrigan) & Cristobal (played by Michael Irby) bring two rival parties together in their crew to start their legitimate sand business. The new episode starts with a gang member sitting on a truck full of sand, holding a gun in his hand. The truck arrives at the facility, and all the members start cheering in joy while watching the sand being poured down. Hank & Cristobal are both happy to see the quick progress of their business. That’s when they see El Toro (played by the legendary filmmaker Guillermo del Toro)
Toro came there for his mission to get Barry Berkman (played by Bill Hader) killed. Remember the final moments of episode 2 when Hank says that he wants to kill Barry? Seems like the wheels started rolling right away on that plan. Toro says that the hit will surely happen the same day, by his two best guys – Nestor and Chewy Flores. These two brothers have a hilarious podcast where they talk about gadgets that do not work. Hank is a fan of this podcast and has a laugh about it. Cristobal wonders how having recognizable faces doesn’t imperil their hitman jobs.
Toro explains – ‘It’s not TikTok, it’s a podcast. You hear them, but you don’t see their faces.’ But doesn’t that defeat the purpose of doing a product review since people can’t see the products? Well, there’s a product link underneath the podcast. But how does that make sense if someone listens to the podcast while driving a car? Looks like someone did not think thoroughly about their podcast. Will that come in between their hit job? Toro does not like being doubted and silences them with just a stare. Anyhow, the irreverent back-and-forth remains on-brand for Barry and is simultaneously amusing and threatening.
Gene (played by Henry Winkler) and Tom Posorro (played by Fred Melamed) meet DA Buckner (played by Charles Parnell) to learn that Barry has decided to cooperate with the FBI agents in exchange for getting out of jail. Gene is justifiably worried since he is willing to testify against Barry. Tom asks if there are any protocols to prevent motivated hits and protect Gene. DA believes the authorities can’t if a person is an ex-military official. Rather, he asks Gene if he has any gun on him. So now, Gene is even more terrified for his life. Is it that easy for a criminal to be free? He starts worrying about his safety.
On their drive back, Gene tells Tom that he spoke with the Vanity Fair journalist Lon O’Neil (played by Patrick Fischler) about the Barry case. Tom crashes his car in surprise at the godawful mistake his friend made. If the story gets published, it will create even more problems. To stop the article from coming out, Tom decides to drive up to Lon’s house to threaten him. Gene looks for a way to unlock his door. Tom rather breaks the window to his house with a big rock. He is clearly impatient.
They get in and start looking for a place where Lon might have stored the article. Tom somehow thinks it is in Lon’s monitor. ‘He has got one of these new-age monitors. They have everything stored in the monitors, ’ Pete assumes. Gene understands that they need to destroy the hard drive. By then, Mrs. O’Neil (played by Ricka Kreutz) walks in from the garden to see these two old men wreaking havoc in her house.
Lon goes to Jim Moss’s (played by Robert Wisdom) house to know details from his side. He says that he spoke to Barry, who thinks Gene is railroading him since he spoke about the murder in detail. Jim only smiles and maintains his menacing silence. Soon after, Gene drives to Jim’s house to ask if Lon came to ask him about anything. Jim questions Gene for giving a one-man show to Lon out of desperation. ‘You can’t be trusted; you have to be isolated’ Jim is determined to do it himself.
Back in prison, Barry shares all the connections he knows from the cartels he worked for. So, the FBI agents get a precise roadmap to work with. They also learn that Hank and Cristobal are not a couple. Turns out, Barry wanted protection for Sally once he gets out. He wants her to get a chance to start a new life with a new identity and leave behind the mess he created in her current life.
Barry gets a surprise visitor – Lon, who asks to corroborate Gene’s story about him. Barry learns that his name will be published in the same magazine that had Julia Roberts on its cover a while ago. However, it does not distract him from the fact that Gene spoke against him. He gets mad and starts to shout out his anger in the wide and empty space. Why would Gene do this to him after all that he did for Gene? Barry asks himself.
Fuches is trolled in prison for getting betrayed by his close associate. His simmering anger leads him to call Hank. Fuches wants to take the matter into his own hands and get rid of the nuisance. Hank says that Barry won’t be a problem the next day, meaning he will be killed. While Hank gets rid of this problem, yet another one comes knocking on his door.
Hank’s old Chechen associate, Batir (played by JB Blanc), comes to his warehouse to see the new business he built with their enemies. Batir shares the threat to Hank and his new organization if he does not get his act clean. Meanwhile, Barry’s anger makes him call Hank and asks for a hit on Gene for old times’ sake. Hank reveals that he knows about Barry’s betrayal. He is deeply hurt that Barry spoke with the feds and refused to help since he lied about it. ‘You’re only trying to save yourself,’ Hank says. Seeing this option not work out for him, Barry starts revealing his layer of toxic masculinity.
On the other hand, Sally takes Gene’s advice seriously and starts teaching a group of wide-eyed actors. She starts out awkwardly and then speaks about the elephant in the room. ‘Who is here because she is the ‘entitled cunt girl?’ She is not over her character assassination. Turns out, the media cares, but these actors care less about it. They are there, regardless, to genuinely get some lessons. She urges them to find the ugliest, most vulnerable sides of themselves to channel honest emotions.
Then, she sees the young talent coming one after the other on the stage to share their bits of acting. They are dull, uninspired, and lack a human element; thus, they end up boring Sally. Then, Kristen (played by Ellyn Jameson) walks up on the stage and says just a single line from Sunset Boulevard. That’s it. Apparently, seeing everyone else reading out monologues from movies made her feel left out. She wanted to impress and, thus, googled just a ‘famous movie quote’ and recited that.
Sally gets angrier at Kirsten’s appalling lack of motivation. She figures out that Kirsten has already bagged an acting gig and is there to get some quick acting lessons. Wasn’t she better than this shallow person? She starts projecting her own insecurities for not making it as big as quickly. Through that, she directs Kirsten toward realizing her entitlement. She mirrors her coach, Gene, with an inciting lesson that plays out identically to how Gene incited her. It worked for her, and she believed it was ideal for everyone, including Kirsten. She gets Kirsten to ‘that’ place, where she gets a better understanding of her own humanity and says her line with genuine emotion.
Sally gets delighted to see Kirsten reach that place. Her students are not nearly as inspired by it. They rather find her method abusive. ‘But that’s the Gene Cousineau method of acting. That’s what you are there to learn, right?’ She fails to convince them. Besides, she fails to see how her own ‘being in touch with her feelings’ need not have come from an abusive method. So it begs us to ask many questions. Is Sally out of touch, or are her students just too sensitive, as the old folks say? Has Sally normalized abuse in her life to the point she is okay with it being her acting tool?
Even if the answer is yes, is there a way to realize one’s darker thoughts without hitting a nerve or two? Isn’t asking yourself a difficult question a part of self-realization? Alas, we will keep looking for healthier ways to tackle our lessons.
Barry (Season 4) Episode 3 Ending, Explained:
Jim says that Lon has been taken care of and that he won’t be talking for a while. Back at his home, Lon and his wife sit with their therapist. Lon looks like he suffered a terrible beating. His wife said that she found him like that on the porch. Suddenly, Lon starts muttering in German and behaves as if he does not even know his wife. Jim sure has done a number on him. Meanwhile, Kirsten returns to the acting class to tell Sally that she wants to push herself for the role and not take things for granted.
Why does Fuches get emotional watching Rain Man?
In prison, Fuches sees Barry Levinson’s Rain Man being screened on television. He sees Tom Cruise’s suave, selfish Charlie using Dustin Hoffman’s autistic Raymond for money. It reminds him of his own relationship with Barry and how he used a purposeless soul to make himself feel fulfilled. While Barry is being walked to special housing, Fuches alerts the guards about the hit on Barry. They find Fuches foolish and refuse to care about his blabbering. So, he shouts at other inmates about it.
Does Barry get out of prison?
Meanwhile, Barry speaks with a few FBI agents about his deal for himself and for Sally. They assure him that he need not worry about their safety. Barry notices a man standing behind them, dripping with sweat and shivering. He warns the agents about it, and they say that Nestor (played by Bill’s SNL alumni companion – Fred Armisen) is completely harmless. Barry, however, is certain that he isn’t. Nestor soon proceeds to kill Barry. Instead, he ends up hurting himself.
Then, a gun from the ceiling starts shooting all the agents and a police officer. Barry notices that just in time and kills that man with a revolver. After Fuches finds the detainees, chaos ensues inside the prison. The guards try to control both sides – inside the special housing cell beside the prison. The jail warden (played by Richard Riehle) walks into the housing cell with a few guards to see Barry has left. Like him, we are also left with asking – ‘Where’s Berkman?’
It is still unclear whether Barry has left the prison or not, although he looked determined to escape because of his anger toward Gene and Hank. He may have left just to set the score straight with them. Also, good for Sally that she has started to embrace her new reality. It, by no means, justifies what Barry did to her. However, it is good to see her realize that life goes on whether you decide to move on or not. Besides, the episode yet again presents Bill Hader’s love for movies through Del Toro’s hilarious cameo and the Rain Man reference.
