​​Barry (Season 4), Episode 5: Recap & Ending Explained – Why does Barry say he wants to kill Gene? 

Barry (Season 4), Episode 5 Recap & Ending Explained:  After evading conviction for years, Barry Berkman finally got imprisoned for the murder of Janice Moss. However, he manages to escape after someone makes an assassination attempt on his life. While everyone associated with him gets scared, fearing he will try to kill them, he shows up at Sally’s house and starts begging for forgiveness. Sally stops him and says, ‘Let’s go.’ After that shocking reaction, we see much-older versions of Barry and Sally in a house in a barren desert, trying to raise a kid of their own.

As a viewer, I am unsure whether this is the reality of the couple’s lives after a few years or just Barry’s projection. Nevertheless, the latest episode takes a deep dive into their lives as these new versions of themselves try to raise a kid. Barry tries to teach his son about the ‘tricky legacies’ of people while leading a seemingly normal life.

*Spoilers ahead* 

Barry (Season 4), Episode 5 Recap:

Episode 5: tricky legacies

Why does Barry’s son not know about Call of Duty?

The previous episode ended with Barry (Bill Hader), a father of a teenager named John Jr (Zachary Golinger), stopping his fighting with another kid named Travis (Sander Thomas). Travis found it weird that John Jr does not even know about Call of Duty despite its popularity. Now Barry takes John back to Travis to apologize for getting in a fight with him. Barry notes that video games aren’t allowed in their house. Travis also finds that weird.

Nevertheless, Barry guides his son not to be swayed by his insecurities and let his anger take control of him. He appreciates that his son took responsibility for his actions instead of denying any mistake. It almost seems like he was trying to tell himself those things and to be a better human being.

Meanwhile, Sally (Sarah Goldberg) gets ready for her job. She puts on a brunette wig over her blonde hair and works on her disguise while humming by herself. Before leaving, she overhears some video that Barry is making their son listen to about Abraham Lincoln. She grunts at him before leaving.

In a local diner, Sally brings order to some working-class folks while some country music plays in the background. They seem to be regulars at the place and, thus, know Sally pretty well. It turns out she now goes by Emily. While she pours them some coffee, Ginny (Emily Spivey) asks her to join to take a Xanny. She talks about Amber, probably her daughter, making it to a cheer squad. Sally feigns some excitement. Ginny invites Sally for a big shindig. She makes up an excuse not to attend it – some Clark’s mom that she needs to take care of.

Ginny tells Sally that Bevel (Spenser Granese) jerks off to her. Sally does not understand how to respond to it. Later, Bevel keeps buzzing her ear while she works. She gives some generic responses. After her shift, Barry calls her and talks about the lessons John Jr is getting about Abe Lincoln. ‘What else did you guys learn about him?’ she asks. It not only shows her ennui but also how she believes Barry does not know enough about it to teach someone else. She then just changes the subject to let go of the awkwardness.

Back at home, during dinner, Barry keeps talking about Old Abe and how John Jr needs to understand using a mix of pragmatism, optimism, and compromise in his life. Sally seconds his opinion because ‘those are the building blocks for anyone worth their salt.’ Barry calls Abe an intricate part of their lives. It is almost as if they are role-playing these perfect Christian people archetypes.

Later, at night, Barry argues with her about how she needs to lessen her alcohol consumption. He wants her to find other ways to unwind. It seems difficult for her to do so. After some time, he watches a video of ‘Hero Exposed,’ where someone points out the things that make Lincoln a questionable figure in history. Sally watches a video of Natalie’s (D’Arcy Carden) comedy show and seems just as angry as before how Natalie capitalized on her skills.

The next day, Barry sits down with his son to show him a video where a minister talks about straying away from the path of God. Their family of three pretends to play the roles of a respectable Christian family. Later, John Jr asks Barry why his mom cries at night a lot. Barry says how there’s a difference between a good cry, a bad cry, and the ‘Mom cry.’ Barry talks about his struggle to calm down Emily/Sally. ‘You need to stop yelling,’ he recalls saying.

Meanwhile, John Jr gets mesmerized while watching some guys playing baseball. He joins Travis, who teaches him how to throw properly. Travis invites him for more lessons. John Jr seems genuinely interested in the sport. ‘Why does your mother wear a wig,’ Travis asks afterward. John Jr can’t think of what to answer. While he unpacks some boxes with Barry later at home, he asks why he didn’t get the comforter he wanted. Barry recounts some stories about the hardships people used to face  – to teach his son how he needs to be content with what he has.

Later, Barry notices a baseball glove hidden behind a box. He realizes John Jr went behind his back to play this sport. So, Barry shows him a video to demonstrate how dangerous the sport is. It instills fear in him to the degree that he ends up waking up in the middle of the night. He asks Sally to join him to go to sleep. She dejectedly joins him and has a hard time being a warm, affectionate mother stereotype.

Maybe because of thinking whether her life has ended up being just about being a mother, Sally decides to do something bizarre or just plain impulsive. She strikes up a conversation with Bever about his brother’s robbery attempt. ‘How did that make him feel,’ she asks. He finds that question odd. Why would someone want to know that? Who cares about feelings? The man must have been thinking about the consequences of his actions. He believes.

Sally keeps praising Bever in a way that would lead him to her. Then, she goes to the washroom, he follows her, and she sighs after getting close to him. She starts kissing him, and within moments, she ends up choking him. He starts grunting and holds onto her skull. He ends up taking her wig off. She slaps him hard, and he assures her he will never tell on her to anyone. She terrifies him with this conduct, which completely changes his perception of her.

Why is the episode titled ‘tricky legacies’?

John Jr finds a frame with Barry’s medals from the war. Barry ends up accepting that he was in the Marines. He says how ‘they’ called him a hero, but he did not want to put labels on things. Later, during their dinner, Barry tries to shatter the perception of an absolute hero in John Jr’s mind by bringing examples of the bad things that the known legends, such as Abraham Lincoln and Mahatma Gandhi, did. He tries to bring emphasis to the tricky nature of such legacies.

Barry (Season 4), Episode 5 Ending Explained:

Who knocks on Barry’s door?

At midnight, someone suddenly knocks on their door. Barry takes out a gun from the back of a painting while Sally tells John Jr to hide in their bathtub. Barry walks out to keep a vigil throughout the night. Sally stays in the same bathtub for the entire night. While I don’t have a clear answer as to who knocked on the door, I believe it is rather their paranoia speaking. It may just be Bever because of his anger at Sally. But that seems incredibly simple of an explanation.

Why does Gene Cousineau want to meet the Warner Brothers head?

Back in LA, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) walks into the Warner Brothers HQ to meet with the person who runs it. His agent walks up to Gene, suspicious about Gene’s identity since he was known to be dead. Gene says he was out of the country for a while. She says she can’t believe he is Gene since Gene has been dead for eight years, as per the sources. Anyhow, she makes him wait right there.

Sally talks to an old man about Bevel stealing from the diner. The man laments believing in Bevel attempting a clean livin’. Back at home, Sally sees Natalie’s new video online while gulping down her pain with some alcohol. On the other hand, Barry tells a bedtime story from the time he was in the Marines. However, he changes the part where he killed a man from the opposite side – maybe because we all have tendencies to mask the bad parts of our lives.

Why does Barry say he wants to kill Gene?

While watching Natalie’s video of her getting emotional due to a fan’s reaction toward their show, Sally notices a Google alert under the name of Barry Berkman. She screams out his name. He goes there to shush her and then notices the news about Gene Cousineau having resurfaced and a film being made about Gene and him. It uses both their photos on the top, which ends up revealing his past identity. So, in the end, Barry pledges to kill Cousineau.

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Barry (Season 4) Episode 5  Links – IMDb, Wikipedia
Barry (Season 4) Episode 5 Cast – Bill Hader, Stephen Root, Sarah Goldberg, Anthony Carrigan, Henry Winkler

Where to watch Barry