Barry season 3, episode 4 delivers a nerve-wracking 30 minutes of television that puts our main players in interesting positions with potential for more chaos.
We are officially halfway through Barry ‘s season 3 with episode 4, “all the sauces.” It begins with a flashback of a woman, played by Annabeth Gish, talking to her husband over the phone about their son’s achievements and regarding when the husband will come back home from his presumed business trip. They hang-up and the husband is murdered in his own hotel room by none other than Barry (Bill Hader). This is significant because the husband is the first victim we see Barry kill all the way back in the pilot’s opening scene. In present time, Fuches (Stephen Root) pays the woman, now older, a visit. He pretends to be a private investigator and tells her the name of the man that killed her husband. Fuches tries to convince her there is still time to do something about the unresolved case, but she declines and asks him to leave. On his way out, Fuches encounters Kyle, the son of the man that Barry killed. He proceeds to trigger his curiosity by letting him know the identity of the murderer and hands him his business card with Barry’s home address behind it.
Over with Gene Cousineau’s (Henry Winkler) storyline, he is pleading with his son Leo (Andrew Leeds) to pack a bag for himself and his own son so they can leave LA in fear that Barry will come after them after Gene went against his wishes in last week’s episode. Things take a turn when Tom (Fred Melamed), Cousineau’s agent, visits Gene at his house to inform him that the producers of “Laws of Humanity,” the show Barry got him a job for, were surprisingly happy with his performance on set. This is ironic since he wasn’t acting, he was seriously going off on Barry.
Not only were the producers impressed, but they now want to rewrite the show to extend Cousineau’s role. You can tell the offer is giving Gene second thoughts about leaving, especially when he and Tom encounter a fellow ex-coworker of Cousineau’s who tries to convince him to go to dinner with him despite their rocky history after learning through an article from Variety what Gene did for Barry. His story of helping a veteran to find his purpose thanks to his acting lessons seems to be inspiring everybody in Hollywood, something that might be the last thing Gene wants at the moment as his image is gaining attraction when he is trying to disappear.
Meanwhile, after accepting to murder somebody for money last week, Barry is busy receiving instructions from NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) on how to kill Fernando (Miguel Sandoval), Cristobal’s (Michael Irby) father-in-law, and his men without placing Cristobal in harm’s way. This leads to an incredibly funny plan only Hank could have come up with: Barry is set to detonate a bomb in Fernando’s safehouse using a phone app developed for assassins. Hank then forces Barry to go pick up the bomb outside the building in the parking, which is beeping a bunch of gibberish.
Back with Fuches, he is now in a meeting with a man who we know is the father of Ryan Madison (Tyler Jacob Moore), the man Barry was meant to kill back in the pilot who was also taking Gene’s acting classes. Fuches poisons the still grieving father’s mind with half-truths by telling him Chechen gangsters didn’t murder his son, but instead was Barry who was sent to kill Ryan. He makes things worse by explaining to Ryan’s father that Barry is now living his son’s hopes and dreams, being a semi-successful actor in the show business. Fuches does the exact same thing he did with Kyle and gives the man a card with Barry’s home address. As we saw last week, he is clearly not done with Barry and is out for revenge trying to ruin his life after failing to do so in season 2. Because Fuches knows he can’t go toe-to-toe with Barry, he is instead using other innocent people to potentially do his bidding.
In a scene that cuts back and forth between Barry and Sally’s (Sarah Goldberg) perspective, we see him talk to Sally over the phone about the premiere of her show while he arrives at his destination where he’s supposed to set up the bomb. She asks Barry about what he thinks of her speech as he makes up an excuse as to why he will be late to her event. Sally leaves to have a great night and Barry gets stuck in Fernando’s neighboorhood when the app to detonate the bomb doesn’t work, forcing him to stay behind until his plan is successful.
At the “Joplin” premiere, Sally is overwhelmed by the cameras, journalists, and people standing around her who are pointing out how beautiful she looks for the event. It’s a mixture of excitement and anxiety that Goldberg portrays so well in Sally’s character in this very important moment for her. After the screening of her life’s work, Natalie (D’Arcy Carden) and Lindsay (Jessy Hodges), Sally’s personal assistant and agent, are raving to Sally about her project receiving great reviews by critics, even earning a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes while the show they were competing with got a 27%.
Katie (Elsie Fisher), Sally’s co-star, introduces her onstage so she can give a speech about the project to the audience. She begins by reciting her written speech, but she breaks down to tears halfway through in disbelief that her dreams are finally coming true and that she is being praised for it. It’s an emotional moment we’ve been patiently waiting for since season 1 considering she’s the one who’s worked the hardest to earn a career in the industry. She closes her speech by thanking everybody who worked on “Joplin” and to all of those who inspired her to be a better artist, including Gene and Barry. The mention of Barry alone makes Katie cringe, establishing she might tell Sally something regarding her relationship with Barry.
Speaking of Barry, he is still outside of Fernando’s home, seen talking with somebody from customer service as a way to fix the app so he can execute the plan and leave to support Sally with her premiere. It’s never fully said how this app works, whether it is exclusive for hitmen or open for the public, but the fact that they have people ready to provide help with the app’s system like any other service is hilarious. It gives the episode this sense of dark, ridiculous humor that makes the HBO series stand out.
The phone operator and Barry have a back and forth when Cristobal unexpectedly arrives at Fernando’s house. As if unknowingly having a bomb below their feet wasn’t bad enough, Fernando confesses to Cristobal that he knows of his afair with Hank and that he has to options: kill Hank as a way to prove his loyalty, or die himself. Cristobal refuses to follow orders, putting his life at risk, and as this unfolds Barry manages to fix the app and the bomb detonates. Just as we think everybody inside is dead, Barry tries to flee the scene in his car when he encounters Cristobal walking in the street, somehow surviving the explosion. He takes him back to Hank and Barry receives his money.
Gene comes back home from the store in a rush to leave LA as he asks Leo to hurry to pack up. He goes to the dining room and there is Barry waiting for him. Cousineau, just like the viewer, expects Barry to do something unforgivable against his family, as it’s been set up to no end in season 3 that he would murder them all. To our surprise, Barry doesn’t do any of these things and instead apologizes for threatening to end Gene’s life and for taking him hostage. He offers Gene the money he earned for killing Fernando as his way to make things right since Barry knows Cousineau’s son’s financial situation isn’t ideal. Barry promises he will never have to see him again and parts ways. Leo comes in to check on his father and Gene tells him he’s changed his mind, they are staying in LA.
In the episode’s closing moments, Barry finally is able to see Sally after the event is over, but it is not a happy moment. She breaks up with him after Katie is able to make her see that her relationship is toxic. He pleads to her to give him another chance, that he only yelled at her in her office because he was having a bad day, but she refuses and asks him to go to their apartment and collect his stuff so he can leave their home for good. From here, we cut back to Kyle and his mother from the opening of the episode as they are seen debating whether or not to buy a gun at a pawn shop so they can go to Barry’s home address and avenge Kyle’s father.
Barry season 3, episode 4 might just be my favorite episode of the season so far. The way it is able to balance out the tension of Cristobal’s storyline with the captivating themes of grief through Ryan’s father and Kyle, who are still seeking for answers regarinding their loved ones murder, is nothing short of mesmerizing. We’ve been following Barry’s journey of wanting to leave his hitman life behind for three full seasons that I think we often forget of those who he directly ends up hurting by taking his targets off the map. Yes, he is struggling to forgive himself for killing all of those individuals, but what about those who remain missing their loved ones? They don’t get to move on like Barry is trying to, they are stuck in the past filled with tremendous sadness and resentment. So, the ending of this episode puts Barry in a very interesting place. Is he going to be forced to kill off those who he left behind grieving? And if so, will this hurt those around Barry since Fuches presumably gave everybody his current address he has with Sally? Will Sally be in danger too? I guess we will see in the weeks to come.
Season 3 Episode 4 of Barry is now available to watch on HBO Max.
