HBO’s favorite hitman/aspiring actor is depressed, out of work, and longing for forgiveness
“Forgiveness is something you have to work for.”
We haven’t really gone to NoHo Hank for moral direction throughout the course of two seasons of Barry (politeness may be a virtue, but the dude’s a gangster).
And yet, in the opening episode of the third season, there’s the Chechen dandy, expressing the truth.
Clearly, Barry’s environment has shifted, and we’ll need a moment to reorient ourselves.
In the cold open, there’s the customary deadpan gallows humor, but something’s amiss.
The cuckolder has been kidnapped by Barry (Bill Hader) and his deceived spouse,
who has forced him to dig his tomb by a solitary tree in the desert hills outside of Los Angeles.
Before shooting the culprit, the outraged husband orders an unshaven, hollow-eyed Barry,
who is happily eating a doughnut, to chop off the offender’s eyes.
Barry shuffles to his car trunk, grabs some clippers, and trudges back to the graveyard, the soon-to-be victim begging in the background.
The husband and cuckolder had unexpectedly reunited in that half-minute.
Jeff pleaded for forgiveness, and his spiteful spouse gave it to him on the spot. The assassination attempt has been canceled.
Barry looks at the guys, who are grinning with relief, and shoots both of them in the head.
“Jeff, there’s no forgiveness!” As he walks back to his car, Barry yells into the wind. Third season: Mercy may strike in the twinkling of an eye. Is there, however, a happy ending? It’s unlikely.
Barry has never been slain for any reason other than obligation or wrath.
The beginning is a dark joke, but it also serves as a major season statement: Barry may be addicted to murder, which he does out of boredom or annoyance.
We witnessed how murdering his ex-Marine comrade Chris (to prevent him from informing the authorities about the Bolivian ambush) left Barry paralyzed with remorse in the first season.
In the second, Barry tried several times to avoid murder only to be drawn into mindless carnage: a breathtakingly violent season finale in which berserker Barry massacred a monastery full of Chechens, Bolivians, and Burmese in quest of Fuches.
He’s now sad. He has the appearance of an addict. And what is his affliction? Sally’s forehead is pierced by a bullet, as Barry imagines. And then there’s Cousineau’s. No one is safe with these fictitious head shootings, complete with bullet contact F/X (wet plunk) and CG blood drip. Barry had fantasized of establishing a family with Sally in the past. He’s in a state of shock.
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The truth is blurred into performance in Barry, as it always is.
“Like, this is my first questioning.”
” They’re lying in bed watching TV with a bowl of popcorn in the following scene.
As Hank goes away, Barry receives a text from Cousineau (Henry Winkler) offering a job in exchange for helping him clear out the theater.
Barry nods in agreement.
Yes, indeed. Do you believe we overlooked Cousineau? Mae summons Gene to show him the surveillance photographs after she interviews Hank.
Fuchs is identified by Gene as the man who introduced himself as Kenneth Goulet and took him to Moss’ body.
What Gene doesn’t tell the cops is that Fuches murmured in his ear, “Barry Berkman did this,” before fleeing.
Cousineau bitterly grins at Barry’s SMS agreeing to meet him at home.
He moves his gaze to a velvet-lined box containing a pistol. Alec Berg and Hader are notorious for repurposing jokes for added story points.
“In my bedroom, under the bed, there’s a mahogany box, and in that box is a pearl handle,” Gene laments in season two, episode one.
Rip Torn, my former roommate, gave me the 38 Special, a screen-used prop from the movie Flashpoint.
” Gene, who was once contemplating turning the pistol on himself dramatically, will now use it for vengeance.
Gene points the pistol at Barry beneath the desk after a very tense sequence between Barry and his old mentor.
In his best tough-guy accent, Gene replies, “You have two choices.”
“Join me at the station and surrender yourself.” “Or you’ll fucking die.” Of course, the pretend gun comes apart at that same time, the worthless barrel and bullets falling beneath the desk and stopping at Barry’s feet.
“I’m sorry,” Barry exclaims, tears welling up in his eyes, as he leaps towards the camera.
You’d think the episode would finish there, but the last scene returns us to the chilly beginning.
Cousineau is on his knees begging for his life, Barry aiming his pistol in the windswept desert, lonely Beckettian tree Barry, in agony, sees an illusory bullet pierce Cousineau’s forehead, and blood pours down.
Barry is going to kill the only person who cared about him and saved him.
Cousineau tries every trick in the book until he eventually says, “I forgive you!” Barry whimpers through tears, “Forgiveness needs to be earned.” “Then fuckin’ earn it!” says the narrator.
Cousineau responds with a shout. Barry has an idea. He gives a warm smile. For a brief moment, Hader sees the old Barry.
“I know how I’m going to make amends.” He lifts the rifle once again. “Return to the trunk.”
Forgiveness is something that must be earned. But wait, isn’t that the case? Or will Barry, unable to forgive himself, make everything worse in his quest for forgiveness? All we know is that Season 3 is off to a fantastic start, with the stakes bigger than ever before and no one safe.
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