This article contains spoilers for Barry.
Highlights
- The finale of Barry ends with the satisfying death of the main character, Barry Berkman, at the hands of Gene Cousineau.
- The use of Rip Torn’s gun in Barry’s death was foreshadowed throughout the series, adding a layer of significance to the moment.
- The final sequence of the episode, where Barry’s son watches a glamorized film version of his father’s life, critiques Hollywood’s tendency to idolize violent characters and presents a bleak, non-comedic ending.
Barry was one of the best dark comedy dramas to grace television screens in recent memory. It starred Bill Hader as the troubled hitman, Barry Berkman who decides to join an acting class while on a trip to Los Angeles on a job. He begins to question his profession and finds an outlet for his frustrations when he stumbles upon an acting class. He strikes up a relationship with a young actress named Sally, and gains a father figure in quirky acting coach, Gene Cousineau, played to perfection by Happy Days alum, Henry Winkler.
Bill Hader and Alec Berg co-created Barry, and it ran for four successful seasons before bowing out on a high earlier this year. It ran on HBO from March 25, 2018, to May 28, 2023, and had 32 exceptional episodes, each running for around 30 minutes. Each season of the show gets better and considerably darker than the previous one, and has one of the best endings to a television show ever.
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Barry Season 4 Ending, Explained
Fuches receives a call from NoHo Hank at the beginning of the final episode titled “Wow” and he tells him Barry is on the way to meet him, and he can get him if he comes along. He then reveals he has kidnapped Sally and Barry’s son, John. This prompts Fuches to make his way over there. Barry turns up at a gun shop and leaves with a load of guns, ready for one final showdown with NoHo Hank. It’s revealed by the authorities that the Janice Moss murder investigation has been re-opened and Gene Cousineau has been framed for it.
Sally reveals to John, that his father is a murderer and that she also killed a man, and breaks down in tears, which is interrupted by NoHo Hank’s henchman who take the boy away. Fuches turns up at NoHo Hank’s headquarters with his crew, and they face off with NoHo and his gang. He asks where John is as there’s no sign of him. Fuches says he will walk away forever if Hank admits he killed Cristobal, and Hank breaks down and cries and says he was the love of his life.
Sally and John are brought out, and Fuches calls him a liar and says the deal is off. Fuches shoots NoHo Hank in the chest, and a gun battle ensues, leaving most of the men dead, or bleeding out. Fuches shields John from the dead bodies by covering his eyes and takes him away from the scene of the battle.
Barry arrives and sees his son, who then runs over to him and hugs him. Fuches stands back, and him and Barry share a look and a nod, and Fuches walks away. Back in the headquarters, NoHo Hank is propped up against the statue of his one true love, Cristobal. He reaches for the statues hand and grabs it, holding it tight until the life drains out of him, and he dies.
Barry is laying on a bed with Sally and John, and Sally reveals she spoke to Gene, and that he might go to prison for Janice’s murder, and urges Barry to do the right thing and turn himself in. He refuses to and thinks he’s already been redeemed because he didn’t already die earlier that day. He says “I don’t think that’s what God wants for me.” Barry wakes up the next morning alone, as Sally and John have left.
Barry arrives at Gene’s location and storms in past Tom Posorro, and demands to know where Sally and John are. Tom insists they aren’t there. Gene is in his room and opens up a case to reveal Rip Torn’s gun and picks it up. Tom tells Barry to do the right thing by handing himself in, and Barry eventually agrees and tells Tom to call the cops, and he’ll turn himself in. Just as he says this, Gene walks in and shoots Barry in the chest. Barry is in shock and says “Oh Wow” as Gene shoots Barry in the head, killing him. Gene sits down on the sofa, with Barry dead on a chair near him.
Flash forward to Sally receiving a standing ovation at a performance, with her teenage son, John clapping in the audience. As she leaves, a new history teacher at John’s school asks her out for a coffee and she declines. This is followed by John coming out and asking her if he can stay at his friend, Eric’s house. She says he can, and he announces that he loves her, and tells her the play was great when Sally seeks reassurance from him. Sally drives home, staring at the flowers she received for her performance.
John and Eric sit down to watch a film called “The Mask Collector.” As the film starts, it appears to be Barry’s life story but told in the typical Hollywood way, portraying him as the hero of the story, who on his return from serving in Afghanistan, walks into an acting class where he meets Gene and Sally. He is complimented for his amazing acting by Gene, and then becomes embroiled in the cover-up of Janice’s murder, committed by Gene.
Barry is framed, but rescues Sally and John and goes to visit Gene, where he is shot and killed by him in dramatic fashion, with multiple bullets. Barry is laid to rest, and treated like a hero, as John is visibly emotional watching the film.
The film ends, and a note comes up on the screen that reveals Gene is serving life for Janice and Barry’s murders. The credits roll on the film, which also acts as the credits for the end of Barry‘s final episode.
Why Barry Season 4 was the perfect finale
The last episode of Barry ends on a very high note, with the justified and inevitable death of Barry Berkman. It’s very fitting that Gene is the one to pull the trigger and end Barry’s life, using Rip Torn’s gun that was revealed way back in season 2, and the series co-creator and main star alluded to this in an interview with The Wrap.
I remember saying it’d be really interesting if Cousineau killed Barry with that gun. And then that was kind of it. I made a mental note of it, so from that point on there are a lot of specific close-ups of it, always tracking where that gun is knowing that it eventually killed Barry.
Henry Winkler who played Gene Cousineau, also weighed in on Barry’s shocking fate in an interview with the Hollywood reporter.
So, [Bill] told me, and while I’m a pretty verbal fellow, I was speechless. I went, ‘I what!?’ So, I stammered and stuttered a little bit, and then I just walked away and got some avocado toast.
Of course, the show doesn’t end directly after Barry’s death as there is one final sequence that flashes forward to Barry’s son, John, watching the film version of his father’s life, with Hollywood manipulating it for dramatic effect. The film portraying Barry out to be the hero, when he was anything but is the perfect ending for this show, as it sends up how Hollywood often glamorizes violent characters, and wraps things up in a little bow. The actual ending of Barry is extremely bleak and far removed from the comedy it started out to be in the beginning.
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