In the immortal words of NoHo Hank, “Hey, man!” At long last, Season 3 of HBO’s critically acclaimed seriesBarryhas graced our small screens with new, bloody-good episodes. The gritty and (very) dark crime comedy created byBill HaderandAlec Bergfollows Barry Berkman (Hader), a former Marine-turned-hitman who is trying to find life’s deeper meaning. Barry’s life changes when his selfish handler Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root) sends him to an acting class to kill one of the students. When he arrived at the theater, however, he felt…different. More specifically, he feltsomethingand wanted to feel more.
Instead of following his killing orders, he follows along with the operatic acting teacher Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) and later follows the students to a bar for an after-class drink. Barry quickly takes to the creative individuals, particularly the wide-eyed struggling actress Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg). Barry decides he’s going to give this acting thing a shot, but there was only one problem: he was still a hitman. The first two seasons ofBarrythrust the titular killer into a number of life-threatening predicaments, to say the least. He got deeper into NoHo Hank’s Chechen mob madness, nearly gets killed by a ferocious little girl, and above all, unlocks buried emotions upon readingShakespeare’sMacbeth.
Though he grew both professionally and creatively, the Season 2 finale shoved Barry into perhaps his darkest place yet. He finally performs the shaky scene with Sally about her abusive relationship that they’ve been preparing all season, but is caught off guard in a major way when Sally goes off script and veers from the truth. After being rattled on stage, Barry tries to stick to his guns andnothelp NoHo Hank with the pending Bolivian, Chechen, and Burmese shoot-out. But Hank’s text to Barry revealing Fuches’ whereabouts pushes Barry over the edge. Hellbent on taking down Fuches for his betrayal, Barry storms the Buddhist monastery and does his thing. The finale was quite literally explosive, but Fuches somehow manages to escape. And worst of all, Gene knows that Barry killed Detective Moss, the woman he was briefly able to love.
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The Season 3 premiere, beautifully directed by Hader, picks up six months after the Season 2 finale left off. It’s immediately clear that this time has not been very kind to Barry. He’s disheveled and in the middle of nowhere, dully eating a colorful donut and taking orders from a random guy he found online. The angry man hired Barry to kill Jeff, a man that cheated on his wife, but upon hearing Jeff’s pleas for forgiveness, the man decides to call the whole thing off. Barry is pretty pissed, because much more than he wanted the money, he wanted tokill. Fed up with this water-under-the-bridge moment, Barry decides to shoot both men in the head. Barry makes one thing certain: there would be no forgiving Jeff.
At home, a fresh-faced Sally makes some last-minute notes on a script ofJoplin, the show she created and stars in thanks to the emotional (but untruthful) performance she gave at that make-or-break-it showcase in the Season 2 finale. Barry, sporting a hefty 5 o’clock shadow, mindlessly plays a racing video game on the sofa in her place. From their brief interaction before Sally heads out the door, it’s clear that the two are living together and that staying up late and playing video games is Barry’s concerning new normal. And as always, his “work” is sketchier than ever. Sally’s mostly oblivious (or at leastusedto) Barry’s blasé behavior, and focuses her attention on some intense vocal warm-ups. After all, Diane will be there to look at cuts today.
Meanwhile, Detective Mae Dunn is trying to get to the bottom of who killed Detective Janice Moss. She shows up at a garden store (that’s a front for a huge heroin stash) and hopes to speak to NoHo Hank, who’s now working with three other criminal men and trying to move on (as much as possible) from the disastrous events at the monastery. How does he intend on doing this? By totally denying he was ever at the monastery. His interrogation gets a bit rocky once Dunn brings out the Chechen pin that Barry planted in the trunk next to Moss’ body in an attempt to frame Hank for her murder.
Hank gets understandably queasy when he learns this information, especially since this is the exact pin he gave Barry as a gift after he successfully helped him out. Gulp. The pin, which reads “the debt has been paid,” as well as photo evidence, has helped Dunn link Hank with both Moss’ murder and the monastery shooting. Hank does his best to explain that the person responsible is Fuches, who is also in the pictures with him. This information is very intriguing to Dunn, who’s been struggling to identify Fuches since he went missing after the shooting. Hank tells them that the man’s known as “the Raven,” though the police have trouble buying what Hank is selling. (Though Hankinsiststhat it’s actually a really brilliant name for a killer for multiple reasons.)
Okay, so where is Fuches (sorry, “the Raven”)? After the monastery massacre, he fled to the mountains of Chechnya. Time did a number on him as well. Fuches sloppily pours a bowl of Flaky Critters cereal, which is ironic considering Fuches himself has proven to be quite the flaky critter over the past two seasons. He’s under strict surveillance and was sent there by Hank, who doesn’t want him back in the United States until things have “cooled off.”
The only person as depressed as Barry is Cousineau, who was roped back into another interrogation about Moss’ death. He identifies Fuches as the man who took him to see Moss’ body, and explains that he is connected to Barry. Going off of the shoddy information they got from Hank, they tell Cousineau that he is a Chechen assassin known as the Raven, and that he killed Moss.
Barry listens to Metallicaand numbly scrolls on the dark web searching for his next Craigslist-esque hit before reluctantly hitting the store to buy flowers for Sally. Onset, Sally’s multiple responsibilities are getting to herandher ego. She’s reviewing recent footage from her work in her series that’s loosely based on her relationship with her abusive ex. It’s a tense meeting for a lot of reasons. The enigmatic and powerful Diane makes some questionable and inaccurate observations and Sally does her best to hold on tight to her fragile confidence. If you thoughtthatmeeting was awkward, then buckle up. After Diane leaves the set, Sally barks orders at Natalie (D’Arcy Carden), her perky, former acting class peer who’s now stuck in the unfortunate position of being Sally’s assistant.
An epic tracking shot follows Sally as she navigates the set of her show and tries to fend off questions from the crew. At her core, Sally is an actor, so that’s what she prioritizes the most. She films a brief scene with her on-screen daughter Chloe (Elsie Fisher) and then is forced to break for lunch. A dead-eyed Barry creeps onto the soundstage to deliver Sally flowers with a similar rhythm to Frankenstein’s monster. While he robotically listens to Sally speak in her performative and rehearsed manner, his two worlds mentally collide. Mid-sentence, a bullet strikes Sally in the forehead, though we quickly learn it’s all happening in Barry’s head. Horrified at this new vision, Barry does his best to keep his cool.
Hank talks on the phone to Batir and tells him that the cops bought his whole “the Raven” story. They agree that if they have any more trouble with the Bolivians, they’ll just hand over Fuches, because he is “worthless” to them. Hank practically floats on air as he saunters home. A rose and two empty wine glasses await him on the table and romantic music sounds throughout the pristine home. He enters the bathroom and interrupts his special someone’s shower. Who’s the love in Hank’s life, you ask? None other than Cristobal (Michael Irby). That’s right, Hank and Cristobal are living their best life and are… kind of a perfect couple? The two killers snuggle up in bed and ponder their future together. Of course, there’s a lot of stuff to clean up still with Barry, who killed most of their “buddies.”
Speaking of Barry, the hitman shows up unannounced at Hank’s home in desperate need of work. It’s a pretty bold move for Barry to ask Hank for help. And if you don’t see why that’s a bold move, Hank calmly and efficiently sums it up. “You shoot up monastery. You fck my business. You frame me using pin I gave you for being great dude. And now you come here to my fcking home, asking me for a job?” The nerve! But for Barry, this felt like the only option. Though Hank is usually the comedy relief in this show, he delivers a powerful and chilling message that is sure to stick with Barry all season long: “Forgiveness is something that has to be earned.”
Barry gets a surprising text from Cousineau asking for his help packing up his theater, which he (sadly) decided to close down. Barry jumps at the chance to reconnect, but Cousineau has other plans. He gives a hug to his son and grandson before grabbing a gun (that was gifted to him by actorRip Torn) and heads out the door. At the desolate theater, Barry tries to engage in a human conversation with his former acting teacher but failsmiserably. Cousineau cuts to the chase, and tells Barry that the man that showed him Moss’ body (Fuches) whispered to him that Barry was the one who killed Moss. Cousineau gives Barry the option to either turn himself in or die, but Barry takes matters into his own hands.
The episode ends in the same spot it began: the middle of nowhere. A panicked Cousineau begs for his life as a teary Barry holds a gun to his head. As Cousineau tries to tell Barry that he forgives him, a phantom bullet wound appears on Cousineau’s forehead as it did on Sally. After repeating the words of wisdom from Hank about forgiveness needing to be earned, a moment of clarity washes over Barry and a smile spreads across his face. He knows how he can earn Cousineau’s forgiveness! But in order for things to run smoothly, Cousineau has to follow his orders at gunpoint.
What twisted plan does Barry have up his sleeve? And more importantly, does it involve more donuts?
