When Barry started 4 years ago, he had a misplaced, uncomfortable mood, but it was a mood. The theme was very dark – an ex-soldier turned mercenary going through depression – but it was definitely a humorous series. The violent outbursts, at the Tarantino school, also made us laugh with nervousness and surprise. But the final season of the series seems to me to flirt with psychological terror, never betting on anything obvious and leaving us with the impression that 30 minutes is really 1 hour. That is, today, Barry is the most original content on the air. Too bad it’s time to leave.
In the farewell, there is a shred of history, but even anticipating a few things (I KNEW that Barry was going to fall into a trap going after Cousineau (Henry Winkler), the talent of Bill Hader and his team is that even though it is ‘repetitive’, it still there’s news. Example: Fuches once again has his life ‘earned’ and is consumed with destroying Barry. He’s the most out-of-design villain possible. But let’s go little by little.
So Gene Cousineau has returned after 8 years of hiding in a kibbutz and wants to prove that he is a renewed man. If before his downfall was his ego, now he wants to make sure that Hollywood will not glorify the life of a murderer like Barry Berkman. Nobody is buying the professor’s personality change, but we still haven’t had time to confirm if he is once again aligned with Jim Moss (Robert Wisdom), who finally captures the man who killed his daughter thanks to the obsession everyone on the series has with the past and revenge. If before Jim wanted a justice with Barry’s arrest, this is hardly the case now. Anyway, what he doesn’t do without is the chance of basic torture, which he had given up on 8 years ago.
Sally (Sarah Goldberg) had warned her husband to let go of the past and just move again. Gene wasn’t worth the risk and she was right. Just as Barry was sure one of his enemies had already identified them. And that brings us to one of the most tense and chilling sequences in the entire series. Sally was numb with drink, a son passed out thanks to her spiking his juice with vodka, and a man (whom she nor we ever identified) INSIDE the house to kill them both. A series of accidental mistakes ‘save’ Sally and John, but it is clear that they will have to flee without Barry’s help because he was caught by Jim. This sequence is nothing short of terrifying.
And, still, out of order, we have to decipher WHO is on the trail of the Berkman family. It’s not Fuches (Stephen Root), who’s out of prison as The Raven and searches with Noho Hank (Anthony Carrigan) for Barry’s location. Once again he ignores the advice to let go of the past, but I’m left with the impression that the men scaring Barry and Sally are Hank’s team, who doesn’t want to kill Barry but doesn’t want to make peace with him either. Like the others, in the eight years that have passed since Cristobal’s death, Noho Hank has reinvented himself, he’s rich and still omitting his role in the death of his ex-lover. He doesn’t deceive Fuches, but he doesn’t like to hear about the past, one of the rare ones in the plot who only wants to know about the future.
Not that what is drawn is not tragic for everyone! The showdown between Jim and Barry might be stopped by Fuches, who knows? But I don’t see Barry surviving in the end. Still, not knowing what to expect, I’m dying to get there on Sunday. Barry converted me a long time ago.
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