Barry’s life utterly disintegrated in Season 3 after spending the previous two seasons carefully walking the line between being a mercenary-for-hire and an aspiring actor. His relationship with Sally was fundamentally abusive and he was depressed. But it became too difficult for him to continue his double life once his handler Fuches and acting coach Cousineau began to work with the police. Barry’s options also became constrained because he was unable to continue acting or to keep adding victims because the relatives of the people he had slain rose up to exact revenge on him. All of this pressure ultimately caught him off guard when he attempted to murder Jim Moss, or Janice’s father. Barry was apprehended by Cousineau and Jim after being captured. The fourth season of Barry opens with the title character being arrested.
Warning: Major Spoilers
Barry Reconciles With Fuches
Cousineau is the first person Barry phones after being locked up. He questions him apprehensively about working with the police and if Cousineau is aware that he loves him and that everything he is doing is a means of protecting him. Cousineau replies coolly, “After all he has done, I have sent him to the place he deserves to be.” Sally experiences a nightmare on the flight back to Joplin in which she sees the member of the motocross gang who attempted to kill her but was ultimately stopped by her. She receives a call from Lindsay as soon as she touches down, informing her that Barry has been taken into custody. Sally concludes that Barry was arrested for the killing of the motocross gang member because he informed her he would be held responsible for it; as a result, she disputes that she was with him. The revelation that Barry killed Janice and continued to live with Sally as if nothing had happened causes Sally to have a panic episode when it becomes apparent that Barry has been arrested for the crime.
Fuches contacts the FBI after realizing that he is being held in the same facility as Barry. He arranges a bargain in which, if the FBI can guarantee that Fuches won’t suffer any harm while he is imprisoned, and after he is released, he will videotape his chats with Barry in order to get him to reveal that he has committed crimes other than killing Janice. Cousineau is asked whether he’s willing to testify against Barry by Buckner, a friend of Jim’s who appears to be some sort of public prosecutor working against Berkman. Cousineau concurs and does as well. But I suppose Cousineau believes Barry is just some former marine who committed murder and is not aware of those who are either behind or after Barry. So, Cousineau could get into a lot of difficulty if he admitted to being close to Barry.
The story then changes to Santa Fe to reveal that NoHo Hank and Cristobal are temporarily residing in a home. Hank tenses up when he hears anything suddenly loud, indicating that he is definitely shaken, but Cristobal seems to be mostly alright. When Sally gets back home, she discovers that her father has converted her room into an exhibit of taxidermied animals. Sally advises Barry not to phone her again when he calls her on his regular basis. Back in jail, Barry sees his first day away from Cousineau’s acting class, but Fuches shatter the illusion. He tries to persuade Barry to discuss a victim he killed. But when Barry apologies to Fuches for not following his counsel about leading two lives, Fuches sobs uncontrollably.
NoHo Hank Finds Out That Barry Is In Jail
Cousineau picks up where he left off with his acting workshop to thunderous applause. They agree not to make this investigation and Janice’s death into a public circus when Jim meets him in his dressing room. However, you must keep in mind that despite the fact that Cousineau appears to be a reasonable man and is likely the victim in this situation, he is not immune to the pull of show business. To Hank, Cristobal puts forth a suggestion. He claims that they should enter the industry and establish their empire on this specific sector because Santa Fe is in desperate need of construction-grade sand. Joe, Sally’s father, calls her when he sees her hiding behind her desk and invites her to watch Joplin, the production that Sally had created, along with them and her mother, Claudia. That turns out badly, as was to be predicted, because Claudia continues pointing out the inconsistencies in the narrative and the fact that Sally used Sam (Sally’s violent ex)’s real name in the program even though she claims it’s not about her.
The problem is made evident when Claudia claims that she sees Sam’s mother every day at church and that she needs to talk to her about what Sally has done to harm Sam’s reputation on the show. Claudia is a normal, traditional mother who never offered support to Sally when she needed it. It was kind of obvious when, while Sally was experiencing a full-blown panic attack at the airport, she didn’t attempt to calm her down. But in this specific instance, Claudia demonstrates that she is directly responsible for Sally’s pain. Nevertheless, Joe makes an effort to assist Sally by inviting her to work for him because, like every other father in the world, he believes that keeping your mind occupied with a job can help you get over your problems. The focus switches to Hank, who is having a nightmare in which he and Barry are both still imprisoned in Cristobal’s wife. That appears to be a premonition since, upon awakening, he learns that Barry is not just in jail but that someone else—likely an FBI agent—has Barry’s phone.
Season 4, Episode 1: Ending Explained: Why Did Cousineau Decide To Give An Interview To Vanity Fair?
Barry hurts himself while he is incarcerated as retribution for each bad choice he made that brought him here. As a former marine, Barry can’t be completely evil, so he needs to find the kindness that’s hidden within of him, a jail guard by the name of Birdwell tries to reassure him. Barry irritates Birdwell by claiming that he is a cop murderer and that if given the chance, he would kill Birdwell and his entire family. Barry is overcome by the need to be bashed to death as a result of his crimes. Barry receives the severe pounding he desires. But rather than making this clear, Hader (the person in charge) chooses to briefly flashback to Barry’s early years in order to give the impression that this is what Barry is relying on to put up with the beatings from the jail guards. It also depicts a point in Barry’s life when there were countless opportunities for him, which is starkly in contrast to Barry’s current situation, in which he is bleeding profusely on the floor of a prison restroom. Fuches arrives at the scene at that point, throws away his wire, and apologizes for outing Barry. The two embrace, perhaps putting an end to their conflict.
Barry Season 4, Episode 1 ends with Cousineau calling a reporter who has been attempting to interview him for Vanity Fair, telling him that he is going to tell him the story of putting Berkman in jail. At this point, Cousineau comes off as the sleazy, opportunistic, heartless performer he really is: someone who will do everything to maintain control over the story. In essence, everything he has been feeling since learning about Janice’s death gets recontextualized in this moment. I have no doubt that he did love Janice at some point throughout their relationship. But I believe he was trying to find a way to make all of this into a narrative with him as the main character in all the times where he was separating himself from reality because it was too difficult to manage. Despite the fact that Cousineau comes from a different age, this choice reflects the widespread practice of turning everything, especially horrific events, into content that will spotlight the storyteller. Why though do it? Well, to begin with, for sympathy and attention. Is Cousineau now worse than Barry as a result of this? I’m willing to claim that Cousineau is now worse than Barry was or will become as a result of this.
