HBO
The epic series finale of Barry is aptly titled “wow.” Wow. Just wow—all lowercase. This echoes our thoughts while watching the final moments of Barry (Bill Hader) and the group of people he’s screwed up for life, though it’s also a harrowing quote from the episode as well. There is no other word in the English language, in fact, that more perfectly encapsulates the finale of Barry better than this three letter palindrome. Wow.
I bring up the idea of a palindrome because, although we’ve seen the linear story of Barry from the first season to this final fourth installment, the HBO series turns itself backwards in this final episode. Barry has always been the murderer carrying out kills in this darkly comedic tale of a man trying to turn his life around with a new creative passion. In this past season, Barry has used every opportunity to run away from the law and his violent past—from living in an isolated desert home to resorting to Christianity as his backbone in life. But in the Barry finale, he can finally stop running. The “wow” has been reversed to throw another character under the bus.
Now, Barry’s ex-acting teacher Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) has been accused of killing Janice Moss (Paula Newsome) and Barry’s old acting peer Ryan Madison (Tyler Jacob Moore). With new evidence showing some sort of pay-off between Barry and Cousineau (there’s no evidence, and the money was not for killing), the feds now believe Cousineau used his student to help him kill Janice as blackmail. Cousineau is hiding from the authorities. Barry is freed.