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**SPOILERS FOR BARRY**
The last season of Barry is underway. There are only three episodes left in the series. When the trailer for this season came out, we had theories about what was going to go down. But episodes four and five showed us: We. Had. No. Idea. Proceed only if you are okay knowing what happened.
So episode four was bonkers. Barry had escaped from prison and there was an intense manhunt for him as the cast found out he’d escaped. Everyone who wasn’t Barry was so wrapped up in his escape, it wreaked havoc on their lives. But the real WTF moment was the end when Barry and Sally were in some pastoral setting with their son at the end of the episode. Some theorized it might be a dream but no, episode five confirmed, this is where we are now in Barry’s timeframe. Ep. Five began eight years in the future and Barry and Sally are parents to John. Barry has found religion while Sally waits tables for money and drinks away her demons. Whew boy. So folks asked Bill Hader – what the what? Why the jump without explanation? Bill said the eight years of how’d they get there bored him, so he just skipped over it.
Barry star Bill Hader didn’t care how Barry and Sally got to where they were going; his only concern was that they were there.
Written and directed by Hader, the fifth episode of Barry’s final season confirms that the ending of episode four was anything but fantasy. It’s now been eight years since Barry and Sally (Sarah Goldberg) decided to run away together and the couple, who are now known as Clark and Emily, are living with their son, John (Zachary Golinger), in the middle of nowhere. Barry is suddenly a man of faith who perpetually stays at home to school his son and shelter him from the truth of who his parents actually are. Meanwhile, a wig-donning Sally is working as a server at a diner, and she routinely drowns her sorrows in a bottle to get through the days. She may have had dreams of being a working actor, but her real-life role as Emily is a nightmare in every way.
In an era where so many stories obsessively show their work and over-explain every last detail, Hader was indifferent to the idea of spelling out how Barry and Sally evaded what was likely a nationwide manhunt for the hitman-turned-fugitive, as well as how they set up their new identities and residence.
“I didn’t find [watching them be on the run in real time] very interesting. In season one, he has a daydream about he and Sally and a boy taking a family picture, and so I was like, ‘Well, maybe that’s what he wants,’” Hader tells The Hollywood Reporter. “So, it was more about them being there. It’s been eight years, and this is where they’re at. That was just more interesting to me.”
The longer interview in The Hollywood Reporter has a lot more about what’s behind the episode. There’s a Whitey Bulger connection and it talks about the imagery and why Barry’s suddenly religious. Honestly, I respect Bill’s take on the jump. I find shows and films sometimes take too much time trying to explain something fantastical when the audience has already agreed to an absurd premise. Barry is about a hitman who tries to change his life and become an actor. So much of the show asked us to bend reality already so, yeah. Just say it’s eight years later and they eluded the manhunt. We know Barry’s clever. The ‘how’ would have bored me too and taken too much time. Granted, the sudden introduction in ep four was jarring, but it was a different approach, so I appreciate that.
The real question is where do they go from here? Bill said that they evaded the police didn’t interest him but that doesn’t mean they are ultimately successful. There’s always a chance he’s discovered and now Sally’s an accomplice. And there’s apparently a whole story about Cousineau’s personal journey in that time. There is actually a lot to pack in to the last three episodes, even with the eight-year gap.
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