Reaction Review: Barry Season 4 Episode 3: You're Charming
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
EPISODE SUMMARY
Warning: major spoilers for Barry season 4 episode 3, “You’re Charming”, are throughout the entire review. Reader discretion is strongly advised.
We start with a truck visiting the Bolivians and Chechens as they build their new location. NoHo Hank and Cristobal are visited by Toro (played fittingly by Guillermo del Toro, who can make as many cameo appearances as he pleases, whether it’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia or this). He brings up the plans to carry out the Barry Berkhman hit on him in prison: it will be a go. Gene Cousineau worries about his safety given the whole “Barry” situation. He admits to tom about having performed a “one man show” for the Vanity Fair writer, and he is told that he has to stop the interview from coming out. In jail, Barry is already ratting out NoHo Hank and Cristobal, including the “crime utopia”. In order for Barry to live forever with Sally, she has to give up her entire life. Barry has to find out if she will be okay with this (we know she clearly won’t be). Barry is visited by Lon Oneil — the Vanity Fair reporter — to find out additional details for his story. Barry chooses to keep quiet, as to not jeopardize his freedom. He also doesn’t want the story to run, but that’s not going to happen with Oneil.
Sally begins teaching her first acting class, after following Gene’s advice. She is clearly unrefined (but also still shaken up about her bad reputation, either being the “cunt girl” or the ex-lover of Barry). Most of the class is there out of support and love for Sally’s craft, fortunately. After her class provides some love, Sally is much more comfortable carrying on with her class. Oneil continues his quest to burn bridges and visits the house of Jim Moss, telling him that Gene has squaled. Jim wants to move this talk to the garage (which, if you can recall, is not a good thing). Before we can see what transpires, Monroe Fuches contacts NoHo Hank and they are now in cahoots about getting even with Barry.
NoHo Hank tells his team to take a break, but one employee doesn’t want to go: a Chechen messenger that tells him to ally with him and the “elders” or else NoHo Hank and his gang will be wiped out. NoHo Hank declines, and is left with a threat. Barry has a mental breakdown in the prison yard over Gene; a fellow prisoner stares in amazement without Barry initially knowing. Gene and Tom break into Oneil’s house to try and steal the piece. They are unaware that someone is home while they do so: Oneil’s wife. She recognizes Gene. She’s a little more relieved than scared: she is worried about Oneil’s whereabouts because he seems to have gone missing.
Sally’s class go over their chosen scenes, and they are all quite green at their craft (and, in some cases, unprepared). Sally begins to beat down on a student that didn’t actually practice a scene for the class, but she is projecting her own insecurities (about being attractive and charming but not taken seriously as a thespian). She then begins channeling her inner Gene and asks the student “why the fuck are [they] here” before a parade of insults. She enrages the student who then nails the Sunset Boulevard line; Sally apologizes and begins instructing the class. It didn’t go as well as she would have hoped, however: the class found this treatment abusive. Clearly there is a new overall opinion over such practices.
Barry calls NoHo Hank from prison. He brings up Gene’s Vanity Fair interview and how he and Cristobal will need to move. NoHo Hank doesn’t seem to care. Barry tries hinting that he needs Gene to be killed. NoHo Hank diverts the conversation: “are you looking out for me, Barry?” He then outright asks why Barry is lying. He states that Barry only looks out for himself and he takes from others before revealing what he knows: that Barry is talking to the feds. Barry calls him a liar, but we all know the truth, and so does NoHo Hank. The call ends in bad blood: Barry yells while NoHo Hank wishes death and hell upon the former. Gene visits Jim, the latter who is hosing the trunk of his car (uh oh). He begins to ask Gene about the “one man show”. Oneil fortunately isn’t dead, thank goodness: he’s home, beaten up, and not speaking. Once he opens his mouth, he is now speaking German (despite not knowing how to speak German), and acting unnatural.
All but one student of Sally’s class have left: the one that she berated. She needs Sally’s help to nail an upcoming job. Fuches is watching Rain Man in prison, but it’s unsure who is who in this allegory he pictures: is Barry Charlie Babbitt and in charge of Fuches, or is he Raymond and in need of guidance? It appears to be the latter, as Fuches tries to report Barry’s life being in danger to an officer: the officer doesn’t care. Fuches then decides to be Raymond and starts screaming about Barry’s potential murder. This catches the attention of all of the prisoners. Barry, on the other hand, is in talks about witness protection: he brings up Sally yet again. While he is being given the rundown, he can’t stop focusing on someone grimacing in the back (played hilariously by Fred Armisen), who Barry is certain is here to kill him. He would be right: an assassination attempt by one of Toro’s men goes wrong. There is a sniper rifle in the ceiling to clean up the job, however, and all but Barry die; he gets a hold of a pistol on the floor and kills the remaining assailant. The jail is now in lockdown mode, and prisoners are running awry. Barry is nowhere to be found.
FIRST REACTION
“You’re Charming” starts off deceptively as a followup episode to the one-two punch of last week: negotiations about Barry’s demise, his survival, and everything in between (as to be reported by Vanity Fair). It was a fairly good episode until the explosive ending, which I should have expected from Barry by now (and yet the assassination attempt still caught me off guard). With Barry on the run (possibly having even escaped the prison, for all we know, with all that chaos that ensued during the lockdown), it’s hard to tell what will happen with his character in the near future. The character that seemed to have the most definitive fate(s) now is up in the air. Gene is likely in deep trouble, having started from the top of the episode (with this tell-all piece to come out) to the bottom (this piece may place everyone in deep trouble). Sally was slowly rising to the top as a new acting teacher, before she shoots herself in the foot: she is squarely back at the bottom. NoHo Hank was forever at the bottom this episode, and he has changed ever since he learned about Barry’s betrayal in the previous episode(s). All four of our leads are truly fucked.
Barry isn’t holding any punches this final season playing as deadly as a game as ever. The one note I have is how frequently Fuches flips; its a teensy bit predictable and too reliable at this point, but that’s a very minor critique in a show that is otherwise as anarchistic as can be. Who else thought that Barry’s potential death would have been savoured for the latter portion of the season? Instead, they get to it right away, leaving us out in the cold and unsure of what will happen next. There are only five episodes left, and I honestly feel like anyone is expendable in a show like this: perhaps all four of our favourite characters are vulnerable. Only time will tell. In the meantime, it takes a lot to follow up the final episodes of Succession, but only a show like Barry can pull it off without feeling completely limp in comparison. Barry is feeling just as essential, solidifying this run of glorious Sunday nights of HBO television.
Final Grade: 4/5
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.