Reaction Review: Barry Season 4 Episodes 1 and 2: Yikes and Bestest Place on the Earth
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
EPISODE SUMMARY
Warning: major spoilers for Barry season 4 episodes 1 and 2, “yikes” and “bestest place on the earth”, are throughout the entire review. Reader discretion is strongly advised.
“yikes”
So remember how Barry Berkman was arrested after he got wrapped up in a sting operation relating to the death of Janice Moss? Well, “yikes” remind us of this pretty quickly. Barry is escorted to his cell right away, and it’s as if he is a celebrity (well, he is, but a celebrity for killing). Gene Cousineau gets “the call” from Barry, the latter who asks if Gene entrapped him. He tries to weasel his way through this and states that he was trying to protect Gene. Gene replies to Barry stating “I love you” with “I got you”. We cut to Sally Reed on a plane, being woken up to the sound of giggling kids and a stranger overlooking the seat ahed of her. Well, that was a dream. She actually gets woken up to turbulence and her phone firing off with a plethora of notifications. She finds out that Barry has been arrested for murder. She gets picked up by her mom who is glued to her phone and reading all of the details: she begins to have a panic attack (at what appears to be a Sonic, no less).
Barry sits alone while eating lunch. Nearby is Monroe Fuches, who clearly isn’t in love with Barry either. Monroe asks for help and safety from Barry and to be placed in the witness protection program out of jail, and offers to cooperate with a wire. We cut to NoHo Hank who is living his best life away from it all. Then there’s sally who can’t escape anything that she has just learned. She’s back in her old room which has been turned into a trophy den full of dead animal busts and taxidermy; she can’t escape Barry’s murders. Barry tries to call Sally, and she rejects it. Barry imagines Sally rehearsing lines in the prison yard and he goes to approach her. He also imagines Gene. From the doors these hallucinations walk through comes Monroe, who is very much real and actually wants to talk to Barry. Barry admits that he should have never taken the acting class and trust Gene. He apologizes for trying to find the good side of himself.
Gene, on the other hand, is back on his show and gets a standing ovation from his audience. Janice’s dad, Jim, is there as well. He meets Gene in the dressing room, where the latter states that they should refuse to talk to the media so they don’t besmirch Janice’s reputation and give Barry any spotlight. Back to NoHo Hank, who is starting to question his surroundings now and ponders about having the same kind of power he once possessed in Los Angeles. Sally’s father comes to visit her, and she is found hiding under his work desk. He worries that Barry was abusive to Sally, but she doesn’t respond. She actually asks to be alone. Before he leaves, he asks if they can watch the show she created about her family life called Joplin; they don’t approve of the creative choices. Sally doesn’t care: she is more upset about Barry. Her parents don’t really get the reality of the situation. Her dad offers an open position at his job for Sally to take to take her mind off of things.
NoHo Hank wakes up handcuffed to a radiator in an empty room. He spots Barry on the opposite side of the radiator and wonders what comes next. He wakes up from the awful dream away from harm. He makes a call to Barry, but it clearly isn’t Barry’s voice on the other end (he has yet to find out that Barry has been arrested). He then panics, realizing that his call now jeopardizes him. His partner, Cristobal, stumbles upon him, where he appears to have a change of heart: return back to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Barry has a meltdown and screams at himself in the mirror before slapping himself and busting his fist against the wall. An officer, Birdwell, one that spotted him on the television at the start of the episode, comes into the washroom to try and calm him down. He knows that Barry was in the marines and was a celebrity. He tries to assure him that he’s likely a good guy deep down despite his crimes. Barry retorts by saying he’s a cop killer, and that he would kill him and his family. Officer Birdwell responds with the pulling out of his baton. Barry accepts his beating as blood spills down his forehead.
We cut to a sunset with an image of children running. One in the foreground turns back and waves; this is Barry as a kid. He wakes up with blood all over his head as he is collapsed on the floor. Monroe comes in and rips off his wire. He approaches Barry to make his own apologies: he took advantage of Barry and ratted on him. He tells Barry what Gene refused to say: that he loves him. We finish off with a cut to Lon Oneil, a reporter for Vanity Fair, who Gene calls with a story: the man who caught Barry Berkman.
“bestest place on the earth”
Barry is alone in his cell and hitting his head against the wall. He begins hallucinating again: it’s himself as a child. He’s playing with toys. This transforms into a memory: the first time his dad introduced him to Monroe Fuches. This was the point that changed/ruined his entire life, but Barry reminisces with a smile. Monroe has turned, and he has refused to go through with the deal: he states that he will only progress with further talks once his attorney is contacted. Inside the prison walls, the television is on. Monroe interrupts the show to introduce himself and Barry as “the cop killer”. He’s trying to make recruits under the alias “the Raven”, but it doesn’t really work. Barry gives Monroe tips on his “performance” to command his audience, which the latter appreciates. He admits that he was granted a second chance within the witness protection program, but stated that Barry came first.
Cristobal begins trying to carry out NoHo Hank’s wishes to instil ties so they can return to Los Angeles. In order to do so, they have to bring the Bolivians and Chechens together and get them to stop killing each other. All of the gangsters seem to be okay with this by agreeing silently. NoHo Hank gets a text from “Toro”. Before we see more transpire, we cut back to Lon Oneil, who we briefly got acquainted with in the previous episode. He is given a list of instructions on his car that he has to follow. Back in Barry’s cell, he is woken up with a knock on the door from an officer. It appears that Sally has come to visit him in jail. Barry starts off with “I’m sorry”. She asks how “Muffin” is, asking if Barry stuck to his word and found him a new home. He assures her that Muffin, their dog he promised to re-home, is safe. That’s all Sally wanted to know, but she finds it difficult to leave. Barry uses the opportunity to state that he doesn’t deserve her. Oddly enough, Sally admits that she feels safe with him, which seems odd in this scenario. Barry clings onto this sentiment and tries telling her that he lovers her and that she is safe with him. She proceeds to leave.
Lon finds Gene, who left him the note. Gene asks of Lon was followed before granting him the address of where they will meet next. The Bolivians and Chechens have had a lot of fun with good food and arcade games (maybe this is Dave & Buster’s?) before carrying out the real purpose of this union: sand. The very sand they were discussing the previous episode. The commodity that will grant them an unstoppable enterprise. They will have a rich business while operating together. NoHo Hank goes off book before professing that the next item on the itinerary is that they will be breaking out Barry from prison. No one is on board. Not even Cristobal, who wasn’t informed about this plan previously. NoHo Hank guarantees that the prison is easy to break into.
Barry is hallucinating again, this time it’s him playing with Monroe at a young age while a wedding takes place next to him. It’s his and Sally’s. In the wedding hall, he also imagines him and Sally growing old together: something that will never happen. The real Sally notices that people in the coffee shop keep staring at her. Meanwhile, her agent rejects wanting to work with her again after everything that has happened. Sally asks if she can at least be referred, but her reputation is tarnished beyond repair. The best she can do is a podcast or reality show, but her acting days are over. Lon finds Gene at the final location: his acting class studio. Gene will tell Lon the story once. Gene’s way of delivering the story? A one-man show of what happened (and, yes, he acts as Barry as well).
Barry is trying to be granted immunity and is willing to cooperate with whatever the FBI wants to know, but he wants to bring someone with him wherever he goes. Monroe likely thinks its him, but we are lead to believe it’s Sally. Speaking of Sally, she overhears Gene’s performance and interview with Lon. She is furious that Gene never warned her about who Barry really was. She's clearly there to try and get her career back. Gene gives her one word of advise: “teach”, just like him. Munroe comes to find Barry, who has been replaced by “Thomas”: Barry has been brought to “special housing”. Cristobal is angry with NoHo Hank, especially because he wasn’t briefed about this decision to break out Barry from prison. Cristobal tries to clarify that Barry only ever operated for himself, but NoHo Hank says he “understands Barry now”. Monroe calls NoHo Hank at this convenient moment to state that Barry betrayed him. He’s going to betray NoHo Hank as well; he’s going to “tell them everything”. NoHo Hank freezes, then paces back to Cristobal. No longer will they be breaking Barry out of prison: they will be killing him.
FIRST REACTION
We are blessed with two great Barry episodes to open this final season. It’s a fair start, considering the massive cliffhanger the show left us with at the end of the previous season (the titular Barry getting caught by the police after Gene turned him in). No only are we finally back, but we get some strong followup as well. Sally has been cursed with PTSD and a career that will no longer go forth despite the years of hard work. Barry, on the other hand, is delusional and believes that they can have a happy life together. How much more is he willing to throw away? The NoHo Hank subplot is interesting as well, as we see a parallel here: someone who does have it all and may also throw it all away. He saw Barry as a friend, and even just trying to call him has now jeopardized his freedom. Furthermore, he is aware of Barry’s cooperation with the FBI. This is it. Barry has to die, despite NoHo Hank protecting him for the majority of the series.
Despite being two distinctive episodes (one that sets up the season, and another that flicks the dominoes while they are in place), “yikes” and “bestest place on the earth” feel like an hour long special that fans would adore having. This is true, especially because these episodes work so well. Having said that, Barry isn’t a show that reveals all of its cards right away. This feels all the more apparent with so many lives that are up in the air (even Gene, who appears to be the most stable of the lead characters by the end of the second episode: he may have opened Pandora’s Box with that Vanity Fair piece). Barry also clearly has shed off as much of its comedic identity as possible: it is almost fully in the realm of tragedy. There are still great laughs (we can’t deny Barry these, after all), but, my goodness, is this show full of compelling characters and ambiguous behaviours. Does Sally actually feel safe with Barry still? Will Lon present Gene’s story as-is? Will that Vanity Fair piece actually work to Gene’s benefit? Will this new quest — to kill Barry — glue NoHo Hank and Cristobal closer together, or will it cause their schism? I feel like the final season of Barry will get as dark as possible, and I’m here for all of it.
Final Grades
Yikes: 4/5
Bestest Place on the Earth: 4.5/5
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.