The Barry series finale was unsparing and it refused to pander. I loved it, but there’s some debate. There are probably some people who also wanted Barry to get off free and clear. And, I get it. Barry was, at times, a sympathetic character, damaged so truly and fully by the carnage of war and by a handler/father figure that monetized his trauma and skillset. But, at some point, you’ve gotta let go of that and look at Barry as an outright monster, lashing out when frightened that he’d get caught or that he’d lose out on the carefully constructed second act that he was writing for himself.
Barry killed his friend, Chris, making it look like a suicide. He killed Janice Moss, Gene’s girlfriend. A constant parade of bodies preceded and proceeded those acts. Barry dying was the end the show needed, 100%. But the manner of his death is what brings us here to this collection of words on the internet.
When Barry looks up at Gene after he gets shot in the heart and says, “Oh wow,” what is he commenting on? This has been bugging me, and now, I hope, it starts to bug you. In the frame and in the moment, it’s easy to assume that it’s seeing Gene Cousineau holding a gun before he fires one more time, putting one between Barry’s eyes. That’s definitely a wow moment. No one thought Gene had it in him, but everyone has a breakpoint, and for Gene that’s apparently when someone dangles Daniel Day-Lewis in front of him and then, instead, offers the consolation prize of prison and infamy.
But if you think back to NoHo Hank’s death earlier in the episode, after talking about being afraid and reaching out for the hand of the statue of Cristobal, his eyes go huge before the life leaves them. What was he looking at? What was he reacting to? Again, it’s been bugging me, so I’m passing that on to you.
I think if you take those two moments and string them together with some of the scenes from last season with that place along the beach with all the people that Barry had killed, it’s fair to wonder if Hader is making some kind of comment about the existence of the afterlife in the show and judgment on another plane of existence. Specifically, because both characters were so committed to avoiding any form of judgment or consequence on Earth.
NoHo Hank killed a lot of people to get to where he was. He didn’t want to. He got pushed into that place. Sometimes he was sitting on his hands when other people pulled the trigger, but make no mistake, he was responsible.
With Barry, he’s seemingly years removed from his murderous ways at the end of this season, but he’s also looking for cheat codes to get into heaven, listening to Bill Burr hosted religio-podcasts for workarounds on the whole “thou shalt not kill” thing. After he reunites with Sally and their son, he’s eager to backtrack on any notion of sacrifice or consequence for his past sins. God’s plan doesn’t involve him going back to jail. What a lucky break for Barry.
When I spoke with Hader ahead of the season premiere and asked him about whether heaven and hell exist in the world of the show, this is what he said:
“I do think in Barry’s mind that heaven and hell exist, and it seems like he’s much more concerned with that than what is happening on Earth. (Laughs) He’s much more concerned about what he can do to go someplace, ascend to someplace than he is like, ‘Well, what can I do here now in the moment to maybe make things better?’ And he’s not really reflecting on, especially his anger. I don’t think that’s a thing he thinks about. He thinks (more) about these ideas of what a pious person is, I guess, than being one.”
“Oh, wow” is a great line. Hank reaching out for Cristobal’s hand before death is a great visual. But if there’s that layer beneath those scenes and Hader was sprinkling in the possibility that these self-diluted “good guys” might be realizing, in that moment, that they’re in line for some kind of biblical punishment, OH… WOW!
There’s one thing that bothers me, though. Hank is terrified. Barry is amazed. What does that even mean if it was them glimpsing some view of the afterlife? My guess is Hank never considered the possibility and Barry had spent the last 8 years thinking about these things and the notion of salvation. What is there to say when the bubble bursts? “Oh, wow.”
This is all just a theory, of course, but with a show that occasionally dipped into the unexplained — Lilly’s howl and tree-climbing skills in the “Ronny/Lily” episode, the way Barry constantly dodges bullets as though he was facing off with the Hand Canon character in Pulp Fiction, the aforementioned limbo beach — perhaps it’s worth considering. If nothing else, it’s a chance to re-watch, re-think, and praise a truly great show that stuck the landing.
