#barry SPOILERS! In this video we discuss the character arcs in HBO's BARRY. Mainly Hank, Fuches, Sally, Gene, and Barry. Gaming Channel: @MurryThePeevish Instagram: @murrypix
Interesting thought about Barry's 'change' only occurring because he had his back against the wall, but I don't think that's right. Barry has had his back against the wall throughout the series and he always chooses escalation and escape - this time he chose to turn himself in but the point is that it was far too little, far too late. The audience gets excited about this new angle, but all at once realizes that there isn't any time left to explore it - time's run out.
He wouldn’t have hung around to get arrested. After 90 seconds he’d shoot whoever and bail. That was literally the entire series. I loved it. But summed up that was him. He did that basically every episode, multiple times per usually.
Also, Barry was literally talking to some random dude that he never met and he got talked into it. Something clicked for hin when Sally and son left him and he decided to face his crimes.
I'd suggest that him turning himself in is an expression of ego death that he realizes is available to him, and dying as he does is the surprising result he only glimpses the potential of as it closes in.
I think this show's character arcs are all about coming to terms with yourself and unmasking the reality beneath the delusions of self identity through a long, painful journey. An odyssey of diving into the darkest regions of your heart just to come to terms with who you really are. I think the characters that were unable to truly take the mask off and see themselves suffer the most painful fates (Barry, Hank, & Gene all ultimately fall back on their delusions and defense mechanisms). Sally & Fuches eventually learn who they really are and come clean, and I believe that act of honesty and accountability gives them a sort of redemption arc. I thought this show did an amazing job of building realistically complex and dark characters in a comedic and surreal world. It's a juxtaposition that works beautifully IMO, & I thought the finale was a perfect way to cap things off. John smiling as his father's hideously violent crimes are buried in altered history is a very haunting way to close things out and makes us reflect on the entertainment we consume, and the civilizations we founded based on blood.. the stories we tell ourselves to mask who we really are.
I think that Barry found redemption in the end. In the last possible seconds he made the right choice. Also, in a way he got the redemption that he prayed to God for, the Hollywood movie redeems him to the public and more importantly, his son.
@@adoniscreed4031 I don't think the hollywood movie changing the story was meant to be redemptive, but more of a sick joke showing how far off the truth most of what we know about violence, true crime, and history in general probably is. Though, yes.. he did finally make the right moral choice for once, but I think the immediate gunshot following was a clear symbol that it was way too little, way too late for old Barry
That Lily rewrite is honestly a really funny and unhinged end, but I'm not sure how well they could have executed that. One of those things that seems hilarious in concept but could come off as baffling in execution
If Lily showed up again I’d do it like this: Have him say that he’s going to drive to the police station. He leaves his teacher’s house and while he’s driving, Barry thinks about everything that led up to this. Lily pops up out of the backseat. Cut to black and timeskip. No one saw Barry again.
The Lilly rewrite, despite being funny, would undercut the central theme of violence and revenge harming ourselves. She's alive because she recognized harming Barry was accomplishing nothing and walked away from it. Something Ronny wasn't able to do, and died for it. Having Lilly come back for revenge would only work if she died in response, but I think its a much stronger note to "end" with the main character's death instead of some callback from two seasons earlier.
I still think Sally didn’t change much from her selfish self in the early seasons. When her son John tells her he loves her, she doesn’t tell him she loves him back. She just asks about her play
In both abusive relationships, Sally just quietly picked up in the night. Even that doesn’t really change in her arc though I’m sure this is intentional. Excellent writing damn
It really depends on what genre you want to put the show into-everyone wants to call "Barry" a comedy. But really, "Barry" is a Shakespearian tragedy. Think about what each character's Achilles heel is and how they all orbit around the most prominent character's Achilles' heel. All of them get what they deserve in a tragedy; in a comedy, one expects big change that leads to a happy ending. In a way, Barry's most transformed character is Bill Hader. Everyone wanted to label him as a comedy star, but through the many seasons as we descend further into the dark underbelly of the world of Barry's violence and abuse, we see Bill Hader as a much more multi-faceted writer, performer, and director than anyone would have thought. When Barry asks, "Am I a good guy?" the whole series solidifies that he wants people to think he is, he wants to blame it on his experience, he wants to explain it away with some "Divine Purpose" but he chooses not to. (I'm pretty sure that the writers were making some commentary about Christian Nationalists in America who believe that they can be awful through "God's will" and still be "good people," in that last season.)
The character arcs in this show reminded me a lot of the character arcs in Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy of novels. I recommend it to fans of Barry!
One bit I've been thinking about ever since the finale that I haven't seen anyone really address, is how his son is the only person in the show to really have a happy ending. He has his mom, and he gets to (albeit delusionally) have the heroic father role model to cling on to. He's also the only innocent person in the entire show, so im sure it was intentional.
Something interesting that a commenter on Reddit brought to my attention is that, besides Sally, all 3 of the other main characters - Fuches, Hank, and Gene - spell out their endings of their own volition, influenced only by the THOUGHT of Barry / what Barry means to each of them, but not the PRESENCE of Barry. Hank doesn’t even see Barry after the time skip, dying in the hilariously anticlimactic shootout that was supposed to be FOR BARRY. Hank made his bed and became who he ultimately died as in the 8 years Barry was gone, only actualizing himself at the threat of Barry’s return. The same thing happens with Gene, who only comes out of hiding at the thought of a movie being made about Barry. He doesn’t see Barry until the very end when he kills him, and he doesn’t say a word to him. I think Gene WAS genuinely changing in the 8 years he was hiding in Israel, indicated by his initial heavy resistance to the movie being made. but the illusion of grandeur promised to him about making the movie led to his downfall. He didn’t change enough. Fuches is interesting because his 8 years without Barry are spent in prison and he becomes the lie of The Raven. He probably has the most satisfying arc, as he tells Hank he has no heart, only to then protect Barry’s son from the shootout and return him to Barry. No words are spoken, but they both know what that means to each of them. I don’t know what to make of it but it’s beautiful. From this perspective, Sally really does get the worst of it, as she literally lives with Barry for the 8 years in the time jump and is the only character who hasn’t seemingly been made better (in each their own way) by Barry’s influence. She has a kid she initially doesn’t really care about, she has terrible PTSD about killing the man in Barry‘s apartment, she drinks all day long and even gives her son alcohol to make him less annoying to her. At the end of the show, she has been graciously given a second chance after admitting to her son that she and Barry are not good people, and we can only hope she actually changes for the better.
Wait Back To The Future has no character arcs? The whole entire point of the first one is for George McFly to gain confidence and be more assertive that’s why they’re life is completely changed for the better at the very end
Sally definitely does not have a good ending and idk why people think she does. She’s clearly still very unhappy with what her life is. She’s too scared to ever find love again after 2 horribly abusive relationships. She’s closed off from everyone (including her son who she still can’t say “I love you” to) and she’ll never be “the big star” like she wanted. She literally has the opposite life she dreamed off. Like yeah she gets to live and not be arrested but that does not mean she had a good ending. She’ll be suffering with the consequences of her actions for the rest of her life just like any other poor soul that managed to survive the finale. Imho fuches has the “best” ending of all the characters and even then I still don’t think it’s great as he’ll probably have to live in the shadows looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life until he eventually pisses off the wrong people and gets clapped in classic fuches fashion
I don't think her ending is happy but even Sarah Goldberg said there's a certain kind of peace it to it for Sally. Like she's still emotionally stunted, a bad mother, scared of relationships, but she is very content finding an outlet that gives her that validation she seeks. It's not much, but the applause from her shows and those flowers seems to be just enough. And John gives it to her as well. It's as happy an ending as someone like her can get given everything that happened.
@@aubreypressley1450 tbh my comment was addressed more to people that just think sally had the best ending and got away with everything Scott free. Like she got a “slightly happier” ending than people like gene or fuches but it’s still not really a happy ending.. at least not 100% happy. She’ll still be suffering like any of the other characters that survived but she at least has some things in her life that can help her keep moving. Idk if that makes any sense but yeah lol
@@aubreypressley1450 I'm not trying to sound like an ass, but rewatch the finale and try to read between the lines a bit deeper. Sally, while actively being validated, still quite clearly does not *feel* that validation. It's only after John gives her that validation after being asked multiple times for it does she appear to relax a bit. Even so, that validation is all she's seeking, and forgoing her relationship with John in the process as evidenced by her totally ignoring him when he says "I love you." It's...definitely not a happy ending for her.
She clearly has the CLOSEST thing to a happy ending lol. I agree they did a great job of making it nuanced and showing that her trauma and difficulties interacting with her son haven't completely gone away but I still think that having some relative peace and quiet, while maintaining a normal job in a creative field is a great outcome considering the events of this series
@@chuckn4851 Sally was always lost on her work, the fact that John said I love you shows that he's comfortable doing so and seems like a well adjusted enough kid considering he spent most of his life on the run with a drug addled mother who didn't communicate with him and a psycho father constantly in denial. John's ending is happiest
Okay, hear me out. That little demon girl comes back and haunts Barry's Son, John. I mean that is bound to happen. All that rage can go two ways. She either goes to therapy and she forgives Barry then moves on with her life or she takes revenge. Call the show John. That's it! I expect a check in the mail.
I thought the whole thing between karate guy & demon girl went on wayyy too long. The show walks a decent balance between reality & absurdity but went overboard there
I feel like Barry was the victim to a degree. Fuches preened him to be everything he wasn't; a soldier and his interpretation of what it means to be a man. Gene preened him and molded him into a version of himself. Fuches, at the end realized this, and realized the best thing to do is to exit Barry and John's life to avoid the sins of the past. Gene, as I have heard in other videos, could not get over his wounded ego and ultimately sought revenge and dug two graves. For me, the overall humor was the fact that the show was set in Hollywood, where entertainment, acting, is the main industry, which depends on the participants pretending to be someone else, almost in a state of denial.
No character has a arc, besides the only one with a good ending: Sally. This doesn't make Sally a more likeable character, she was detestable in many moments of the series, so self-centered (for many reasons), but she evolved and so survived.
I agree and disagree at the same time.. I think every character HAS an arc but that instead of following through most of the characters (like hank and Barry) revert back to their base selves. But yeah as previously mentioned by both of you, sally and fuches are the only ones who accept who they are and actually grow from it (whether for the good or bad) Edit: also sally definitely does not have a good ending and idk why people think she does. She’s clearly still very unhappy with what her life is. She’s too scared to ever find love again after 2 horribly abusive relationships. She’s closed off from everyone (including her son who she still can’t say “I love you” to) and she’ll never be “the big star” like she wanted. She literally has the opposite life she dreamed off. Like yeah she gets to live and not be arrested but that does not mean she had a good ending
@@jfells4838 Couldn’t agree more, particularly about Sally. Barry may not be there to control her anymore but he has impacted her life in such a way that she is still living a lie. There is sadness in the fact that she won’t open herself up to love. To me, it still seems like she never wanted a son, and just doesn’t know how to cope with it and be a mother. Not to mention the fact that John is a constant reminder of Barry. Barry, who she can’t be honest about either. She has gone with the lies now that he is a innocent man to the public and to her son. Otherwise, she would have likely been charged with aiding and abetting a murderer. She did tell John the truth once, and the ending indicates that stuck with him. But knowing her, she’s probably closed off from him again completely since they were captured.
@@yungjeezy5232 yesss i literally feel the exact same way/have the same thoughts! It’s crazy to me that people just think good or bad ending = did they live or die. It’s so much more nuanced than that. I think every character that lives actually ends up having a worse ending. Gene is rotting in prison for doing BASICALLY nothing, Jim moss got revenge but it won’t ever bring his daughter back so he’ll still be empty inside, and sally/John have to live with the trauma and abuse that Barry put them through for 8 years that they’ll carry for the rest of their lives and fuches will have to live in the shadows constantly looking over his shoulder hoping that his past doesn’t catch up to him. It’s ironic that Barry actually gets the best ending.. he never had to face the consequences of his actions and he’ll be remembered as a hero to everyone (that doesn’t know the full story)
@@jfells4838 Yes! It is a perfect dark humor Barry ending to have the ones that lived be the ones that will die miserably. Thanks to Gene, Barry ironically had the happiest ending possible for him at that point. Sure, at the beginning of this season, I still had hope that Barry and Sally would run away together and live happily ever after. But that’s just not possible. Barry seems like the most normal person on the surface, but every time someone opposes him, he lashes out and almost always kills them. The fact that he thought he could force the world to accommodate his warpath only grew his ego even more and led to his death. He died believing that in the end, he was honest and good (and so would the world). As icing on the cake, I wish there was a old newspaper or something to hint that Hank was a victim as well. A innocent gay businessman who died in the arms of his lover. Even a headline like “LGBTQ KILLER! THE RAVEN, STILL AT LARGE”. Hinting that Hank (like Barry) was able to die with his lie intact not only in his mind but to the world, and Fuches took the hit for Hank and even Cristobal’s death.
4:17 She beated the guy to death with baseball bat several times when he was already on the floor and stop being a threat, not with the knife in his freaking skull. How the hell that is self-defence?
Sally was still self centered in the end. She literally never even told her son she loves and just repeatedly ask him if her play was good. What a biatch. Fuches though in my opinion the moment he saved Barry’s son and honestly my opinion he is the root of everyone’s problems he created Barry to become a monster and exploited his anger and talents to cause more harm for his own benefit. But seeing him do one good act after his exit made me have a lot of respect for his character especially accepting who he is. Only positive change I seen in this series.
Me & my brother think when Fuches ran back into the shadows, he ran back to get his boys out of there (all of them got pretty fucked up, but not all of them were dead)
I liked the first 3 seasons, but man, season 4 lost me. That time jump episode was so painfully bad that my wife and I almost quit right there. We decided we'd come that far, so might as well finish the series. ...not sure doing so was worth it.
I didn’t buy it at all that Sally would feel so much guilt over a life or death defense killing. Or that she would go with Barry and hide in the middle of nowhere. I think they forced the character there instead of listening to what the character would actually do. Season 4 is weird, it’s still good writing but disappointing to me. I hate the time skip as the entire series was about immediate consequences, and problems. Along with the overdone horror hallucinations, it felt like Bill Hader compromised his own show to stretch out his directing resume.
I felt the same way. I liked the first 3 seasons, but man, season 4 lost me. That time jump episode was so painfully bad that my wife and I almost quit right there. We decided we'd come that far, so might as well finish the series. ...not sure doing so was worth it. But yeah, mostly just felt like Hader was trying way too hard to be artsy or something ...and it didn't work.
The lack of closure on Lily's story actually pisses me off in that not only did we not see her again, but when the police are giving the report that Ronnie was killed by the police they don't even mention that he had a daughter or what her status is. This is fucking bad writing, she's literally a witness that could identify both Barry and Fuches she could have been the wild card that brought everyone down. Not to mention they did the exact same shit with Chris's wife, like wtf happened to her? She poisons Barry, panics then leaves her house and we never see/hear about her ever again!!! I like the show but some of the writing was just abysmal
Both of those open loops made zero sense. I wish the scenes with Lily were way shorter. A little too far into absurdity for me. The show was best when it was a mix of grounded & absurd
I don’t think Sally’s relationship with Barry was abusive. If anything, she was the one mistreating Barry, and emotionally abusing him most of the series.
yeah sally is just like Barry- he rationalizes his behavior to get through things, sally exploits and manipulates everyone around her to succeed and turns on them in a second. Sally may not have been a contract killer, but the no forgiveness, lions eating faces nature of Hollywood is exactly why a hitman trying to be an actor was such an interesting contrast to the crime world. Sally's nature tends to the extreme, don't forget after she was hurt at work she changed her mind on a dime and wanted Barry to go after her colleague.
LMAO, defending a literal serial murderer as a “victim”. The level of mental gymnastics that people go through to vilify Sally over a literal serial murderer like Barry is insane. He ignored her wails and cries for 8 years.
@@kalleidemation vilify? i think defending an unlikeable, problematic toxic woman character simply because she is a woman is the real sexism there. Sally is one of the best characters on tv in the last ten years because she is unlikeable and a reflection of the glorification of toxicity in hollywood as barry is a reflection of the damage violence and death in the wake of its celebration in the culture. women are allowed to be awful people too you know. not every female lead is a skyler white needing a legion of saviours to defend her or her portrayal lol
@@kalleidemation What wails and cries? It seemed like Barry was walking on eggshells around her. Not saying he’s a good guy. He’s obviously worse than Sally, but in their relationship specifically, Sally was using him. She never paid attention to anything he said the whole show and resented him when he got a hint of success. After he ran from prison, she knew what he’d done, but decided to use him as an excuse to run away with him because she couldn’t face that she didn’t have what it takes to be the big-time star she dreamed of being. She did redeem herself at the end, but Barry didn’t show signs of being abusive to her except for a couple times he yelled at her, but she seemed surprised like it wasn’t a typical thing for them.
Sallys caracter was an almost unwatchable mess of self service, disgusting ego. At no point did i feel she was the victim or the good guy in the story. She filled the role of archetype LA actor trying to make it. Great acting on her part!
After watching the series it never occured to me(and in retrospect that makes it even more funny) that ( as someone else pointed it out) in a series. with a professional killer as the protagonist , russian mafias , cartels and even STovska ; the most FORMIDABLE enemies Barry ever encounters are boring Detective Moss and Lily The Karate Girl
I feel Sally got off easy. She was just as selfish as everyone. And during the last scene with her son, I gotta say I couldn't feel the love for him from her. Maybe it's just me
I think there's an honest amount of love. As the person above said, she spent a lot of time in misery because of her child, who's only reason for existing in the first place was to both keep the fractured relationship together and give barry's existence a greater purpose. There's no way its a completely healthy relationship of course, I doubt it ever was but the fact it seems to be as cohesive as it is shows something strong. They were both out through barry's BS and seem to be flourishing. Sally was put through a lot and is clearly mentally ill, I think her ending was very satisfying considering all she went through
Was she in a abusive relationship? Yes but that only happened in last season and her in her past she talks about being choked and the abuse but what do really know that led up to it. It's one sided and we know she dramatic, it's her calling. In The previous seasons she was selfish and pretty shitty to Barry before she knew truth and also to everyone around her. She was just as bad a Gene when it came to getting what she wanted. Barry turned a blind eye to her bs putting her on a pedestal. Barry was a bad guy, we get that, but maybe if she actually showed genuine love he may have turned out differently and changed for better but also maybe not. It's all what ifs there. Sounds like people want to make her out to be this good person when she really wasnt. Her son tells her he loves her when shes about to drive off and ignores it that'll where i feel she doesn't really care and still a narcissist. Keeps him around to have someone validate her and show her love. Even being in a abusive relationship you show love to your kid. We saw she wasn't a good mother while on the lamb. I didn't like her through out series but that just goes how well it was acted. I just don't believe she deserved the ending she did. Everyone got what they deserved but her. Again, that's just me.
Interesting, I see it as justified. While not a criminal, Gene is still one of the worst person on the show because he fails to choose honesty and good over personal gain at every turn. It's ultimately ironic that it came to bit him in the ass when all his failure to choose good tarnished his image and reputation for ever.
the video is literally called "THE ENDING OF BARRY" if you cant use your critical thinking skills when clicking on videos then you cant kick off when you get spoiled.