Over the course of four seasons,Barryevolved into something that wasn’t very clear when it made its debut back in 2018. What started out as a light comedy about a former marine wanting to find a new life for himself ended up as a twisted thriller about a violent man who couldn’t help hurting everyone who came in direct contact with him During a recent interview withThe Wrap,Bill Hadertalked about the theme that brought all of the characters from the show together, summarizing what the series is actually about. Here’s what Bill Hader had to say regarding the underlying theme ofBarry:
Yeah I mean, that’s basically what the show is. That’s what everyone is trying to do by being someone else, so they can forget that they hate themselves and what they’ve done. That’s what the show ended up being about. It started out kind of hopeful, someone called it “Breaking Good” (laughs). By Season 4 he can’t be good so he’s gotta be Clark and Sally’s gotta be Emily and Fuches has gotta be The Raven and Cousineau has to be this monk, this weird wizard guy, and Hank is a well-to-do philanthropist and businessman.
And they’re all lying to themselves. So I think it was about Sally does it, Hank can’t do it and dies for it, Fuches does it – and his thing was he says, “I’m a man with no heart,” but he saves the kid. He feels that way about himself, but it’s complex. He wants to give him back to Barry because Fuches has always loved Barry, and we show that at the beginning of the season with the little Barry out in the field with him. So when he’s looking at John he’s like, “I can fix this within myself.”
When it comes to the main character himself, his delusion seems to be most noticeable one. Ever since he killed Janice Moss (Paula Newsome), Barry hadn’t shown any remorse about the crime, even when he saw Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) as a father figure. Years ofworking as an assassinfor hire had left Barry in a place where he didn’t even care or notice the effect his actions had on other people, genuinely believing himself to be a good person despite all the murders he had committed. Living a life that wasn’t real is something that any major character fromBarryis guilty of, as proven by the series itself.
In the case of Sally (Sarah Goldberg), she had lived throughan abusive relationshipwith the ex-boyfriend back in her hometown, and she had moved to California to start a new life away from the horrors she had experienced. However, when she met Barry, she fell into the same cycles of manipulation and abuse that she wanted to leave behind, putting in her in a very complicated situation. After all, she ended uprunning away and having a childwith the man she despised at one point, and while she was clearly manipulated into her new lifestyle, a part of her thought she deserved it.
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The Tragedy of NoHo Hank
Perhaps the most tragic fate of them all was NoHo Hank’s (Anthony Carrigan), who was so obsessed with power and with proving himself that he ended up leading the love of his life Cristobal (Michael Irby) to his untimely death. Even years after he had committed the crime, Hank was claiming that Cristobal’s death was a horrible accident, and that he hadn’t been involved at all with his lover’s demise. Fuches (Stephen Root) could see right through him, and he wasn’t going to let Hank forget what he had done to the person he loved the most.
