Bill Hader On How That Jolting ‘Barry’ Season 3 Finale Came To Be – Crew Call Podcast

Anthony D'Alessandro
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Spoiler Alert: The following podcast and article contains spoilers about tonight’s season 3 finale of HBO’s Barry. 

After a three-season investigation, the cops have finally surrounded Barry.

More from Deadline

. - Credit: Deadline
. - Credit: Deadline

Deadline

In a sting operation, orchestrated by Janice’s father, Jim Moss (Robert Wisdom), the title hit man, played by Bill Hader, is lured into the former’s house by his acting mentor Gene Cousineau (Emmy winner Henry Winkler). Heading into season 4, Barry has no choice but to pay the piper for killing Cousineau’s lover.

“He’s going to take me down, Barry, he’s going to ruin me,” Cousineau tells Barry about Moss in a ploy to trap his former thespian pupil.

Earlier in the episode we see Barry’s g.f., Sally (Sarah Goldberg), returning to the man who verbally abused her: She come to the frantic decision that Barry’s blunt force could come in handy to scare off her friend Natalie (D’Arcy Carden) for stealing her TV series idea. But then an intruder from Barry’s past breaks into the room, briefly knocking him out and nearly choking Sally to death. Sally overcomes him, beating the intruder to death with a bat, Barry-style. Barry tells her he’ll clean up the mess, which he does, and it looks like they’re going to reunite and go on the lam together, that is until he’s nabbed by a SWAT team at Moss’ home.

You can listen to our conversation about tonight’s finale “Starting now” with Barry co-creator, EP, and director Hader:

Hader says Barry’s ultimate arrest was one of the first ideas on the board in the writers’ room when he began breaking story on season 3 back in 2020.

“We said, ‘Wow, this isn’t funny. This is pretty dark.’ But it felt honest and it felt like where…if you’re following the characters and what we’ve set up, it seemed where it needed to go,” explains the SNL alum.

In regards to Barry’s relationship with Sally, it’s a vicious cycle, violence begetting violence.

“It’s about trying to take the blame for it. It’s what he’s been trying to do all season, get some sense of forgiveness,” explains Hader about Barry’s abusive tendencies.

“It’s her abuse that she’s gone through her whole life with her ex-husband,” explains Hader, “It’s this cycle; in order to get out of that she has to turn violent…it’s her trauma coming out.”

“Their character journeys (are) intersecting at one point; it’s really the first time in the show where you finally see the acting world as now officially infiltrated by Barry’s crime world,” Hader tells Deadline’s Crew Call tonight.

The 3x Primetime Emmy winner tells us he’s in the middle of writing season 4 and planning to start production in two months. He’ll be directing all episodes next season.

Hader also chats about the cinematic tone of season 3, how Barry survived the poison in ep. 7, the show’s Emmy submission of ep. 6 “71ON,” and the new feature script he cracked during the pandemic.

Subscribe to the Crew Call podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.