Warning! Spoilers ahead for Barry season 3.
From the murder of Detective Janice Moss to the martial arts prowess of Ronny and Lily to the blood-soaked monastery massacre, the first two seasons of HBO’s hitman comedy Barry provided a bunch of shocking plot turns. The series has become just as renowned for its jaw-dropping storytelling as its deadpan laughs and refreshingly minimalist action set-pieces.
The recently released third season delivered more mind-blowing twists than ever before. From a breakup to a poisoning to an unprecedented arrest, Barry season 3 was full of bombshells.
8 Episode 1: Barry Returns To Contract Killing
The season 3 premiere, “forgiving jeff,” opens with Barry on another hit. At first, it seems like it might be a flashback, but as it turns out, he’s back to contract killing. Following the monastery massacre in the season 2 finale, a depressed and disillusioned Barry has doubled down on his worst quality.
Since Fuches is hiding out in Chechnya (and he’s on terrible terms with Barry), Barry is acting as his own manager, picking up hits on the dark web. When one of his clients forgives a target and tries to call off the job, Barry kills them both.
7 Episode 2: Barry’s Outburst
After Gene tells Barry that he can earn his forgiveness in the season premiere, Barry becomes determined to do just that in the second episode, “limonada.” He drives around L.A., desperately trying to land Gene an acting job, and the longer it takes for his plan to come together, the emptier the gesture feels.
Barry’s first stop is the production office of Sally’s new show, where he asks her to cast Gene. When she refuses, Barry launches into a furious tirade against Sally, much to the horror of her young co-star, Katie.
6 Episode 3: Gene Punches Barry
Gene goes through the motions in the third episode of the season, “ben mendelsohn,” as he joins Barry on the set of the TV show Laws of Humanity. Barry wants to earn Gene’s forgiveness with this acting job, but he threatened to kill Gene’s son and grandson just to get to that point.
In the midst of their Laws of Humanity scene, Gene abruptly stands up, punches Barry in the face, and angrily tells him to stay away from his family before storming off the set.
5 Episode 4: Sally Breaks Up With Barry
After witnessing Barry’s outburst in the production office, Katie spends a couple of episodes struggling to convey her concerns about Sally’s unstable, violent boyfriend. In the season’s fourth episode, “all the sauces,” after Sally thanks Barry in a speech at the Joplin premiere, Katie can’t hold her tongue any longer.
She tells Sally that Barry is an angry, violent person, and that she fears he’ll hurt her if they stay together. When Barry arrives late at the premiere, Sally breaks up with him there and then. This on-and-off romance that existed since the pilot episode came to an abrupt end in the fourth episode of season 3.
4 Episode 5: Albert Is Back On The Scene
Barry’s military flashbacks collided with the present-day storyline in season 3’s fifth episode, “crazytimes**tshow,” when his fellow Marine Albert Nguyen arrived in Los Angeles. Years after Barry saved his life in a warzone, Albert has become a special agent at the FBI, and he’s in L.A. to finally figure out who “The Raven” is.
After the show spent two-and-a-half seasons wringing recurring laughs out of the LAPD’s incompetence, a competent lawman came along with a much better chance of getting to the bottom of the case and pinning the Raven’s crimes on Barry.
3 Episode 6: Barry Gets Poisoned
Not only does the sixth installment of Barry’s latest season have one of the show’s most thrilling action sequences; it uses that action sequence as a great bait-and-switch to set up the episode’s final twist. After the dirt bike chase on the titular interstate in “710N,” Barry thinks he’s outrun his troubles.
He finally makes it to the supposed dinner party hosted by Sharon, who was widowed by one of Barry’s many murders, where she feeds him an appetizer. After finding Fuches’ phony P.I. business card on the table, Barry realizes the whole thing is a trap and he’s been poisoned.
2 Episode 7: Jim Moss Is A Psychological Torturer
In the penultimate episode of season 3, “candy a**es,” Fuches recruits yet another person that Barry has wronged for his anti-Barry revenge army. This time, he speaks to Jim Moss, the father of Janice Moss, who is deeply invested in figuring out who murdered his daughter and bringing them to justice.
As Jim drives Fuches to the police station, he explains the skillset he acquired as a soldier in the Vietnam War. It turns out that he specializes in psychological warfare. If he’s in a room with somebody, he can convince them to take their own life.
1 Episode 8: Gene Turns Barry In
In the season 3 finale, “starting now,” any number of characters could’ve caused Barry’s downfall. One of the vengeful footsoldiers recruited by Fuches could’ve gotten the better of him. Albert could’ve used his federal authority to bring Barry to justice. Jim Moss could’ve convinced Barry to take his own life.
But in the end, Barry’s downfall was caused by his father figure, Gene. After being interrogated by Moss, Gene could no longer remain complicit in Barry’s crimes and did the right thing. He tricked Barry into breaking into Moss’ house, where a police squad was waiting for him.
The third season of HBO's Barry provided at least one mind-blowing plot twist in every episode, from a breakup to a poisoning to an arrest.Ben Sherlock