This content is imported from youTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
The Season Three finale of Barry seemed like curtains for Barry Berkman. After all, how can the story of a hitman continue after he’s been taken into police custody? But Bill Hader, of course, has something up his sleeve. As we at Esquire always say: when in doubt, trust in Bill Hader. Barry is set to come back for Season Four this April with Hader at the director’s helm of all eight episodes—though it appears to be his last. Season Four will reportedly bring the HBO series to an end, according to Hader himself, following months of interviews teasing the upcoming batch of episodes as the end of the road for Barry.
Before the recent news, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Season Three finale was already the series finale. Albert, Barry’s former Marine compatriot turned investigator, finally discovered that Barry was responsible for the death of Detective Janice Moss. He drags Barry out to the desert at gunpoint, but ultimately bestows mercy on a screaming, sobbing Barry, who resolves to change his ways. But Barry seemingly won’t get the chance to do better: Gene Cousineau tricks him into storming the home of Janice’s father, where an LAPD SWAT team awaits to take him into custody. The series could have very well ended there, with Barry brought to account for his defining crime, but Hader has other plans. Recently, he spoke to Vultureabout the decision to arrest Barry rather than kill him.
“Well dying, the story’s over, and I thought there was more story,” he said. “There’s only so long a guy can get away with this. I know I feel watching shows sometimes, ‘They’re trying to keep the thing going and now it’s getting ridiculous to keep the thing going.’ And so, I think he would get caught. He’s not Jason Bourne or Walter White. He’s not a genius. He’s a very dumb guy. And it made sense, the idea of Gene Cousineau wanting justice for Janice and then getting it by the end, but he has to go through a transformation himself to get it.”
What Will Happen in Barry Season Four?
In Season Four, it seems likely that we’ll see Barry in jail, where he may very well run into his old handler Fuches. But Hader teases that it won’t be a straight line from arrest to imprisonment. “I love true crime stuff, so this is just the part where it’s like, ‘And then he got caught, and then this happened,’” Hader told The Hollywood Reporter. “And there’s so much more to it.” As for what Gene does next after getting justice for his one true love and packing Barry off to the slammer, that’s anybody’s guess. Things were going well for Gene in Season Three as he mended fences with his estranged family and secured new acting opportunities, but could his big act of betrayal ultimately prove to be a setback?
Barry and Gene aren’t the only characters in transition. In the season finale, we see two important people in Barry’s life go through earth-shattering changes: his on-again, off-again girlfriend Sally torches her career and commits murder for the first time, while former mobster NoHo Hank also kills someone for the first time. Sally and NoHo Hank have caught “Barry’s disease,” according to Hader, and no doubt the fallout will continue to resonate in Season Four.
This content is imported from youTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
“Well, certain things I can’t say, because it sets up stuff in Season Four, but I can say where Sally and NoHo Hank specifically end up this season and giving them Barry’s disease, like they murder people,” Hader told The Wrap. “That was something that, as we were looking at Season Four, it was kind of going like, ‘Oh, that could be interesting to just have their characters be different.’”
Are You Sure Season Four Is The Finale Season?
Sadly, yes. HBO confirmed to Deadline that Season Four would be the final release for Barry, months after Henry Winkler teased the show’s ending at the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards. While speaking with Variety, Winkler hinted that the show would only have four seasons, saying that Hader and Berg “never try to stretch… they don’t want to push it.” Winkler did say that he hopes Barry continues beyond Season Four, however; crediting it with his late-in-life career resurgence, now that he’s “an actor back on the street again.”
Now, Hader has confirmed it himself. In an interview with Variety, Hader stated that “we could pad a lot of stuff, and just make story. But if we’re going forward, it ends in Season 4.” Barry Season Four will premiere on HBO very soon, sometime this April. Watch this space for updates; we’ll continue to update this story as we learn more.
Books and Fiction Editor
Adrienne Westenfeld is the Books and Fiction Editor at Esquire, where she oversees books coverage, edits fiction, and curates the Esquire Book Club.