Barry Season 2 Recap: What To Remember

It’s been three long years since we’ve been graced with a new episode of HBO’s critically acclaimed crime drama series Barry. However, April 24 marks the return of the Marine-turned-hitman-turned-thespian Barry Berkman (Bill Hader). Between the many twists and turns of the series so far and the lengthy wait between seasons, a Season 2 recap is a must to prepare for the story’s continuation.

It’s been a unique road for Barry’s titular protagonist. He initially found his way to the stage after being hired by his criminal associate Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root). Tasked with killing an acting student in Los Angeles, Barry met the teacher of the class he’d been charged with infiltrating, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), as well as fellow student Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg). Through these new experiences, he discovered there’s more to life than just killing people, and he spent most of Season 1 trying to navigate life as a semi-retired gun-for-hire. Unsurprisingly, though, things didn’t go as planned, which set up a whole heft of drama in Season 2.

Barry Tries To Leave The Life

Season 2 begins in the wake of Detective Janice Moss’ (Paula Newsome) disappearance. She’d spent all of Season 1 searching for the culprit who killed Ryan Madison (Tyler Jacob Moore), aka the actor Barry was supposed to kill after he got mixed up with the Chechens. It was Barry who killed Janice at Cousineau’s lake house, because she was inches away from discovering his double life.

Of course, the whole thing becomes murkier when you remember that Cousineau was romantically involved with Janice at the time of her death. As far as anyone knows, Janice isn’t dead, just missing. While cold-blooded, Barry’s decision to kill Janice was done to preserve the new life he was trying to create for himself, which is the same reason he decided to cut ties with Fuches and NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan), attempting to leave his life of murder.

Throughout Season 2, Barry becomes increasingly comfortable revealing his past to Cousineau, even going so far as to tell his acting teacher that he killed an innocent civilian while serving in Korengal. Cousineau is fairly disturbed by the story, but Barry is relieved. With his rush of catharsis, he meets with Fuches and tells him that he killed Detective Moss; however, Fuches had been plotting to set up Barry, getting him to confess in front of Detective Loach (John Pirruccello). Instead of arresting Barry, Loach tasks Barry with killing his ex-wife’s lover, which leads to an episode-long fight sequence where Barry gets brutalized across the entire runtime.

Elsewhere, Barry encourages Sally to join him on his journey of self-discovery, and helps her amend a scene about her past abusive relationship. However, upon learning about the details of the relationship, Barry very nearly kills Sally’s ex-partner, on whom the scene is based. Though Barry doesn’t kill him, he does call and threaten Fuches after Fuches gets Cousineau mixed up in the Moss investigation. Barry then learns that Fuches and Hank are in cahoots, and tracks them to a gang-occupied monastery. He finally succumbs to his rage and massacres almost everyone in the building.

NoHo Hank Tries To Build An Army

Barry’s attempts to sever his professional ties with Fuches and Hank cause Hank to sour on his once beloved Barry. Elsewhere, following the death of Hank’s former higher-up Goran Pazar (Glenn Fleshler), Hank forms an alliance with Cristobal (Michael Irby), the leader of the Bolivian mafia. Despite his new position, a fresh threat arises in the form of Esther (Patricia Fa’asua), the leader of a Burmese gang. Hank had assumed Barry would help him kill Esther, who stands as the biggest threat to Hank’s ascension, but Barry declines. Desperate, Hank begins building a mostly hapless army in hopes of attempting a coup that would bring down both Esther and Cristobal. Hank admits that he’s less of a leader and more of a manager before abandoning his army, before they’re all burned alive by Cristobal. Running out of options, Hank heads to a Buddhist monastery to prep for battle with both the Bolivians and the Burmese, only for Fuches to enter the fray. Fuches manages to get all sides to abandon their plans for war and unite as a conglomerate gang instead.

Sally Shoots For The Stars

At the end of Season 1, Sally and Barry get together, which serves as the impetus for Barry’s daydreams about what life could be like with her. Sally, on the other hand, is slightly more concerned with her career. Barry encourages Sally to be more vulnerable in class and advises her to amend a scene she wrote that positions her as the “hero” in her abusive relationship with her ex-husband, Sam (Joe Massingill) — the same ex-husband Barry nearly kills. Upon doing so, Sally is able to tap into previously unseen emotional depths, all while finally landing a meeting with a legitimate agent. The meeting isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as she’s offered an emotionally exploitative television role. Meanwhile, Barry gets offered a role in a feature film, which causes Sally to spiral into jealousy. Thankfully, Sally’s agent, Lindsay (Jessy Hodges), is able to see her new client’s worth, and encourages her to pursue more theater work, instead of the television series.

When it comes time to perform Sally’s scene for a bigger audience, she improvises and reverts back to her original draft, which causes an already vulnerable Barry to amp up his performance, even going so far as to break down on stage. In doing so, Sally is able to elevate her own performance, despite the fact that the scene isn’t actually authentic to what happened in real life. It’s clear that Sally feels guilty about lying and for being disingenuous about how she handled her relationship with Sam, but none of that matters as she’s rushed by theatergoers, praising her for her performance and for her ability to stand up to Sam.

Fuches Turns On Barry

Realizing Barry is finished with his life of killing, Fuches begins to fortify his own safety. He agrees to work undercover with the police, which ultimately leads to Barry spilling his guts about Detective Moss. Thus Fuches and Barry go on a hapless job that sees them beat up by both a father and daughter. Despite Barry’s insistence that he was done for good, Fuches decides to get insurance, goes looking for Moss’ body, and finds it in the car Barry had originally dumped it in. Fuches then poses as a private investigator and shows Cousineau Moss’ body and whispers something in his ear. Posing as Cousineau, Fuches calls the police and confesses to Moss’ murder.

Barry learns of Cousineau’s predicament, so he goes to find Moss’s body, before dropping an unseen (for now) item in the trunk beside her corpse. Later, before his big performance with Sally, Barry calls and threatens Fuches. He then receives a text from Hank saying that Barry’s help — which he wasn’t even really offering — is no longer needed because Hank has Fuches as an ally now. This sets off Barry, who heads to the monastery where Fuches, Hank, and their conglomerate gang are hiding. Upon his arrival, Barry goes on a murder spree, killing everyone in sight, except for Fuches, who escapes. Thankfully, Cousineau is released from custody after the cops find Moss with a Chechen pin next to her — the item Barry placed next to her body, thereby eliminating the acting coach as a suspect. However, just before the season ends, a stunned Cousineau remembers what Fuches whispered in his ear: “Barry Berkman did this.” Quite the cliffhanger.

Barry Season 3 premieres on Sunday, April 24 on HBO and HBO Max.