Warning: This review contains spoilers for season 3, episode 3 ofBarry.
The latest season of Bill Hader’s hitman comedyBarrykicked off with two intense, nail-biting episodes paying off all the tension that fans had been sitting with for three years. This week’s third episode, “ben mendelsohn,” calms down a little, with none of the expected shocking turns or jaw-dropping ramifications. But it’s still a great addition to the season with plenty of riveting character development (and a handful of laugh-out-loud moments, like the Spider-Man question).
The third episode might not have any massive plot developments, but it’s not filler, either. In her first writing credit on the show, Emma Barrie has proven that she understands these characters on a deep level. Barry deals with guilt, Gene deals with Barry’s blackmail scheme, Hank deals with a gang war, and Sally deals with self-promotion. “ben mendelsohn” has all the hallmarks of a greatBarryepisode; it’s just missing the explosive payoffs fromthe previous two installments.
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Not every episode can provide those payoffs. The show needs to build to them, and Barrie’s script does a solid job of that in the third episode. Everybody’s storylines are heading toward dire consequences: Hank and Cristobal are each desperately trying to call off a war between their two gangs; Sally’s young co-star is becoming increasingly concerned about Barry’s temper; Fuches is intent on exacting vengeance against his old protégé. “ben mendelsohn” doesn’t build to any huge payoffs within the episode itself, but those payoffs are surely on the way in the coming weeks.
While the storytelling is less eventful than usual, this episode is just as masterfully directed as all the others. Helmed by series co-creator Alec Berg, “ben mendelsohn” isfull of engaging imagerythat captures the emotions and internal conflicts of the characters. The episode has a few elaborately staged wide shots that slowly pull in to become close-ups of the most important character in the scene. Berg maintains a sharp focus on the performances from beginning to end. He lingers on moments that deepen the characters without necessarily developing the plot, like Barry reeling from Gene punching him in the face and calling him a “piece of s***.” These quieter moments usually pave the way for a big plot development. In this case,Barry decides to double downon his psychopathy (yet again) by taking the job offer from Hank.
Sally’s storyline in the third episode doesn’t follow up on how Barry’s outburst from last week has affected her, but this lack of follow-up could point to Sally being used to that kind of behavior after her marriage to Sam. Alternatively, the writers could be leaving the outburst to stew a little, letting the audience in on third-party characters’ reactions to it, ahead of a climactic blow-up between Barry and Sally in a future episode. Sarah Goldberg still gets a lot to chew on as Sally sits down to do a series of rapid-fire interviews about her upcoming TV project. These interviews are a spot-on satire of the phoniness of press junkets. Sally is asked about the struggles of adapting her own traumatic experiences into art, then immediately asked who she thinks should replaceTom Holland as Spider-Man(and the first name she throws out is titular 53-year-old actor Ben Mendelsohn).
After last week’s bombshell cliffhanger ending, Barry seemed to have Gene in the palm of his hand, forcing him to forgive him for Janice’s murder and continue mentoring him under threat of killing his son and grandson next. By the end of “ben mendelsohn,” Gene has finally had enough of Barry’s abuse and stands up for himself. It’s unclear how this twist will affect their dynamic going forward, but the writers have been taking a bunch of truly unexpected turns with their central surrogate father-son pairing this season. It’s obvious thatBarry and Gene’s relationshipcan never go back to normal, and it’s been fun to see how far from normalcy the writers are willing to push these two.
“ben mendelsohn” remains focused on the season’s ongoing theme of forgiveness – especially in the final scene. Fuches’ caretaker in Chechnya tells him an old 16th-century fable about the importance of forgiveness. The point of the story completely goes over his head and he’s bathed in sinister, cinematic red light as he plots revenge against Barry. This development could end up rehashing earlier Fuches storylines, although the writers likely have something totally unpredictable up their sleeve as usual. Either way, it’ll be great to have Stephen Root back in the mix on a more regular basis.
On the whole, the third part ofBarry’s third seasonis a stepping stone between more exciting episodes. But not every week can have murder and blackmail; “ben mendelsohn” still has some great character work. The writers are rapidly escalating the conflicts as the season progresses, and fans are going along for the ride.
