While the first season of the HBO dark comedy show, Barry, established the gritty titular character played by Bill Hader, the second season makes a point to explore his relationships with those around him, both in new circles, and old. Along with displaying how Barry handles the friendships and life with Sally forged in his new LA stage actor life, the show forces Hader’s character to confront who he is, and how his past defines him as a man.
A crucial development in the second season is Gene Cousineau acting class’s assignment to draw significant moments from the actors past and act it out, on stage. Barry attempts to convince Cousineau to play out their first encounter, but is forced instead to perform a pivotal moment in Barry’s life that occurred while he was serving in Afghanistan.
While Barry attempts to find the perfect way to portray his story without making himself appear like a bad guy, Sally is also, forced to battle past demons. Sally’s story revolves around the night she left her ex-husband, who was abusive and controlling of her.
While Barry can’t seem to find the right balance of fact and fiction in his story, he is forced to reveal privately to Cousineau the grim details of his time serving; accidentally murdering an innocent after mistaking him as the killer of a friend. Sally also is forced to confront the fact that while she wrote an entertaining exit story where she stood up to her abusive husband in a fit of courage, she actually apologized to him in the moment after being abused by him and took off under the cover of night.
Barry’s relationships with those forged through his life as a hitman are also tested through season 2, especially with the new head of the Chechen mob, NoHo Hank. Hank needs Barry for a hit, but after Barry backs out, he tries to have him killed as well. After Hank’s men fail miserably at killing Barry, Barry convinces Hank to let him train his men so he will no longer be needed by the Chechen boss.
Fuches, his mentor from Barry’s home in Cleveland, also makes a return in season 2 after being forced into the fray by Detective Loach. Barry murdered Loach’s partner, who also happened to be Cousineau’s girlfriend, at the end of season 1, and Loach has been hellbent on solving the case.
Fuches winds up wearing a wire and coaxing Barry into admitting his crime, only for Loach to be hiding in the hotel room and cornering Barry. Instead of arresting him, Loach instead hires Barry for a hit on his ex-wife’s new boyfriend, again pulling a resistant Barry into the world of murder.
After a downright strange episode that revolves around Loach’s hired hit going horribly wrong, Barry and Fuches are forced to try to locate and kill a young girl, who has crazy karate skills and seems slightly insane. Both Fuches and Barry are severely injured this episode, and Loach responds to a fight called in between Barry and his target. Loach is killed in the conflict, and Barry escapes, opting to not return to Fuches and rejecting his past becoming his future.
The rest of season 2 will deal with the fallout of Loach’s death and Barry being easily place-able at the scene, the homicidal little girl, NoHo Hank’s burgeoning army, and the balance of his life with Sally and as an actor.
