Barry: crazytimeshitshow (3x05)

Oh my god... that kid at the end...

Cons:

We saw a brief glance of Fuches continuing on his quest to turn the families of people Barry has killed against him. Since we have the story of the mother and the son, further Fuches material in this vein seems kind of unnecessary? It's not bad, it just doesn't seem to add an awful lot.

We also see that an FBI agent has shown up to try and help solve Moss's murder. Again, I don't have a huge problem with this, but spending time with these characters is far less interesting to me than everything else that's on the table, so I was always hoping we'd switch back to one of the more pivotal characters soon.

Pros:

Gene Cousineau is such a bizarre character, in the best way. He's recognizable, right? The guy who was an entitled jackass, who regrets it later in life, in Gene's case after a traumatic experience... but his regret isn't actually enough on its own to solve anything, and that's the inherent tragedy here. I loved the dinner scene with Joe Mantegna. So random, so funny and also bittersweet. Gene is forced to confront the fact that making amends isn't a foolproof enterprise. Barry gave him a bunch of cash and said he'd leave him alone, which is honestly the only form of redemption available to him. For Gene, it's a little more complicated and he might not be able to earn forgiveness for all his past misdeeds.

Sally's show Joplin is abruptly cancelled by the streaming service it was on, because the algorithm says it wasn't getting the right eyeballs. This is sort of an exaggerated/accelerated version of what many creatives in this whole world actually have to deal with. It felt like an incisive and also darkly funny dig at Netflix most specifically. They're famous for making one or two seasons of something that everybody loves, but then cancelling it because they aren't getting as many fresh eyeballs on it as they need. Sally's abrupt shift from awaiting her superstar status to having all her dreams crushed was honestly gutting to watch, but the scene also had some good laughs.

Meanwhile, Barry goes to Cristobal and Noho Hank to ask for relationship advice. They both tell him to be more authentic with Sally. I loved Hader's acting in this scene especially, the chilling way he walks back his outburst at Sally, justifying it to himself in retrospect as no big deal so that he can be the victim. It's awful to watch people enact this harmful self-delusion. I've seen it in real life.

And then the Bolivians show up and kidnap Cristobal, while Hank hides in a closet! We see that the Chechen's compound has been raided, and Cristobal's wife who Hank doesn't know about shows up to avenge her father's death. I honestly root for Cristobal and Hank's weird bizarre romance so much? They're both bad people but their care for each other seems genuine and intense. I can't wait to see what happens from here.

For me the highlight of the episode is Sally and Barry's one scene together, where Barry comforts Sally about her show, and offers to psychologically torture the woman who cancelled it. Sally listens as Barry talks about breaking into this woman's house and taking pictures of her while she sleeps. The thing that's sort of brilliant about this show is that for one moment as Sally was listening to all the wild shit Barry was saying, I wondered if she'd open her mouth and say "okay, let's do it." Not that I actually thought the show was going to turn Sally into Barry's accomplice or something, but there was this vibe of like... Barry is opening up to Sally about his life, as he was advised to do. How is Sally going to respond? The show works on all these different levels because of course Sally reacted with fear and disgust and told Barry to get the hell away from her. Once it happens, it's the only possible thing that could have happened. That's good TV.

We end the episode with the mother and son who want revenge on Barry for killing their family member. The mother accidentally shoots her son in the stomach as they're planning their revenge. It's such a shocking, unexpected moment, with Barry standing at the end of the street having no idea that his life was just in danger, and this horrible family tragedy happening completely without Barry's knowledge.

And that's that! Man, this show always takes me places where I just have no idea where we go from here. Sally's show being cancelled, Barry and Sally's breakup, Cristobal being kidnapped... everything is happening so quickly!

9/10