DISCLAIMER: This recap of Barry Season 4 Episode 8, “Wow,” contains spoilers. Proceed at your peril. 

Welcome back, hit people-turned-actors! It’s hard to believe we’ve reached the end of our Barry journey. “Wow” is a shocking, blood-soaked series finale that illustrates bleak endings for everyone. Written and directed by Bill Hader, the man we should all be sending our therapy bills to, the outing gives Barry Berkman the end we all expected. The back half of this season finds Barry working overtime to repent for his sins. However, he’s only trying to redeem himself because he fears the consequences (earthly and eternal) of his actions. I never believed he genuinely wanted to change as a person. This is particularly apparent when he prays before preparing to sacrifice himself for John so he gets a seat in Heaven as God’s right-hand man. 

NoHo Hank also meets his demise. I would’ve liked the gay man to live, but this is not a series you watch for happy endings. It’s a nihilistic, dark portrait that reminds us nobody gets out scot-free. 

Ready to delve into “Wow”? Let’s get to it. 

RELATED: Check out our recap for last week’s Barry episode, “a nice meal”

We open with Fuches (Stephen Root) soaking in his bathtub while listening to music. NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) video calls him to reveal he’s about to have Barry in his clutches. Fuches believes Hank’s lying and wants nothing to do with him until Hank shows he’s holding Sally (Sarah Goldberg) and John (Zachary Golinger) captive. Things just got interesting for ole Fuches. Fuches claims he’ll be at Nohobal shortly. Hank and Sally chat for a minute, with Sally asking Hank what will happen to her and John. Hank states it’s not for him to decide their fates. 

Meanwhile, Barry (Hader) storms into the CVS-type convenience store with a gun counter and demands to buy more guns. Then, he storms out of said store with two rifles strapped to his back, in plain view of the other customers. However, they don’t pay him any mind. It’s an uncomfortably funny bit, albeit unrealistic, given this takes place in LA. Gene (Henry Winkler) and Tom (Fred Melamed) watch a press conference featuring DA Buckner (Charles Parnell) and Jim Moss (Robert Wisdom). They’re pinning Janice’s murder on Gene, claiming he had Barry carry out the kill. Of course, we know this is false. 

Next, John asks Sally what’s happening. Naturally, he’s confused. Why are these people calling his parents by different names? Sally discloses the truth to her son: they’re on the run from the law. Barry is a fugitive who escaped prison after murdering multiple people. She breaks down and admits she’s not a good mother. She also tells him she killed someone, too. John embraces her as she apologizes profusely to him. It’s a touching moment, performed beautifully, as always, by Goldberg. Hank’s henchmen drag Sally out of the room as John cries out for her. 

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Then, Fuches arrives at Nohobal with his crew. He spots Hank with Sally as they crowd in front of the Cristobal statue. Fuches asks to see John, but Hank claims he’s not part of this. Barry’s on his way. They’re going to use Sally as the dangling carrot. However, Fuches threatens to walk if Hank doesn’t show him John. The conversation changes to Fuches accepting who he is while in prison: a man with no heart. Fuches urges Hank to admit he killed Cristobal, not his enemies. Finally, Hank confesses to it, claiming he didn’t know it would go that far. He didn’t intend for Cristobal, the love of his life, to die. Man, Carrigan knocks this moment out of the park. Barry‘s penchant for sometimes uncomfortable close-ups works here with Hank’s vulnerable scene. 

One of Hank’s henchmen brings John into the fold. Grabbing the kid’s shoulder to pull him back, Hank changes his mind, revealing the deal’s off. Suddenly, Fuches whips out his gun and shoots Hank. Fuches and Hank’s teams fire on each other in a flurry of gunshots and bullets. It’s a bloodbath. We don’t see Sally in the melee, but Fuches emerges unscathed, with John underneath him. Fuches shielded John the moment the fighting began. There aren’t many survivors save a few guys on Fuches’ side. Fuches leads the young boy out of the building, shielding his eyes. He tells John they’re going to see his father. Sally, who hid during the gunfight, calls out for John. 

Meanwhile, Barry arrives outside Nohobal. He prays to God, revealing he’s ready to sacrifice himself for his son to live. He hopes this readiness to die for his child will secure him a place in Heaven. When Barry exits his vehicle, he spots John running toward him. They embrace. Barry locks eyes with Fuches, who never approaches him. After a long beat, Fuches departs. For being a man with no heart, there’s undoubtedly emotion behind Fuches’ eyes here. 

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Inside Nohobal, we see Hank hanging onto life by a thread. Blood spills from his mouth. When Fuches shot him, he fell back onto the Cristobal statue. He looks up at his love. Then, he grasps the statue’s hand as he takes his last labored breath. Before he passes, it looks like Hank sees something horrifying. Perhaps purgatory? Regardless, as much as I hated this death, his dying on the statue of his Cristobal is entirely fitting. RIP, NoHo Hank. I’ll miss your sassiness. First, that death in that one horror show, and now this? It’s not a good week for characters I love. 

Later, Barry, John and Sally regroup at a hotel. Sally reads an article on her phone about Gene being implicated in Janice’s murder. While John sleeps, Sally encourages Barry to turn himself in. Gene taking the fall for a crime he didn’t commit is unfair. Barry believes God doesn’t want him to go back to prison. He’s redeemed in the Lord’s eyes. He urges Sally to get some rest. If you commit the crime, you gotta do the time, dude. 

Next, Barry wakes the following day to find Sally and John are gone. Tom stands outside Gene’s door and tries to lift his client/roommate’s spirits. Everything’s going to work out. Gene reads articles written about his supposed guilt online. One piece claims Warner Bros. might cut ties with him. He eyes the gun Rip Torn gave him from its place in his closet. Tom attempts to quietly sneak out of Gene’s house, his luggage packed. However, Barry storms inside, furiously calling out for Sally and John. 

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Tom claims neither of them are here despite Barry’s insistence. He knows Sally’s been talking to Gene. Then, Tom states this is an opportunity for Barry to turn himself in for his crimes. Barry mulls this over, seemingly giving it genuine thought. He asks Tom to call the police. He plans to confess to the murder of Janice Moss. Suddenly, we hear a gunshot and see Barry fall back into an armchair. Blood blossoms underneath his collarbone from where Gene shot him. When Barry makes eye contact with Gene and utters, “Wow,” Gene shoots him again … this time, in the head. RIP, Barry Berkman. Afterward, Gene sits on the couch while Barry lies in that armchair. It’s a bleakly painted picture. 

Later, we fast forward a few years. Sally receives flowers for her students’ production of Our Town. She’s the theater teacher at a small-town high school. Now a teen, John (Jaeden Martell) sits in the audience and claps for his mom. Afterward, the new AP history teacher introduces himself to Sally and asks her out for drinks, which she straightforwardly declines. John asks if he can go to his friend’s house for the night. Before Sally departs, John tells his mom he loves her. Unsurprisingly, she doesn’t say it back. She merely asks John if the production and her direction were great. Oof. That kid’s gonna need therapy. 

Sally drives home in silence while it snows. Her smile dissolves, revealing how unhappy she is. John sits at his friend’s house while they watch The Mask Collector, the film made about Barry’s life. Sally forbade John from watching it, so he’s secretly doing this. We see Barry is played by Jim Cummings and Sally by Louisa Krause. In this adaptation, Gene is British. Oh, and Gene’s the villain. Throughout the last seven minutes, the camera cuts to John’s face as he watches a very loose adaptation of his father’s life in LA leading to his death. Hollywood made Barry a hero and Gene the baddie. They even show Gene shooting Barry several times (it was only twice) before the latter dies.

During the end credits, the film reveals Gene is serving life in prison for killing Janice and Barry, while Barry was laid to rest with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery. John smiles. Jaeden Martell looks like Sarah Goldberg here. As Barry said before he died, “Wow.” 

RELATED: Catch up on all the bloody madness with our Barry recaps!

Fuches’ ending is quite intriguing. As he mentions in his monologue to Hank, he’s embraced who he is. Strangely enough, he seems to have the most satisfying ending as he walks away from Barry with newfound confidence. At face value, Sally looks content, but her drive home from the play reveals otherwise. She’ll always regret leaving LA with Barry instead of doing all she could to get her career back on track. Hollywood’s obsession with turning serial killers into heroes ensures John will always view his father through that lens. It’s interesting that we learn about Gene’s fate and that Barry was buried with honors through the film’s end credits. 

Perhaps that’s Barry‘s greatest plot twist of all — framing our titular hitman as a hero while his acting teacher is the villain. Gene did kill Barry, but one could argue that Barry’s actions pushed Gene over the edge. Maybe “Wow” wants to remind us that Hollywood loves to sensationalize tragedy. Considering the series starts with a regular Joe wanting to be an actor to escape his own life, that feels accurate. 

“Wow” isn’t perfect, but it’s a plot-twist-riddled outing that maintains momentum throughout its short runtime. As usual, Hader makes interesting directorial choices, and the actors fire on all cylinders, notably Sarah Goldberg, Anthony Carrigan and Stephen Root. It’s an acting masterclass, with these unflinching performances given room to shine thanks to Hader’s direction. 

Here’s to you, Barry, a series that took us for a wild ride over four heart-pounding seasons. This show’s trajectory is something I never could have predicted. We went from a comedy to a dark comedy with dramatic undertones to a heavy drama with darkly comedic undertones. It digs deep into the human condition, the f*cked up things we do and whether redemption is possible. There’s nothing like it on TV, nor will there ever be again. Well, unless Hader spearheads another brilliant, explosive dark comedy. I hope he does. 

Barry Seasons 1-4 are now streaming on Max. 

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Melody McCune
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