Summary

The Barry season 4 finale subverts expectations, offering unexpected conclusions to character arcs and an unpredictable ending.
NoHo Hank finds closure in his guilt over Cristobal's death, symbolized by reaching out to Cristobal's statue at the moment of his own death.
Barry's death comes as a surprise, shot by Gene in a chair, highlighting the irony of his demise by his own acting teacher.

The Barry season 4 ending was just as ambiguous and thought-provoking as audiences have come to expect from the show, with deeper meanings to unpack and uncertain fates to ponder for some characters. Barry’s highly anticipated series finale, titled “wow,” follows on from the shocking cliffhanger ending of the previous episode with Barry arming himself to the teeth and preparing to save Sally and John from their captor, NoHo Hank. But, while that penultimate episode seemed to set up an explosive showdown in the finale, in true Barry fashion, “wow” completely subverted those expectations and offered an ending to the series that was totally unexpected.

The genius of Barry has always come from Bill Hader’s ability to steer the story in directions that feel both wholly unexpected and also ominously inevitable. That extended to the finale episode, which concluded the show’s profound meditation on forgiveness and redemption without losing sight of the Hollywood satire it started as. Every character ended up where they needed to be by the time the story came to a close. Yet, there are still a lot of unanswered questions to explore and characters whose fates are left open to interpretation in the Barry season 4 ending.

NoHo Hank's Death & Love For Cristobal Were Finally Realized

Dying NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) holds Cristobal's statue in Barry

NoHo Hank’s character arc took a dark turn at the midpoint of Barry season 4 when he had the love of his life, Cristobal, executed by his own men. After the time jump, Hank was shown to still be haunted by Cristobal’s death. He named his company Nohobal after their ship name, and he put a big bronze statue of Cristobal in the lobby of the office building. Whenever Fuches mentioned Cristobal’s death, it touched a nerve with Hank, who was never able to forgive himself for being responsible for the death of the man he loved.

Hank was ultimately killed in the crossfire of a shootout that only happened because he couldn’t bear to confess his role in Cristobal’s death. In his dying moments, Hank reached out to take the extended hand of Cristobal’s statue, making for one of the Barry finale’s most memorable shots. Hank could never move on from the guilt, so dying was the only way for him to achieve peace. His reaching out to Cristobal’s statue symbolized that perfectly.

Why Fuches Saved Barry's Son & Didn't Kill Barry

Even though Fuches has wanted Barry dead for the past two seasons, in the end, he dove heroically through gunfire to protect John from being shot and then gave John back to Barry without using him as a bargaining chip or leverage. Fuches spent years and years singularly focused on exacting revenge against Barry. He squandered not one, but two opportunities to settle down on a farm with a beautiful woman because he couldn’t let go of his vendetta against Barry. When he left prison as the top dog with an army of henchmen, he was still determined to take down Barry and included it in his deal with Hank.

Fuches seemed to want nothing more than to kill Barry. But in the end, even though he had the opportunity, he didn’t do it. When Hank told him that Barry had a son, Fuches had a complete change of heart because he saw the opportunity for a second chance. He failed in his role as Barry's father figure. That made him want to give Barry the opportunity to be the father that he could never be. When Fuches returned John to his father, he and Barry shared a silent moment of mutual understanding, similar to Walt and Jesse’s final encounter in the Breaking Bad finale.

Barry's Death Explained

After all the terrible things Barry did and all his failed attempts to earn forgiveness, it seemed that the only suitable way to end Barry’s story was with the title character’s death. The series finale killed off Barry as expected, but in an entirely unpredictable way. After being left by Sally and John in the middle of the night, Barry went straight to Gene Cousineau’s house, assuming that’s where they would go. When Gene’s agent, Tom Posorro, stepped in to talk him down, he managed to convince Barry to turn himself in and save Gene from being convicted of crimes he didn’t commit.

Just as Barry was preparing to turn himself in, he was shot in the chest, then again in the head. The title of the episode comes from Barry’s final line before his death. After being shot the first time, Barry fell into a chair and looked up just long enough to see which of his many enemies had killed him. When he saw it was Gene, he said, “Oh, wow.” Considering all the formidable criminal underworld figures who had tried and failed to kill Barry over the years – Hank, Fuches, Esther, the biker gang – he was surprised that the one who finally managed to kill him was his bumbling, mild-mannered acting teacher.

Why Gene Cousineau Was Convicted For Janice's Murder & What Happens To Him

Gene's fate revealed by a title card in Barry

When he learned that Gene had accepted $250,000 in blood money from Barry, Jim Moss began to question Gene’s of Janice Moss's heartbreaking death in Barry season 1. After making the mistake of speaking to journalist Lon O’Neil, Gene promised Jim that he would stop exploiting Janice’s murder to boost his profile. But when a supposed agent called saying Daniel Day-Lewis wanted to come out of retirement to play him, Gene couldn’t resist. When Gene described Barry as a sympathetic soul in an attempt to convince Mark Wahlberg to play him, he unwittingly confirmed Jim’s suspicions that Gene was allied with Barry and involved in Janice’s murder.

After the time jump in the series finale, Gene is said to be serving a life sentence in prison for the murders of both Janice and Barry. The police presumed Gene had either forced Barry to kill Janice or framed him for it. Gene’s fate is perhaps the most ironic of all the characters in the Barry season 4 ending. He spent the whole series desperately chasing fame and ended up with infamy. Everyone will Gene, just as he wanted, but they won’t him as a great actor; they’ll him as a cold-hearted killer responsible for all the atrocities that Barry committed.

Barry's Epilogue, Time Jump & Movie Explained

Following Barry’s death, the finale had another time jump. Years after Barry was killed, Sally took a job as a high school theater director. After a student performance of Our Town, while Sally and a teenage John were walking to her car, she was stopped by the school’s new AP history teacher. When he asked her out on a date, she bluntly rejected him. John asked if he could stay at a friend’s house, and she gave him permission. At his friend’s house, John watched The Mask Collector, a wildly falsified biopic of Barry Berkman that revealed the fate of the remaining characters.

There’s a lot to unpack in this epilogue. Sally always had artistic integrity, and the ending of her character arc retained that. In the end, Sally didn’t have to sell out and star in a podcast or reality show as a murderer’s accomplice. She might not be world-famous as she had hoped, but she landed in a career where she got to do what she loved. Sally didn’t give a solid explanation for why she turned down a date with the history teacher, but it’s easy to see why she might not have wanted to date. After the abusive Sam and the murderous Barry, Sally was probably done with relationships.

The final scene with John watching The Mask Collector provides a sharp meta-commentary on the series itself. John mentioned that Sally didn’t want him to watch it, likely because it presents a completely false version of his father’s life. The movie paints Barry as a misunderstood hero and Gene as a diabolical villain. Barry’s military history is brushed over, ignoring the murder that got him discharged, and the closing titles claim that Barry has been buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full honors. The Mask Collector is the kind of schlocky, mindless, surface-level action movie whose clichés and pitfalls were avoided by Barry at every turn.

Although the title character was killed off long before the closing credits in the Barry season 4 ending, he still got what he wanted. The smile on John’s face suggests that — just as Barry always wished — the boy viewed his father as a hero. The fact that John’s skewed view of his late father was the result of phony Hollywood make-believe brings the theme of the show full circle. Barry first tried to escape his murderous nature by disappearing into characters and stories. After his death, the same thing happened to his legacy.