Barry Season 1 Ep. 4 Recap: 'Chapter 4: Commit...to YOU'

Photo: John P. Johnson/HBO

"Now you exist." Sally cheerfully says this to Barry the morning after their hookup, creating a Facebook profile with a friends' list that includes everyone in Gene's class and his old military buddy Chris. And in a way, Barry is starting to become "real," finding things he cares about, like acting, and making (tenuous) connections with people.

However, experiencing feelings is one thing; actually learning how to identify and process them in a healthy way is some whole other shit, and Barry spends most of "Chapter 4: Commit...to YOU" failing miserably at the latter. Sally's audition-induced emotional crisis has passed for the moment thanks to another audition she's got lined up, this time as an army medic (though she doesn't think she needs any insight, from ex-Marine Barry). That means going out for some post-coital bacon and eggs is a no-no. And as for Natalie's party later that evening? I mean Barry will be there, and she'll be there, but they won't be there together, so cool?

Barry picks up on enough social cues to know he needs to be up and out so Sally can prep, but he's taken their night together in a completely different way than she did. In his mind, Sally's already his girl, and once he gives her new a laptop to replace her busted one, they'll fall in love and live in a nice, big house where Jon Hamm is free to take a shit in any one of their five guest rooms.  It's the same zero to 100 leap he makes when yells at and flips off Fuches for getting them in deeper with the Chechens via a stash house raid, or when he goes full asshole on poor Zach Burrows when he spots him talking to Sally during the party. There are no levels to his emotions.

He's even less adept at interpreting other people's feelings, Sally's in particular. "God, I am so fucking sick of people telling me who I am," she says after Barry confronts Zach. "Do you have any idea what that feels like?"

"No I don't," Barry stammers, except he knows exactly what that feels like. He only stands up to Fuches after Gene labels him a human doormat during his David Mamet monologue (then backs down when Fuches shows up to Natalie's party threatening to expose him), and only charges over to Sally and Zach after Chris's friend Taylor plants the idea in his head. It all shows how deeply disconnected Barry is from himself.

Of course, Sally's exapseration with being defined by others isn't only about Barry and his Tony Soprano approach to dating. She gets a double dose of humiliation this week, the first being her agent-not-agent Mike's reaction to her asking if he'll become her real agent if she lands the part. "I get to this point with a lot of my prospective clinets where I have a decision to make: do I wanna sign them, or do I wanna fuck them?" Mike lets his bullshit hang in the air just long enough to see Sally will bite, and when she rebuffs him, falls back on the old "I was just kidding," defense. It's hearbreaking but all too real when Sally goes along with it, nervously laughing and saying "It's funny" when it's obviously not. Insult later gets added to injury when Sally doesn't even get to read for the part after a casting person tells her the agent she put down--Mike Hallman--said he doesn't represent her.

Lurking in background of all the intepersonal drama and audition hell is the investigation into Ryan's murder, with Detective Moss getting closer to identifying Barry as the one who lit up the Chechens. Gene unwittingly provides a temporary distraction by inviting her out to dinner with the promise of important information on Ryan, which to turns out to be his real name. Moss is like I'll file that under shit I already know and is about to get ghost, when Gene lures her back with the promise to kick him in the nuts if the restaurant's chicken a la king doesn't change her life. "Right in the balls?" Detective Moss says before taking a sip of wine. Do you boo.

Barry's night isn't as entertaining, unless you count breaking up a tussle between two vet dudebros before they smash up Natalie's place and alienating Sally as a good time. On the upside, Barry has reconnected with Chris, someone who can really to relate his past experiences, and (possibly) not judge him or recoil in disgust at his current predicament; but on the downside, Taylor spots the money roll he's got in his pocket and wants in on the hitman game.

To quote Silvio (and The Godfather III): just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

Other Thoughts:

• Apparently Barry's not even Barry's real name, if his buddy Chris's text questioning him about it and Fuches threat to expose his real identity are any indication.

• So far Barry's emotional disconnection has mostly come out as anxious, at times endearing social awkwardness and nervous ticks. But the way Barry confronted Zach gave us the first glimpse of a darker, more aggressive side of his personality (yes he kills people but doesn't relish or take any particular joy from it), one that's been just as dormant as his more positive emotions. The introduction of someone like Taylor into his life could lead to some bad consequences.

• Gene's still on the audition grind, answering cattle calls for one-line spots. I have to think with his ego and the aura of capital A "actor!" he gives off to his students, that he takes pains not to show up to auditions where he may be spotted.

• Not to pour more salt in a wound, but Sally had no shot at landing that part. Medics named Dr. Audrina Borowitz typically don't possess deep Southern accents. 

Those One Liners Tho'

• "Hey Francine, this crazy man know Judd Hersch!"

• "Absolutely John Hamm."

• "It'll be under Neil Patrick Harris. I find I get a better table that way."

• "From what I gleaned from the proverbial water coolor, he was a bit of a tomcat, but he never brought that into class. So like his performances, he was completely devoid of drama (technically not a one liner, but Henry Winkler's delivery was priceless)."

• "They're scaring Zach Burrows."