Barry Season 1 Ep. 7 Recap: Chapter 7: Loud, Fast and Keep Going

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War's a brewin'. Now that Barry's planned hit against the Bolivians has gone so horribly wrong--two dead Marines and two missing ones wrong--Cristobal, the super chill, super nice and still breathing leader of the Bolivian crew must declare war on the Chechens. Keeping your word is one of the tenets of The Four Agreements after all.

Comedic takes on self-help books aside, "Loud, Fast and Keep Going" was by far the darkest half hour of Barry's first season, as the series' namesake commits an act that vaults him over the morally ambiguous "good guy who kills the bad guys" line he's been toeing the previous six episodes.

One of the first things we learn after the Bolivians shoot up Taylor's vehicle and Cristobal gives the most polite declaration of gang war in the history of gang wars, is that Chris is not about that hit man life. He was a logistics guy in the Marines, not on the ground, and is riddled with fear and guilt after Barry orders him to kill one of Cristobal's soldiers after he discovers them. It's a decision that irreparably entangles him in Barry's life, but he wants out. Chris' problem is he's still thinking like a normal human being, not a contract killer, and as such doesn't realize he's signing his own death warrant when he emphatically tells Barry he's going to the police and confessing to everything, consequences be damned.

"Why did you say that!" Barry screams at him, and in their stunned silence, both of them know what's about to happen. Chris tries to walk his words back, explaining what he'll tell his wife and promising to keep his "fat trap shut," but it's too late. Barry kills him. It's a defining moment for Barry; he makes a choice with no prompting forom Fuches, Gene or anyone else who has knowingly or unknowingly been pulling his strings. He murders Chris not because he was a mark, a bad guy who needed to be taken out, but out of pure-self interest, as a sure-fire way to cover his tracks. There's no out, no other way for him to rationalize his actions to absolve himself. Like Macbeth, his soul is tainted.

Even his daydreams provide no escape; his fantasy of arriving at the class's showcase just in time to deliver his line from Macbeth to Sally in perfect Shakespearean diction is interrupted by the image of shooting his friend in the face. Then imagining Chris's wife getting the phone call her husband dead, her grieving at his funeral, holding their son. The full weight of what's he done crashes down on Barry, leading to a full-on backstage meltdown. Ironically, his lacerating guilt allows him to finally tap into genuine emotion as an actor, and the delivery of his one line to Sally during her monologue is full of despair, in turn helping her transform a forgettable performance into a star turn and possibly landing Emma Stone's ex-agent. Afterwards, Sally tells him he's a real actor, and the method he used tonight should be his method every time. Reliving the day you killed a friend and irreparably destroyed his family can't be healthy, but that's showbiz boo.

Meanwhile, Detective Moss is getting closer to connecting to dots between the Chechens and Barry. Finding Ross' copy of Gene's book in Taylor's apartment throws them off the trail for the time being, but it won't take much no longer her and the other detectives to get to the truth. At least the Chechens' think Barry's dead. Things aren't looking so sunny side up for Fuches however. Cristobal is the exact opposite of the murderous sociopath Fuches painted him as, putting him on the Chechens' hitlist. And like any good sociopath, Fuches makes his predicament and Barry's death all about himself. "You know he never got the chance to apologize to me," he seethes to Noho Hank. I think we know who's got Sally beat in the narcissism department.

The Bolivians are squaring up against the Chechens, Fuches is a marked man, and Barry, judging from the scarily intense look on his face as the credit roll, has officially gone rogue. Where this all ends next week is anyone's guess.

Other Thoughts

• The opening scene is interesting in the way it plays with prospective. Riding with Barry,  Taylor, Chris and Vaughn, you feel the sense of impending doom and danger; but from the Bolivians ' perspective, it's just a random, unexpected target that needs to be taken out. We're all the stars of our own story, but insignificant in someone else's.

• Between The Four Agreements and Women Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, who knew crime bosses were so into self-help books?

• Even Kevin? It's even Steven Goran, even Steven. 

• Though his work has been good all season, Bill Hader was brilliant this episode, ripping Barry out of his repressed, socially awkward mode and taking him to the depths of rage and sadness. 

Those One Liners 'Tho

• "Are you on drugs Barry? Because getting clean is an important part of an actor's journey."

• "If you wanted in on my stash, all you had to do was call me."

• "If he had all that cash, why wouldn't he get new head shots?"

• "We have a saying in Italy. You make-a your bed." Natatlie is not here for Sally's bullshit.