 |
| Photo: HBO |
"Know Your Turth," is a terrific capper on what's been an excellent debut season for Bill Hader's brainchild, wrapping up the major story arcs while entrenching Barry in a fresh hell for next season. The episode picks up right where last week's explosive "Loud, Fast and Keep Going" left off, with Barry still pumped up from he and Sally's Macbeth performance. Of course it's also after he murdered Chris and made it look a suicide. Though the latter is more the likely the driving force behind his newfound resolve, the former--which included a compliment from a deliriously happy Sally that he was a real actor--is no doubt playing on a loop in his mind; between killing a friend and reigniting what seemed like a dead end relationship, Barry sees an exit ramp off his old life, and he's barreling toward it faster than Taylor speeding toward some gun-toting Bolivians.
Barry going rogue comes at the worst time possible for Fuches, as the Chechens are coming for that ass, so he decides to go to them and try out his best Jedi mind tricks, even offering up Barry to save his own skin. However, Goran's not here for any of it, calling his bluff when Fuches says he can lead them to Barry's exact location.
"The acting class," he answers, and the light drains out of Fuches' eyes faster than Scar facing a fleet of hungry hyenas as Goran's minions grab Fuches and strap him to a chair before introducing him to Ruslan, Vacha's creepier and crazier twin brother. Fortunately for Fuches, Noho Hank has developed quite the man crush on his protege, and after getting reamed out by Goran, calls and tells Barry the Chechens are coming to Gene's class. It also helps that Ruslan has quite the theatrical streak, taking up valuable killing and dismemberment time to build stocks to stretch out the torture. A pissed Goran snatches a gun off one of his goons and is about end Fuches, when a bullet to the dome takes him out, followed by Ruslan and the other Chechens. Turns out Barry gives enough of a shit about Fuches to save him. Afterward he drives him to the airport, tosses the money he took into his lap and repeats his new mantra: "I done Fuches...starting now."
Barry's last favor to Fuches also ends the coming war between the Bolivians and the Chechens. With Goran gone, Noho Hank is now the defacto boss, and since both he and Cristobal are super polite, we can expect less bullets and more book clubs spotlighting The Four Agreements with mini-sub sandwiches on deck for appetizers. At the crime scene Moss and Loach deduce the shooter had to either be squatting or extremely short, due to the where the bullets entered. Which means he must be Bolivian! Later at a press conference, the police blame the gangland conflict on Taylor and Ryan--who must've been in cohoots since Ryan's book was found in Taylor's place and the money found at Gene's office belonged to Taylor--and for all intents and purposes, the case is closed. What's remarkable about all this is how, if you were in Detective Moss' shoes, all of these developments would seem perfectly plausible, given the evidence you've been presented with. The script manages to pull Barry out of the fire without making Moss and Loach come off as inept.
Later, Barry joins the other acting students at their usual hangout, and Sally opens up to him about something she "rarely" talks about, a disastrous and at times violent teenage marriage. While it makes her more sympathetic, it may have tilted the scales further if she hadn't let slip she told half the class and Gene. But on second thought, that's kinda the point. She claims the experience has helped add depth to her acting, but her only truly emotionally honest performance came courtesy of Barry's breakdown. It shows Sally has a shallow understanding of herself, and in that way, she and Barry are perfect for each other, because they're both content to have the surface of their lives look pretty and ignore everything else, to the detriment of those around them. For Sally it means Gene and her classmates must suffer through her All About Eve manipulations and general narcissism, but for Barry, it means something much more destructive.
Fast forward a few months later, and Barry's reality has come awfully close to his fantasies; he and Sally run lines while laying in a hammock outside a cabin, and trade the usual couples banter with Gene and Moss over dinner. However, Moss' police sense never quite turns off, and Barry slips up just enough for her to pick up the clues, rifle through he and Chris' Facebook profiles and figure out he's the killer. But Barry being Barry, he knows she knows, and walks up on her outside the cabin as she pulls out her gun and orders him to put his hands up.
"We want the same thing. We wanna be happy, we want love, we want a life," Barry tearfully explains, causing her to tear up as well. But at the end of the day Janice is still Detective Moss, and she orders him to start walking back ot the cabin. And Barry, still at hit man at heart (that Bret Hart reference happened by accident, I swear) has a gun strapped to tree, pleading with her one last time not to do this. She refuses, and well, the show's called Barry not Janice, so you know who won this shootout. *Starts hummin "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday.* Farwell Detective Moss, you and your savage reads will be missed.
The next morning, Barry walks back to the room he shares with Sally, takes a shower and slips back into bed with her, repeating "starting now" to himself as Sally lays her head on his chest. Tragically, what Barry doesn't grasp is as long as he falls back on deception--starting a run in honor of the man you murdered? We livin' like that?--and ultimately killing to solve his problems, he'll never be done. Someone who was truly done wouldn't have stashed a gun on a tree "just in case." Now he'll have to deal with the investigation into Moss' death, the emotional devastation it will cause and Gene (and himself), the effect keeping yet another secret will have on his relationship with Sally. And on, and on, and on.
It will never stop.
See ya'll next year for season two!
Other Thoughts:
- Barry really has a knack for blending into his environment. Notice how he's started to speak about acting with the same pretentiousness Sally does during dinner with Gene and Janice? But points to Moss for subtly calling bullshit on whether people would actually show up to watch them to perform more than once.
- As far predictions for season two here it goes: Loach will have a larger role, since Moss has gone off into that good night, as will Sally, since she and Barry are officially boo'd up. Fuches is the wild card, given how badly he wants Barry to return to the fold. And Noho Hank and Bolivians will have a minimal to nonexistent role--I mean once you're planning social functions with sworn enemies, what is there left to say really?
Those One Liners 'Tho
- "Fuckin' Chechens. They got no sense of personal responsibility."
- Goran: "No one likes lugging around 50 pounds of torso." Noho Hank: That is a back injury waiting to happen."
- "It's not a drama it's a comedy. So all you have to do is talk really loud and fast. Anyone can do it."
- "I suggest you take your money and fly like Bugs Bunny in Space Jam."
- "That's 'Flight of The Bumblebee.' Apocalypse Now is 'Ride of The Valkyries' you idiot."
Comments