At the Cousineau house, Gene (Henry Winkler) is on the defensive after punching Barry last week on the set of “Laws of Humanity,” looking out the window and expecting the bringer of death any minute. “I pissed off the wrong guy,” he says. “Dad, you do that every day,” Leo replies. (One thing I will note: in rewatching the first two seasons of this show prior to season three, I feel like this one is leaning a bit harder on the idea that Gene was a real piece of trash in the decades prior to being an acting teacher. It’s … an interesting notion that only feels extreme now because of how lightly handled it was previously.) Though Gene wants to leave town, he’s greeted at the door by his agent Tom (Fred Melamed), who says that somehow … well, the producers loved what he did on “Laws of Humanity,” and they want him back for additional scenes. “That show is huge! It gets, like, a 1.6 in the demo!” Again, “Barry” knows how to cut deep with its industry satire, at least for anyone who pays attention to the steady decline of network TV ratings.
Barry, meanwhile, has returned to NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) after glumly committing to killing the Bolivian army led by Fernando (Miguel Sandoval), the father-in-law of Cristobal (Michael Irby). He is, however, a bit dismayed to learn that he’s meant to kill them via bomb, and also that it’s a “them” and not a “he.” After NoHo Hank sets Barry up with a detonation app — turning on all the key things like photo access and location services, because duh — he shows him the location of the unsteady bomb: at the far edge of a parking lot to be collected, even as it continues to make very strange and ominous ticking noises. As tenuous as Barry’s fate is … well, it’s early in the season’s fourth episode, so he’s not about to bite the big one, carefully picking up the box and leaving with it.
Sally (Sarah Goldberg), meanwhile, is getting ready for the big premiere of her show “Joplin,” both getting fitted and dictating her speech to her now-assistant Natalie (D’Arcy Carden) while struggling to figure out the right note to strike. (This, at least, allows for Carden to get to do some goofy voices as Natalie fails to grasp that Sally is trying to write a speech talking about how she’s come so far since her Midwestern youth, not some random girl in the sticks.)
Though Gene has Tom take him to a local store to buy new luggage after his bags collapsed under the weight of all his clothes when packing to leave town, he’s surprised to meet an old frenemy of his: Joe Mantegna (as himself). Or maybe it’s just an old enemy, as Mantegna brusquely notes: “I’m the one violating my restraining order against you, hotshot.” But that brusqueness aside, Mantegna is there to start burying the hatchet thanks to what Gene did for Barry. As was briefly noted in last week’s episode without a detailed explanation, what Gene did for “that vet” got him written up in Variety. “Barry Berkman was once a wooden soldier, but thanks to Gene Cousineau, he’s a real boy,” Tom reads in shock (shock that is coupled with Gene’s own). Mantegna, obviously not knowing the real story, is impressed at Gene’s seeming kindness and invites Gene over to an upcoming dinner so they can get fully squared. Though Tom sees this as a light at the end of the tunnel, Gene is firm in saying that he has to leave town.
But really, it’s Barry who should consider leaving town, because Fuches — as Kenneth Goulet — is still on the warpath. After starting to lead the mother and son from the start to the dark side, he’s going to his next prey, the father (Michael Bofshever) of Ryan Madison, the acting student Barry killed in the pilot episode. Ryan’s dad notes that the official police explanation in the season-one finale — that the young man was killed by the Chechen mob — made no sense. Fuches, with the benefit of full knowledge, says that Barry pinned the death on the mob but did the deed: “He took your son’s life. Now he’s living your son’s dream.” And if the threat of Ryan’s dad wasn’t enough, we quickly realize that Fuches has given Barry’s address to both sets of vengeance soldiers, including that aforementioned mother and son. Uh-oh.
