As Barry, the titular hit man turned actor turned killer once more of his HBO series, Bill Hader has killed more than a few people. Now, he’s pulling the trigger on the show itself, revealing that Barry will end with season four. The eight-episode season premieres on April 16, and a new trailer has a few hints about Barry’s fate. The season picks up after Barry was arrested at the end of season three during a setup in which his former acting teacher, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), played the key role. The full trailer gives a better look at Barry’s life in prison, where he’s doing a lot of screaming and bashing his head against mirrors. Meanwhile, Cousineau, his ex-girlfriend Sally, and his ex-boss Fuches all deal with the revelation of Barry’s killings and arrest, and NoHo Hank wears a fabulous hat-and-glasses combo. It follows a teaser where Barry appeared to have a tense phone conversation in prison with Cousineau, who ominously replied, “I gotcha.” He also hallucinated seeing Cousineau, Sally, and his former acting classmates in the prison yard before a reunion with Fuches. One thing Hader hasn’t killed yet: our wild speculation as to what could happen to Barry next.
Hader wrote the fourth season during a pandemic hold on filming season three. In a new interview, he told Variety that, after “a very clear ending presented itself” in season four, he and co-creator Alec Berg reworked season three before filming. Hader, who directed the entire season, said he wanted to tie up some of the other characters’ loose ends without dragging out the show. “What happens in Season 4 is structurally radical in some ways, but it made sense for what I think the characters needed to go through, and what I think the whole show is always kind of headed towards,” he said. He also teased a plot point in the new season “that is kind of strange, though thematically it makes a lot of sense.” Yet another thing to hold our breath for as we watch.
This post has been updated.
