Barry Season 3, Episode 6 Recap & Review: Death Becomes Him
Title: “710N”
Air date: May 29, 2022
The short of it: “710N” is a perfect reminder that when it wants to be, Barry is one of the most inventive comedies on TV.
The cold open is a precise art form, and one that the creative team behind Barry continues to excel at. Last episode, we witnessed Fuches working on the motocross gang to try and set them loose on Barry. The latest variation on his broad revenge scheme. However, as “710N” makes clear, Fuches underestimated how brutal these wheelie-lovers would be. He gives them the hard sell and just as he’s ready to pull out and hit his next mark, the ringleader gives him a bullet in the chest. Barry has a way of slipping shocking developments into the narrative with remarkable tranquility. No crescendoed score. Little adjustment in framing or pacing. Just the overdue delivery of Fuches getting rocked for acting like a lunatic. In practice, Fuches injury (non-fatal we learn) is an opening cliffhanger, and not the last that “710N” will thrust on the audience.
With such a brutal opening, it’s a testament to Barry’s nearly unmatched tonal gymnastics that “710N” turns into a hilarious episode of virtuoso bits and skits. Carrying on with the Fuches plotline to start, he comes surrounded by a family of Latinx farmers who has graciously taken him in and addressed his wound. Each scene that follows is a spoof of American Western tropes. The best of the bunch is a moment when Fuches stands by a well with the farmer’s daughter Anita (Natalia Abelleyra), beyond of course her character being a knowing bit. He takes a deep sip of water and asks “What do your people call water?” Anita smiles and answers “Water. You know we’re only 20 miles from L.A.? There’s a Starbucks over that hill.” In that moment, Fuches is a stand-in for all the fetishizing of Latinx women in American film and TV.
It seems like the entirely un-self-aware Fuches will stay on the range. But this is Barry. A newspaper headline about Gene and Barry reignites Fuches’ fiery rage and sends him flying back to L.A. on the phone with Janet’s father. While his adventures have carried on, Sally, Barry, and Hank have all been grappling with what to do after last week’s paradigm shifts. Sally has a meeting with BanShe, but doesn’t know if she wants to work with them after they canceled Joplin. Hank wants to go after Cristobal, but he is also hurt by his lover’s lies. Barry still wants to make it up to Sally, and is also deciding how best to go about a dinner invite from Sharon (Karen David). A quick reminder: Sharon is Chris’ (Chris Marquette) wife, Barry’s buddy he killed to hide the fact that he killed the motocross goons cousin.
The crises deliver laughs in droves. Sally’s meeting devolves into an exchange of guttural noises between her agent and a BanShe executive. Jessy Hodges and Vanessa Bayer riff through nonsensical noises as a way to approximate what Sally could bring to a new show. It calls to mind the iconic “Fuck” scene in The Wire, as well as effortlessly satirizes Hollywood deal-making. For his part, Barry goes shopping for a new shirt to wear to the dinner party and loudly dictates an absolutely unhinged apology text to Sally in the process. In another deft move from Hader as director, the wide, slow, tracking shot revels in the increasingly concerned and disturbed customers around Barry. It levels up though when we switch to Sally’s perspective as she reads the text aloud to her agent.
As if that weren’t enough, “710N” also brings a (probably) baked beignet man Mitch (Tom Allen) to bear as a sort of Shakespearean fool helping each of the leads talk through their issues while they buy his delicious wares. Sally unloads on him about the BanShe meeting, Hank works through his Cristobal anger, and Barry game plans arriving at the dinner party. No, Mitch’s advice is a few flour shakes short of a proper pastry, but his surfer dude baker hybrid is a consistent shot of gleeful absurdism. One appearance was funny. Two was a solid bit, but it’s the third that takes us over the edge into the glorious realm of repetition-breeding hilarity. Much like the aforementioned “Fuck!” scene, you hammer an idea home and over and, if handled right, it elevates an already funny bit to even greater success.
Nonetheless, every other pristine bit from “710N” pales in comparison to the episode’s centerpiece: a deranged car and motorcycle chase through L.A. With beignets in hand, Barry sets out for his dinner party, but is quickly surrounded by the motocross gang. What follows is a multi-stage pursuit. Barry abandosn his car after a rider goes through the windshield. He takes over the dead man’s bike and dodges bullets on freeways and backstreets. Hader’s confident direction leans into the absurdity of Barry, in a suit jacket, holding beignets, and wearing a terrible helmet, weaving between traffic on a sputtering bike. The sequence culminates in a shootout between a car salesman and a biker on the top of his business, which is as ludicrous and funny as it sounds. It’s a virtuoso sequence that shows off how entirely in command of this show Hader is.
And after all of that, “710N” leaves us with a second cliffhanger. Barry, who just arrived at the party, is poisoned by Sharon after spotting one of Fuches’ fake detective cards. He foams at the mouth and falls out of the chair while Sharon watches. Now, it’s incredibly unlikely that Barry is dead. Especially after the hat tip at the top with Fuches. Maybe Sharon underestimated how much it would take to put him down? Or Barry somehow calls for help before passing out? There are any number of possibilities, but one reality is utterly clear. Fuches’ plan is working. A deadly net is closing around Barry, and unless he springs into action one of these revenants will end him.
Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.