Barry - Do Your Job

 Although not my favorite episode of “Barry”, “Do Your Job” does feature Barry standing up for himself, without the troupe of actors realizing it was because he felt their attacking comments on Macbeth agreeing to kill for Lady Macbeth ultimately aimed at him…even if they didn’t realize it. Sure, Gene Cousineau addressed Barry in front of his class with respect due to his military career when he felt the performance on stage was being undermined by tensions stemming from the actors’ vocally opinionated commentary on killing or not killing when ordered by others. Of course, Barry was truthfully offended because it hit close to home in regards to his career as a hired assassin. This coincides with the continued investigation of Detective Moss (who ends up arriving at Gene’s in a sexual state of mind, for sure, bumrushing him unexpectedly), who interviews Barry and two other actors taller than six feet, having the entire troupe view a photograph (of Barry, by the lipstick cam) that is too dark and undistinguishable to make out the killer at all. Also of specific interest in this episode is Fuches’ persistence/insistence that Barry kill Taylor (buddy Chris’ volatile Marine “buddy”) after they execute the Bolivian cartel house. Barry just can do it, especially after Taylor saves him from being a victim of his own orchestrated raid. Fuches has really earned the trust of Goran Pazar, convincing him not to allow his embarrassment in the lipstick cam to avoid the Bolivian raid…this thrusts Barry into the execution plan, whether he wants to or not. Barry just can’t execute Taylor, a Marine, like the Bolivians. With all of this, Barry once again remains dedicated to Sally, someone he even imagines with a kid, as a family taking a happy picture together. But in a rather pointed and direct retort to Barry just wanting to apologize for his jealousy and offer an olive branch of a simple dinner, Sally rejects that wanting them to spend time not talking at all. She is the first line of defense against Barry’s argument about Macbeth “just following orders” and that Lady Macbeth deserved blame for the death she commanded and he carried out, so it does indeed get quite intense. I think it is a great scene because when Gene considers this behavior (outside of war) egregious Barry contemplates his time as a hitman. The show does a lot of that: using subject material in the theater as a source of conflict that gives Barry pause, causing him to reflect on how killing as an assassin isn’t right or justified. The guilt of that is a conflict that gives this show its real juice. Sally, Barry’s muse, resists his perfect relationship with her. When she is at the bar with the troupe, Natalie (D’Arcy Carden) calls Sally out for speaking for all of them, and going after a guy she was interested in. This comes after Sally speaks up against Natalie about critiquing her performance as “just reading words”. You can see where if Sally isn’t the center of attention, not the attraction, as Gene comments “the claws come out”. Natalie isn’t amused by Sally’s critique, later opining that she doesn’t necessarily always represents them as a group, often only considering herself. Few have really done that much: take Sally to task for her behavior. Sally responds by comparing them to middle-schoolers, acting rather juvenile. Not just Natalie is a bit turned off by Sally’s past behavior lately. Those who attend the class and meet at the bar think she doesn’t consider them like she puts on. She will respond with surprise when challenged. I think Sarah Goldberg is just a marvel in the Sally part…the way you see the process of information in and how it is received. Her reactions, too, as the group isn’t as willing to stomach her as they often always did is effectively realized. “Why are you attacking me? Really?” Great stuff. Poor Barry, too, trying to reconcile and Sally dismissing him..it is quite an ouch. Being cuckolded by Fuches and striking out with Sally, not to mention, the investigation ongoing; Barry is being emotionally locked in an every-tightening vice.

3/5