Barry**

Listen with Your Ears, React with Your Face [Episode Six]

Barry, still trying to recover from the breakup with Sally, must contend with a fellow Marine, Taylor (Dale Pavinski) he met through a friend at a party (with his acting class) wanting to work with him as a hitman while Fuches (Root) continues to try to convince him to murder the volatile nuisance (except when toking from a joint and watching hardcore porn at home) so that he won't cause any disturbance to the ongoing working relationship with the Chechens (led by Goran Pazar and Noho Hank), looking to move in on the Bolivians. Meanwhile Detective Janice Moss (Paula Newsome) can't shake that someone from Cousineau's (Henry Winkler) acting class is responsible for Ryan's murder, running into Goran's "body cleanup" sicko, Sasha (Mark Ivanir), there inside the nearly-empty building to stab and kill Sally (he has been following Barry's exploits, wanting him dead because Barry killed his brother) when the opportunity was available. A shootout between Moss and Sasha results in his death, the detective later locating "unclean money" taken from a drug seizure heist that was stashed by Barry in the bathroom ceiling (Taylor dumped the drug money in Barry's bag, removing his Cousineau book and Macbeth script).
With Sally losing her agent (he wanted to have sex with her but her careful rejection of him resulted in his dumping her, not to mention, a gig lined up for her was later taken away because of it), she not only convinces Cousineau to give her the Lady Macbeth part (taken from Natalie as a result) but after some begging she secures the male part of Macbeth. Barry's inability to adapt purposely to Cousineau's demands, basically, essentially by accident, appeasing him by less effort and more of a reality to how he feels (he actually does love Sally while she is dedicated almost completely to being an acting success, so their "I Love You" back-and-forth, coordinated by Cousineau, is more performance from her and reality by him, which ultimately is praised by their acting coach) remains the shows masterful highlight. The split between Barry trying to handle Fuches, the Chechens, and the investigation by Moss (always a shadow that follows him), with his attempts to become a decent actor, remain a seesaw, tug-of-war that continues to wear at him. All Barry really wants to do is quit the assassination work and develop as an actor in Cousineau's class. But the pull of his past never lets him press forward to a more healthy future. Barry trying to avoid killing Fuches or Taylor (both want the other dead) at each other's urging is an aggravation he hopes to steer away from. Eventually, as the end shows us, Taylor (and his Marine buddies) make a major misstep in trying to drive right into a Bolivian roadblock despite Barry's every attempt to ward them away from the dangerous, gung-ho, full-speed-ahead decision. This was never going to end well as Fuches tried to warn Barry to no avail. Sally advocating for Macbeth, while Cousineau listens to her enthusiastic pitch, further illustrates that she wants the grandest roles in order to prop up her reputation. Cousineau's pursuit of Moss is cute but she clearly is torn on whether or not to eventually disregard his advances or remain complicit in a conflicting sexual relationship due to her investigation of his class. Taylor, despite not willingly leaving well enough alone, does make a good point regarding Fuches' using Barry, receiving half of what the job offers for success...but Fuches is quite manipulative, preying on Barry's loyalty to him even as arranger only wants his killer to continue because there is profit in it.

Loud, Fast and Keep Going [Episode Seven]

Chris tags along with Taylor and Vaughn, his Marine buddies, despite Barry's obvious objections, unwilling to sit it out, as their targets ahead get the draw on them. Taylor and Vaughn immediately taken out, Barry subdued temporarily while Chris is somewhat distant, a gunmen is assigned to finish the job. For Barry, after some convincing (well, basically yelling to shoot), Chris kills the gunmen with a machine gun that was brought along by Taylor. Chris is shaken by this experience, killing someone, unable to cope with it, threatening to go the police to turn himself in. Barry, even as Chris seems to relent from what he had just previously said, decides he has no choice but to take him out, leaving the gun in his hand as if it was a suicide. This decision leaves Barry a tormented, enraged mess, making it to the Macbeth evening show but beset by thoughts of Chris' wife getting the call that her husband is dead, and the funeral afterward. Emotionally distressed, his brief dialogue on stage before Sally's final piece of monologue is able to encourage from her a certain dour mood that impresses the crowd, including Cousineau and a Hollywood agent she was hoping to secure interest in. So while Barry is left to have his come-apart, Cousineau confronting him enthusiastically over his assistance in helping Sally find her emotional place needed to wow her peers/audience and finding his struggling actor smashing his hand into a mirror and hurling a chair across the room, it does appear as if the play netted positive results. For Barry, however, the play's success was of less significance than killing another Marine because Chris was forthright in his need to confess to killing the gunmen while Sally had reached a milestone in her young career. The episode has Cousineau doing what he often does: confronting Barry hostilely about his pratfalls on stage in rehearsal. Sally needed Barry to "give her something to work with" and his hitman activities outside the theater continue to undermine any efforts to master his craft. Sarah Goldberg shines bright in this episode, revealing Sally's anxious and desperate clawing for that moment that will move her to the next level, her ups and downs with Barry dependent on him "coming through for her". Of course, Winkler as the demanding actor's studio mentor, really needing the play to somehow relinquish its amateurishness and reveal something of real quality finds that in Sally's finale, always on the verge of giving up on Barry, is consistently a marvel. Sally clearly is his protégé which is why he continues to groom her, offering her the stage to summon the talent she feels is there, giving her the best parts when she advocates for them. Barry is a frustrating and sometimes gratifying canvass Cousineau tries to develop some artifice, often seemingly adrift or creatively absent due to his life of crime kept secret from his fellow actors and teacher. Detective Moss still trying to connect the dots as Taylor and Vaughn's bodies were located, drug money located that would seem to tie them to Ryan's demise...how long can Barry avoid her pursuit and the criminal enterprise refusing to let him go?