Season one of Barry introduces us to the titular Barry Berkman,
a marine turned hitman under the guidance of his handler Fuches. Fuches assigns Barry a new
target in LA, an aspiring actor named Ryan Madison who was having an affair
with the wife of Chechen crime boss Goran, the man who ordered the hit.
Barry breaks hitman rule number 1 by making contact with Ryan who asks him to perform
a scene with him in his acting class. Barry, feeling depressed and disillusioned by the hitman
lifestyle, feels accepted by the acting class and becomes smitten with aspiring actress Sally.
The only problem is that Barry is a horrible actor. Many of the qualities of being a hitman,
being closed off and emotionless, hugely contradict the qualities required of actors.
After breaking down and venting to acting teacher Gene Cousineau that
he is in fact a hitman looking for a different life, Gene takes it as
an impressive improvised monologue and accepts Barry into his acting class.
By the time Barry gets around to killing Ryan, the Chechens have already sent a new hitman to
kill him and Barry to tie up any loose ends. Barry guns them down and escapes the scene. In order to
make things up to the Chechens, Fuches arranges for Barry to pull off several jobs for them,
all the while Barry continues to attend acting classes and pursues a relationship with Sally.
When Barry reconnects with an old Marine friend Chris, Chris's friend Taylor discovers Barry's
ties with the Chechens and insists on tagging along on his next job of raiding a rival Bolivian
stash house. The job is pulled off with little hiccups but Barry ignores Fuches’ orders to kill
Taylor upon the job's completion. Barry wants Taylor to take his place and work for Fuches
so that he can leave behind the hitman life for good and pursue his acting career. Taylor counters
that Barry should just kill Fuches himself and even hides some money he stole from the
stash house in Barry's bag. Barry, realizing his plan for Taylor to seamlessly take his place was
an unrealistic dream, decides to do the next Chechen job alone, taking out a Bolivian drug
lord upon his arrival at a private airfield. Unfortunately, Taylor shows up with his friend
Vaughn and Barry's friend Chris. Going against Barry's planned stealth attack, Taylor drives
the group head-on into enemy fire. Taylor and Vaughn are killed in the gunfire, but Barry
and Chris managed to escape. Due to the botched attack, the Bolivians declare war on the Chechens.
Emotionally distressed from the horrific turn of events at the airfield, a guilt ridden Chris
tells Barry he wants to turn himself in to the authorities. Given no other choice, Barry
is forced to kill his friend, a decision that emotionally devastates him. He then goes to give
a performance with Sally in front of his acting class, and the emotions Barry felt from killing
Chris lead to a genuinely captivating performance. Sally insists that whatever process Barry used to
tap into those emotions is the process he should use before every performance moving forward.
Upon learning of Barry’s survival, Fuches tries to save himself by going to Goran with
information on where to find him. Goran instead plans to kill both Barry and Fuches. NoHo Hank,
who has taken a liking to Barry, warns the assassin and tells him to run. Barry
instead decides to head to Goran's house, killing the mob boss and his entire gang,
although he spares Hank who takes over the Chechens and makes peace with the
Bolivians. Barry also runs Fuches out of LA, finally putting his hitman past behind him.
Barry and Sally then accompany Gene to get away at his country home. Gene is also
accompanied by his girlfriend, Janice Moss, a detective who all season has been trying
to uncover Ryan Madison's killer and their involvement with the Chechen mob. Barry is
finally at peace and it's a perfect happy ending until Moss discovers Barry's true
identity. Barry privately begs her not to pursue this, but when she refuses Barry is
forced to shoot her before returning to his room and joining a sleeping Sally in bed.
In season two of Barry, the titular assassin is struggling to keep his
double life together. When a grief-stricken Gene wants to close down his acting school,
Barry convinces him to keep going. Gene then tasks the acting class with writing
and performing a scene that encapsulates their own personal truth, which forces Sally
to confront her relationship with her abusive ex-husband. In Sally’s written version of events,
she confidently stands up against her husband’s abuse and her performance receives rave reviews
and attention from agents. Although Sally does feel guilty knowing that the performance was a
lie, as she had actually quietly fled from her husband without ever confronting him.
Outside of acting class, tensions are escalating even further for Barry. NoHo Hank begs Barry for
help in dealing with a Burmese gang that the Bolivian’s leader Cristobal prefers
over the Chechens. Hank wants Barry to kill the Burmese gang’s leader, Esther, but Barry refuses,
not wanting to be a killer anymore. Instead, Barry trains the Chechens so that they could
take out the Burmese gang themselves. One of the Chechens, Mayrbeck, proves to be an
excellent student and soon wins the respect of the rest of the Chechens, pushing Hank to the side.
Meanwhile, Fuches is arrested due to his connections with Goran and the Chechens,
and Detective Moss’ partner Loach turns him into an informant to bring down Barry. When Fuches
records Barry’s confession on tape, Loach doesn’t arrest the assassin, but instead blackmails him
into killing his ex-wife’s new lover, Ronny. Eventually, Loach arrives to kill Ronny himself,
but the Taekwondo master kills Loach before the police arrive and kill Ronny. With Loach
dead and the investigation into him seemingly over, a furious Barry parts ways with Fuches.
To get revenge on Barry, a bitter Fuches tracks down Detective Moss’ body and poses as a private
detective to lead Gene to it. Before Barry can race to the crime scene to stop him,
Fuches frames Gene for Moss’ murder, alerts the police, and holds Gene at gunpoint. Fuches can’t
bring himself to kill Gene, but does tell him that Barry was Moss’ true killer. Fuches then
runs away as Barry arrives, followed closely by the police. Barry and Gene are arrested, but Barry
manages to plant evidence that exonerated Gene and shifted the attention toward the Chechens.
And speaking of the Chechens, Fuches brokers a peace deal between Hank, Cristobal, and Esther,
bringing the three gangs together in an attempt to protect himself from a vengeful Barry. Hank alerts
Barry to Fuches’ location, and Barry storms the gang hideout, slaughtering gang members,
including Esther and Mayrbeck, in his search for Fuches. Unfortunately for Barry,
Fuches escapes. When the Chechens send a successor, Batir, to replace Hank, Batir assumes
Hank slaughtered Esther and all of the other Chechen rivals and commends him for his work.
Barry had come a long way in distancing himself from his past as an assassin,
but could the past stay the past when Fuches was still around to cause trouble
and his innocent teacher Gene was now secretly aware of his darkest secret?
In season three of Barry, the titular assassin has fallen into a dark depression and returned to his
job of contract killing. Noho Hank helps divert the Moss investigation and implicate Fuches, who
is currently hiding out in Chechnya. Despite the police informing Gene that Fuches is Moss’ killer,
the acting teacher remains confident that Barry is the one responsible. So confident, in fact,
that Gene confronts Barry at gunpoint. Barry is forced to subdue Gene, and, not wanting to kill
him, must come up with a plan to re-earn Gene’s trust and loyalty. And to make sure Gene stays
in line until a plan can come together, Barry threatens the lives of Gene’s son and grandson.
Sally has created her own television series called Joplin, based on the fictionalized version of her
past abusive relationship. Barry thinks getting Gene an acting role on the show will boost his
spirits and lead to forgiveness, but Sally turns down Barry’s proposal. A frustrated and
stressed out Barry then viciously lashes out at Sally in front of the show’s entire crew,
leading to Sally eventually standing up for herself and ending the abusive relationship.
Without Sally’s help, Barry is forced to find another way to get Gene an acting job,
but quickly learns that the acting teacher has made a lot of enemies during his time
in Hollywood. Eventually, Barry lands a role for himself on a television show and
convinces the production to cast Gene as well. The story of acting teacher Gene taking former
marine Barry under his wing goes public and Gene’s reputation and career are completely
revitalized. Gene is hired to host an acting Masterclass, and wanting to make
amends for past mistakes of his own, hires his spurned former friend Annie to direct.
Meanwhile, Noho Hank and Cristobal begin a romantic relationship, which is seriously
complicated by the escalating war between the Chechen and Bolivian gangs. Cristobal’s
father-in-law, Fernando, comes to America to take charge and strike against the Chechens, prompting
Cristobal to warn Hank about the Bolivians’ plans. Chechen leader Batir wants to take out the entire
Bolivian gang, so Hank hires Barry to plant a bomb in Fernando’s home, killing him and his men,
but keeping Cristobal safe. Just as Barry plants the bomb, Cristobal arrives and is confronted
by Fernando, who reveals that he knows about Cristobal’s relationship with Hank. When the
bomb goes off, Cristobal emerges from the wreckage as the only survivor. Barry delivers Cristobal to
Hank, then delivers his reward money to Gene as further penance. When Cristobal’s wife, Elena,
comes to America to avenge her father’s death, she orders her team to attack the Chechens and
kidnap her husband. She brings Cristobal back to Bolivia and subjects him to electroshock
conversion therapy. Hank and his men follow them to Bolivia, where the Chechens are all slaughtered
by a panther. Hank manages to kill the panther and the Bolivians, including Elena, to save Cristobal.
Meanwhile, Sally’s television series Joplin is canceled almost immediately after premiering,
forcing Sally to take a writing job on a different series, which she sees as an unfair demotion. Upon
finding out that her former assistant Natalie has been given her own show, Sally cruelly
lashes out at her in a fit of jealousy and rage. Natalie films the encounter and posts it online,
costing Sally her writing job. After posting a terrible, half-hearted apology video online
where she refuses to take full responsibility for her actions, Sally is also dropped by her agent.
Meanwhile, Fuches returns to America seeking revenge against Barry. Posing as a PI,
Fuches visits the families of many of Barry’s past victims, encouraging them to track down
Barry and enact vengeance. A biker gang led by Taylor’s sister pursues Barry,
who narrowly escapes with his life. Chris’ widow, Sharon, then poisons Barry and leaves him to die,
but the assassin is saved by Ryan Madison’s grieving and depressed father. As Barry continues
to fight off his pursuers, he is visited by Sally, who asks for his help in spitefully
ruining Natalie’s career. Barry refuses, not wanting to encourage Sally’s downward spiral,
but the two are then attacked by a surviving member of the biker gang. Sally is forced to
kill the biker, traumatizing her, but Barry promises to get rid of the body and take full
responsibility for the death. As Barry heads off to tie up all of his loose ends, he makes plans to
leave Los Angeles with Sally, unaware that she has already left by herself to return to her hometown
of Joplin. As Barry disposes of the biker’s body, he is confronted by his old marine friend, Albert,
who now works for the FBI. As Barry breaks down in tears, Albert agrees to let Barry go
as thanks for saving his life in Afghanistan, but makes Barry promise to never kill again.
With his plan to kill Barry ending in failure, Fuches decides to try a new tactic. He visits Jim
Moss, the grieving father of Janice, and reveals that Barry was her killer. Suspicious of Fuches,
Jim turns him into the police before investigating Barry on his own. Jim Moss then calls Barry to
his home for a final confrontation. Gene insists that he and Barry kill Jim to put
an end to the investigation for good and move on with their lives. At Jim’s home,
Barry takes Gene’s gun and tells him to go home, not wanting him involved. As Barry prepares to
murder Jim, the police rush in to arrest him. As Barry is taken into custody, he realizes
that Gene had betrayed him, working with Jim Moss to set him up and finally avenge Janice.