Summary
Arguably the biggest twist inBarry’s fourth season was that the show took an eight-year time jump mid-season, which proved to be an unforeseen twist. Bill Hader, who created, directed, wrote, and starred in the show as Barry Berkman, explained why they opted to jump eight years into the future.
Hader said that in theBarrywriters' room, he and the other writers for theHBOhit show had decided to have him escape prison but weren’t sure where to go from there. However, when the idea of a time jump was floated, Hader revealed that everyone was on board with the idea and why.
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Hader explained toThe Hollywood Reporterwhat went down intheBarrywriters' roomwhen they came up with the idea for the time jump. “It kind of presented itself [in the writers' room]: He’s going to get out of prison, he escapes, takes Sally with him. What happens next?” Hader said. “When we started breaking down, ‘whatever’s next’ felt really boring. So, why don’t we just jump ahead eight years, and they have a kid? And then everybody went, ‘Oh yeah, that’s interesting!’ You just kind of know when you’ve struck on the thing.”
The eight-year jump helped set the stage for every character’s ending by the finale.Barry and Sarah Goldberg’s Sallywere on the run and had a son named John. No-Ho Hank became a successful businessman while remaining in the Chechen gangster life. Fuches became a respected gang leader who did his time in prison before returning to the crime life. Gene Cousineau still feared Barry would try to kill him after escaping prison. Re-establishing all of their lives made it so that no one truly knew how Barry would end.
While Berkman managing to escape prison wasn’t something viewers were necessarily surprised to see, seeing the show go eight years into the future was something they wouldn’t have predicted. While it was becoming increasingly evident that Barry would never get to live the life he wanted without any hangups, no one thought that would mean he would take Sally with him to start a new life while avoiding law enforcement. Of course, it wouldn’t stay that way, knowing the demons Barry had back in Hollywood, but Barry had grown comfortable living a lie.
Sadly, the problem with the show’s time jump was that viewers only got four episodes to digest the brand-new setting. There was only so much time for the audience to get acquainted with everyone’s new predicament, which made it not feel fleshed out. For the record, it wasn’t a bad idea. If anything, the time jump should have been the season 4 finale twist, while the latter final four episodes ofBarryshould have been stretched out in season 5. Alas,Hader believedBarrywas goodfor four seasons, and if that’s how he felt, he’s entitled to make the show’s decisions.
