The Season 3 finale of Barry finally aired last night, and it was a doozy. When we last saw Barry, he was slowly recovering from a beachy hallucination and had been kidnapped by Ryan Madison’s grief-stricken father. After the man shot himself in the head, a disillusioned Barry was wheeled through a bustling hospital. Natalie leaked the footage of Sally berating her in the elevator, which elicited concern from Lindsay, who ultimately decided to let Sally go as a client. Fuches spilled the Barry beans in the interrogation room to Albert once he realized who he was dealing with. Hank’s trapped in a Bolivian cell, desperate to be near his Cristobal once again, and Cousineau lies and tells Janice’s father that Barry didn’t kill her because he’s not that sort of guy. So many lies, so little time.
Episode 8, titled “starting now,” opens with Barry waking up from a dream in his hospital bed. Oddly enough, the dream was of the same beach hallucination from last week’s episode, except this time, Sally and Cousineau were among Barry’s victims on the beach. Perhaps this was an eerie forewarning to Barry of what would happen if he continued on this destructive path. He rips the various life-saving wires that cling to him and desperately tries to get out of bed. He makes it home (well, it’s really Nick and Jermaine’s place) and hears a rustling coming from his room. Naturally, Barry, always on the defensive, grabs a knife and barges into his room, where he is shocked to see Sally. Didn’t she just tell him to eff off? Turns out Sally’s got revenge fever because she asks Barry to do what he originally said he’d do to her old boss Diane (slowly drive her crazy) to Natalie by breaking into her house and messing with her.
Cousineau and Annie get word that there’s interest for him to get an ensemble together and prepare for a special that will be live-streamed. In the middle of the conversation, Cousineau receives a very intense phone call from Jim Moss, who wants to get his stories straight. Fuches, meanwhile, is busy being interrogated by Dunn, who slides over the Chechen pin Barry planted at the scene of the crime. Dunn doubles down on the pin that seems to indicate that he’s the Raven and says that they know he’s involved with the Chechen mob. Fuches, however, wants a lawyer, and even refers to himself later as the Raven. Jim Moss meets with Cousineau and unleashes some brutal interrogation techniques he learned in Vietnam. He screams at Cousineau, asking repeatedly if he loves his daughter and if he loves Barry. More importantly, why is he protecting Barry? Cousineau cracks under pressure and proceeds to weep.
Barry gets acquainted with Sally’s PR nightmare as she explains how she wants him to break into Natalie’s house and take a picture of her while she sleeps. Barry says how he knows where he will go when he dies (that beach, maybe?) And that he does not want her to end up like him. He then punched in the face by one of Traci’s people, who were along for that wild chase scene. The man then slaps Sally, who falls to the ground, and proceeds to strangle her. Sally tries to fight back, but she’s clearly no match for his intense grip. Luckily, Sally manages to get her hands on a knife and stabs him in the neck. He stumbles off to the sound-proof studio and tries to catch his breath, but Sally charges after him with a baseball bat and beats him to death. Barry tries to console a bloody and unstable Sally and convinces her to let him take all the blame for the blowout.
In Bolivia, Hank is still handcuffed in the dark, mysterious room. Yandar and Akhmal yell at him through the walls that they are free, but are then quickly beaten and eaten alive by animals. Terrified that he could be next, Hank focuses all his efforts on breaking free from his handcuffs. He eventually escapes, beats up a guard, and steals his gun. As Hank gets his bearings in this fancy house, he notices a painting of Cristobal, his wife Elena, and their children. He follows distant music, which leads us to Elena’s torture session. A male dancer dances while Elena electrocutes Cristobal, who’s bound to a chair. Hank enters and shoots both people dead immediately. He hugs a semi-aware Cristobal tight, but looks incredibly conflicted at what he just had to resort to.
Barry knows that he’s got to remove this body, and so naturally, he digs a deep hole in the desert. He gets a very unwelcome visit from Albert, who dives deep into Barry’s past. How financially lucrative exactly is a job that can lead to you killing Chris, one of your closest friends? After shouting at Barry and threatening to shoot, Barry breaks down and sobs. Albert seems to change his tune when he says that his daughter would not exist if not for Barry’s brave interception those 8 years ago. Albert explains that he knows evil and that Barry is evil… yet. That being said, Barry’s hitman days must be over. Starting now.
As he speeds down the nighttime highway, Barry talks to Sally, who’s in an airport. He tells her to pick any place and that he will go to her. He says “I love you,” to Sally, who reluctantly reciprocates. In a full-circle moment, Sally boards a plane back home to Joplin, Missouri. Barry gets a call from Jim, who says he just had a very “interesting” conversation with Cousineau about Janice’s death and needs Barry to come to his house. This is indeed interesting, considering Cousineau just said to Jim that Barry’s not the type of guy to kill. Barry tries to get out of this and calls Cousineau to get the scoop. Cousineau sits outside Jim’s house alone in the dark and slowly says, “He wants to take us down, Barry. He’s going to ruin me. I can not have that. ” This can not be good.
Barry speeds over and reprimands him for having a gun, though Cousineau tries to convince him that if he does not do something, Jim will make it his priority to ruin his career and everything he worked for. Barry wants Cousineau to stay safe and says that he’ll go talk to Jim instead, but Cousineau pleads with him to just drive away because Jim is a man who wants revenge. He admits that Jim knows everything. Namely, that Barry was the one who killed Janice. Against Cousineau’s wishes, Barry sneaks inside.
Barry, with a gun in hand, enters Jim’s house. Jim is peacefully making a drink and watching sports, and it almost seems like he waiting for Barry to come up behind him. Barry winces, then aims his gun at the back of Jim’s head, but is stopped by the sound of a booming voice yelling “Freeze! Drop the f * cking gun! ” Jim confidently turns around with a smug grin on his face as armed SWAT emerge from the shadows and approach him from all sides. Barry is completely caught off guard and surrenders. But the most shocking thing of all? A stoic Cousineau appears from behind the police and stares directly at Barry as he gets arrested. This was all an elaborate setup by Cousineau and Jim to get Barry behind bars. Guess Cousineau is a pretty good actor after all, and it seems Barry will be locked up in prison by the time Season 4 finally kicks off.