Barry's Sarah Goldberg on "bleak and beautiful" series finale
Barry spoilers follow.
Barry has wrapped up its fourth and final season with plenty of shocks and delights for fans of Bill Hader's dark comedy, and star Sarah Goldberg has opened up about what she thinks about the show's final episode.
The acclaimed HBO series ended with Barry being shot dead by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) just as he was about to turn himself in for his past misdeeds. Gene went to prison for the murder while Goldberg's Sally went on to become a drama teacher at a high school.
She rode home after a successful performance at the school with a bouquet of flowers beside her, seemingly content. In a new interview with TV Line, Goldberg opened up about the "bleak" finale.
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"I think there's a real bleak message somewhere in there that I haven't fully digested. I mean, he finally pivots and understands he needs to do the right thing. The thesis of the show was like: Am I a good person? Ultimately, there was something in Barry that was good-natured," Goldberg said.
"It's what made him an interesting character, that somebody who's seemingly good-natured could behave so abysmally. But the truth is: He's a bad person. At every juncture, at every fork in the road that he has over the four seasons to do the right thing, he chooses the selfish thing."
She continued: "So I think he finally has the epiphany of, 'Oh, I need to do the right thing', and I think it's genuine. But yeah, he's shot dead before that's allowed to happen. There's something very bleak and beautiful about that."
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Also in the finale, Sally's son John, as a teenager, watches a Hollywood movie based on Barry's life that downplays the intricacies of what happens.
Instead, it portrays Gene as an outright villain and Barry as a hero, which Goldberg thinks gives Barry what he always wanted: for his son to view him as a good person.
"It's far more twisted. He really does get what he wants. He kind of wins the game. Not only does his son see him as a hero… well, we don't know. But the world sees him as a hero. Yeah. It's so bleak," Goldberg said.
Barry airs on HBO in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK.
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