Season 4 ofBarryhad audiences on the edge of their seats, trying to piece together where the sinister comedy-turned-crime-thriller was headed. The final season started with fast-paced prison breaks and kingpin criminals taking out hits on each other, and it all came to a sudden halt when Barry and Sally (Bill HaderandSarah Goldberg) began their lives on the run. In anunforeseeable time jump, the couple sealed their fates as fugitives by establishing a small home in the middle of nowhere and bringing a son into the world. Episode 5 introduces us to an 8-year-old John (Zachary Golinger). He makes an appearance in every episode until the finale, but we never get a firm grasp of who he is as an individual, not just the sheltered son of secretive parents.
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John Carries the Weight of the Finale on His Back
But if the meticulous setups of past seasons have taught us anything, it’s that co-creators Hader andAlec Bergwrite with precision and intention, so it’s likely that our distanced relationship with John was for a good reason. to really understand John, we have to begin at the end. After a frightening attack on their home, Sally and John followed Barry to Los Angeles in search of a safe place to hide out. They end up in the custody of vengeful gang members, controlled by NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan). His plan is to use Barry’s family as leverage to get him andFuches (Stephen Root)in the same place means heads will inevitably roll. Sensing that, Sally (who John has only ever known by her brunette alias, Emily) finally reveals to her son why they are in this situation.
His father, who, by the way, is not named Clark, is a very bad man who is connected to these people through his evil deeds. But she doesn’t let herself off the hook either, explaining to John that he is an innocent pawn who is undeserving of the comeuppance that his parents are about to receive. This penultimate moment of honesty shatters the wall of indifference and resentment that has divided mother and son since they first shared the screen together. Finally, a moment of tenderness and love between the two of them is shared, just in time for them to be dragged into a shoot-out where John is put directly in the line of fire.
Jaeden Martell’s Ambiguous Performance Speaks Volumes
This distance that exists between Sally and her only child was completely necessary in the episodes prior to convey that Sally is reluctant to accept the life that she signed up for when she and Barry first ran away together. It is evident in every scene she shares with John that he is a tag-along in her life. The only problem is that this passive relationship is passed on to the audience by extension. So, by the time John is placed in a room with a couple dozen gangsters, guns pointed every which way, we’ve all but forgotten he’s even in the room.
John’s presence is really felt towards the end of this episode.Barry’s grown-up John, played byJaeden Martell, is carrying on after the death of his father. He sneaks away to a friend’s house to watch the biopic of his father’s life that his mom forbid him to ever see. At first, he is visibly anxious, but the longer he watches, Martell’s performance becomes strategically deadpan, not giving away much. Though his expression remains even, there is a lot to unpack.
Watching the film is an act of rebellion, but he refuses his friend’s offer for a drink, undoubtedly marred by Sally’s alcoholism in his early years. As John watches, it is unclear how much he learned about his father after Barry was gunned down and remembered as a hero. After that outburst of truth from Sally when they were trapped together, how many details about Barry’s life was he given? Is he choosing to accept this action-star portrayal of his father, or is this Hollywood fairytale the only version he’s ever known? AsThe Mask Collectorfades to black, John’s teary eyes and slight smile leave a lot up for interpretation. That is one bold way towrap up an entire series.
Barry Tries to Right His Wrongs Through John
Clearly, Barry plays by his own rules in this department: he listens to religious podcasts hosted by people who reinforce his already firmly-held beliefs, and he believes that the fact that he is still alive after everything he’s gone through means that God has chosen to forgive him. It stands to reason that he buys into the idea that raising an even-tempered son who won’t even shoot so much as a virtual gun onCall of Dutymakes him all squared up with the universe. But Barry isn’t the only one who uses John as a means to redeem himself.
After the showdown in Hank’s lobby, Fuches, who moments ago describes himself as heartless, shields John from the flying bullets with his own body to deliver him safely to his father and recede into the shadows. The unspoken agreement here is that Fuches and Barry have called a truce over the safe delivery of his boy. Funnily, John wouldn’t have been there in the first place if Hank hadn’t used him for his own ploy: to get Barry furious enough to drive right up to his doorstep after previous failed attempts trying to wrangle and kill him.
Instead of feeling connected to him, John is more of a catalyst for the themes Hader wants us to remember as the series comes to a close. The idealized sense of self, for example. When Barry Met Sally in Season 1, he had visions of a wildly optimistic future with the two married and taking family photos with a smiling baby. It’s safe to say that John was brought into the world by his parents to try and emulate that vision as accurately as they could, given the circumstances: criminals on the run who have that normal, nuclear family. What they got in the end, however, is a far cry from that dream sequence.
Was John’s Distance From the Audience Intentional?
After seeingwho lives and dies inBarrySeason 4, we find ourselves the least emotionally invested in the last man standing. But maybe the fact that we don’t care for John is a powerful statement in itself. His parents didn’t really take the time to properly care for him or get to know him, so why should we?Barryalways revolved around everyone’s misguided beliefs that they are a martyr on the right path. John is an unfortunate, innocent byproduct of being raised by narcissistic parents with no accountability. The finale showshow little Sally has actually changed.
Strictly speaking, there isn’t a lot to John’s personality for viewers to attach themselves to and that isbecauseof how he was raised: his parents were disingenuous, with a paper-thin belief system, all of his hobbies and formative experiences were stifled by a fear that they instilled, and he had no friends because he was ostracized and bullied by the other kids. Our apathy for John is the final indicator of all the damage that Barry and Sally caused. The most pain they inflicted was on their own son by not caring about him, and as a result, neither do we.
