Barry Season 4 Is Gene Cousineau At His Worst

Perhaps the most contentious relationship in Gene’s life is that of his son. His child (Andrew Leeds) was estranged from him for much of his life while he pursued an acting career, but he miraculously grew into an emotionally mature adult without his father’s help. He and Gene have done a lot of healing over the past two seasons, but all that work can be destroyed in a single instant.

Cousineau is distraught with paranoia after Barry’s arrest. He fears Barry’s retaliation, but it’s more likely his own guilt over blackmailing the killer and speaking to the reporter that is really haunting him. Whatever the reason, his fear drives him to a cabin in the woods. Forgetting that he requested for his son to bring him an expensive takeout meal, he mistakes his own child for an intruder and shoots him.

Gene’s self-centered guilty conscience drove him into the woods, convinced him that someone was coming after him, and pulled the trigger on his son. It may have been a mistake, but it’s hard to see Gene’s morality — or his happy family — coming back from this one.

“I have a metaphor that Gene is that kind of insect that skirts the top of the water, never gets wet,” Winkler told Inverse. “So he’s in a well and he flies up to the sun and he lands on the rocks that surround the well, and then his wing breaks and he falls right back into the well, and I don’t know if he’s drowned or not.”

He might aim to do the right thing, but Gene is eternally pulled back into amorality by his ego. The characters of “Barry” seem to only further entrench themselves in toxic cycles in season 4. Could Gene break his pattern before the series ends?

“Barry” airs on HBO and HBO Max on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.