Barry Season 1: Every Episode Ranked, According To IMDb

HBO’s Barry is perhaps one of the best dark comedies written on television. Created by former Seinfeld writer Alec Berg and Bill Hader, most famous for his work on Saturday Night Live, the show follows a hitman who wants to quit killing people, since he has a passion for theatre, but cannot seem to separate the two. The show was recently renewed for a third season by HBO.

The show has received critical acclaim, particularly for its writing, humor, characters, and performances, receiving 30 Emmy Award Nominations. Bill Hader, who plays the titular character, has won two Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy. So, here are all the episodes of the first season of the show, ranked according to IMDb. Caution! Spoilers ahead for the first season of Barry.

8 Chapter 2: Use It – 7.7

After Barry and Fuches are kidnapped by the Chechens, Barry is forced to carry out one last hit for the Chechens, while the police are trying to figure out the identity of Ryan’s murderer. At the acting class, Gene informs the class that Ryan has been murdered and they decide to hold a memorial for him, where his father gives a sad speech about Ryan. This causes Barry distress as he had never met a victim’s relative before, and he saw first-hand the grief and pain he had caused.

This episode shows us a softer and vulnerable side of Barry that the audience had not seen before, and almost makes the viewers feel sympathy for him. At the end of the day, in Barry’s eyes, he was a good guy — he only hurt bad people. He declines to perform a scene with Sally and drops her home. Though she invites him inside, he declines.

7 Chapter 4: Commit…To YOU – 7.8

Barry has been given a new job by Fuches — raid a Bolivian stash house. By himself. With no backup. Viewers also get to see a few glimpses of Barry’s life before becoming a hitman. He reconnects with his old Marine friend, Chris. An extremely heartbreaking moment is when Sally fails to get an audition because her agent dropped her as a client — after she refused her agent’s sexual advances.

The episode makes viewers extremely sympathetic towards Sally, and the hardships she has to face. Barry unintentionally makes matters worse when he misunderstands his relationship with Sally, and drunkenly treats her like an object rather than a person, being possessive and jealous.

6 Chapter 3: Make The Unsafe Choice – 7.9

This episode is as hilarious as it is emotional. Perhaps the funniest gag of the episode is when NoHo Hank tells Barry to wait to kill his target because they’re trying out a new intimidation system where they send a bullet in the target to the victim’s relative. This was also the first episode to shift the POV from Barry to Sally, and viewers get to see that not everything in Sally’s life is working in her favor either. Her friend got the lead in a TV show even though Sally was the better actress., which devastates her, leading to her failing the audition.

Another funny bit was when the Chechens bring in Stovka, Pazar’s famed assassin, to kill Barry once he has done the job. However, Stovka turns out to be a very frail, old-looking man (who is only 43, hilariously). In this episode, viewers see Barry’s two worlds colliding, since he misses his shot to kill Paco while talking to Sally, and had to end up strangling him.

5 Chapter 1: Make Your Mark – 8.2

The very first episode of the series, “Make Your Mark” sets up the story perfectly. Viewers see a hitman, extremely good at his job, but somewhat tired of it. In Los Angeles, while hunting Ryan, Barry walks in on an acting class and discovers he has a passion for theatre. The episode was somewhat slow in setting up the premise, but it does so perfectly. Viewers get an entire sense of the kind of person Barry is, and how good he is at being a hitman, wiping out a Chechen hit squad in an instant.

While certainly not the best episode of the season, Chapter 1 holds a special place in the heart of every Barry fan. Besides being the episode that started it all, it gives the audience an extremely relatable character — despite being a hitman who kills for money. The ending is especially sweet when he asks a waitress what she does, and she says she’s an actress. He responds, “Yeah. So am I.”

4 Chapter 5: Do Your Job – 8.4

The police get closer than ever to discovering Ryan’s killer in this episode. Detective Janice Moss, head of the investigation, drops by the acting class to interrogate suspects — which include Barry. However, Barry and Fuches have a system, by which they successfully throw off suspicion from Barry. This episode again shows a vulnerable side of Barry — when the class is discussing the morality of the characters in Macbeth, Barry gets upset. He said he’s killed people, so should he just blow his brains out? Meanwhile, Fuches tries to convince Barry to kill Taylor, as he is a liability to their operation.

Barry and Taylor raid the Bolivian stash house later that night, and Taylor kills most of the men there, besides saving Barry’s life. Fuches later meets with Barry and the audience finds out that Barry chose not to kill Taylor.

3 Chapter 6: Listen With Your Ears, React With Your Face – 8.5

This episode is packed with action and humor. Barry tries convincing Taylor to replace him, but Fuches is convinced that he needs to remove Taylor from the equation entirely. After the recon mission for the job to kill the Bolivian leader Cristobal, Barry tells Taylor he’ll do the mission solo, and Taylor removes Gene’s book from Barry’s bag and puts in the cash. Barry is forced to hide this cash in the acting class bathroom, and the police discover it (after a shootout with a Chechen in front of the class).

Barry is desperate to leave his past behind, but for Fuches’ sake, he cannot. Although he initially thinks of Taylor as a replacement, he dismisses the idea, considering he’s crazy. The episode ends in a cliffhanger when Taylor and Chris show up to pick up Barry for the bum-rush and end up getting shot.

2 Chapter 8: Know Your Truth – 9.0

The season finale, this episode is one of the most heartbreaking of the series. Barry finally parts ways with Fuches, giving him his half of the money after rescuing him from the Chechens. The police find Gene’s book in Taylor’s apartment, which had RYAN MADISON written on the first page. Declaring Ryan a perpetrator of the war between Chechens and Bolivians, they close the case, and things seem to go great with Barry for a while — he’s rejoined the acting class, is in a relationship with Sally, and has the lead in Gene’s next play.

However, at Gene’s country home, Detective Moss, now dating Gene, connects the dots of Barry Block to Chris, Taylor and Barry’s monologue about being a hitman. Barry first tries to plead her to let it go but is later forced to supposedly kill Janice, when she refuses. Barry’s past has finally caught up to him and he keeps saying “I’ll be a new person…starting NOW” multiple times.

1 Chapter 7: Loud, Fast, And Keep Going – 9.3

Perhaps the saddest episode of the show, the penultimate episode of the season has Barry the most emotional and vulnerable viewers have ever seen him. After Chris saves Barry’s life by killing a Bolivian, he freaks out and tells Barry that they need to go to the police. Barry is then forced to kill his friend in cold-blood. He has an emotional breakdown and in his play performance, he delivers his single line with such emotion and depth, that it movies the audience.

Throughout the episode, Barry suffers something similar to PTSD, as he keeps getting flashes of him killing his friend in cold-blood, and picturing Chris’s family. Meanwhile, Detective Moss begins to suspect that Barry’s involvement in the Ryan Madison case.

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