Barry's Series Finale Sees [SPOILER] Live To See Another Day

Contains spoilers for "Barry" Season 4 finale, "Wow"

The "Barry" Season 4 finale was never going to be anything other than an emotional gut punch, given the deep darkness and drama that has always walked hand in hand with the show's comedic aspects. Even so, "Wow" lives up to its name by killing off or permanently tarnishing several of the show's major players. NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) takes a bullet in an epic showdown that mows down both his and Monroe Fuches' (Stephen Root) crew. Barry (Bill Hader) himself meets his fate at the hands of Gene (Henry Winkler), of all people — which subsequently casts the acting coach as the villain of the story, as far as the public is concerned. 

Yet, amidst all the carnage, one particular person survives despite everything he's been up to. Out of every single character in a show filled with reprehensible people, Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root) is "Barry's" most twisted character and the closest thing the show has to a true main antagonist. That's why, in an episode that's full of people getting their just desserts (more or less), it's downright shocking that he's one of the few major characters who walk away unscathed. 

Monroe Fuches has been a cowardly, manipulative leech of a person for much of the show's run, constantly doing his level best to bring out the worst in other characters while shamelessly looking out for his own best interests. Since Season 1, the character has managed to live through a truly astounding number of dangerous scenarios, always managing to crawl back to trouble and abuse others. 

Fuches does get his just desserts multiple times over the course of the show, suffering through at least as much nastiness as he inflicts himself. Even so, he's such a reprehensible guy that it's very easy to expect that he won't walk away from the show — especially after he's released from prison and truly becomes the stone-cold operator he always saw himself as. Yet, walking away unscathed is precisely what he does. After surviving the gunfight with NoHo Hank's mob, Fuches delivers Barry's son John (Zachary Golinger) to his father and walks off toward an uncertain fate — without his posse, but with a newfound perspective in life.

In all fairness, allowing Fuches to live makes a fair amount of thematic sense. After all, he's taken an absurd amount of punishment over the years, and while he remains a ruthless criminal, it's clear that his time in prison has given him plenty of insight on the kind of guy he used to be — and in saving Barry's son, he does get a modicum of redemption. By living through the series finale, Fuches remains a survivor to the very end, and might just have straightened his priorities enough to keep out of trouble. Let's just hope that he doesn't turn up at Sally (Sarah Goldberg) and teenage John's (Jaden Martell) door after the series' events.