Barry Season 4 Is Gene Cousineau At His Worst

This post contains spoilers for "Barry" season 4, episode 4.

There are a lot of deplorable characters in "Barry," but the worst among them might not be the titular serial killer (Bill Hader). The hitman's acting teacher, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), is blinded by his own narcissism. His ego constantly guides him down a path of immorality, and the only reason he ends up doing the right thing is because he's cornered into it. He starts the fourth and final season off on a moral high note, but just a few episodes in, he's already at his absolute worst.

For all Barry's faults, he's been traumatized by war and the misguidance of his mentor-tormentor, Fuches (Stephen Root). NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan), a ruthless gang leader, is softened by a goofy underbelly that longs to create a crime utopia where every ethnic gang can live in peace. Sally (Sarah Goldberg) is also a narcissist, but her own ego and history of abuse left her genuinely blind to Barry's violence. When Gene found out that Barry killed the love of his life, he blackmailed him instead of turning him in. He is the most rotten character on the show, and he's only gotten worse since his sense of self-righteousness has kicked in.

Perhaps the most frustrating component of Gene's incredulous amorality is that he's genuinely convinced of his own goodness. Winkler's performance as Gene earned him a Primetime Emmy. He believes his character genuinely aims to walk in the light but is unwittingly pulled into the dark by his own hubris.

"I played him as a person who wanted to be a good person," the actor explained to The Playlist. "He never quite got there. He thought he was really helping these young people. He thought he was really giving them a foundation. Now, in a way, he did. But mostly, he was delusional."

If Gene is simply delusional, can he still be held culpable for his foibles? The answer is yes, and he absolutely should be. The fact that Gene has convinced himself that he has actually done right by his students, his late girlfriend's father, or anyone at all, is a dangerous and egotistical twist on the truth. Cousineau only aided justice after he was forced to — after making money off of a killer.

Now that his late girlfriend's father finally nabbed Barry — with Gene's reluctant help — Gene feels responsible for putting his lover's killer behind bars. Within two episodes, he tarnishes this goodwill by doing a one-man show for a Vanity Fair reporter. Even though he knows it would hurt the father of the victim, he chooses to exploit Janice's story for attention. He also goes about it in the most dramatic way possible, an indication of the tremendous ego that motivated his squealing.

Winkler used his own acting teachers as an inspiration for his character — particularly in this highly theatrical scene.

"When I was at Emerson College, there was a professor, Professor Kenneth Crannell, he taught that form," he recalled. "He did the entire 'King and I' just no costume, no makeup, no nothing. Just this character, that character, change the voice a little bit, change the voice a little bit. It was mesmerizing. So what I learned in 1968, I applied to 2023."

Gene's massive ego and lack of self-awareness is a point of humor from the very first episode of the series. His acting class worships him, and he doesn't seem to see any problem with that — in fact, he welcomes this cult of personality that encircles him, feeding into it at every possible opportunity. Still, Gene isn't totally morally bankrupt to start. His narcissism just overrides all his good sense, like in the very first episode when he thinks Barry is simply performing a compelling monologue about a hitman when he tells him the truth of his profession.

Winkler says he wasn't sure how terrible his character should be at first. He even thought Gene might actually be a good acting teacher before he really got to know him. "When I started to play him, I was just playing him with my imagination, and they were going, 'Yeah, I guess he could be kind of warm and that could be all right,'" the actor explained to Inverse. "Finally, I said to them one day, 'Oh my goodness, he's an a**hole!' They went, 'Yes!'"

This realization cracked the character wide open for Winkler. It's not that Gene doesn't understand morality; it's that his will for fame and power trumps his will to do the right thing every single time. "That's who he is, isn't it?" Winkler asked rhetorically. "He knows what's right and he literally caaaaan't hold on to it."

Now that "Barry" is in its final episodes, this moral tension in Gene is fully realized. He thinks he's done something so right in turning Barry in that he can get away with doing things a little bit wrong. His self-centered delusion is surging in power, and in episode 4, it's made him genuinely dangerous.

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.