#gene cousineau

[deeplyhuman]

[pintsofguinnesmakeyoustrong]

oh god i just realised barry did get redemption. hes been begging god to wash away his sins as if they never happened to be seen as a good man and he fucking got it. the whole world thinks that he was a hero. buried in arlington cemetery with full honours. god is propaganda. god is hollywood.

[billhader-fromtulsa]

didn’t even think about this until now

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

something about sally trying to become gene by using the abusive method he used on her but failing when the acting class called her out

something about barry trying to do what fuches did to him by manipulating hank but failing when hank didn’t fall for it

something about how both of them have been absolutely ravaged by the abusive people in their lives and how neither of them can take responsibility when they start perpetuating these cycles and despite the fact that neither of them are even good at imitating the people that made them who they are, they’re both hurtling at top speed toward becoming “the ugliest versions of themselves”

i wish i had some actual coherent thoughts about this but i all i can do is scream

[twobabkas]

BARRY SEASON 4 · episode titles

[rustandruin]

The insane parallels of Barry consciously trying not to expose John to video games the glorify war and combat to the point where he doesn’t know they exist, to Barry then striding through a Walmart where he buys these assault weapons and carries them out in open sight among all these parents and children not even batting an eye at the sight while they continue their shopping, to Fuches shielding John’s eyes and telling him to look away so he does not have to see the horrors of death strewn around him (to perhaps spare him the way someone should have spared Barry himself), only for all of it to be undone in those final moments as that film both frames Barry as a hero on account of his actions (defending his family) and reveals that he’s been given honours while it’s Cousineau who’s in prison and John sits there, falling prey to the glorification of violence that the show has been critiquing all along. That everyone around him tried to avoid for so long.

[e2castiel]

You’re the only one who can save him, Barry. This is an opportunity to do the right thing

[seizethedeansofproduction]

i am completely normal right now, why do you ask??

also yes the show is about many other things, but this particular thing caught my attention.

[laniidae-passerine]

obsessed with the idea of What Will People Think that permeates actions in Barry. even though it’s a terrible idea, Barry goes on fun runs to support the family of the guy he murdered and posts evidence of it online because he wants to be seen as a good guy. Sally’s mother being more concerned about what the women from her church might say about Joplin than about the real abuse her daughter endured, because they don’t care about that. Cousineau making an awkward public apology to Annie and then later trying to capitalise on Barry’s arrest so he can be a big hero. The big song and dance Cristobal and Hank have to do to hide their relationship and trick people into thinking they’re enemies. Fuches constantly bragging about being The Raven because he wants to be the coolest guy in the prison yard. What people think doesn’t matter. What people think means everything.

[themarionette-theporcelaindoll]

barry hbo finale prediction: everyone shoots at each other in the style of beloved snl sketch dear sister

[theteapotofdoom]

Still thinking about the masterclass that was Barry and its final episode. I’m especially thinking about that line in season 2 when Gene told Barry “I pray that human beings can change their nature, because if they can’t then you and I are in deep trouble.” Because like FUCK this is what the show was all about, wasn’t it? This was about Barry, Gene, Sally, Fuchs, Hank ...

But I’m mostly thinking about what this line means for Barry and Gene specifically and in the light of the final episode. I’m thinking about the parallels that this line established between them until the very end. 

They went on a reversed journey. After the time jump, Gene had changed and Barry hadn’t. Gene came back to LA to stop the movie because he no longer cared about fame and wanted to protect Janice’s memory. Barry lived a fake life as a midwestern christian far away from everything while being the same man he always was. But then, just for a few minutes at the very end, it reversed and it doomed them.

Gene had changed until he hadn’t. He was coming back with a real desire to be different and to stop the movie, but for just a few hours he was tempted by the spotlight once more and went back to his old ways and it doomed him. It doesn’t matter how honest and true his change of nature had been in the past 8 years because he slipped back for a bit and it was enough to ruin him.

Barry had not changed until he had. Barry spent the entire show incapable of changing. We saw him trying times and times again, sometimes with good intentions and he came pretty close a few times, but he never truly did. He always slipped back into his violent ways easily. When his back was against the wall he was always deeply selfish. And yet in the end, in the last few minutes of the show and the last few minutes of his life, he DID change. For the very first time in his life, he was ready to be selfless and to take a step in the right direction. To help Gene he was ready to turn himself, which is something that he never ever considered doing at any point in the entire show. In fact, it was the initial incident that ruined him because he could have let Janice arrest him back in season 1. He could have taken responsibility do his time and start over. But he was never willing to do that UNTIL THAT FINAL MOMENT. 

But it was too late. His one moment of actual growth in the entire show got him killed.

Barry is a show asking if people can change their nature or not and I find it fascinating that Gene was doomed by the one moment when he couldn’t change and Barry was doomed by the one moment when he could. 

What an absolute CHAD of a series finale. Barry will be studied in movie schools and Bill Hader will always be famous.

[deeplyhuman]

fuches and sally were the only two people who admitted their wrongs and were also the only two people who made it through the finale alive and with a happy ending. when gene said “i believe human beings can change their nature” he was right, it just could never apply to barry bc he would never admit that he was a bad person. once fuches and sally told the truth they were able to move on from barry

[pintsofguinnesmakeyoustrong]

the fact that nobody's talking about how gene apparently killed his own son and sally ran away with barry and there was apparently a time skip and they have a kid now & the massive potential ramifications of all that bc were all so. fucking devastated over hank and cristobal.

[dumbbitchawards]

The wild mischaracterisation of Barry and Sally's actions for nothing more than a massive misunderstanding of events and the general glamorisation of Hollywood is almost poetic. Gene wasn't a great person but he wasn't evil. He didn't have Barry's sickness. But he had Barry's anger - an anger that was arguably justified - and in the one moment that he acted on it, he was labelled a murderer. His entire story was twisted to fit a narrative that mischaracterised Barry as some kind of sympathetic war hero. We know what Barry did. We know what Gene didn't. Gene and Sally may not be dead but they are his victims.

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

The way Sally sort of got a happy ending on the surface but is clearly very much Not Well

The way John exists as an emotional support for his mother and might never truly unpack any of his trauma because he's living in denial of what his father did and possibly what his mother did as well

The way Gene got his revenge on Barry but because of that spent the rest of his life in prison and with his reputation forever destroyed and nobody to worship him

The way Fuches accepted his own heartlessness and because he's a cockroach will probably die at age 102, but will live out every single one of those years completely devoid of love

The way Hank only ever wanted to be safe but his story ended with him dead and holding the hand of the love of his life whose death Hank helped bring about

The way Barry was finally going to turn himself in and maybe take his first steps toward redemption but then he fucking died

Bonus: the way Jim Moss's greatest desire was justice for his daughter and he ended up getting it completely wrong, and he'll never know the real truth

[amusingmorley]

Just thinking about the genius of Barry, and the way they cut the cast down from a large ensemble in earlier seasons to a claustrophobic focus on a few key players in the final season. Nowhere to run. No chance to look away. For them or us.

Maybe the best tv show ever made.