When we led into Barry & Sally’s life eight years after his escape we sort of, for a moment, forgot about our other players in the story. We knew with a few episodes to go that at least Gene Cousineau had to surface again but that the story of Fuches and NoHo Hank could have been done. Fuches was left serving a long prison sentence and Hank was back it seemed, though uncomfortably, with his old Chechen cohorts.
So, it was a complete delight to see Monroe Fuches walk out of prison a free, but hardened man in this episode. His look, tone, and demeanor are different but his intent is the same. He is focused on taking out Barry. He visits Hank and agrees to work for him in exchange for an opportunity to kill Barry despite Hank’s insistence that Barry was no longer a threat. So, Fuches is still at the rudder of his one-man ship. As for Hank, eight years later, well, we don’t find him with Batir and the old gang but in big business for himself. He now runs a successful sand importation company called Nohobal and doing it well. Good for him!
This relationship once again goes south when Hank terminates the working agreement when a drunk Fuches mistakenly congratulates Hank for eliminating Cristobal. Fuches rambles on that it was clever of Hank to mastermind Cristobal’s demise and takes the sand business and makes it his own. Hanks snaps and the deal is as dead as his lover. A set of great scenes for these guys.
Our other player, Mr. C., has been on a kibbutz for eight years, lying really low. He surfaces in L. A. to silence the biopic set about Barry Berkman. During a meeting with a studio executive, Gene is summoned to meet with the district attorney, where he explains that he came out of hiding to ensure a biopic would not be made that glorified Barry or disgraced Janice. But it is all too late as Barry leaves his family to take out Gene. What kind of awful confrontation is coming down?
Before he leaves his family, ‘Clark’ & ‘Emily’ explain that Clark must leave John at home for business, though John cites that his dad doesn’t have a job. Barry spends his time traveling to L. A. psyching himself out for the task at hand. He listens to several podcasts from various clergy defending the claim that “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” is okay as it came from the Old Testament’s wrathful God. Barry needs to justify his actions before he carries out his deed. And Sally needs to get a grip. With Barry absent we have to ask, was her home invaded, and was she attacked or was it all a drunken hallucination? Does she truly need Barry in her life that badly? We don’t get those answers as we focus back on Barry on the hunt.
He doesn’t, however, carry out the killing. He closely watches Gene’s son Leo’s house and sure enough, Mr. C. shows up. But so does Leo’s son as the school bus drops him off. Barry can’t take out Gene in front of the man’s grandson. But, at least we learn that Leo wasn’t killed by Gene’s gunshot when he mistook Leo for Barry eight years earlier. Barry makes one more attempt to take out Gene later that evening at Gene’s house. He is once again prevented from doing so because he is nabbed from the bushes by this guy…
Yeah, Jim Moss has been on diligent watch for eight years just waiting for Barry to make his move. Plus, he’s got you in his garage. Busted again, Barry. Now what? We have two remaining episodes to find out. I still believe it leads to one more face-to-face between Barry & Gene. Stick it out to the end!
