Barry Season 4 Episode 6 Has Stealthy Cameos From Bill Burr And SNL's James Austin Johnson
This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Barry."
With just a few episodes of "Barry" left, it's safe to say the eponymous character is probably pretty much done with his soul-searching. Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) has tried to start fresh several times across the course of the stellar HBO show's four seasons, and each personal reboot has ended with more than a few dead bodies. Barry's most recent attempt to start fresh came after an eight-year time jump, after which we see that he's converted to Christianity.
While Barry's past attempts at transformation — via the military, acting, and even dating Sally — have all been enthusiastic, he seems to treat religion more as a boring yet important rulebook. When he's motivated to come out of retirement for one last job, though, Barry looks to the rulebook for the exact answer he wants and finds it amidst a sea of very funny guest stars.
Bill Burr plays a hockey-playing podcast pastor
In an interview with The Wrap breaking down last week's episode, writer, director, and star Bill Hader broke down the hilarious moment when Barry looks to Christian podcasting for absolution before going to kill his old acting teacher, Gene (Henry Winkler). "That's his journey of 'Is it a sin?'" Hader said. "You know, 'Now I'm this guy but my old self used to sin,' so again it's less about religion to me and more about [how] you can find anything on the internet, whatever your view is." Barry certainly does; he starts off listening to a pastor who says murder is a sin, then finds another with more malleable views, before finally ending up with Nick St. Angelo, an extremely questionable hockey player turned-pastor who says some killings are sanctioned by God.
The pastor in question is actually played by comedian Bill Burr, while a "Saturday Night Live" castmate and "Barry" crew member took on the roles of the less bloodthirsty pastors. "It's just him actually searching things that are correct, murder is a sin, and he's gotta go down the wormhole to find this ex-hockey player who's somehow a pastor," Hader told The Wrap with a laugh. "That's Bill Burr, by the way, he's Pastor Nick. The first pastor is our composer Dave Wingo and then the second pastor is James Austin Johnson from 'Saturday Night Live' and they all did amazing jobs." Johnson is part of the current "SNL" lineup and is perhaps best known for his spot-on Donald Trump impression.
The bit was originally meant to beef up Barry's storyline
The Christian podcasting bit is both extremely funny and on brand with the vision of the future "Barry" imagines — where most everything is the same, but YouTube has snuff films and gun store employees make buyers look at pictures of gun violence victims. The show's idea of what the future might look like is basically the present, except for hints that violence is even more normalized. The joke is fantastic, but Hader said it was actually added in late in the writing process because Barry's plot for the episode was originally pretty thin. "In the episode initially, he just kind of drives up, shows up, and then he's just kind of following Cousineau around," he said.
"We thought it'd be nice if she says that and that sticks with him and he's like, 'Wait, is that a sin?'" Hader told The Wrap, referencing Sally's (Sarah Goldberg) earlier comment that killing Gene might not be in God's plan for Barry. For Hader's part, he doesn't seem to see Barry as a criminal mastermind, but a man who's always willing to bend his own worldview to do what feels right to him in the moment. "He's not that bright, but he can find something that validates his feelings," Hader said. Lucky for him — if not for Gene — Bill Burr's unhinged hockey-playing pastor comes through loud and clear like a message from God ... right after Barry ignores the other guys' messages from God.
"Barry" airs new episodes on HBO and Max on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.