Why Albert Couldn't Have Come Back In The Barry Finale
Say what you will about "Barry" season 4, but it was certainly bold. After the show basically blew up its whole premise with the season 3 finale, in which the titular character Barry (Bill Hader) gets arrested, the writers switched gears again just four episodes later. Thanks to an absurd Fred Armisen-related mishap, Barry successfully escapes prison and runs off the grid with Sally (Sarah Goldberg).
Within a single moment at the end of "it takes a psycho," the show that never jumped ahead more than a few months in time had suddenly jumped forward eight years. Instead of Barry trying to become an actor, he's now concerned with preserving his quiet, isolated life with Sally and his son John. The final stretch of the show's episodes focuses on Barry reacting to the news that a movie is being made about his life, and his plans to kill Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) in an attempt to stop it.
It all naturally begs the question: what's Albert (James Hiroyuki Liao) doing in all this? He was Barry's old army buddy, who returned with a vengeance in season 3 to confront Barry and scare him into stopping his life of crime. Although Albert isn't the one responsible for Barry's imprisonment, he's probably the only person on the show to successfully break through Barry's walls. As Barry breaks down in pathetic, child-like sobs, we can see him finally drop (for just a moment, at least) any pretensions that he's a good person. This is the moment it becomes clear that the party's over; even after Albert lets him off with a warning, both Barry and the viewers know that things will never be the same again. So ... why didn't Albert ever show up in season 4?
Albert can't explain himself; Gene can
In a recent episode of the Prestige TV podcast, Hader explained how, from Barry's perspective at least, Gene Cousineau was the only person who could truly hurt him with the movie. "I think in Barry's mind it's 'Cousineau knows everything, he can really f**k me over in my son's eyes, so let me just get rid of him,'" Hader explained. Of course, it'd turn out that Cousineau's accepting of Barry's $250,000 would kill his credibility, but there's no way Barry could've known Cousineau would tell people about that part of their story. And as for Albert? Hader explained:
"Albert and the people in season 3 who tried to kill him, they all in some way are guilty of perpetrating some crime, you know. Albert let him go at the end of season 3, so Albert can't really come back. If he comes back and says 'Barry Berkman is a killer' it's like, 'How do you know that? Why didn't you arrest him?'"
Sure, Albert would still realistically be a threat to Barry; if season 4 had been a few episodes longer, it's easy to imagine Albert coming forward, telling the full truth regardless of the consequences. But in the eight-episode version of the final season we got, his involvement would've led to too many complications and not enough emotional payoff to make up for them. As Hader further explained, bringing back all of Barry's smaller foes "does kind of populate it in a way that isn't interesting to me anymore." Instead, he and the other writers chose to keep those final episodes hyper-focused on Barry, Sally, Gene, Hank, and Fuches. Not every loose end was tied up, but the main characters at least got the conclusion they deserved.