Barry Season 4's Mysterious Phone Call Sets Up A New Mystery — Let's Investigate
This article contains spoilers for "Barry" season 4 episode 1.
"Barry" just entered its final season, and it's going out with a bang. A lot of mysteries still loom in the air and almost every character is floating, with their every attempt to reach out to one another thwarted at every turn. Will Barry make it out of prison? Will the other shoe drop for Cousineau? Will NoHo Hank make it out of season 4 alive? So much happens in the season premiere that one suspenseful moment almost slips through the cracks. When NoHo Hank calls Barry's phone, someone else picks up. Who is it, and how do they have it?
The most natural conclusion would be that the police have it. Barry is in prison for murder, so it's only natural that a branch of the police would take possession of his phone. Barry's ex-mentor/tormentor, Fuches, strikes a deal with the FBI to help take down Berkman. He reveals that his old partner-in-crime has connections to organized crime, which would incentivize the government to pry information about the gangs he worked with from his phone and anyone that tries to contact him.
Even though the feds are probably the ones who have Barry's phone, it might have fallen into civilian hands before it made its way to the police. The serial killer was finally cornered in season 3 for the murder of police officer Janice Moss by an unlikely duo — Barry's acting teacher and Janice's boyfriend, Gene Cousineau, and the late officer's father, Jim Moss. Gene and Jim both meddled in Barry's case for their own reasons — Gene wanted to blackmail Barry and then conceal this blackmail from Jim, while Jim just wanted plain old revenge. Could either of them be the one on the other end of Barry's phone?
Is Jim Moss doing more vigilante work?
Jim Moss took on Barry's arrest as his own personal vigilante mission. Like Barry, Jim is a veteran who has seen combat, making him a perfect foil for Barry — Moss has bent the inescapable violence in his life into serving justice, while Berkman uses it to commit unspeakable crimes.
Janice's father clearly didn't trust the police to solve his daughter's murder, and rightfully so. If he couldn't trust the cops to catch Barry, why would he trust them to keep him prisoner? Might he be screening the hitman's calls himself to see if anyone else was involved in Janice's death or other killings? Or maybe he's trying to intercept any potential plans to break his daughter's murderer out of jail?
It's an interesting theory, but it just doesn't sound like Jim is on the other end of the line with NoHo Hank. Moss has a distinctly deep voice that doesn't match the one that claims to be Barry. It's possible that Moss was using a voice modulator or had hired someone to pretend to be Barry, but that seems a bit far-fetched. However, Jim wasn't the only one that knew Barry was guilty before he was handed to the police — and he wasn't the only one with an agenda, either.
Could it be a Cousineau on the other end of the line?
Gene Cousineau, Barry's former acting teacher, might have had his own reasons for holding onto Barry's phone. Maybe he wanted to see if someone else would get in touch about Barry so that he could use it to tell the story. Or, in an unexpected stroke of genius, perhaps he wanted additional leverage with the police in case they found him guilty of accepting money from Barry to keep quiet about Janice's murder.
Like Jim, Gene has a fairly distinct voice, and it doesn't sound like him on the other end of the line. However, Gene also has an adult son, Leo, who knew about Barry before his father turned him into the police. It's possible that Leo got a hold of Barry's phone, either with or without Gene's knowledge, and held onto it as collateral. Maybe he wanted to protect his father, or maybe he sought to take him down with the help of one of Barry's dangerous contacts. Leo has a complicated relationship with his father, but he is ultimately a kind-hearted guy, so it's hard to see him pulling such a duplicitous move.
If Leo got his hands on Barry's phone, it's possible that it landed in the hands of an even more unlikely suspect — Gene's grandson. He wouldn't have anything to gain from getting involved in the case, but the morbid curiosity of a young teenager might just be enough of a motive in itself.
The journalist might be pulling the strings
There's one final suspect for the person that impersonates Barry over the phone, and he just might be the dark horse of the season. Against his lawyer's wishes and Jim's advisement, Gene spills his guts to a reporter for Vanity Fair journalist, Lon Oneil. Lon might seem unsuspecting, but he could have an ace up his sleeve. As a true crime reporter, it's possible that he fancies himself a vigilante detective like Jim. Maybe he managed to bribe an officer into letting him field Barry's incoming phone calls. Only time will tell if Lon is secretly an evil (crime-solving) genius.
Even though it's possible that the police were bribed into giving away Barry's phone, or failed to collect it with the rest of their evidence, it's most likely that the cell found its way into police custody along with its murderous owner. The person on the other end of the line was probably one of the federal agents that were alerted to Barry's organized crime connections by Fuches. After Barry starts working with the feds and has admitted to having contacts in gangs, his phone becomes all the more valuable.
It might seem like a tragically simple answer to a potentially exciting mystery, but this also opens up a lot of new dramatic questions for the series. Even if NoHo Hank was only on the line for a minute, is it possible that the FBI was able to trace him? Could it be that the feds are already on his tail? If they are, he better hope his hit on Barry is a success, because otherwise, Hank might have to get out of the dodge — and fast.