The following contains spoilers for Barry Season 3, Episode 3, "limonada," which aired Sunday, May 1 on HBO.
Barry's third season premiere, "forgiving jeff" saw the titular Barry Berkman -- former killer-for-hire turned actor -- at a particularly low ebb with his aspiring career in the arts effectively over. His mentor Gene Cousineau was in equally dire straits. Cousineau became an early proponent of his student's skills, unaware of his history and that Barry had killed his girlfriend Detective Janice Moss after she'd realized his role in the murder of another of Cousineau's students. While NoHo Hank was living his best life, Cousineau certainly wasn't.
When he found out the truth, Cousineau mourned the closure of his acting school and plotted his revenge against Barry. This would not go exactly to plan, as Cousineau drew a gun on Barry only for it to fall to pieces. Barry lunged at the flummoxed Cousineau and the episode ended with Barry holding Cousineau at gunpoint in a field as he pled for his life. As Cousineau swore to forgive him for everything he'd done, Barry's realization that he'd need to earn forgiveness propelled directly into the events of the second episode, "limonada", which made the show's dark comedy even darker than Netflix's Windfall.
Barry's contrition found him shopping Cousineau around town (albeit from the trunk of his car to keep him from escaping) in an attempt to find him a new job. The first stop was Barry's girlfriend Sally, who was in production on her semi-autobiographical TV drama Joplin. Unable to account for Cousineau already having been offered -- and turning down -- a role, Barry lashed out at Sally in front of her staff. Trying next with his one-time casting director for the sophomoric comedy Swim Instructors, Barry was shocked to learn they were familiar with Cousineau and did not care for him. Barry, however, was offered an audition for Laws of Humanity, and made a confused and increasingly irritated Cousineau run lines with him.
Cousineau made an emotional appeal to Barry, reminding him he didn't just teach him how to be a good actor but also a good human being, while also pledging to keep Barry's secrets. Barry remained focused on the task at hand, going to the audition with Cousineau once more in the trunk. After his audition, Barry put in a bid for Cousineau, who the casting director remembered as "the guy that brought the loaded gun to the Full House audition" and who called a Family Ties casting director a "donkey witch." Eventually getting Cousineau a shot as the "sad old man whose wife dies," Barry returned to tell him the good news... only for the trunk to be empty.
On the run for his life, Cousineau made the mistake of jumping a fence into a yard full of dogs. Finally stumbling across someone, Cousineau's incredibly accurate although incredibly bizarre explanation (including being mauled by 30 dogs) sent the bystander into retreat just as Barry happened to pull up. Avoiding him once more, Cousineau returned home to warn his son Leo to call the police -- only to find Barry waiting. Telling Cousineau that he'd gotten him a part and he would enjoy his second chance... or else he'd kill his son and grandson. Barry finished by telling Cousineau he loved him -- and then waited for Cousineau to say the same back.
Barry had previously experimented with boundary-pushing extremes before, such as the second season's "ronny/lily," but previously the violence inflicted by Barry was directed at figures deserving of it, or least done under desperate circumstances. In this episode, Barry threatened his mentor and his mentor's family, to say nothing of his outburst at Sally, which caused her to relive a prior abusive relationship. While the absurdity of the situations and characters -- owing immeasurably to the pitch-perfect comedic timing of Hader and Henry Winkler -- added a measure of levity to the dark subject matter, Barry's willingness to go to dangerous lengths in pursuit of forgiveness has definitely crossed a line.
New episodes of Barry air Sundays on HBO.