Bill Hader breaks down that surprise ‘Barry’ timeskip

Bill Hader has elaborated on the surprising time jump that took place during episode four of the currently airing fourth season of Barry. In the episode titled “it takes a psycho”, the show jumps forward eight years as Barry (Bill Hader) and Sally (Sarah Goldberg) have run away together and are now parents to John (Zachary Golinger). The pair have adopted new aliases in the eight years since the events of episode three, with the time jump helping to set up what will be Barry’s final-ever episodes. 

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about the important plot device, Hader said the time skip was more interesting than watching the couple on the run in real time, and helped actualise what might’ve been a dream of Barry’s. “I didn’t find [watching them on the run in real time] very interesting,” Hader said. “In season one, he has a daydream about he and Sally and a boy taking a family picture, and so I was like, ‘Well, maybe that’s what he wants.’”

He continued: “So, it was more about them being there. It’s been eight years, and this is where they’re at. That was just more interesting to me.” Also commenting on the time jump, Goldberg told Variety that she knew of the years-long flash forward before reading the scripts for season four, and described it as “a full departure from anywhere we’ve been in the show.” Goldberg said the time skip gave her room to explore her character in “the darkest depths that we could.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Hader addressed comparisons between Barry and Breaking Bad, crediting a visit he paid to the writer’s room of Better Call Saul prior to Barry’s first season. The comparisons — which he said led some people to call Barry “Breaking Good”— led Hader to apologise to Breaking Bad co-creator, Vince Gilligan. “I saw [Gilligan] and the writers at a thing and said, ‘Man, I really feel like I owe you a check,’” Hader joked.

In other Barry news, The Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro and CODA director Sian Heder both made cameo appearances in the show’s fourth and final season.