S04.E07: A Nice Meal

[juno]

3 minutes ago, heatherchandler said:

Why did he pass out in the kitchen?

It looked like a huge amount of blood loss in the palm of his hand from using the knife to pick the lock and it cut him.

[Kirbyrun]

On 5/21/2023 at 11:19 PM, Starchild said:

I was expecting Hank and his driver to get away in the car, and pass the limo carrying Fuches' new family, destroyed by the stray rocket.

This is EXACTLY what I thought was going to happen!

[Kirbyrun]

36 minutes ago, heatherchandler said:

Why did he pass out in the kitchen?

I'm assuming it was a side/after-effect of the drugs Moss had him on. The blood loss from his palm looked nasty, but not nearly enough to cause him to pass out.

[Pike Ludwell]

What should be made of the fact that, at the beginning, hooked up to the VR machine, Moss seemed to be controlling the scenes Barry was seeing and he let Barry see his son John "one last time". Then we saw the picture of John. How would Moss know what the son looks like and how could he even have a picture? Also, John seems remarkably stoic and with few words when we see him. Makes me think it's a persona Moss put into Barry's mind. But then Sally sees and interacts with John too. So I have no idea what's going on and I hope there's an explanation that makes everything make sense.

[Baltimore Betty]

2 minutes ago, Pike Ludwell said:

What should be made of the fact that, at the beginning, hooked up to the VR machine, Moss seemed to be controlling the scenes Barry was seeing and he let Barry see his son John "one last time". Then we saw the picture of John. How would Moss know what the son looks like and how could he even have a picture? Also, John seems remarkably stoic and with few words when we see him. Makes me think it's a persona Moss put into Barry's mind. But then Sally sees and interacts with John too. So I have no idea what's going on and I hope there's an explanation that makes everything make sense.

Maybe John exists only in their imagination. Things like Barry not ordering a blanket for him, the stark surroundings where they live there is nothing there, the fact that Barry was dead set against him playing baseball (so he wouldn't have to actually go to games or practice), the strange interactions in the middle of the field of nothing, isolating him for friends, what about school?The kid is always silent, I do not think he really exists.

[aghst]

Better not end like St. Elsewhere ...

[Pike Ludwell]

24 minutes ago, Baltimore Betty said:

Maybe John exists only in their imagination. Things like Barry not ordering a blanket for him, the stark surroundings where they live there is nothing there, the fact that Barry was dead set against him playing baseball (so he wouldn't have to actually go to games or practice), the strange interactions in the middle of the field of nothing, isolating him for friends, what about school?The kid is always silent, I do not think he really exists.

So two people having the same delusion? I wonder if Sally and Hank also are locked in different rooms of Moss's house and he's feeding them similar hallucinations.

[PinkRibbons]

I think Jim Moss was providing empty landscapes for visuals and letting his narration, the drugs and Barry's own brain plug what he found most precious into the picture.

[sistermagpie]

1 hour ago, Baltimore Betty said:

Maybe John exists only in their imagination. Things like Barry not ordering a blanket for him, the stark surroundings where they live there is nothing there, the fact that Barry was dead set against him playing baseball (so he wouldn't have to actually go to games or practice), the strange interactions in the middle of the field of nothing, isolating him for friends, what about school?The kid is always silent, I do not think he really exists.

 

42 minutes ago, Pike Ludwell said:

So two people having the same delusion? I wonder if Sally and Hank also are locked in different rooms of Moss's house and he's feeding them similar hallucinations.

Make that four people. John fought with that other boy who then taught him to play baseball and Barry met with his father. Either those two were also imagining John, or Barry imagined two other people too, and even imagined scenes between them when he wasn't there...and then imagined a baseball mitt to tell himself about it.

[Pike Ludwell]

35 minutes ago, PinkRibbons said:

I think Jim Moss was providing empty landscapes for visuals and letting his narration, the drugs and Barry's own brain plug what he found most precious into the picture.

I thought of that too and it's probably correct. In fact it must be. Likely wasn't a VR experience controlled by Moss, like I was brainstorming, but what was over his eyes was a blinder and Moss was just verbally guiding his hallucinations.

Edited May 24, 2023 by Pike Ludwell

[Dev F]

1 hour ago, Pike Ludwell said:

I thought of that too and it's probably correct. In fact it must be. Likely wasn't a VR experience controlled by Moss, like I was brainstorming, but what was over his eyes was a blinder and Moss was just verbally guiding his hallucinations.

Rewatching the interrogation scenes, I remembered why I assumed it was VR and not just a hallucination triggered by pure sensory deprivation: When Barry is freaking out about Mr. Cousineau he starts shrieking at Moss, "Please turn this off! Turn it off!" Earlier in the interrogation, Moss insists that he's not showing Barry anything, that it's all in his head, but that's immediately before he also insists that he cut Barry's arms and legs off, so I'm not sure whether we're supposed to think there's an actual VR component to it or not.

Edited May 24, 2023 by Dev F

[Pike Ludwell]

24 minutes ago, Dev F said:

Rewatching the interrogation scenes, I remembered why I assumed it was VR and not just a hallucination triggered by pure sensory deprivation: When Barry is freaking out about Mr. Cousineau he starts shrieking at Moss, "Please turn this off! Turn it off!" Earlier in the interrogation, Moss insists that he's not showing Barry anything, that it's all in his head, but that's immediately before he also insists that he cut Barry's arms and legs off, so I'm not sure whether we're supposed to think there's an actual VR component to it or not.

Whatever Barry was wearing over his eyes sure looked a lot more complex than just a blinder. There's so much to clear up it's hard to see how they'll do it in around 30 min's.

[EtheltoTillie]

20 hours ago, heatherchandler said:

Why did he pass out in the kitchen?

I thought he had lost blood from his hand.  That he had cut himself while releasing the zip ties.  But I'm not sure of anything.

[Baltimore Betty]

On 5/23/2023 at 9:56 PM, sistermagpie said:

Make that four people. John fought with that other boy who then taught him to play baseball and Barry met with his father. Either those two were also imagining John, or Barry imagined two other people too, and even imagined scenes between them when he wasn't there...and then imagined a baseball mitt to tell himself about it.

When I saw Barry was walking across that field with John towards the other kid and his father it was so barren and stark, where was their house, they were just standing out in this enormous expanse, nothing on the horizon that looked like anyone lived anywhere close to that area...it could have been Barry's imagination like a situation he would have liked to have had with a son some day.

Did Hank say anything to Barry (on the phone), when he had Sally in the storeroom, John screamed "Dad" but nobody really reacted and did Hank acknowledge John, he was not tied up?

The reason I think about their child John not being real is I had recently watched "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and they talked about an imaginary child as if he was very real.

[sistermagpie]

48 minutes ago, Baltimore Betty said:

Did Hank say anything to Barry (on the phone), when he had Sally in the storeroom, John screamed "Dad" but nobody really reacted and did Hank acknowledge John, he was not tied up?

 

Well, a henchmen put John into the car before they came for Sally, but pretty much anything can be explained away by imagination once you take that step. Gene's son could be just as imaginary.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Mark Wahlberg playing a Barry in Gene's biopic. How meta. I bet he had a good laugh when he saw this episode. Or not. Hader kind of went in on Wahlberg's particular "issues" in Hollywood.

Fuches' henchmen like the Ohio Players. Thumbs up from me.

Was the policeman Sally tried to turn herself into not a real cop? Or was she hallucinating again?

Bow down, Vince Gilligan. AFAIC Bill Hader topped Ozymandias as a penultimate episode.

[shapeshifter]

34 minutes ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Bow down, Vince Gilligan. AFAIC Bill Hader topped Ozymandias as a penultimate episode.

It's probably up for debate.

[aghst]

What are the issues involving Wahlberg?

He is an exec producer on a lot of HBO shows I think.

Maybe it's an inside joke of some kind among HBO productions?

[Irlandesa]

The thing about the Mark Wahlberg in this episode isn't just that he's a big name, but he had to be someone for whom it'd be believable that he'd a) want to play the lead assassin but simultaneously have such an ego/vision of one's self that he'd b) not want  to be the villain of the film even though Barry is arguably the villain in the lives of those who had loved ones killed by him.

 

 

[heatherchandler]

5 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Mark Wahlberg playing a Barry in Gene's biopic. How meta. I bet he had a good laugh when he saw this episode. Or not. Hader kind of went in on Wahlberg's particular "issues" in Hollywood.

Fuches' henchmen like the Ohio Players. Thumbs up from me.

Was the policeman Sally tried to turn herself into not a real cop? Or was she hallucinating again?

Bow down, Vince Gilligan. AFAIC Bill Hader topped Ozymandias as a penultimate episode.

His issue being that he’s afraid of the forest?  Lol

Woah let’s not get crazy.  This ep was good, I wouldn’t even call it great.  The show is great, overall, but IMO it’s not even close to breaking bad or sopranos.

[Soobs]

17 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

The thing about the Mark Wahlberg in this episode isn't just that he's a big name, but he had to be someone for whom it'd be believable that he'd a) want to play the lead assassin but simultaneously have such an ego/vision of one's self that he'd b) not want  to be the villain of the film even though Barry is arguably the villain in the lives of those who had loved ones killed by him.

 

 

There's a lengthy part of his Wikipedia bio devoted to his hate crimes. He's a bad guy who for some reason still gets to work. I'm sure he doesn't see himself as a bad guy though so that scene made sense to me.

This episode did not feel like the penultimate episode of a series. I'm worried they're rushing the ending.

[Pike Ludwell]

I also don't see how they could wrap all this and all loose ends up in 30 minutes. Unless its a really bizarre twist of an ending, like I think Bill might be capable of. Maybe things just keep getting more and more complicated till near the end it switches to the writers room and they're struggling with how to resolve it all. "What have we done? It's such a twisted mess there's no way, man." Finally they give up and as they're walking out the door you hear "fuck it" and the door slams shut.

Edited May 28, 2023 by Pike Ludwell

[aghst]

1 hour ago, Soobs said:

There's a lengthy part of his Wikipedia bio devoted to his hate crimes. He's a bad guy who for some reason still gets to work. I'm sure he doesn't see himself as a bad guy though so that scene made sense to me.

This episode did not feel like the penultimate episode of a series. I'm worried they're rushing the ending.

I thought most of them were when he was a kid.

He seems to have connections at HBO because he's listed as the EP on a lot of their shows.

[Dev F]

So this is kind of a weird, minor question, but what did everyone else make of the moment in the scene where Hank is getting an update about the FUBAKs' attempt to kill Fuches when his assistant says "They landed about an hour ago. We lost communication with them"? Landed where? Fuches's mansion is somewhere in or around L.A., and Hank just met with the FUBAKs in his office earlier in the episode. If they're already in the city, wouldn't they just drive to Fuches's place the same way Hank does later on?

Or . . . are we supposed to think that the meeting in Hank's office wasn't in person? The FUBAKs are standing a little stiffly and never move from the spot where we first see them—are they supposed to be holographic avatars or something like that, and then once Hank hires them they fly in from wherever they actually were? If so, unless I'm forgetting something, the episode plays that pretty close to the vest.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Dev F

[KittyQ]

On 5/22/2023 at 9:46 AM, carrps said:

Not much to add to the above. Except that Sally and John were not at the airport.

Sally's phone conversation with Gene was peculiar. First, she asks him to come pick her and John up at the airport (when she clearly wasn't at the airport, but more near the airport). Then, when Gene says he has a meeting and for Sally to meet him at his house, she's able to get alternative transportation. Is this because her original plan was to get Gene away from home so Barry couldn't find him, at least for a while? If that was the idea, then why go to his house? Perhaps she thought she could persuade Barry to not kill Gene? She still has the kid with her though, so that could be traumatizing for him. I guess as with many of Sally's plans, it was pretty half-baked. 

[rmontro]

I had originally thought Barry and Sally were in witness protection, but it turns out they were just on the lam.

[Kel Varnsen]

On 5/28/2023 at 5:39 PM, Soobs said:

There's a lengthy part of his Wikipedia bio devoted to his hate crimes. He's a bad guy who for some reason still gets to work. I'm sure he doesn't see himself as a bad guy though so that scene made sense to me.

He was really mad about Andy Samberg doing an impression of him on SNL. Samberg and Harder are friends.

On 8/29/2023 at 12:13 PM, KittyQ said:

Sally's phone conversation with Gene was peculiar. First, she asks him to come pick her and John up at the airport (when she clearly wasn't at the airport, but more near the airport). Then, when Gene says he has a meeting and for Sally to meet him at his house, she's able to get alternative transportation. Is this because her original plan was to get Gene away from home so Barry couldn't find him, at least for a while? If that was the idea, then why go to his house? Perhaps she thought she could persuade Barry to not kill Gene? She still has the kid with her though, so that could be traumatizing for him. I guess as with many of Sally's plans, it was pretty half-baked. 

How did Sally even know Gene's phone number? Gene told his son in the previous episode he got a new one.