History Characters / Barry

[[folder: El Toro]]

** Becomes an [[InvertedTrope inversion]] with his attempts to rebuild his relationship with Gene and earn his forgiveness: Barry kidnaps him for multiple days and presses Barry into taking a part on a TV show in a myopic attempt to give Gene what he "wants" so that he can atone for murdering Gene's girlfriend.

* AffablyEvil: Barry does ''not'' want to kill people, nor is he especially sadistic and he is capable of being very friendly and genuinely kind and caring, but he's still a murderer who ''will'' kill innocents if it means protecting himself and his secrets. His willingness to murder isn't an isolated case of his self-centerdness, either; Barry is callous and self-centered to the point of near total blindness of the feelings and identities of other people.

* AffablyEvil: Barry does ''not'' want to kill people, nor is he especially sadistic and he is capable of being very friendly and genuinely kind and caring, but he's still a murderer who ''will'' kill innocents if it means protecting himself and his secrets.

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler: His speech to Hank in the finale about how his experiences in prison led him to the epiphany that he is simply "a man with no heart" and that he should accept and embrace himself as a cruel gangster is followed by the most genuinely empathetic and selfless acts we see him perform throughout the show. He calmly and gently shows understanding when Hank appears about to break down and admit his fault in the death of Cristobal, with no sign of gloating, and then rescues John and returns him to Barry without any expectation of reward or revenge.]]

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler: His speech to Hank in the finale about how his experiences in prison led him to the epiphany that he is simply "a man with no heart" and that he should accept and embrace himself as a cruel gangster is followed by the most genuinely empathetic and selfless acts we see him perform throughout the show. He calmly and gently shows understanding when Hank appears about to break down and admit his fault in the death of Cristobal, and then rescues John and returns him to Barry without any expectation of reward or revenge.]]

* FatalFlaw: Narcissism. It's what caused his career to go up in flames prior to the events of the series, and even after that he's proven easy to manipulate through base appeals to his ego. He becomes more self-aware of this after his career revival in season 3 and tries to fix his behavior, [[spoiler: only to backslide in season 4 after the fame of being the one who caught Barry goes to his head, setting off a chain of events that end with him accidentally shooting his own son and fleeing the country.]] [[spoiler:Though he ''tries'' to let go of his egotism after a long period on a kibbutz and sincerely fights to stop a movie based on Janice's murder, an agent telling him he'll be played by Daniel Day-Lewis causes Gene to backslide; this in turn, along with how he's sensationalized his relationship with Barry, gets him accused and ultimately imprisoned by the authorities of being the secret mastermind behind her death.]]

* NeverMyFault: Absolutely ''refuses'' to admit that she was unjustified in [[spoiler: screaming at Natalie for "stealing her show," even though she ''cornered Natalie in a stopped elevator'' to call her an "[[CountryMatters entitled fucking cunt]]" and Natalie's show bears no resemblance to ''Joplin'' besides starring a single mom and daughter. Even when her agent drops her as a client over the incident, Sally insists that all she did was tell the truth and she doesn't want to work with "liars" who say otherwise. She also after the poor reception of her "apology" video tries to blame her agent despite the fact, her agent had tried to warn her not post a video or say anything yet.]]

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: The pilot depicts her as a genuinely nice and wholesome person who goes out of her way to befriend Barry. It wasn't until the second episode and onwards that it was established that her perky attitude was largely an act, and she was a much nastier person beneath. WordOfGod is that this was the work of Sarah Goldberg, who persuaded the writers to make Sally much more flawed than their original vision of the character.

* TookALevelinKindness: [[spoiler: By the second time jump, Sally seems to have a better and healthier relationship with John, and has become nicer and happier in the mean time.]]

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:He's last seen walking into the night after letting John go and exchanging one final glance with Barry.]]

* KickTheDog: [[spoiler:He sadistically makes sure that Gene sees Janice's body, which he really didn't have to do if the goal was to pull a gun on this harmless old acting coach anyway.]]
** [[spoiler: In general, his treatment of Gene is absolutely despicable. Gene knows absolutely nothing of his and Barry’s work, but for entirely petty, jealous reasons, Fuches goes after this innocent man just to get back at his protégé.]]

* ThenLetMeBeEvil: An interesting take on this trope, as Fuches comes to accept that he's a horrible person and a manipulative scumbag after his stint in prison. He's disgusted by Hank's posturing that he's a successful businessman when he's a criminal just like him. He tells Hank after the guy [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech rightfully]] calls him out as the scumbag he is, that being in prison made him realize that he's an awful person, and that he's come to accept it, before asking Hank why he can't.

* HazyFeelTurn: [[DownplayedTrope Sort of?]] He seemingly starts to make a change once Barry tells him he was right about Cousineau all along. It seems to strike a chord with the old bastard, and he attempts to reconcile with Barry. Only [[spoiler: then Barry decides to turn State's Evidence and betray him and Hank to the FBI]], which shatters him. Then he ends up getting beaten when [[spoiler: Barry escapes]] and he refuses to give him up...though that has to do with the fact that he has no idea where Barry is or where he would be going. Then in the time jump, he's come to terms with the fact that he's a bad person and [[ThenLetMeBeEvil decides to roll with it]]. But [[spoiler: decides to save John's life because the little guy reminds him of Barry.]]

* HateSink: A psychological abuser who's turned Barry into a ruthless weapon, with few redeeming characteristics that almost all get subverted.

* JerkassRealization: When Leo points out that Gene makes everything about himself and even his attempt at reconciliation is motivated by his own narcissism, Gene realizes how much of a {{Jerkass}} and AttentionWhore he really is and starts making efforts to improve.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Cousineau is not necessarily an easy person to get along with. He can be extremely cruel in his criticisms and he's enormously egotistical, but he does generally have good intentions. When Barry is having a minor FreakOut on stage due to the students mocking him for sympathizing with someone who would commit murder, Gene rushes onstage to calm everyone down and attempt to offer Barry some comfort, though he obviously thinks it stems from the war rather than Barry's ProfessionalKiller job. He also genuinely loved Janice, was heartbroken by her disappearance and was broken completely on finding her body. Also, he truly does care for his son Leo even after he abandoned him. Out of the show's leading men, he is the only one shown to be genuinely attempting atonement [[spoiler:after his near death experience with Barry]] by reaching out to those he's done wrong and trying to make amends for his behavior.

* TookALevelInKindness: Though he hasn't completely shed off his {{Jerkass}} skin, it's made clear that Gene is a far nicer and more agreeable man today than he was in his youth. He continues to get nicer during the series, gaining more interest in his students, especially Barry, and trying to right his wrongs from long ago. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, he couldn't shed his narcissism enough to stop himself from making a series of poor decisions that would lead to his life completely collapsing by the final season.]]
* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: [[spoiler: Being put through the ringer for the entire final season causes him to finally kill Barry in the final episode moments after Barry decided to turn himself in to prevent Gene from paying for his crimes. Had Gene not given into whatever motivating emotion had pushed him into doing the deed, he would not have ended up in prison with a life sentence while the world remembers him as a monster.]]

* FatalFlaw: [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster Thinking being a gangster is the greatest thing in the world]]. By his own admission, Hank would probably be far happier living life as a legitimate salesman, as it's the one thing in the series he's consistently depicted as enjoying and being good at. Instead, his increasingly amoral efforts to prove he can make it as a gangster [[spoiler: cost him Cristobal and leaves him [[LonelyAtTheTop alone at the top]].]]

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler: His speech to Hank in the finale about how his experiences in prison led him to the epiphany that he is simply "a man with no heart" and that he should accept and embrace himself as a cruel gangster is followed by the most empathetic and selfless acts we see him perform throughout the show. He calmly and gently shows understanding when Hank appears about to break down and admit his fault in the death of Cristobal, and then rescues John and returns him to Barry without any expectation of reward or revenge.]]

* AntiVillain: Having lost the life of his daughter at the hands of Barry, Jim will stop at nothing to get retribution for his actions, even if it means using morally dubious methods such as psychological torture and manipulation of others.

* CoolOldGuy: A retired Vietnam vet and probably the most moral character in the show.

* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: [[spoiler: Being put through the ringer for the entire final season causes him to finally kill Barry in the final episode moments after Barry had decided to turn himself in to prevent Gene from paying for his crimes. Had Gene not given into whatever motivating emotion had pushed him to doing the deed, he would not have ended up in prison rotting for the rest of his life while the world only remembers him as a monster.]]

* BrokenAce: To some, he's a war hero or badass hitman. To others, he's a loving boyfriend or surrogate son. But Barry is, truthfully, a broken and narcissistic man who values his own twisted take on happiness above anything else, and is more pathetic than cool.