Barry Berkman | Criminals | Hollywood | Other Characters
open/close all folders
Gene Cousineau's Acting Class
Gene Cousineau
Gene M. Cousineau
"If there is one thing I learned in my life, you can't control what other people are going to do."
Portrayed By: Henry Winkler
Eccentric and pedantic, Cousineau is a Los Angeles acting teacher who is revered by his students.
- Adaptational Nationality: In-universe, he's portrayed as an Evil Brit in the "Mask Collector" movie.
- Ambiguous Situation: Does he kill Barry out of revenge for Janice? Because he's broken and has finally snapped? Or because he overhears that Barry is going to turn himself in, which would make it clear that Gene was not the mastermind behind either Barry's crimes or his capture — and thus would rob Gene of the very last reason why anyone would pay attention to him? Or did he think Barry was armed and, knowing how quickly and suddenly he can decide to kill, just shot him to be safe?
- Anti-Hero: Gene's not the best guy in the world: he's self-absorbed, arrogant, slimy, an Attention Whore, and short-tempered. However, unlike the rest of the main cast he at least tries to do the right thing and shows surprising compassion at times.
- Attention Whore: His primary failing, and the reason, along with his prima-donna behavior, for why Gene's career went nowhere as a younger actor. Part of his motivation to become an acting coach seems to be the ability to claim some measure of credit for his former students' successes. Henry Winkler has even gone on record as saying it's almost a drug for Gene.
- While Jim Moss is able to shame him into participating in the sting operation, Gene can't resist capitalizing on the notoriety the murder case gives him in Season 4; in spite of Moss's warnings that it'll disgrace Janice's memory and complicate the trial against Barry, he gives a Vanity Fair reporter an exaggerated account of his time with Barry that lionizes himself (in the form of a repulsively hammy one-man show, no less).
- Even if he's still prickly and eccentric, after spending nearly a decade on a kibbutz, a reformed Gene publicly comes out against the proposed movie based on "true events" in the hopes that he can get the project shut down; though Tom praises him for crusading against Hollywood, Gene is dismissive, showing it's not done out of vanity. He finally seems to have shaken his ego for good... until an agent tells him Daniel Day-Lewis wants to come out of retirement to play the Cousineau role, at which point he just can't help himself, and takes on the role of an unofficial consultant to the production. It promptly gets him nabbed by the LAPD.
- The Atoner: Zigzagged as Gene does genuinely want to atone for his past misdeeds and bad behavior, and even takes the steps to make up with the people he's hurt in his life, but his ego often gets in the way and hinders his ability to truly change his ways.
- A terrible father to Leo during his childhood, he reaches out to him as an adult and they connect and repair their relationship.
- After he gets a second chance in Hollywood, he tries to make amends with those he wronged as a hothead young actor. His success is somewhat mixed, as while he's clearly enthusiastic about making up with all the people he's wronged, his actions occasionally come off as condescending and self-serving, especially to a former girlfriend of his that he had blacklisted. Though, when he realizes that a simple apology doesn't make up for how much he ruined her career, he helps give her a major comeback and payday, at his own financial expense.
- A possible interpretation of his motives for giving up Barry in a sting. Previously, he'd been willing to cover for him in order to keep Barry's hush money and further his career, until Jim Moss interogates him and berates him for covering for his daughter's murder.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: He desperately wants people to think the world of him and, after the truth about Barry becomes public knowledge, wants people to think of him as a cunning mastermind who nailed Barry singlehandedly. It works... by convincing Jim and the LAPD that he's been the real mastermind behind Barry's crimes all along.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: For as much of an eccentric egotist as he is, Gene genuinely knows his stuff about acting and is a fairly competent teacher.
- Chekhov's Gun: Owns one, courtesy of his old friend Rip Torn.
- In the third season premiere, he attempts to threaten Barry with it after learning the truth about Janice’s murder, but the poorly-maintained weapon falls apart in his hand.
- While hiding from Barry in Season 4 after he escapes prison, he accidentally shoots his son Leo through a door believing him to be Barry. Leo survives, but does not forgive his father.
- In the last episode of the series, Gene shoots Barry in the head with this gun and kills him. He ends up going to prison for the murders of both Barry and Janice.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Gene is about as strange as you'd expect an old acting teacher to be, often offering bizarre advice or going off on little tangents about his long-past glory days, to say nothing of his aggressive dating strategies.
- Cool Old Guy: Subverted. His acting class and especially Barry view him as such, seeing him as a worldly figure with a lot of insights on the world of Hollywood. This is true to an extent, but the reality is Gene is a has-been - albeit a charismatic one - who scuttled his own career long ago and is trying to relive his Glory Days.
- Cruel to Be Kind: His first scene is humiliating Sally in front of the whole class in order to get a stronger performance out of her. He's immediately kinder when she's finished her substantially improved scene.
- Despair Event Horizon: Already teetering over the edge of despair upon seeing his name dragged through the mud after the police publicly accuse him of masterminding Janice Moss' murder in the Grand Finale, seeing that his own son has done an interview accusing him of having tried to murder him causes him to break down. He briefly snaps out of it upon hearing Barry in his home, only to then shoot him, collapse on the couch and seemingly shut down entirely.
- Dirty Old Man: Comes across this way when he shamelessly flirts with the decades younger Janice Moss. At the same time though, his interest in Janice is more than sexual, with his courtship being unexpectedly sweet.
- Everyone Has Standards: He's uncomfortable with Sally wanting to perform a scene from Doubt at Ryan's memorial because of its subject matter.Gene: "I just don't think we should evoke child molestation at a memorial."
- Failed Attempt at Drama: His attempt to threaten Barry with a gun was going really well until his weapon fell apart.
- Fatal Flaw: His ego. 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, 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. 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.
- Good Counterpart: To Fuches; both are older men who take on a father figure role for Barry, mentoring him in a career he might not have chosen otherwise. However, whereas Fuches is manipulative, selfish and disguises his cruelty as care, Gene is occasionally rude but, at heart, wants what's best for Barry. In the final season, he ends up transitioning more towards being a Foil for Fuches, due to Barry's actions basically destroying what friendship they had, while Gene's own poor decisions wind up removing the positive traits he's tried to develop. Fuches enters the final season a changed man who makes peace with Barry over how badly he treated him, while Gene becomes a shell of his former self who ends up killing Barry and paying dearly for the impulsive act.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: By the end of the final season, Gene is widely believed to have put Barry up on murdering Janice and attempted to kill his son over the Chechen drug money. As a result, an In-Universe movie released years later depicts Gene as a criminal mastermind while Barry is portrayed as a sympathetic patsy. Gene is also imprisoned for life after killing Barry.
- Hidden Depths:
- Though his manner of teaching may often leave a lot to be desired, Gene's not a total hack, managing to get genuinely stronger results from his class and giving Barry sincere and effective mentorship to better himself as a person.
- Despite previously being described as a bad actor, Gene proves this notion wrong when he pulls off a performance convincing enough to make Barry head straight into an ambush. He also gets a lot of hype with some guest spots Barry gets him on some shows, changing the state of his career practically overnight.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: In-universe, he is depicted in the "Mask Collector" movie as a criminal mastermind who manipulated Barry into killing for him and the Chechens. The reality, of course, is very different. It's interestingly also a case of an in-universe accidental Composite Character, as his movie depiction actually takes on the role that Fuches held in reality.
- Horrifying the Horror: Subverted. He actually manages to intimidate Barry for a moment when he reveals that he knows he killed Janice and points a revolver at him. This doesn’t last long though due to the gun suddenly falling apart.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Gene was once a rising star and won acclaim for his acting roles, but his prima donna behavior led to him ruining his own career. By the time of the series, he can't even get a role as an extra and even his family wants nothing to do with him. By the end of the series, Gene is blamed for Barry's crimes and sentenced to life in prison.
- Hypocritical Humor: After Ryan Madison's death, Gene is outraged when Barry suggests putting on "costumes and wigs" to have fun to celebrate him rather than mourning. At Ryan's memorial service, however, Gene's students do exactly that while he looks on proudly.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: Had the makings of a great actor, but his between his ego and his deplorable treatment of everyone around him, he wound up becoming a washed up acting coach with a class mostly full of untalented saps.
- Ignored Epiphany: From the second season onwards, Gene genuinely tries to become a better person but he's hindered again and again by backsliding into narcissism and selfishness.
- Innocently Insensitive: After having a Jerkass Realization, Gene tells Barry to change his "truth" performance from his first meeting with Cousineau to his first kill in Afghanistan. Gene is trying to overcome his self-absorption, but he doesn't realize that doing so is reminding Barry of his trauma.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Gene's criticisms can be cruel, but more often than not he's right about how his students need to improve their acting skills. Notably, he points out to Sally that she is genuinely a good actress, but she's hindered by the fact she wants her scenes to be all about her all the time.
- Jerkass Realization: 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 Attention Whore he really is and starts making efforts to improve. Unfortunately, the media attention he gets in Season 4 for helping to bring Barry in causes him to backslide into his worst qualities, and it costs him everything by the end.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: 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 Freak Out 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 Professional Killer 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 after his near death experience with Barry by reaching out to those he's done wrong and trying to make amends for his behavior. Even though his fate at the end of the series is caused by his own poor decisions, the fact that he has been trying to fix things only makes what happens tragic.
- Laser-Guided Karma: A series of very poor decisions motivated primarily by ego such as not disclosing the $250,000 he received from Barry to the police, shooting his own son, and being lured in to downplaying Barry's crimes by the promise of high profile interest in the Barry biopic, ultimately leads to Gene being falsely accused by police and former friends of running a criminal drug operation, personally having Janice killed by Barry, and ultimately being sentenced to life imprisonment while the world at large regards him as a monster.
- May–December Romance: With Janice Moss, who's a few decades his junior.
- Narcissist: Very much so. He has a a sense of grandiosity about himself, thrives on attention, and very much concerned with making sure people perceive him in a good light. He does genuinely try to change, but he struggles with his narcissism and backslides frequently.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Gene is actually a pretty talented guy with a lot of insights into the art of acting, and his chops are good enough to fool Barry into incriminating himself, but his ego and past nasty behavior alienated anyone who would want to work with him. Though, to his credit, he has started to make amends with the people he hurt in his past.
- His fate at the end of the series is a big example of this. His neglect to mention that Barry had given him Chechen drug money, his inability to help himself when it comes to gaining publicity, and shooting the man who was just about to turn himself in to save him all seal his fate. He becomes The Scapegoat for Barry's crimes and is sentenced to life in prison for crimes he didn't commit.
- Oh, Crap!:
- At the end of season 2, Gene recovers from his breakdown enough to remember that Fuches told him it was Barry who killed Janice.
- He has a similar reaction in "forgiving jeff" when he accidentally drops the cylinder of the gun he was using to threaten Barry, leaving him completely helpless against a dangerous assassin.
- Parental Abandonment: The details aren't entirely clear, but it seems he did essentially abandon his young family to pursue his career. When he tries to reunite with his grown son, he's met only with anger and exasperation. By the end of Season 2, his repeated efforts to reconcile with his son Leo seem to have paid off as the two appear to be on pretty good terms.
- The Prima Donna: He has a nasty reputation as such around Hollywood and it's why he now largely focuses on teaching since no one wants to work with him or is willing to hire him, even as an extra.
- The Scapegoat: Due to some poor decisions and neglecting to explain key information, Gene becomes the primary suspect in Janice's murder. Worse, he then shoots and kills Barry, who was just about to finally turn himself in for his crimes, thus taking away his chance to clear his name, leading to Gene going to prison for the crimes that Barry and Fuches committed.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In season 4, after Barry escapes from prison, Gene flees the country to escape Barry's retribution for turning him in to the police.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Subverted. He makes a lot of threats and ultimatums to garner a reputation as this, but the truth is that he's far more forgiving and wants to give his students harsh lessons to help them grow.
- Small Name, Big Ego: His class thinks the world of him and Cousineau certainly swans around like he's DeNiro, but the truth is far more brutal. He's still struggling to make it, auditioning for roles that amount to being a glorified extra. Although he's been in the industry for some time, it seems that he's mostly been in the periphery of people with real success and has no real reputation to his name beyond his book (which he hawks at every opportunity). The full extent of this becomes apparent in "limonada" when Barry tries to get him any part in anything. Cousineau's backstage actions and behavior have rendered him persona non grata within Hollywood, to the point that Barry struggles to get him a role as an extra.
- Took a Level in Kindness: 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. 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 at the end of the final season.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Being put through the ringer for the entire final season causes him to finally kill Barry in the final episode moments after Barry decides 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 for life with the world believing he was a monster.
- Tragic Hero: Gene wants to be a better person, but his narcissism ultimately results in him losing everything and being framed for Barry's crimes.
- Unknown Rival: He has no idea that Fuches views him as competition for the role of Barry's father figure.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Him reflecting on Barry's "improvisation" of being a vet who becomes a hitman leads Janice to realize that Barry was the hitman all along, and the resulting confrontation gets her killed. He acknowledges this in "ben mendelsohn", wondering if he had just kept his mouth shut, Janice might still be alive.
- We Used to Be Friends: Became closer with Barry than any of his other students, beaming with pride over the man he's becoming. After finding out that Barry murdered his girlfriend, he's far less chummy with him.
Sally Reed
Sally Reed
"I know what it’s like to be freaked out. It’s like when I shaved my head for I Never Saw Another Butterfly without realizing how limiting that was gonna be for other castings. We all lose track of what’s important sometimes."
Portrayed By: Sarah Goldberg
An aspiring actress, Sally befriends Barry during Cousineau’s class and they quickly start dating.
- Abusive Parents: Sally's mother is absolutely apathetic and neglectful towards her, showing no concern when she has a panic attack and caring more that she used Sam's name in Joplin than the fact that Sam abused Sally. Sally proves to be not any better with her son John, whom she drugs with various substances to avoid having to care for him. To her credit, she does clean up her act, acknowledge her faults as a parent, and by the second time jump, has a much healthier relationship with her son.
- Attention Whore: Her core flaw is her ego, which constantly drives her to put herself first and be the center of attention even when it's inappropriate. Barry's tearful line delivery during their Macbeth performance finally moves her to accept that she can't always do this, and she graciously performs in a two-person play with Barry where they will have equal focus. However, she changes the scene halfway through during a public showcase, which again allows her to outshine Barry entirely (whereas the scene was originally more balanced) and get an opportunity to create a show.
- Backhanded Apology: After her confrontation with Natalie gets leaked to the media, Sally, against the wishes of Lindsay, posts a video where she starts off apologizing before trying to justify her actions. Lindsay refers to the video as damage control.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Sally deeply wants to show off her acting talent by playing a particularly challenging role, being drawn to plays like Macbeth and Doubt among others. She gets her wish in the worst possible way by having to pretend to be a totally different person while on the run with Barry, now with her career dead in the water and with no way of getting the praise and acclaims she wanted.
- Big Ego, Hidden Depths: She's arrogant and selfish, but clearly carries a lot of self-hatred over her perceived cowardice when dealing with her abusive ex-husband.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's very bubbly and perky at first impression, but in practice she's petty, mean, insecure, can't handle someone else's sadness, and really can't handle someone else's success. The fact that she's had so many boyfriends looks less like socializing and more like a warning sign...
- Casting Couch: Her agent tries to pull this on her; she rejects him, he tries to play it off as a joke... and subsequently drops her.
- Characterization Marches On: 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.
Word of God 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. Rather amusingly, her depiction in Barry's incredibly inaccurate biopic, The Mask Collector, seems to be based off of her characterization in the pilot. - Cosmic Plaything: Almost everything that can go wrong for Sally does, oftentimes due to things out of her control. She is the architect for a lot of her own misery, but an equal amount of it is from sheer bad luck.
- Damsel in Distress: She and John get kidnapped by Hank's men in the penultimate episode.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Morality Pet Love Interest. While Barry considers Sally to be one of the primary things motivating him to change as a person, Sally doesn't know that he views her as such, and is made uncomfortable on the occasions where he makes it more obvious. Furthermore, Sally is consistently shown to be a very selfish person with her own mountain of personal problems, which, combined with her lack of insight into Barry's past, often causes her to unintentionally be much more harmful to his emotional well-being than she is helpful.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After leaving Barry, she finally finds success and happiness as a high school theater teacher while reconciling with her son John. While she's still shown to have some issues, such as being insecure over John's approval and rejecting a date out of fear that he'll turn out to be yet another abusive partner, things are finally looking up for Sally.
- Evil Is Petty: Evil's a stretch, but Sally is a Jerkass who tends to take out her own petty jealousy on the people around her and often takes mild slights way too personally.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite being furious with the executive who immediately cancelled her show, Sally is horrified by Barry's offer to target her with psychological warfare. This winds up being subverted later on though, as she seeks him out so that he'll target Natalie with his aforementioned tricks.
- After narrowly surviving the shootout between Fuches and Hank's men. Sally finally tells Barry that he should take responsibility for his crimes and turn himself in. When he declines, she finally has enough of him and leaves with John.
- Fatal Flaw: Envy, along with her ego and Attention Whore tendencies often cause the most problems throughout the series. She can't stand the idea of people not praising her or other people succeeding over her. She ultimately decides to go on the run with Barry in season 4, despite her being given several opportunities to maintain a promising career in Hollywood, because none of her options will allow her to become a leading lady again, at least not right away.
- She also isn't able to be honest with herself about her feelings of shame and emasculation that she felt after her abusive marriage to Sam, so she overcompensates by being an egotistical, narcissistic bitch.
- Freudian Excuse: She spent much of her young adult life in an abusive marriage and escaped it by running away rather than actually standing up to her ex. Both of these events have caused her to subconsciously believe herself to be a weak person, which she overcompensates for through her hawkish and abrasive attitude. On a less dramatic note, she has spent years failing to make a name for herself as an actor despite having some talent, which has made her prone to leaping at every chance at fame the first opportunity she gets, no matter what the consequences of doing so may be.
- In the first episode of season 4, it's revealed that her mother is very cold and dismissive of her, ignoring her obvious mental distress and clearly not believing that Sam truly abused her.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She's deeply envious of others' success, particularly of Barry when he lands a film audition in season 2 and admits how jealous of him she is while having a long emotional breakdown.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Subverted. On the surface, the blonde Sally is a sweet and bubbly woman; however, she's actually something of a Jerkass prone to being rather petty and mean-spirited.
- Hypocrite:
- Sally criticizes Barry for not incorporating her acting choices into a scene, when she rarely does the same with anyone else and often tries to hog the limelight entirely.
- In "forgiving jeff", Sally tells Natalie that she can't feel empowered as a woman if she doesn't bring up other women with her. But when Natalie runs her own TV show after Sally's was cancelled, Sally corners her in an elevator and monstrously vents her anger at Natalie, calling her a cunt who has nothing to say and who's never struggled her entire life.
- I See Dead People: She constantly hallucinates the biker she killed in "starting now." He appears as one of the students in her acting class, his voice threatens her in "the wizard" and she sees his face in a police officer in "a nice meal."
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Sally has an ego the size of the San Fernando Valley and is extremely sensitive and reacts badly to any perceived criticism or affront to it and it's gradually revealed to be her way of coping with the trauma of her abusive marriage and her shame at not asserting herself and growing up with an extremely callous, emotionally abusive mother.
- Innocently Insensitive: She genuinely doesn't understand why performing a scene from Doubt - a notoriously depressing play centering around pedophilia - at Ryan's memorial service might be inconsiderate.
- It's All About Me: She is incredibly self-centered and is prone to fixating on her own problems even in situations when she ought to be trying to help others. More than once, while talking to Barry, she completely fails to notice that he is upset or not receptive to what she is saying and just proceeds as if they are on the same page, which makes her annoyance with Barry when he's not incorporating her acting choices into his performance ("not listening") a tad ironic.
- Jerkass: Albeit one that is portrayed fairly sympathetically. Sally is incredibly self-centered, which, when combined with her desperation for fame, often causes her to act cruelly toward and be demanding of the people in her life. This is particularly notable in her relationship with Barry, where she alternates between being dismissive of his talents, envious of him stealing her spotlight, and frustrated by his refusal to take part in scenes that make him uncomfortable for her sake. With all that said, it's made clear that she genuinely has suffered through a lot in her life, which makes it hard to completely dislike her.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Sally accurately points out many times how misogynistic Hollywood is, and how it's pigeonholed her into degrading roles that often lack agency.
- When Barry behaves like a Crazy Jealous Guy at Taylor's suggestion, Sally calls him out on it and directly calls it out as toxic masculinity and a major red flag.
- While she handled it in the most inappropriate and self-destructive manner possible, Sally was also absolutely right to be upset and furious at Joplin being cancelled less than a day after it's premiere despite it's positive reception purely because a studio algorithim claimed it wasn't reaching enough of an audience and at how the executives discarded a story they previously had confidence in over it and at their completely callous attitude in doing so.
- Jerkass Realization: In the series finale, being held hostage by NoHo Hank and forced to confess her true identity forces Sally to realize that she has been a bad mother to John. After the final Time Skip she seems to have improved their relationship.
- Killing in Self-Defense: She kills one of the biker gang members in the Season 3 finale. While definitely self-defense, as he was strangling her, she's emotionally traumatized by the experience.
- Lady Drunk: Sally by season 4 and "tricky legacies", when she's married to Barry and living under a fake identity, her dreams of stardom long dead. She buys booze at gas stations and chugs from the bottle before she even gets home. At home, she is given to more drinking and Thousand Yard Stares.
- Love Interests: Barry's love interest.
- Loving a Shadow: She clearly doesn't love Barry so much as she loves his adoration of her and constant praise, which draws her back in despite how toxic the relationship is. After the Time Skip, their relationship falls apart when Barry shifts to focusing on John for his adoration and love instead.
- Never My Fault: Absolutely refuses to admit that she was unjustified in screaming at Natalie for "stealing her show," even though she cornered Natalie in a stopped elevator to call her an "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. The fact that she even acknowledges she's been a poor parent to John in the final episode is momentous for the very fact that she typically refuses to believe she's in the wrong. It seems that understanding her own faults allows her to psychologically heal afterwards, as she's shown in the final Time Skip to have become a much more stable person with a healthier relationship with John.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Her breakdown to Natalie is recorded and leaked to the public, leaving a permanent stain in her reputation as a result, to the point where people know her as "Entitled Cunt Girl", based off what she said during the peak of her breakdown.
- Outlaw Couple: Runs away with Barry after he escapes custody in "it takes a psycho"
- Parental Issues: Her parents aren't the most supportive to her. Her mother is completely unsympathetic to the abuse she's faced from Sam, and her father, though he tries his best, is too dim to have a real conversation with her.
- Really Gets Around: When warning Barry about the ramifications of sleeping with fellow acting class students, she mentions casually that she's done so "a million times."
- Sanity Slippage: Due to Barry becoming more manic and aggressive in Season 3, Sally ends up experiencing her own sanity deteriorating to the point where she screams at and alienates both Natalie and Lindsay after believing they've wronged her (even asking Barry to help her Gaslight the former). She also beats a biker to death in self-defense with a baseball bat, the brutality of which shocks even Barry.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After she kills one of the biker gang in self-defense, she flees LA for Joplin, Missouri.
- Secretly Selfish: She tends to use seemingly good causes as an excuse to indulge in self-aggrandizement and showboating. It's first demonstrated in the second episode, where she uses Ryan's wake as an excuse to try and showcase her acting ability by performing a scene from Doubt despite both Barry and Gene pointing out it's grossly inappropriate.
- Self-Serving Memory: Played for drama. Sally has constructed a false narrative for how she left her abusive husband that depicts her as confronting him directly to call him out on his behavior rather than running away from their home in the middle of the night as was actually the case to avoid having to acknowledge the feelings of helplessness that she experienced when doing so.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Sally is suggested to have genuine talent as an actor, and is considered to be the best of Cousineau's students (admittedly a low bar), but she carries herself as though she were a hidden genius rather than an undiscovered actor of decent ability in a town filled with thousands of them.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Her good looks get her agent to attempt sexual extortion. And the fact that she's good-looking means she's never really had to try in a relationship, leading to her emotional stunting.
- Stepford Smiler: While we only see it in her honest retelling of her abusive marriage she fell into this role to survive her husband's temper, reassuring him that everything was alright when he would feel guilty after hurting her. When Barry starts to get more abusive and manic in season three, she starts to slip into this again.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Following a tarnished reputation and dire career future, she promptly decides to run away with Barry despite knowing full well about his violent nature and criminal activity.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Her mental health had been in very steep decline throughout the entire show due to the sheer number of traumatizing events she had been beholden to, but the timeskip following Barry's death shows that she managed to recover and find happiness. By the end of the series, she's a respected theater director at a school and has a much healthier relationship with John.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Hits a new low in Season 3 when she corners Natalie to scream obscenities at her and then not only refuses to accept responsibility for actions, but tries to get Barry to pull a Mind Screw on her after previously being disgusted by his offer to do so on a different target.
- Took a Level in Kindness: 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.
- Tragic Hero: Sally has genuine talent and just wants to be a successful actress, but her egotism and insecurities always result in her ruining her own chances.
- Trauma Button: Being yelled at seems to trigger her PTSD. When Barry yells at the class during an argument over Macbeth over his own killings - which the class believes is about what he did in Afghanistan - Sally is notably on edge and afterwards is the only one who doesn't sympathize with him. When Barry berates her in "limondada", she shifts to being demure and apologetic in what is clearly a trauma response.
- Troubled Abuser: She berates, talks down to, and at one point even slaps Barry after they start dating, which is implied to be because her own history of domestic abuse has warped her perception of what constitutes a healthy relationship. In season 3, after Barry yells at her and she later gets angry because her show gets canceled, she yells at her "friend" Natalie in a very similar manner. The framing of the scenes is even similar with her pushing Natalie up against a wall.
- Ungrateful Bastard: When one of her friends convinces the casting director of a show she's starring in to cast Sally in a guest role, rather than be grateful for the opportunity Sally is enraged that she doesn't get to play the main character and throws a tantrum afterwards.
- Will They or Won't They?: She and Barry start dating quickly and break up soon after, but Barry still pines for her. During the Time Skip at the end of the first season, they've rekindled their relationship. They break up in Season 3, after Barry's outburst at her office. But then get back together in Season 4 following Barry's escape from prison and after a time jump, now have a child together.
Sasha Baxter
Sasha Baxter
Portrayed By: Kirby Howell-Baptiste
A student in Gene's class, and Barry's coworker at Lululemon.
- Actor Allusion: She vehemently refuses to play an Australian. Her actress played an Australian in The Good Place.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's fairly nice to Barry and even helps him get a job to support himself, but in private texts she dismisses him as a "jarhead."
- Noodle Incident: For reasons she doesn't care to discuss, she is disgusted by the idea of playing an Australian.
- Put on a Bus: She doesn't appear in Season 3.
- Token Minority: She's the only British member of Cousineau's acting class.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Downplayed. She's not actively mean, but by Season 2 she's grown very frustrated with Barry due to his socially awkward behavior and even dismisses him as a "jarhead" in private texts.
Natalie Greer
Natalie Greer
"You're thweetie??"
Portrayed By: D'Arcy Carden
A student in Gene's class.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: Played for Laughs with her scene about absorbing her twin in the womb.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Becomes this to Sally on the set of Joplin. She then gets one of her own after becoming a showrunner herself.
- The Dog Bites Back: After putting up with Sally's abusive behavior for almost three seasons, Natalie records Sally while she is screaming at her in an elevator and sends it into a tabloid which essentially nukes Sally's career.
- Karma Houdini: While it's debatable whether Sally had it coming, Natalie never sees any comeuppance for poaching her show concept and setting her up to wreck her career with a secret recording.
- Large Ham: Of all the students in class (who are all pretty big hams themselves) Natalie is probably the worst of them.
- Nice Girl: While she has her snarky moments, Natalie is overall a genuinely sweet and supporting person and friend to Sally. This is best shown after Joplin is cancelled and Natalie goes to console Sally as she breaks down in the bathroom. Just don't push it.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Sally, as the two of them occasionally clash over assigned roles. By season 3, Sally thinks she can take out her frustration by privately venting at Natalie for taking her perceived role as a showrunner at BanShe but Natalie records the entire thing and uploads it to the internet.
- Wealthy Ever After: After the Time Skip in season 4, her show Just Desserts has turned into a cultural phenomenon and Natalie is living her best life as an acclaimed showrunner, all while an exiled Sally has long since buried any retaliation plans and grudingly watches her former classmate from afar.
Nick Nicholby
Nick Nicholby
Portrayed By: Rightor Doyle
A student in Gene's class, and one of Barry's roommates.
- Alliterative Name: Nick Nicholby. Also counts as an Almost Famous Name, as the spelling of his first and last names are the inverse of Nicholas Nickleby.
- Camp Gay: Un-self consciously flamboyant.
- Large Ham: Second only to Natalie in his hamminess.
- Weight Woe: His scene in the Season 2 finale reveals his past struggles with bulimia.
Ryan Madison
Ryan Madison
Portrayed By: Tyler Jacob Moore
The acting student whom Barry is hired to kill.
- The Alcoholic: Possibly. Sally mentions he has "like, 7 DUI's."
- Mauve Shirt: Developed a little before dying at the end of the pilot.
- Mr. Vice Guy: He had an affair with a man's wife, but outside of that comes across as a genuinely nice and friendly guy.
- Nice Guy: He's a friendly, jovial guy who goes out of his way to make Barry feel welcomed.
- Posthumous Character: He dies in the first episode, but everyone continues to talk about him and his importance.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Despite only interacting with Barry a few times and quickly getting killed by the Chechens, he introduces Barry to the acting class and spurs on Moss's investigation into said class.
Agents and Others
Lindsay Mandel
Lindsay Mandel
Portrayed By: Jessy Hodges
Sally's agent, beginning in Season 2, who is one of Sally's only advocates and friends in the business.- Hypocrite: She comes off as this in "710N", where on one turn she smells the air outside Beignets by Mitch and moans but turns to the long line and calls them losers for waiting so long for beignets, only to hungrily scarf one down after Sally emerges with a box: she turns especially feral when a woman on line tries to take the box.
- Only Sane Man: In the rather surreal world of the show, Lindsay often feels like this: she is the only one of Sally's three agents in Season 2 who recognizes the disappointing nature of the roles she is getting, and when she recognizes Sally's talent for writing she makes an effort to help both her and her fellow classmates get work.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She drops Sally as a client for disobeying her and having a second breakdown.
- Written-In Infirmity: Although this is not acknowledged in any dialogue, Lindsay is visibly pregnant during the events of Season 3. This is because Jessy Hodges was pregnant with her and Beck Bennett's child during filming.
Katie
Katie
Portrayed By: Elsie Fisher
A teen actress playing Sally's daughter on Joplin, who suspects Barry is dangerous.- From the Mouths of Babes: She tells Sally about her honest observations of Barry as a violent man who wouldn't be good for her, which causes Sally to think things over and then break ties with him.
- Naïve Newcomer: To the Hollywood industry in general, given that she immediately speaks up on Sally's behalf after hearing Barry berate her and is frustrated that there are no institutional channels to reprimand Barry's behavior.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: She sees Sally as an amazing role model and hasn't been as numbed by the various ongoing dramas as other people in the industry have.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She is never seen or mentioned again after she convinces Sally to break up with Barry.
Mike
Mike Hallman
Portrayed By: Robert Curtis Brown
Sally's first agent.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He acts perfectly nice and friendly, but he eventually reveals he only took Sally on so she'd sleep with him in exchange for getting roles and drops her as a client when she politely declines.
- Casting Couch: He takes Sally on as a client with the expectation that she'll sleep with him in exchange for his services. When she politely rebuffs him, Mike drops her as a client.
Leo
Leo Cousineau
Portrayed By: Andrew Leeds
Gene's estranged son and an organic farmer.
- Calling the Old Man Out: When Gene meets with him again, Leo calls him out for only doing it to soothe his own ego and not genuinely regretting his treatment of him. Subverted when they later end up reconciling and building a better relationship with each other. Then Double Subverted after Gene shoots Leo through a door believing him to be Barry. Leo survives, but never forgives his father.
Tom
Tom Posorro
Portrayed By: Fred Melamed
Gene's agent.
- Long List: Rattles off a very long list of insults that have been hurled at Gene due to his diva behavior. Being called a "fuck fuck" seems to be the only one Gene takes offense to.
- Nerves of Steel: In the finale, he calmly speaks to a wanted Barry and convinces him to turn himself into the police. Not that it matters, because Gene walks in and shoots Barry dead five seconds later.
- Nice Guy: He's a pretty far cry from the stereotypical greedy and opportunistic Hollywood agent. He is kind to Gene (if sometimes a bit blunt), and genuinely wants to help him revive his career and restore his reputation in the entertainment industry.
- Only Friend: Is Gene’s after the accidental shooting of his son Leo and the time skip.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Very fond of using more words than necessary to describe something.
