Lindsay Mandel

Lindsay Mandel
Biographical Information
Nationality	American
Occupation	Talent agent
Relatives	Unborn child
Affiliation(s)	Sally Reed (Formerly)
Behind the scenes
First appearance	"The Power of No"
Last appearance	"bestest place on the earth"
Portrayed by	Jessy Hodges

Lindsay Mandel is a character in Barry. She is portrayed by Jessy Hodges.

Lindsay becomes Sally Reed's talent agent in Season 2 and helps her produce Joplin. Lindsay eventually drops Sally after Sally yelled at Natalie Greer and her connection to Barry Berkman once he was arrested.

History

Working with Sally

In "The Power of No", Lindsay is present, along with Sally's other agents Mike and Michael, at the meeting where Sally watches her reel for the first time. Both she and Sally very quickly clock how small Sally's roles have been so far, and she takes her aside after the meeting to urge her to bide her time until the perfect role comes along.

In "The Truth Has a Ring to It", Sally misses an appointment with Lindsay for her performance in Gene Cousineau's class, much to Lindsay's chagrin. However, Lindsay comes to the class later and is impressed by what she sees in the rehearsal, suggesting they could use this to get her better roles. In "The Audition", she and her fellow agents get Sally a meeting with a powerful producer for a lead role, but Sally turns down the role because she finds it degrading. Lindsay is the only one who sympathizes with Sally's desire to tell her own story, and approaches her later to apologize, offering to set up a showcase for her and the rest of the class so they can get better opportunities, and even arranges for it to happen in a larger venue. In "berkman > block", Lindsay watches the showcase performance, where she is one of the few present who recognizes Sally went off-script in performing her own abuse narrative. She quickly rushes to console Sally after the performance, apologizing for forcing her to perform her trauma, but the two are suddenly inundated with praise from the rest of the audience, leaving the both of them uneasy about the real story.

Sally's success

The showcase pays off, with Sally landing a streaming television gig as both showrunner and star of Joplin, loosely based on her experiences (or rather, that which she portrayed in the showcase). Lindsay continues as Sally's agent, having to serve as a mediator for Sally's meetings with clueless executives from BanShe, the streaming service the show is on. In "limonada", she shows up in Sally's office to share the shocking news that BanShe wants to air the show that week before a similar show Pam! comes out, and that Sally will need to do a press junket tomorrow. She helps coach Sally along with Sally's former classmate, now assistant Natalie before the junket.

At the Joplin premiere, Lindsay and Natalie read the reviews and discover it has earned critical acclaim vs Pam!'s poor reviews. Sally has an emotional moment when this registers for her onstage at the premiere, and she makes sure to thank Lindsay for her support.

Sally's downfall

However, to Lindsay, Sally, and Natalie's shock, the executives at BanShe abruptly cancel Joplin less than half a day after it premieres, claiming "the algorithm" predicted it would fail. Hoping to maintain Sally's relationship with BanShe so they could potentially get Joplin back on air, Lindsay arranges a meeting with BanShe executive Morgan Dawn-Cherry. Morgan proposes Sally join the writers' room of The New Medusas, which incidentally is the show that overtook Joplin on the front page of BanShe. Lindsay urges Sally to take the job, despite it being a downgrade, as it will leave the door open to potentially get more work with BanShe.

However, Sally's stint in The New Medusas writers' room is short-lived when she learns Natalie was given her own show at BanShe and unleashes a tirade on her in the elevator, which Natalie records and posts online. Lindsay calls Sally to tell her she has been fired from The New Medusas and rushes to Sally's house to try to discuss next steps, warning Sally not to post an apology video. Sally ignores Lindsay's advice and posts a video that horrifies Lindsay, as it is decisively not remorseful for her behavior and more closely resembles "damage control": Lindsay is especially taken aback that Sally's actions run counter to the message of Joplin. Sally unloads on Lindsay in response, accusing her of only caring about the money and her relationship with BanShe over actually helping Sally, eventually declaring that she would rather tell her truth than be hirable. Stunned by Sally's change in behavior, Lindsay tells her that she has to drop her as a client and leaves.

Episode appearances

Season 2

• "The Power of No"
• "The Truth Has a Ring to It"
• "The Audition"
• "berkman > block"

Season 3

• "forgiving jeff"
• "limonada"
• "ben mendelsohn"
• "all the sauces"
• "crazytimeshitshow"
• "710N"
• "candy asses"

Season 4

• "yikes"
• "bestest place on the earth"

Trivia

• Lindsay is a fan of Beignets by Mitch, although she finds it degrading to stand in the long line.
• Although it is never acknowledged in dialogue, Lindsay is visibly pregnant during Season 3: at the time of filming Jessy Hodges was pregnant with her and husband Beck Bennett's first child, whom she gave birth to in March 2022. The only time her pregnancy is hinted at is when she hungrily scarfs down one of the beignets in the previously mentioned scene.