The Power of No

The Power of No
Season	2
Episode	2
About
Written by	Taofik Kolade
Directed by	Hiro Murai
Air date	April 7, 2019
Chronology
← Previous	"The Show Must Go On, Probably?"
Next →	"Past = Present x Future Over Yesterday"

"The Power of No" is the second episode of the second season of Barry. It was written by Taofik Kolade & directed by Hiro Murai. It is the tenth episode overall.

Plot

Facing pressure from NoHo Hank, Barry struggles to pull off an important hit. After asking the class to mine their personal traumas for an original piece, Gene decides to confront his own past.

Summary

Barry and Hank meet at a car, with Hank instructing Barry to kill Esther, and revealing her connections to Cristobal. Barry is hesitant on doing the job, as he wanted to leave his criminal life behind, but Hank's threat leaves him with no choice.

Barry arrives at class, seeing that the students are now trying to up the stakes on his performance and perform their biggest tragedies, with some even remarking jealousy of not going to war like him. Gene then announces his intentions of a performance where the students play a short piece that perfectly encapsulates their own personal truth.

Barry visits Gene, asking to use a different story as he does not want his truth to represent death. Gene only accepts when Barry wants to use the day they first met. Meanwhile, Sally now works with new agents, which has given her more success. However, her roles are mostly small or insignificant, upsetting her. Her sole female agent, Lindsay, sympathizes and urges her to bide her time until the perfect role comes along.

Loach goes to Cleveland and visits Fuches, revealing he knows about his tooth and questions him about Barry. Fuches denies knowing him, but Loach, still grief-stricken about Moss, tells him to reveal anything or he will be sent to prison for cooperating with Barry.

Meanwhile, Gene decides to talk with his estranged son, an organic farmer named Leo. Leo is not interested in reconnecting with his father, as Gene is more interested in speaking about himself and blaming anyone but himself. The meeting prompts Gene to tell Barry that he will have to do the Afghanistan story, as he feels having Barry recreate the scene would be too self-absorbed to Gene. While rehearsing, Sally uses a story to detail her attempts to move on from her abusive ex-husband.

That night, Barry sneaks into Esther's monastery to kill her. However, he is haunted by his actions in the War in Afghanistan and is unable to kill her. He decides to leave, accidentally entering a room with members of the Burmese mob. The mob follows him outside and he tries to flee in his car. However, his car is hit by the bullets and he crashes the car. A wounded Barry escapes the car and returns to his apartment. Outside, he finds Fuches waiting for him, who wants to patch things up with him. Barry rebuffs him and leaves. Fuches then communicates with Loach, who is surveilling from a van, telling him he will eventually get him to confess.

Cast

Main Cast

• Bill Hader as Barry Berkman
• Stephen Root as Monroe Fuches
• Sarah Goldberg as Sally Reed
• Anthony Carrigan as NoHo Hank
• Henry Winkler as Gene Cousineau

Supporting Cast

• John Pirruccello as Detective John Loach
• Sarah Burns as Detective Mae Dunn
• Darrell Britt Gibson as Jermaine Jefrint
• D'Arcy Carden as Natalie Greer
• Andy Carey as Eric
• Rightor Doyle as Nick Nicholby
• Alejandro Furth as Antonio Manuel
• Kirby as Sasha Smith
• Michael Irby as Cristobal Sifuentes
• Patricia Fa'asua as Esther
• Andrew Leads as Leo Cousineau
• Jessy Hodges as Lindsay Mandel

Media

Episode stills

Videos

Barry- Behind the Scenes of Season 2 Episode 2 with Bill Hader & Alec Berg - HBO