Spoilers follow.

Fame is a funny thing. Of course, on the HBO series "Barry," fame is a terrifyingly dangerous thing. "Barry" begins its fourth and final season with a two-episode premiere, exploring the darkest possible version of what fame can bring. The hitman-turned-wannabe actor is only ever a halfway-decent actor when he's channeling the immense rage that fuels him, and he's constantly lured back into the hitman lifestyle. But it took three seasons for that lifestyle to catch up with him in tangible ways. Last season wrapped with a shocker, in which Barry was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department thanks to a sting operation led by Jim Moss (Robert Wisdom), the intense father of the late Detective Janice Moss (Paula Newsome), who Barry killed at the end of the first season. Jim only got his man thanks to Barry's surrogate father figure and acting teacher Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), who was also Janice's boyfriend and wanted revenge on Barry after realizing what he'd done.

So when "yikes" — the first of this week's pair of episodes — starts, it's no surprise that it begins with Barry (Bill Hader, of course) being led to his prison cell in the California State Penitentiary, from the vantage point of a pair of guards who are disturbingly starstruck because they just finished watching a press conference where Barry's crimes were described by the cops. "Give him whatever he wants!" crows one of the guards, upon hearing that Barry wants his phone call. Who else would Barry want to call, of course, but Gene himself, who's watching the press conference in person. Barry, as scary as he can be, is innately childlike, so when he starts asking Gene questions about why his acting teacher would work together with Jim, he sounds like a little kid who just realized his parents were lying to him about Santa Claus being real. "Mr. Cousineau, are you mad at me? Because I love you." Gene very calmly responds by saying "I got you" to a man who's pretty dangerous when he's angry.

Our Little Meryl Streep

Another major player is Barry's ex-girlfriend Sally (Sarah Goldberg), who we last saw fleeing California and heading home to Joplin, Missouri in the leftover one-two punch of trauma wherein she a) realized Barry's a killer and b) barely escaped being killed herself, at the hands of one of Barry's many attackers. (Something to note: Hader is directing all of this season's episodes, and his ability to create dread out of the simple image of someone placing their fingers on an airplane seat and slowly lifting themselves up, as happens in a brief dream of Sally's that's meant to evoke wonder, is pretty remarkable.) Of course, the press conference being what it is, everyone knows that Sally's ex-boyfriend is a bad dude, including her confused agent. People in LA are, as you might imagine, horrified. But Sally's parents (Romy Rosemont and Michael Dempsey) are … uh … well, they're real pieces of work. Her mom — even when being told point-blank about Barry's crimes and as Sally grapples with what it means for her that she was at the scene of Janice's murder without knowing it (before rejecting a call from Barry in prison) — is cruelly dismissive and makes a point of mocking Sally for her choice in men. Sally's dad treats her like she's a kid — "there's my little Meryl Streep!" — and gives the episode its title when discussing his reaction to Barry's crimes. "Have you been paying any attention to what I have been going through?" Sally asks when her parents have similarly useless and insulting reactions to watching her now-canceled drama "Joplin," with her mother being unable to parse the show being a work of fiction and her dad trying to paper over an argument by offering her a job at his office.

"They put me in prison with the guy that wants to kill me," Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root) says drily to members of the FBI, so he can name names and hopefully avoid Barry's wrath once he realizes they're in the same cell block. Once he makes a deal, though, Fuches is quick to confront Barry, right after the latter has a brief fantasy of being outside Gene's acting class instead of in a prison yard. Based on … well, all of the past three seasons, you might think that Barry and Fuches facing off in prison would lead to an intense fight, but here (at least), it's the exact opposite. Though Fuches poorly tries to get Barry to confess while wearing a wire, Barry apologizes for ever going to Los Angeles to "understand myself" and for having gotten them both locked up.

Gene, meanwhile, is lauded by a shocked District Attorney (Charles Parnell, who you may recall from "Top Gun: Maverick" or this week's episode of "The Mandalorian") who thought that the plan to have Gene involved was laughable. (Him comparing Jim Moss to Caroline Rhea is one of those rare but wonderful laugh-out-loud moments in this series.) More seriously, he warns Gene that if the case goes to trial, it's on our favorite terrible acting teacher to be the key witness. For now, Gene's resolve seems firm, as he's joined by his adult son in the DA's office. Gene remains unwavering, even when warned by Jim not to speak to a prying (as-yet-unseen) reporter from Vanity Fair, who's trying to turn Janice's death into "bulls*** entertainment."

Not A Bad Guy

The last big player here is NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan). He and his lover/ex-enemy Cristobal (Michael Irby) are ensconced in Santa Fe, New Mexico, away from the prying eyes of the various gang factions that tried to separate them last year. NoHo Hank's wheels start turning, though, when he learns from their new landlady about a shortage of high-quality sand in the States, since the good construction-building sand is sent over from Asia and Africa. But it's not just Hank — Cristobal tries to convince NoHo Hank it's worth pursuing the option, even if it means them going back to Los Angeles so they can have the best of both worlds. (If you've watched this show before, you know that such a thing is not possible here, as evidenced by Hank being haunted by nightmares of his imprisonment last season.) But when NoHo Hank calls Barry's phone and learns that Barry's in jail, he decides to head back to California.

"Look, I know they say you did a bad thing, but I'm sure you're not a bad guy," exhorts the same awestruck guard to Barry, upon seeing our title character angrily berate himself in a bathroom mirror and punch a wall until his knuckles bleed. "Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done," he reminds Barry. Now, it is safe to say from these episodes that the eternal question of this series is still being posed — can Barry Berkman ever be a good person? Is he? Was he? It's hard to say now that he is a good person, no matter how hard he's tried in the past, and these episodes don't make him much better. He at least has more clarity of mind than the guard, reminding the latter that he's a cop-killer … before indulging his self-destructive streak and saying he'd kill the guard's whole family if he could. That unsurprisingly leads to a brutal beating that we don't technically see — just a zoom into Barry's face as blood trickles down his forehead before we cut to what appears to be a flashback to his youth in the middle of an open field. When Barry comes to, bloodied and bruised, he's greeted by Fuches, who pays his honesty back. "I took advantage of you. I'm so sorry," he says tearfully before saying he loves Barry (as twisted as it is, it's clearly true).

But "yikes" doesn't end with this emotional reunion. Instead, we meet Lon Oneil, the aforementioned reporter played by Patrick Fischler of "Mulholland Drive" and "Lost." Lon is being called by "Batman voice" again, some mysterious person who warns Lon from talking to anyone else and promises to explain how "Gene Cousineau caught Barry Berkman." The owner of that voice? … Well, it's Gene himself, as we see before the episode cuts to credits. Oh, Gene.

Playing Army

When we start "bestest place on earth," the second of this week's installments, it's back in prison with Barry. Well … kind of. "Maybe one of these days, you'll let me play Army with you," says Fuches in a continuation of the first episode's flashback, as we see him meet a young and shy Barry for the first time. The current Barry is still beating himself up in his cell, but thinking back to that critical moment of his life for obvious reasons. Fuches, meanwhile, has returned to the Feds and rejected the deal he tried to conjure for himself in the previous episode, much to their dismay. "Shame on you, turning pals into enemies. It's a d**k move," Fuches chides them, before trying to build up a group of heavies among the other prisoners with Barry's help, as they wait for help from a purportedly beastly defense attorney. (And yes, he is once again calling himself the Raven.) It fails pretty quickly, seeing as the other inmates a) don't want his terrible nicknames, and b) would much rather watch "Yellowstone" on the prison TV.

NoHo Hank and Cristobal are back in California, trying to get their sand operation off the ground by meeting with different cultural factions. And where else to bring such fierce fighters together than … Dave and Buster's in Torrance. (Or, as Cristobal calls it, "The Dave and the Buster's.") Despite the fact that these groups are arguably more terrifying and more willing to kill each other to get a piece of pie, this attempt at recruitment goes much better than Fuches' did in prison. Hank and Cristobal make a joint pitch at a large circular table in the middle of Dave and Buster's (with an excellent panning one-take in the center of the table), and it appears to work, with the scene ending as Hank gets a text from an offscreen figure named Toro implying that he can break Barry out of prison soon. Cristobal's more detailed pitch on the crews working together on the sand operation also goes over well (plus, as Hank says slyly, they're "gonna need suits" because of how professional the organization will be). Hank reveals to the group (including Cristobal) that his ace in the hole is Barry, and the prison break needs to happen ASAP. They're standing under a sign that says "Together, we are stronger," but Hank is already making things weaker. Poor Hank. "I think it's s*** like this that makes people think you are soft," Cristobal snaps at him later, unhappy that Hank went rogue.

What Do You Drive, A Rocket Ship?

We then return to Lon, the nosy reporter whose nosiness seems fueled by the extensive charade Gene is putting on to ensure secrecy. Lon sees a fancily written note on his windshield telling him to follow a series of steps to get to the "most mind-blowing story" of his career. When Lon follows the clues, though, he runs right into Gene. ("What do you drive, a rocket ship?" is one of the episode's few very funny moments.) Oh, Gene. Come on. Gene has decided to tell the story to Lon, but just one time and just via a one-man performance at his acting studio, in which he puffs up his own role in what happened. (Henry Winkler doing a riff on Bill Hader's performance as Barry is another of the episode's very funny moments.) For Gene, there's just one problem: Sally is watching in the wings and understandably mad that he knew a good deal more about Barry without revealing anything to her. "How could you know and not warn me?" "And you're telling me that you did not see one sign?" is Gene's retort, and … well, fair. But you shoulda said something, Gene! He, anyway, thinks she's there because she can't resist the stage, and since her career is done, she ought to teach instead.

Considering that when he called her in the first episode and she rejected him, Barry is reasonably shocked to see that his first visitor is Sally. She tries to maintain a businesslike appearance, even as Barry tearfully apologizes to her. Sally is, in essence, trying to verify if what she told her parents in the first episode — that she might be in a great deal of trouble — is true, via code about a dog named Muffin. After getting that out of the way, Sally has to push back against Barry saying he never lied to her. "I just didn't tell you the part I didn't want to be true," is his clarification, and … well, hell, what a mouthful that is. It explains so much about Barry at his core — he wants to be a good person, and to be a good person, he has to ignore the parts that don't fit his narrative. Just as that says so much about Barry, what she tells him says a great deal about her — "I feel safe with you." Barry takes that as an enormous compliment, an emotional buoy in the middle of his prison stint. But it's obvious via Sarah Goldberg's typically excellent performance that as true as that statement may be for Sally, she hates that it is true. Is she safe with him? Whether or not that's true, the fact that she feels it is gutting for her, as she leaves without saying another word. But those words lead to a sad yet natural moment in which Barry's psyche turns a flashback with Fuches into a hallucination in which he watches a wedding party run into a reception hall full of onlookers … and also an older Barry and Sally, dancing happily together.

Sally is getting the cold-water treatment, not only from gawkers at a local diner, but from her agent (Jessy Hodges) telling her that … well, she can't be Sally's agent anymore. "Do you read what people are saying about you on social media?" The agent then reveals that the comments are mainstream: coupled with Sally's viral video from last season where she yelled at her old friend Natalie (D'Arcy Carden), the knowledge of Barry's crimes has all but ruined her … unless Sally wants to do "a reality show…or a podcast."

A Big Betrayal

Fuches' meeting with his intense new attorney would be going better if he wasn't by himself — even after hearing how the attorney can debunk any audio recordings through dubious means, he's on his own. Why's that? Well, Barry is elsewhere: meeting with the Feds in the hopes of getting "a new life" via Witness Protection, as long as he can "bring somebody." Oh dear. When Fuches finds out, and that someone else ("I'm Tomas!", he says often) is in Barry's cell … well, he's not happy either. He then angrily calls Hank, explains that he was honest and that it wasn't worth it considering how Barry has now betrayed him. "… Barry's working with the FBI?", Hank asks. He then promptly hangs up and tells Cristobal, "We have to kill Barry."

Well then! With these two excellent and unnerving episodes now in the books, I think it's safe to say that "Barry" remains as disturbing, as darkly funny, and as uncompromising as ever. Bill Hader takes on a number of duties in this series, but it's hard to say whether his direction or his performance in these pair of chapters is the stronger aspect. The direction calls to mind the work of the Coens — there's something quite haunting in the long-take hallucination where we just watch a wedding party of strangers slowly jog their way out of a field and into a reception hall. But the acting calls to mind something a good deal deeper. (I don't think it's a big leap to compare Hader-as-Barry excoriating himself in a bathroom mirror and then punching a cement wall to the work of Robert de Niro in "Raging Bull," as the allusion feels deliberate.) I continue to wonder where and how this show will end, since the most notable corollary of late seems to be "Breaking Bad," and… well, you may recall that show ended in — spoilers for a decade-old beloved TV series — the lead dying in a hail of bullets. Whether or not Barry Berkman's soul is up for grabs, or can be healed, perhaps the more pressing question these episodes ask is: will he, or anyone in his periphery, survive what's coming next?

Let's find out over the next six weeks, shall we?

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