Henry Winkler Drops Bombshell on Barry's Series Finale

Gene Cousineau's destiny in the finale of Barry involved life imprisonment for the murder of Barry Berkman. However, Henry Winkler disclosed Gene's initial plan before killing Barry, which was to use the gun given to him by Rip Torn for committing suicide. Gene's legal troubles, triggered by baseless accusations, had left him feeling trapped. But as fate would have it, Barry unexpectedly showed up at his doorstep, prompting Gene to take a different course of action in the show's finale.

Winkler shared with Vulture what was going through Cousineau's mind just before he realized that Barry Berkman had returned. According to Winkler, Gene was struggling with his emotions until he heard the noise outside the door. He knew that if he was going to take his own life, he would have done it right after picking up the gun. He wouldn't have hesitated or changed his mind. However, Winkler added that Gene would have taken that route because he never had the chance to explain his side of the story. In the seventh episode, there was a moment of insanity when Gene walked into the hotel room. Everyone was confronting him and blaming him for everything. The switch flipped when he realized that he was being accused of something he didn't do, and there was no way he could explain himself. Even his own son told him that he never told the truth, so nobody knew what to believe. It was then that Gene lost control.

Gene Cousineau found himself wrongly accused of conspiring to have his girlfriend, Janice Moss, murdered by Barry. Unfortunately, Gene's acceptance of money from Barry to pay for his son's home and his decision to shoot his own son, believing that Barry had come to kill him, provided enough evidence against him to suggest possible involvement in criminal activity. Despite knowing the case against him is false, Gene's defense is weak and insufficient in a court of law, leaving him with few options. Ultimately, Gene's decision to kill Barry is a fitting end to the situation. If he had never gotten involved with Barry, his life would not have taken such a turn for the worse. Barry's actions caused the death of Gene's beloved, setting off a chain of events that would have resulted in Gene's false imprisonment. Although it was not Barry's intention, he brought so much misery to Gene's life that he deserved to be held accountable. With no hope for redemption, Gene's only recourse was to eliminate the man who caused his life to fall apart.

Despite not deserving to have his life destroyed, Cousineau's hubris ultimately led to his downfall. Although he may have learned from his mistakes, his desire for recognition and attention was insatiable. He wanted to turn his time with Barry into a story solely for the purpose of seeking attention. Even after informing Warner Bros. that he did not want a movie made about his story, he succumbed to the temptation of big-name actors like Mark Wahlberg and Daniel Day-Lewis and was eventually caught by the authorities. While not malicious, Gene's weakness for adoration proved to be his undoing.

Source: Vulture