Barry season 4 episode 6’s time skip introduces a brand new Fuches

The new everything Barry Season 4. Since the show’s time skip a few episodes back, everyone looks a little different. But nobody looks more different than Stephen Root’s Fuches.

When he’s finally released from prison in episode 6, he looks almost nothing like the mild-mannered everyman he passed as before. The Raven is his new name, with tattoos from prison, white tanks, painted black toenails, and insane eyes. (Never leave the house without them.) It’s a persona Root relished getting to play — and one, he says, where the finishing touches were ultimately hammered out practically day-of.

“I think [Barry star and co-creator Bill Hader] had a physical description in his head all throughout the season,” Root tells Polygon. “And we had to decide on the day how much of the transformation you were going to see — are you going to see his whole body? Are you just going to see a neck?”

Fuches’s body was tattooed in the end, allowing us to observe how much he has evolved. The tattoos on Fuches’ arms and chest include floral, skeletal and red crosses. They were chosen from a variety of choices that he, along with his makeup artist, had. Root’s favorite is the crosshairs on the back of the Raven’s neck, something he “didn’t even know if you’d see.” (Don’t worry, you can.)

“It was endemic of this character that he would have a target right there on his neck,” Root says. His conception was that Fuches’ time in jail had fundamentally changed him, from his look to the way he carried herself. The same character was being played, but using a different set of tools. “My favorite characterization of the Raven is: He carries that little bag of clothes out [of prison]. But he doesn’t carry it like a lunch pail like some schlub. I made a decision. I’m going to grab the front of it.

“He just grabbed it because it’s of no importance to him. And he gives it to somebody that’s of no importance. And that kind of grounded me to the stillness of this guy.”

Merrick Morton/HBO

You’re not alone. Barry, it’s a stillness born of brokenness, a hurt from Barry (Hader) betraying him that metastasized within him to create something darker. Of course, it also left him in a better position in prison — Root cites the lunchroom scene where everyone waits for him to eat as the moment that catalyzed the venom within Fuches to something else, and set him on the path to becoming the Raven.

“He is now a powerful person within that space, which he wasn’t before; he was being reviled and made fun of. Now that he’s got that power, I believe he became more confident in between. He put more and more tattoos on; he became grounded and centered and OK with being a killer,” Root says.

But though everything is new in this future world where Barry is a dad, Sally (Sarah Goldberg) is a mom, and Cousineau (Henry Winkler) is in hiding, the Raven is as much Fuches as he’s ever been.

“I would describe Fuches as a lost lamb,” Root says. “And just a selfish person that [like], If you don’t do what I want you to — it’s almost like a baby.

“But it’s all about respect. When he finally gets respect, that’s when he changes.”

Barry’Fourth and final season The show is currently airing Sundays at midnight on HBO and Max. The final episode of the series will be May 28.