Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Season 4, Episode 4 of Barry.The latest episode of Alec Berg and Bill Hader’s award-winning HBO series Barry ends with a jarring time jump, yanking the audience forward eight years into the future. As Season 4's "it takes a psycho" reveals, Barry (Bill Hader) and Sally (Sarah Goldberg) have run away together to the middle of nowhere, have a child (Zachary Golinger), and are living what seems to be a mundane—and potentially somewhat miserable—life.

This massive shakeup leaves the audience with a myriad of questions. Are Sally and Barry in the same deserted place in which Barry grew up? Are they happy? Will we find out what happens to the other characters? And of course—is this really happening? Episode 5 will have to do some heavy lifting to answer these questions. The final two episodes of Barry are sure to feel different from the last, revealing the intense conclusion the series has been careening toward at a break-neck pace.

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What That Season 4 Episode Means, Broken Down

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Image via HBO

After several back-to-back gut-wrenching scenes, including the death of the beloved Cristobal (Michael Irby), Barry Season 4, Episode 4 slows to what at first seems to be yet another flashback to Barry’s childhood. A boy is fist-fighting another boy in a similar barren field, but then the boys are identified as Travis and John by Travis's father, who breaks them up. John runs to a large trailer, which seems to be the only building for miles. He opens the refrigerator and grabs a beer to ice his head. The camera pans to Barry and Sally, sitting together at the kitchen table looking aged and none-too-happy. Barry stands and says flatly, “I’ll go talk to him.” Sally looks on desperately—the end.

This wouldn’t be the first time we have glimpsed Barry's dream life with Sally, so at first, this scene could be dismissed as just another fantasy. However, there are several clues as to the reality of the situation, the main one being Sally agreeing (to Barry's surprise) to run away with Barry in the previous scene. The scene with John fighting outside also does not have the shorter, more mystical feel of Barry's usual fantasies. The focus is on John, not Barry, alluding to his importance. He is a very real character, one that will likely get even more fleshed out in the following episodes.

If these clues aren’t enough, there luckily is a concrete answer to the question of if the time jump is real. In an interview with The Wrap, Hader says that this time jump was born from his desire to see what would happen if all the characters got what they wanted. Barry has often dreamed of a “normal” future with Sally. “So what if he got that?" asks Hader. "So we said, well what if we went eight years into the future and they had a kid? What would that look like?”

So What About Hank, and Gene?

Anthony Carrigan as NoHo Hank in Season 4 of Barry
Image via HBO

Episode 4 left us with Cristobal’s heart-wrenching death as a result of Hank (Anthony Carrigan) coming into his true cold-blooded, crime lord form. Hank’s attempts to keep the couple safe by siding with the Chechens and killing his and Cristobal’s men went too far—in trying to prove himself, Hank scared Cristobal to the point of no return. Despite Hank's pleading, Cristobal is firm that is leaving, a decision that Hank knows will end with Cristobal's murder. Their final moments together are hard to watch, a testament to both Carrigan's and Irby's exceptional range. And in another display of heartbreakingly wonderful acting, we watch Hank break down for only a moment before shoving everything down.

This is a devastating blow for both Hank and the audience, as Hank and Cristobal's relationship has arguably been one of the few real ones in the series. It could be any end-point for Hank's story, but hopefully, we will learn his fate. If we see Hank in the final episodes, we're likely to see the results of his actions in Episode 4, for better or worse. Will he be running a successful empire as a ruthless crime lord? Will the death of Cristobal have broken him? Will he join Fuches (Stephen Root) in jail? Barry is notorious for taking the audience on unexpected journeys, and these next two episodes will surely be no exception.

The other loose end from Episode 4 is Gene (Henry Winkler), who accidentally shoots his son (Andrew Leeds) through the front door, thinking he is Barry coming to kill him. It is unclear if the shot was fatal, but Gene's son is one of the few truly good things in his life. Hurting him, and potentially killing him, is sure to do him in.

What’s Next for 'Barry' Season 4?

Henry Winkler as Gene Cousineau in Season 4 of Barry
Image via HBO

All of this begs the question of what Barry’s final episodes will look like. We are sure to see a wry, painstakingly funny portrait of what "normal" looks like for these two broken people. The reality of Barry and Sally living an isolated life is that Barry will have no outlet for his trauma-induced outbursts, and Sally will have no outlet for her desperate need for stardom. It's doubtful that Barry's attention, while intense, can take the place of that. Their fridge holding only beer, wine, and a half-eaten donut is a pretty clear indicator of how their lives are going. Watching them take a stab at being a nuclear family will no doubt be the culmination of all of their most problematic traits.

While Sally actually agreeing to this life with Barry is unthinkable, it kind of works. There wasn't much left for any of the characters—in what they could do or in their ability to be morally redeemed—so a time jump is one way to move everyone forward, by force. Additionally, Barry and Sally's child raises the stakes. There is now someone that the audience might actually care about, that is actually able to be "saved."

In the final episodes of Barry, things are probably about to get a lot less crime-y—at least for a little bit—but there will also probably be a reckoning for Barry, and likely the other characters as well. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Barry so far, it’s that your past always catches up to you.

New episodes of Barry Season 4 premiere every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.