5 moments in HBO’s Barry that turned us into NoHo Hank stans

Every moment that cheerfully polite Chechen mobster NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) is on screen in Barry is a golden trove of absurdity, elaborate schemes and mangled English. In Season 2 episode 7, as he’s about to be burned to death with his gang, he gives us the truth of who he really is.

“I have been lying about who I am my entire life. Real talk? I should not be a manager of crime syndicate. I should be manager of hotel,” Hank admits. “I’m nice. I’m polite. I’m optometrist by nature. But because I did not have courage to stand up and be my true self, nice guy, and instead chose pants-on-fire existence, we are all on the barbecue bus.”

Hank, honey, literally no one was fooled. Here are just five moments that make you the best-loved character on Barry.

Season 1 episode 3

The DHL Bullet (from about 00:44)

NoHo Hank sets up one of his overly elaborate schemes (of which there are many, often heightened by career assassin Barry’s practically minded criticism), this time to send a threatening bullet to the Bolivian gang, via DHL courier, to hint that he will assassinate one of their men.

Of course, with DHL’s vague 12-hour window of delivery time, he tells Barry (Bill Hader, who’s already poised to kill the target with a sniper rifle), that he needs to wait for the delivery to happen. Later, Hank sends Barry a phone message with a picture of a kitten hanging from a branch, encouraging him to “Hang in there”. PS: pause and read all NoHo Hank’s texts, because he is the god-king of emojis.

Season 2 episode 3

The dance (watch from 10:05)

Hank is trying to get one of his men to assassinate Barry (for reasons) when Barry catches him red-handed. Normally cheerful Hank is stoic as he stares down the barrel of Barry’s gun … until Barry decides not to kill him.

“That was so scary,” Hank babbles, before throwing up from the adrenaline dump and apologising to Barry, because vomiting is gross (tonal shifts that read incredibly realistically on screen). And when Barry tells Hank that he needs to find another assassin to work with, Hank claps back with one of his many on-point pop culture references:

“So you want me to walk into John Wick assassin hotel with ‘Help Wanted’ sign?!”. This is also the moment where Hank is so delighted by the idea of going into partnership with (Bolivian drug lord) Cristobal Sifuentes (Michael Irby), that he starts doing a weird chicken dance. All of this happens in the space of just three-and-a-half minutes, and includes one of our favourite insults in the entire series.

PS: This episode starts with Hank’s dream sequence on a literary panel show, where he’s credited as “North Hollywood Henry: Smarter Person” and tells (real-life) author Thomas Friedman (alas, played by Sam Ingraffia, not himself), “You are bad at writing and nobody likes you.”

Season 2 episode 2

The evil pep talk (the opening scene)

Barry, having a deep and dramatic crisis of conscience (which is being played straight on screen), asks Hank, “Am I evil?” (around 1:57). Hank, completely misreading the tone and the situation, answers with enthusiastic praise, “I mean, absolutely! Do I not tell you that enough? You are, like, the most evil guy I know, man.”

It’s such a short scene, but so perfect, because it has all the energy of a mom sincerely praising her kid’s terrible recorder solo.

PS: there are two Easter Eggs in this scene for fans of Bill Hader’s run-on sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live.

Season 3 episode 1

50-50 with Christobal (from around 16:45)

In Season 3, we see Hank’s genuine love with Cristobal, as he interrupts Cristobal in the shower to tell him with boyish enthusiasm, “Guess who finally got interrogated by the police today!”. It’s so easy to accept the (new to the audience) romantic relationship because they are very much peas in a pod.

In Season 2, episode 1 Hank rhapsodises over Cristobal saying, “Cristobal, their leader, is guru mensch of highest order, like baby Tony Robbins. Teaching us all the powerful way of getting sh*t done and ruling the world while being totally chill … I have found a true friend and partner in Cristobal”.

Throughout Season 3, “50-50 with Cristobal” truly is everything that Hank dreamed it would be. And that makes the payoff of Hank rescuing Cristobal, whose wife Elena (Krizia Bajos) is torturing him in an attempt at conversion therapy in episode 8 (a heart wrenching, dramatic moment), all the stronger.

Season 3 episode 7

Blow dart (from 9:07)

Hank, the king of impractical schemes, flies to Bolivia to track down Cristobal…with zero, and I mean zero, idea where he could be in the whole country. He makes a lot of noise trying to find him, until he’s in a Bolivian market asking about Cristobal, when a market stall owner starts calmly assembling a blowgun, and Hank just stands there chatting then standing around with a gormless expression on his face, until the guy has it ready, holds it up to his mouth, then shoots him with it.

Hanks explains: “Yep. Okay. That’s what I thought you were doing but I did not want to be rude, so…” before passing out from the blow dart. Very on brand, Hank.