Monroe Fuches (Stephen Roots) starts off the show as a handler, arranging the business side of Barry’s killings. His relationship with Barry is strained from the moment Barry decides he wants to pursue acting, and throughout season 1 Fuches serves as the devil on Barry’s shoulder, trying his best to drag Barry back into his unfulfilling job as a professional hitman. As Barry starts to get the hang of acting, as well as develop meaningful relationships with fellow aspiring actor Sally (Sarah Goldberg) and acting coach Cousineau (Henry Winkler), Fuches is frustrated by his increasing inability to control him. The one attempt we see of Fuches to make a living as a handler for another assassin goes horribly.
It’s in the latter half of season 2 that Fuches’ resentment towards Barry’s abandonment of him comes to a head. When Barry inadvertently makes it clear how much Cousineau means to him, Fuches decides to frame Cousineau for the murder of his late girlfriend Janice Moss (Paula Newsome). Although that plan falls apart, Fuches did manage to pull off one devastating blow against his former protege: he told Cousineau that Barry was the one who murdered the love of his life.
The season 2 finale ends with Fuches receiving a much-needed reminder that this extremely talented assassin whose life he’s been trying to ruin is, ya know, an extremely talented assassin. An enraged Barry starts hunting down Fuches and, upon finding him with the Chechen mafia, goes on a murderous rampage that Fuches just barely manages to escape. Although anything’s possible regarding his relationship with Barry, it’s hard to imagine how Fuches will unburn this bridge.
On the bright side, after bailing on his initial plan to shoot Cousineau in the head, Fuches realizes he doesn’t have it in him to kill a person himself. Maybe this means he’ll finally realize the full extent of what he’s been having Barry do for him all these years, and make a genuine attempt to be a better person? Probably not, but we can hope.