Sally Reed

"*We don't move around a lot because of my special job... It's because we're fugitives. (...) Your dad, well he escaped prison and I ran away with him. (...) Because he killed a lot of people. Because he was a murderer and I'm a murderer too. I killed a man. I deserve whatever happens to me but you don't. You... you're a good kid. You always do the right thing, but no one ever really told you that before but... you're a good person. I'm not. I'm a bad mother. I'm so sorry, John.*"
―Sally confessing to John[src]
**Sally Jane Reed** is a main character in *Barry*. She was portrayed by Sarah Goldberg.

Sally was an aspiring actress in Los Angeles who attended Gene Cousineau's acting class until it was shut down following Janice Moss's murder. During her time at the acting class, she met and befriend Barry Berkman after he joined the class with their relationship later going romantic.

## Biography

### Married at 18

Sally grew up in Joplin, Missouri with her parents, Joe and Claudia. When Sally was 18 years old, she married her boyfriend Sam, who ended up being very abusive and manipulative towards her. As some point, Sally ran away from Sam in the middle of the night after he violently choked her. After divorcing him, Sally moved to Los Angeles to become an actress.

### Meeting Barry

Sally enrolled at Gene Cousineau's acting class in the hopes of becoming a better actor. In 2018, Sally is practicing for her monologue when she met Barry Berkman who messed up her practice. After seeing Barry watch her scene, she invited him to drinks with the rest of the acting class.

Sally then decided to help Barry with his monologue, the two practicing it when she learned of the death of Ryan Madison, a friend and fellow acting student. Devastated by his death, Sally planned to do a memorial for Ryan at the nearby bar and asked Barry to do the last scene her and Ryan did with her. At the memorial, Sally watched as Barry freaked out during Ryan's father's speech and cancelled their performance.

Sally drove home with Barry and at her doorstep, asked him if he wanted to have sex but he rejected the proposal.

### Struggles with Roles

While working as a party performer, Sally is given an audition for a television adaption of *We Bought a Zoo* as an extra. At her audition, Sally reunited with a former friend who was also auditioning. They previously worked in a failed series named *Bonnie and the Boston Bombers*. Sally was speechless when Liv revealed that she was playing the lead of the series and was the one who advocated for her audition. During her audition, Sally was so devastated by the event that she broke down.

That night, Sally asked Barry to come over and when he arrived asked if he thought she could be a star. When he said yes, she kissed him and the two had sex that night. The next day, Sally set up a FaceBook account for Barry before going to another audition. Sally prepared for her audition with her manager Mike Hallman. During this, Mike made unwelcome advances to an uncomfortable Sally, although he claimed he was just joking.

Sally waited for her audition until a casting assistant asked her about her agent due to a problem. When she told them that Mike is her manager, the assistant said that they contacted him and Mike now claimed not to represent her. Sally left the building and broke down in her car.

Sally went to a party that night at Natalie Greer's house and was shocked by Barry's gift of a new laptop. Sally also talked to Zach Burrows leading to Barry calling him out. Sally, annoyed by his attack, ended things the next day at the acting class. The same day, the roles were announced for Macbeth and Sally learned that she had to do a scene with Barry.

As they prepared the scene, Sally was one of the many to claim that Macbeth was a horrible person and that being a murderer was bad. After Barry lashed out, Sally was the only one who felt as though Barry was being incredibly unfair to them.

The next day, Sally was annoyed by how poorly the scene with Barry was going. That night, Sally asked Gene for a new role in the play to help her challenge herself and he ended up giving her the role of Macbeth.

After Vacha's murder at the acting class, Sally was the one to inform Barry about the situation and that the roles had been changed. At rehearsal, Sally berated Barry for his inability to deliver the one line he was given in the show. That night, during the show itself, Barry's line was delivered so well that Sally was able to impress the acting director there. After the show, Sally thanked Barry before leaving.

The following day, Barry met with Sally with plans to quit acting but Sally convinced him to stay and the two began working on a new stage project. Weeks later, the two rekindled their relationship and were able to headline their own show when Gene's girlfriend, Janice Moss went missing on their trip to Gene's lake house.

When they returned to L.A., Sally was hesitant to continue working on the project due to Gene's current mental state but Barry rallied the class to continue. When Gene threatened to close the acting class, Sally watched as Barry convinced him to keep it open and then was told she'd have to prepare a scene about what defined her life.

### Defining Scene

For this project, Sally decided to do it on when she abandoned Sam. During her initial prepping with Barry, she claimed that she fought Sam off and yelled at him before walking out on him. She struggled with the fact that in reality, she did none of this and actually ran away when he was asleep.

#### Sam Returns

At the acting class, Sally practiced the scene with Barry as a stand in for Sam. Sally antagonized Barry in order to give a good performance and is amazed by his acting ability in the scene. As they walked outside, Sally was shocked to see Sam was outside. Sally and Barry take Sam out to dinner.

At the acting class, when Barry confronted her about taking him to dinner, Sally finally admitted that she never stood up to Sam and in fact left in the dead of night. Sally was distraught about potentially telling the truth about her relationship with Sam onstage, but Barry assured her that it's sometimes okay to keep secrets.

That night, Sally performed the scene again and unbeknownst to her, Sam was watching. She got a call from him to meet and she went to his hotel room. There, Sam once again showed his anger and abusive side to her as he confronted her about her lies. Sally left as Sam got more threatening.

#### A New Version

At the acting class, Sally rewrote the scene to know be more truthful but struggled when performing it as she left ashamed. Sally put even more pressure on her performance after she missed an appointment with her agent, Lindsay Mandel but when she performed the scene with Barry again, she noticed that Lindsay had come to the class to watch it. Lindsay offered to a role to Sally which she was happy about.

Soon, Sally was offered the role on a television series about an empowering role in the series for a powerful producer, which delighted her. Sally met with the producer, Aaron Ryan, for the role. Her excitement diminished once she found out that the TV series just features abused women killing their husbands, deeming it "revenge porn" and passed. Her agents got mad at her decision and she stormed off, confused if she did the right thing.

Later, Lindsay offered Sally the opportunity to have the acting class perform their scenes on a large stage in order to get Sally's story out into the world, which she accepted.

The night of the big show, Sally and Barry got onto stage but as she performed the scene, she changed script and attacked Barry, going back to the old way the scene was done. After the performance, she felt bad about lying to the audience only to be overwhelmed with people praising her work.

### Joplin

Months later, Sally is in production for her television show, *Joplin* that followed the story of a mom and her daughter. Due to her work on Joplin, she has put less focus into her relationship with Barry and it became lifeless.

One day as she was working on the show, Barry came in and asked if she could put Gene on her show. When Sally declined due to the casting directors being wary of him, Sally was yelled at by Barry before he stormed out. The rest of the day she felt distracted until she was forced to do press for the series but was surprised by the quick pace and irrelevant questions being asked.

#### Joplin Premieres

Sally arrived at the premiere of *Joplin*, stressing over how it will play out and that Barry was unable to attend. Surprisingly, she kept herself calm during the premiere and the pilot received critical acclaim, in contrast to the rival show receiving scathing reviews. She then gave a speech, giving credits to her lead actress Katie, Gene, Barry, and Lindsay. When the conference ends, Katie told Sally that Barry was violent towards Sally and worried that he might hurt her, leaving Sally speechless.

When Barry and her met, Sally decided that Katie was right and once again ended things with Barry.

#### Cancelled

As another similar show premiered, Sally complained to the BanShee executives only to learn that Joplin was going to be cancelled due to it not fitting with their algorithms. Natalie consoled Sally, stating that she created something special and that she learned a lot working with her.

That night, Sally was crying when Barry arrived and when Sally ranted to him about the situation, Barry offered to scare the executives. This freaked Sally out who told him to get out of her house and he left.

### New Work

Sally met with Morgan Dawn-Cherry, a BanShe executive. She offered Sally a place in the writer's room in the series that replaced *Joplin* on the homepage, as she felt Sally could improve its critical reception. Sally considered this a downgrade but Lindsay convinced her to accept the job, as she would earn a good reputation with the executives.

Sally started working on *The New Medusas* as part of the writers' room. She won over her fellow writers by questioning the showrunner on the series' outlandish and over-sexualized content, something the other writers were too scared to do.

#### Fired

However, she was livid when she discovers that Natalie managed to get her own series called *Just Desserts*, which shared distinct similarities with *Joplin* but had been tailored to conform with BanShe's algorithm. Sally furiously confronted her in the elevator, shrieking in Natalie's face and calling her vulgar names. Later, Lindsay informed Sally that Natalie recorded the altercation and leaked it to the media, and now Sally had been fired from BanShe as a result.

Sally issued a statement against Lindsay's wishes, and Lindsay viewed the backhanded apology video as damage control. A frustrated Sally insisted that her words are genuine and blew up at Lindsay, claiming she only cared about her profits and her rapport with BanShe.

### Attacked

After Lindsay fired Sally, she went to Barry's apartment, asking if he'd scare Natalie like how he offered to the BanShee executives. When Barry tried to talk her out of it, she was attacked by a biker. She was nearly killed before stabbing him in the eye and beating him to death with a baseball bat.

Sally was pulled off him by Barry and was left traumatized by the situation. When Barry went to take care of the body, Sally fled L.A. and flew back to Joplin to be with her parents.

### Back Home

When Sally arrived in Joplin, Lindsay called and told her about Barry being caught by the police. Sally is stunned when Lindsay revealed that Barry was the culprit behind Janice's murder. After her mother picked her up, she had a nervous breakdown.

Sally was distracted by Barry's revelations and was also disheartened when she sees that her father had turned her bedroom into a man cave. Per Joe's insistence, they watched her series *Joplin*, which her mother was not fond of, particularly criticizing how Sally used Sam's name as part of her abuse story for the series. Sally lashed out at her, calling her out for not helping her.

Sally returned to L.A. after her encounter.

### Back in LA

When Sally returned to LA, she met with Barry. Through code names, she asked him about the status of the attacker she killed, with Barry stating the situation is under control. She broke down in tears, due to the events in her hometown and learning about Barry's real life. Barry laments the situation and wonders why she doesn't leave, to which she says she feels safer around him. When he asks her about the latter, she hung up and left.

Sally met with Lindsay, who explained she cannot be her agent anymore. She explained that the media has scrutinized Sally because of her association with Barry, despite Sally's claims that she was the victim. Lindsay said her only choices would be starring in a reality show or a podcast.

#### Sally's Acting Class

Sally soon started an acting class, intending to serve as teacher. The class was aware of the recent media push against her, but stated that they support her, which delighted her and motivated her to be more free-spirited in her methods. While hearing monologues, Sally was taken aback by a performer, Kristen, who arrived unprepared. She humiliated her in front of the class as Gene once did to Sally until Kristen confidently recited her monologue.

Sally's attitude was lambasted by her students, with Sally excusing it as she learned it from Gene's lessons. After a break, Sally saw that her whole class has left, except for Kristen. While she does not like her, Kristen had booked a gig and wanted Sally's help to prepare.

Sally helped Kristen prepare for her role, accompanying her to set. There, she met the film's director Sian Heder. Kristen melted down over forgetting a line and Sally followed her and recited the entire line to Kristen, but slyly tried to poach the role from her by delivering it to Heder, although Heder did not take the bait. Kristen's agent, Mark Staffordshire, recognized Sally's effort and offered to help her rebuild her acting career in exchange for continuing to coach Kristen, with the caveat that she will likely never receive major roles again due to her reputation. Meeting with Kristen, Sally was shaken to discover that Barry has escaped.

When she arrived back at her home, she saw that Barry had broken in. When Barry asked if he could stay there, Sally decided the two should run off together.

### A New Life

Eight years had passed since Barry's escape. In that time, the two had gotten married and had a son, John. Sally worked at a diner, using a brunette wig and going by the name "Emily". Her co-workers were unpleasant to work with, and she stole money from the cash register and often drinks when not at home.

One day at work, Sally conversed with Bevel, a co-worker who makes it clear he fantasized about her. They went to the diner's restroom, where Sally kissed him, then suddenly started to strangle him. Back at the diner, Sally told the manager that Bevel has been stealing from the register.

Returning to her house, Sally was disheartened to see that Natalie had found immense success with her BanShe sitcom *Just Desserts*, now nearing its finale. Sally then saw a notification on her laptop about Barry and called her husband by his real name, confusing John. An incensed Sally informed Barry that Gene has resurfaced and wanted to get involved as a consultant for a biopic based on the couple.

As Barry prepared to leave for LA, Sally was told how to use a gun but was very distant through out it, leaving it in pieces. When John refused to eat anything due to the confusion around the situation, Sally gave him alcohol instead. While taking a nap, she overheard Bevel yelling outside the house threatening her and John, then seemingly hallucinated someone breaking into the house and threatening them, even trembling the whole house with his car. Sally went to the living room, finding that there is wreckage. That night, she called Barry, urging him to come back.

### Returning to LA

Sally and John went to LA and quickly called Gene for help. Sally went to Gene's home and he offered for them to stay but the pair were taken by NoHo Hank and his men. They were brought to his company, NoHoBal as a way to bring Barry to him. Sally and John were left alone with Sally finally breaking down and admitting her failures with John and how happy she is that he is a good kid.

Soon, Hank's men dragged Sally out of the room and into the lobby as Monroe Fuches and his men entered. Sally was present when John was brought out and a shootout occurred right after that left almost everyone dead. Sally begged to John to come back as Fuches took him out of the room. Later in the night, Sally, John, and Barry were in a motel with Sally telling Barry to turn himself in. When Barry rejected the idea, Sally and John left in the night.

### Living Without Barry

After Barry's death, Sally moved away with John and became an acting teacher at a high school. She directs the school’s version of *Our Town* and lives with John. She does not seem to be interested in pursuing any more romantic relationships at this point in her life, as can be seen when the school history asks her out for drinks and she declines. Sally allows John to spend time with his friend at his house before driving home alone, content with her circumstances.

## Personality

Initially kind and easygoing, Sally is ambitious, self-centered, and insecure. She wants to be a successful actress more than anything else, and she is often rude and hurtful to people when they pose a threat to that dream. Sally often talks over the top of people in order to dominate the conversation and get her way. She uses Barry as emotional support and often relies on him, as she does not feel threatened by his acting skills. Gene Cousineau uses Sally's fears of being inadequate to fuel emotional scenes on stage.

Sally feels the need to be strong in the face of adversity, especially after her marriage to Sam, because she never wants to feel weak again. Her fear of showing weakness and being vulnerable causes her to lash out at Barry in Season 2.

## Media

### Episode Stills

* Season 1
* Season 2
* Season 3
* Season 4

## References

1. ↑ As seen in Janice's "Possible Suspects" board in the episode "Chapter Seven: Loud, Fast, and Keep Going".