Another week, another predictably great episode of Fargo for Margaux and I to flip out over.
Trevor: Fargo is so goddamn good that it’s going to put us out of a job (or at least it would if we got paid for this). What’s the point in reviewing something like this? Do we need to tell people how amazing it is, how confident the storytelling, how singular the vision, how fully-realized the world and its inhabitants? Jesus, Fargo is “give you an existential crisis” good. And it’s not even that “Fear and Trembling” was the best episode this show has ever done (to me that’s still season one’s “Buridan’s Ass”), but what does it say about Fargo that I came in ready to review an episode that by my own admission isn’t the show at the height of its powers – and I was still ready to give it 4.5 or 5 stars.
Margaux: People should compare their favorite show to Fargo and then kill themselves because there really isn’t a show on TV that’s anywhere near as good. It doesn’t get up its own ass with lofty ambitions it can’t pull off. For a show with such a big ensemble cast, it’s continually impressive how much backstory and plot time we get with practically everyone and it never takes anything away from premise Fargo sets out prove, nor does it diminish its namesake movie, if anything, it adds so much to the already well-loved film. I know you’re not supposed to pick favorites with children, but luckily this is a TV show, and I have to say that “Fear and Trembling” is, so far at least, my favorite episode of the season. The opening flashback gave me all the insight I think I’ll need into Dodd’s fucked up and fascinating character.
Trevor: I enjoyed that flashback for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Noah Hawley’s weirdly extensive fake filmography for Ronald Reagan (let’s get a double feature of Moonbase Freedom and Massacre at Sioux Falls). I think the reason I loved it so much is that it shows what a long memory Fargo has, at least as it pertains to its own history. We could conceivably get a 1950s-set anthology series about Otto Gerhardt’s rise to power, and Fargo could go back further and further until we’re dealing with brutal deaths and dark humor on the Mayflower. That’s hyperbole, to be sure, but not complete hyperbole.
And the movie theater is such a telling location, not only because of the show’s obsession with the Gipper and the beacon of hope he made himself out to be in the wake of our defeat in Vietnam (and subsequent national identity crisis). So much of “Fear and Trembling” was internal, to the point of claustrophobia – look at the cramped space where Floyd meets with Joe Bulo, or even the body shop where Hanzee menaces poor Sonny the mechanic – even with the door wide open, there is nowhere to run. “Fear and Trembling” might not be season two’s finest offering, but it had an impressive command of space.
Margaux: “They used to call me Mad Dog!”: I enjoyed Hanzee and Sonny’s exchange a little too much, the dark dialogue matched with what we know Hanzee is capable of and what we know Sonny is not, and it was an unfair fight you laughed to keep from gasping at (“He’s got a knife, Karl”;“I see that”). But I thought “Fear and Trembling” excelled at really moved the story in the direction of where it’ll ultimately end, especially with Peggy’s Life Spring seminar taking place in Sioux Falls. It might also signify the beginning of the end of either the Kansas City mob or the Gerhardts or both, if Lou has anything to do with it. Also, we were introduced to Betsy’s clinical cancer trial that she’s convinced probably won’t take – regardless of whether she’s taking a placebo pill or not. It’s sort of unbelievable that we know as much about cancer now as we did in the 70s and that the war against women’s bodies is still a fuckin’ thing.
Trevor: Wholeheartedly agree. And Fargo talked up Sioux Falls so ominously in season one that just the mention of the town’s name – the first time it’s been spoken all season, unless I’m wrong – sent a chill down my spine.
(Oh, and a quick mea culpa about Peggy and Ed: this whole time I’ve been calling them the Blomquists; apparently it’s the Blumquists, according to their mailbox. I blame Minnesota accents, and also IMDb for listing the names with an O.)
Margaux: Good thing you’re not in charge of the Blumquists, albeit fictional and hasn’t yet happened, headstones because they are definitely headed somewhere not all that great. Hanzee has caught up to them, thanks to Sonny’s motor mouth (“Ed, he works at the butcher shop!”) and Lou has tied them to the crime via their car, sadly one step behind Hanzee. But it doesn’t seem to matter to the Blumquists, who are prescribing to the motto of “deny till you die.” Ed is laser focused on buying the butcher shop out from a mystery man in Sleepy Eye and Peggy just wants to be the best version of herself she can be, not to be a confused with a better lesser version.
Trevor: I loved that scene in the bathroom once I realized that Ed was wearing a shirt, socks, and no bottoms. So he had just his dick hanging out that whole time – which was a nicely Coen-esque touch in an episode that was more of a thriller than previous installments.
I find myself most interested in Hawley’s examination of moral failings and the depths of depravity, which Lou expounded upon in his monologue to Betsey at the episode’s end. By Floyd Gerhardt’s own admission, “It’s war,” which will be great to watch, but Fargo is arguably most successful in those quiet, human moments of introspection and consideration. And Patrick Wilson’s delivery – well, what more needs to be said. The role is his, he’s just letting Hawley think he owns it.
Margaux: Wilson sitting out in the freezing cold with a shotgun and possible noose (?) only reminded of the story season one Lou tells Molly about waiting on the porch to blast some sons-a-bitches away. This episode had so much ominous foreshadowing, some said and some shown, that you just know this bloodbath is barely getting started. And I think finding Rye’s body, or whatever sausage he’s turned into, shouldn’t be as high up on the priority list as say, I dunno, keeping on eye on Dodd’s daughter.
Trevor: What an episode. What a show. You want to talk stars?
Margaux: You betcha! I think enjoyed this episode more than you did, but at this point, our disagreements over Fargo are a moot point. That being said, I am willing compromise, and I’m going with 4 stars – unless you wanna go 4.5, which is what I had written in my notes, next to, “this show really has a thing for fingers in butts.”
Trevor: Oh, I’m totally on board with 4.5. Like I said, even when Fargo isn’t at its best, it’s still pretty fucking perfect.
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