Margaux and I are floored by last night’s pitch-perfect Fargo.
Trevor: Bottle episodes, when done right, can be the high point of a season – look at Breaking Bad’s “Fly.” “Loplop” isn’t a traditional bottle episode, but it’s as close as we’ll get on Fargo, where nothing is traditional. I for one loved it. Such a great showcase for Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst, and Jeffrey Donovan, and the cherry on top is that it actually moved the plot forward. Just terrific storytelling.
Margaux: What about Hanzee? He lurked on the edges of “Loplop” in the beginning like a homicidal Santa Claus, making a list of who is “bad” in his eyes, from those unfortunately racist fellows in the bar on his way to Ed and Peggy’s Air b’n’b hostage cabin or simply tracking the right people so he can get to Dodd before anyone else (or anything else) happens to him. I thought as much as this episode belonged to the insanity of the Blumquists, it was very much Hanzee’s episode too.
Trevor: Absolutely, and his tracking Dodd made for a good break from the cabin. I really have no problem with the way “Loplop” was executed, and that’s saying a lot for an episode with no Lou, Karl, and very little Mike Milligan. The slow pace worked to the show’s advantage, to the point where watching Peggy prepare to cut Hanzee’s hair was almost unbearably tense. To say nothing of the scene where Dodd has Ed strung up so he can listen to Dodd articulate all his issues with women in power. I feel like a bunch of meninists would watch that scene, nodding furiously.
Margaux: Guess Positive Peggy’s attitude didn’t rub off on Dodd over the course of their 24 hour slumber party, suppose that stabbing him repeatedly didn’t help him teach manners as much as it confirmed to Dodd that the Devil is alive and a woman named Peggy. The fact that Dodd has FOUR daughters reads like some sort of hilarious punishment for him being such a fuckin’ blatant sexist piece of shit. What I truly didn’t see coming, more than Dodd’s very intricate noose surprise for Ed, was Hanzee shooting Dodd point blank in the head, guess it was the wrong day to be a racist AND sexist asshole.
Trevor: All the darkness aside, this was a surprisingly funny episode – it landed right in the Fargo sweet spot. I loved Peggy casually stabbing Dodd – twice! – leading Ed to lean in and ask, “Hon, did you stab the hostage?” And I’ll miss Donovan a whole lot, especially because now we have two episodes without lines like “I’m not gonna pee in my pants like a half-wit.” And at its core, “Loplop” was an episode about the Blumquists actualizing, to use Life Spring terminology.They’re figuring out the difference between thinking and being – notice how Ed refers to himself as the Butcher of Luverne when on the phone with Mike Milligan.
Margaux: “See and be!” The Blumquists drive up to Ed’s uncle’s – who smells like athlete’s foot – cabin, they manage to have two wholly different conversations at the same time where no one hears the other person, they just talk out loud in each others company. Peggy’s descent into full blown disillusion is established pretty early on, she has a semi-imagined conversation at/with Dodd, picturing him as an armchair therapist, but Ed’s is a little more subtle. He takes the Gerhardt’s not answering his ransom claims as a personal affront before he picks up a newspaper and realizes there is another way to get to the Gerhardt’s, through Mike Milligan at the Pearl Hotel.
Trevor: That headline, which might as well have read CALL THIS NUMBER ED BLUMQUIST, was almost too narratively convenient, but it was so much of a piece with Fargo’s skewed version of reality that I just let it slide – remember, last season it was never explained how Lorne Malvo made it rain fish, so a helpful headline isn’t too much of a stretch.
I never knew how much I wanted Mike Milligan and Ed to interact, but just through ten seconds of a phone call I got a great sense of two men trying to figure each other out, which is due in no small part to the performances from Plemons and Bokeem Woodbine. I loved Mike’s reaction when Ed asked if he wanted Dodd: “Yeah, sure.” As he said, it’s been a day.
Margaux: While Ed is camped in that phone booth, there was some less than subtle foreshadowing of a hangman drawing on one of the window panes and though we did get Dodd’s Mouse Trap-esque rope work on Ed, I don’t think stringing Ed up is quite over yet. But it’s interesting to note the shots of Ed calling the Gerhardt’s, the drawing is most prominent, but he calls Mike, it’s less obvious, but with Dodd shot and dead and Lou and Hank showing up at the cabin, I wonder what will be in store for the Blumquists next. All signs are still pointing to Sioux Falls, where Constance (who…had romantic designs on Peggy? Or just really like wine and candles…?) may or may not be alive.
Trevor: Connie absolutely had romantic intentions towards Peggy. Btw, “Constance Heck” is just one of those perfect Fargo names. I like how much “Loplop” didn’t show us, such as Dodd’s escape, his subduing of Peggy, or Connie’s ultimate fate. Fargo trusts its audience to understand these characters well enough.
Margaux: What about Fargo’s extensive and increasing library of fake movies? It was like some outtake from Inglorious Basterds that Peggy was watching while Dodd made his Houdini-like escape. What this show accomplishes week to week is truly outstanding and is so smart, it’s often hard to put into intelligent words how fantastic and engrossing Fargo is. And like you said earlier, “Loplop” might one of the more dark episodes of the series, but I laughed harder than any other episode this season, Peggy trying to rationalize to Dodd how and why she ran over his brother was, in a word, insane. Dodd might not of been 100% panicked to of been kidnapped by Ed, but Peggy definitely made him sweat.
Trevor: Peggy was rationalizing all over the place, like when she wouldn’t tell Connie where she was staying. “Like I said, we’re hiding out.” What a great hour for Dunst, but in all fairness she’s been magnificent this season. I expected Patrick Wilson and Plemons to be great, but Dunst has really thrown me for a loop.
Margaux: I can’t believe we only have two more episodes left. it’s hard to see how any of this mess will resolve itself without a massive blood bath; we’re definitely full steam ahead to “Massacre of Sioux Falls” (I wonder if Bruce Campbell’s Reagan will make another appearance).
Trevor: That was the only letdown of “Loplop” – after catching up on Ash vs. Evil Dead this weekend, I want more Bruce Campbell in my life. This seems like one of those effortless episodes that Fargo occasionally busts out just to show us how damn good it is. The talent in front of and behind the camera is staggering. I think this is firmly in the five-star category. It’s tough to imagine TV getting much better – or more watchable.
Margaux: Pretty sure I say this after every episode of Fargo, but with different episode titles slotted in, “Loplop” is the kind of episode that makes you say douchey, critic-y words like, “tour de force” and “award worthy performance.” If we could give this episode more than 5 stars, I would. Never I have wanted to stay in a remote cabin longer or have seen a haircut with that much tension built into it. Goddamn it, I don’t want Fargo to end, ever.
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