Margaux and I could barely handle last night’s episode. Our thoughts below.
Trevor: I think Fargo might be saving Key & Peele to lighten the mood, because shit last night was bleak. The show is so in tune with the Coen Brothers ethos, meaning that the threat of violence is pretty much omnipresent, but last night was a goddamn bloodbath.
Margaux: Between Hannibal and last night’s episode of Fargo, I think I’m starting to become faint at the sight of blood, I’m impressed network TV has let a lot of the graphic images come to pass. But bodies start dropping about halfway through and don’t stop, it was real light on jokes and honestly, I’m still recovering.
Trevor: Just one “holy shit” moment after another. Can we talk about Lester’s transformation into some kind of Midwestern Walter White?
Margaux: He looked mighty pleased with himself by the end of the episode and he should be, even though his plan is totally half-baked and will never hold up…anywhere, with anyone, it was quite the change in Lester’s bumbling anustart-ness. Maybe it’s all just be for show. He really can get something done once he puts his mind to it, perhaps he’s generally complacent and getting kidnapped and constantly called a “burden” by your family has woken a sleeping giant.
Trevor: That smile at the end was kinda creepy. Lester is totally off the deep end. We saw it once before, when he was gleefully shooting automatic weapons with his brother Chaz, but he’s crossing a line into villain territory, and it’s great to see. Dude snuck out of the hospital, planted the hammer (and Pearl’s panties) at his brother’s house, planted a gun in his autistic nephew’s backpack, stared down said nephew, and snuck back into the hospital. It’s impressive, yeah, especially considering what we’ve seen of Lester thus far.
Margaux: Yeah but, villian is a really strong word to use for Lester. Malvo proved more anyone else, he is in fact your worse living nightmare. Lester did what any moron that’s ever been caught on CSI does. It’s not gonna stick. But I’d agree with Chaz, Lester isn’t “right in the world.”
Trevor: Yeah, villain might be a stretch. I’ll say that he’s having fun doing bad things. He likes pulling one over on people who underestimated him. And honestly you can’t blame him.
Margaux: Well, I’m not gonna be the dick that brings it up either. So let’s talk about the definites.
Poor Don, not only does he get his spa’s dream name dissed – “Have you ever had a Turkish Delight? They’re disgusting” (and they are) – but Malvo already had Don duct taped to some exercise machine with an unloaded shotgun. He didn’t need to rub Don’s nose in how ridiculous he was in thinking that this wouldn’t be the outcome for him. Well, no one probably thought that it’d end like that. But we all knew Don wasn’t “long term material”.
Trevor: Don’s death was particularly memorable. Glenn Howerton gave an interview where he expressed surprise that Noah Hawley would give such an operatic, brutal sendoff to a character who was mainly comic relief. That whole segment was pretty masterfully done. I like how Fargo is upping the ante on everyone’s weaponry; people started out with knives, pistols, and tasers, and now we’ve graduated to automatic weapons and riot shields. I imagine the finale will have Malvo dropping a nuke on Phoenix Farms.
Speaking of Stavros Milos the Supermarket King, FUCK. That guy is getting it from every direction.
Margaux: Duuuuuuuuuuuuuude, at first it was kind of funny but now I just feel plain sorry for him. Where the in the hell Malvo (presuming he’s the one who put the bullet between Milos’ kids eyes) get all the fish? Didn’t we last see him on foot?
No matter, I’m starting to have a hard time figuring out how Stavros and Lorne’s relationship will play out from here.
Trevor: I think at this point, for Lorne, it’s all about revenge. Or at the very least, some sort of punishment for not paying him the money. Fish falling from the sky…that was a hell of a visual. Wonder how Lorne pulled that off. Of course, there is the possibility that he’s actually the devil.
Margaux: At this point, that wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. Though I’ve never personally experienced living through a white-out, it seems horrifying and not for me. But definitely made for some great cinematography.
Trevor: That showdown in the blizzard was fucking perfectly done. I haven’t been that tense since Rust Cohle ran through a stash house on True Detective. The way the visuals were pared down, so that characters were literally fading in and out, it was like a dream. Or nightmare, rather. And that brings us to death #3: Mr. Numbers, who I will sorely miss.
Margaux: Oof, same. What is it about the sound of automatic gunfire that just makes people run TOWARDS it? It was bad news bears that A. Molly only had Gus with her as back-up, homie just confessed the only reason he became cop was because the post office wasn’t hiring at the time. And B. IT’S A FUCKING BLIZZARD! She’s not goddamn Daredevil.
Trevor: “Bad news bears” doesn’t cover it…we have to talk about Molly. I’m still not over it. If she doesn’t make it I’m going to throw my TV in the fuckin trash. That was the most shocking moment of the show for me. My heart dropped.
I even feel bad for Gus. He was just trying to help and he shot her.
Margaux: It only added to how utterly gut-wrenching “Buridan’s Ass” got last night. But unlike the other four deaths, we didn’t actually see her get shot, per se. If you think back, we def saw Don get blasted to bits. Mr. Numbers for sure got his throat slit. And Stavros’ bodyguard and son were very clearly shot in the fucking head. Molly, I think, has a shot at coming through the other side. Pardon the pun. Because face it, who the fuck else is gonna solve this thing? BILL?!
Trevor: Justified showrunner Graham Yost put it well: unless you see a casket being lowered into the ground, the character’s probably not dead. That’s the hope I’m holding on to. If Molly didn’t make it, it could possibly give Gus the motivation to become the cop he could be and solve the case himself. But I don’t think Noah Hawley would do that; as characters, Molly is much more fleshed-out and realized than Gus, and plus, if she died the show would have approximately zero female characters. Unless you count the widow Hess and her fake tits.
Margaux: Thankfully, I don’t think it’ll come to that at all. Alright, star rating? Because I’ve gotta go cry some more about Molly.
Trevor: I sometimes accuse myself of hyperbole when it comes to rating this show…but where else are you going to find fish raining from the sky, a white-knuckle shootout in a blizzard, and a man framing his brother for murder, all in the same hour? I’m tempted to go five. There’s nothing like Fargo on the air right now, and “Buridan’s Ass” is a prime example of that.
Margaux: I’ll go with five stars as well because I know I’ll be devastated when it ends. This episode will be one that I can’t soon forget. And that’s hard to to do when I watched Mason Verger eat his own fucking face this week too.
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