Margaux and I loved Fargo last night. Here’s why:
Trevor: Loved last night’s episode. It was aces.
Margaux: What’s more terrifying than having Malvo show up to your doorstep with a switchblade to permanently traumatize your children? Make him a dentist in fucking Kansas City.
Trevor: It’s worth mentioning that Malvo is the type of hitman who will learn dentistry and go undercover for six months and get engaged, all for $100,000, which, yeah, is a lot of money, but I think becoming Mike for a little while was just for fun, like his time spent fucking with the Supermarket King.
Margaux: And he’s been manipulating other Lester-type saps along the way too. I had to rewind the scene where Malvo is pensively listening to a different phone recording of a desperate man. I thought it was Lester at first, until that gunshot.
Trevor: Me too. I want to talk about the opening, because I think it’s one of the strangest, strongest prologues that Fargo has ever done. Malvo is engaged to a woman who plans on sticking her whole thumb up his ass – typical Missouri girl, amirite? – and they all head to Vegas so he can kill Stephen Root’s brother, who’s in witness protection. Most men would have just tortured the information out of Root, but Malvo is the fucking devil, so he went a different route.
Margaux: “But the look on his face when I pulled out my gun? Classic”. The bloody aftermath of Lester and Malvo’s tete-a-tete in the elevator was honestly shocking. Like, I audibly gasped. And I love that new Lester isn’t all that new afterall. He thinks just because he steps out his wife and has a new dye-job that he’s on the same level as Malvo. He’s not, still the scared little bitch he was in the pilot when he hammered his wife, literally.
Trevor: That shot of Lorne in the elevator, just a dark silhouette really, calling out “See ya around, Lester!…See ya real soon” – that shot was terrifying. Billy Bob Thornton has a very menacing frame, evidently.
Margaux: That shot gave me shivers. And as much as Lester tries to run away from his past this entire episode, it looks like he’s finally gonna get his reign of terror from Malvo real soon.
And what’d I tell ya? Gus spots Lorne speeding through his mail route in that Santa Claus from hell, red BMW.
Trevor: When you’re right you’re right! Malvo was under everyone’s noses last night. First of all, he went from Vegas to Bemidji just for revenge, and then eluded Molly, Gus, and Special Agents Key and Peele.
Margaux: Holy crap, I could not believe how perfectly timed and well shot that sequence was. It was so tense between Malvo and Molly’s Dad, I was almost sure he’d figured out how Lorne was for a moment. It was interesting to hear Sioux Falls be mentioned again here, since Malvo tends to bring body count up whenever he’s in town.
Trevor: That was a wonderfully tense scene with no payoff, which Fargo did a lot of last night. When I say “no payoff,” I don’t mean it in a bad way, because Thornton and Keith Carradine were amazing in that scene. I mean it’s okay to show the possibility of something bad happening without following up on it. I felt the same way when Lester and Linda were waiting for the elevator.
(Speaking of Linda: when she was telling her anecdote of someone shitting in the mattress, I immediately thought, “I bet Lorne would do that.”)
Margaux: Two things:
Hahaha!! Malvo totally would, I bet he fucking did!
And I agree with your point about this episode having a lot of “no payoff” moments, yet it was still a wholly satisfying episode. I think showing the possibilites, topped with what you already know about the characters, is better than giving into the impluse of shock and gore. There is so much wonderful character work in those moments. Fargo, you do your thang.
Oh man, poor, sweet but extremely fucking stupid Linda. Saw her getting capped a mile away though, and her assist in lying to Molly for Lester was a surprising turn for her. But Lester did her dirty in the end, what’s that saying? Can’t teach an old asshole new tricks?
Trevor: Her lying to Molly actually made me happy – not for Lester, cause lord knows he doesn’t deserve anyone’s help, but happy for Linda, I guess. She’s just trying to do right by her man. And she’s had a crush on Lester since they met, which makes sense because Martin Freeman is probably like Fabio in the Midwest.
Linda’s death kinda kicked my ass. I thought him sending her in for the passports was pretty shitty to begin with, but then when he gave her the coat AND told her to put the hood up, it seemed tantamount to helping Lorne kill her. Evil, despicable thing to do.
Margaux: Dick move, Lester, super dick move. He knew exactly what he was doing when he sent Linda in there but was somehow hoping he was wrong about it? I just couldn’t believe Lester sat there and watched. Really hope Malvo murders that crap out of Lester just for putting him through the trouble.
Trevor: Well, creator Noah Hawley has said that the finale will be “bloody,” so what the fuck has this show been up to this point? A man literally showered in blood.
I can’t help but think, almost every thirty seconds, that Fargo is so, so much better than it has any right to be.
Margaux: “A Fox, a Rabbit and a Cabbage” only adds to the heap of evidence that Fargo is a stand out motherfuckin’ show.
How about Pepper and Budge finally arriving in “where the fuck is Bemidji?” to meet Solverson and also shame Bill?
Trevor: It was nice seeing those two with a fire lit under their asses. I’ll miss watching them both rise up from behind a desk – “Is it like a clown car back there?” – but I’ll gladly trade that for Pepper shutting Bill down and Budge talking very officiously about calling HQ. It’s cool that Fargo cast Key and Peele, because they’re the best, but it also doesn’t hurt that the two can actually act. Otherwise it would just be internet fan service.
Margaux: Key and Peele have amazing comedic and dramatic timing, on top of just having great chemistry together, can we recast a Lethal Weapon reboot to have them star in it? Just a thought.
(And sidenote: Peele is great on Playing House too playing a small town cop).
Next week is the 90 minute finale and to quote Mason Verger, “I am excited and terrified.” If the finale is supposed to be bloodier than the season as a whole, I might need some valium to watch.
Trevor: What do you wanna say for stars? “A Fox, a Rabbit, and a Cabbage” was a pretty killer episode of a great show.
Margaux: I’d give it four and a half, I think I’m saving the full five for the finale. Have a feeling it’ll be this episode and then some…with lots of blood.
Trevor: Four and a half, then. Aces.
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