Margaux and I say goodbye to Fargo, possibly for the last time.
Trevor: I kind of expect Fargo to blow the doors off with its finales, and in my defense, the show has done just that for two seasons. But I found myself a little underwhelmed by “Somebody to Love.” I didn’t hate it, not by a long shot (I don’t know if I’ve ever hated an episode of Fargo), but I suppose it’s a by-product of the metaphysical, existential detours this season took; it was always going to be hard to stick the landing. Like the season itself, there were things in “Somebody” I loved, and things that underwhelmed me. One thing kind of actively pissed me off. How did it work for you?
Margaux: It worked alright. Perhaps my expectations were too high as well (and I partly blame Better Call Saul having an extremely satisfying and surprising finale only two days), but ultimately, this finale is representative to me of why I’ll never connect as much to this season as I have to seasons past, it lacked human connection. And I know it was intentional, and this most likely says more about the shows I like to watch rather than any fault of Fargo. “Somebody to Love” had some glimmers of greatness, the warehouse ambush was terrific – duh – but it all fizzled quickly for me, and made clear that the characters were less people and more ideas masquerading as people and it just ended up feeling hollow. Which was the point.
Trevor: Excellently put. Fargo this season was all about nihilism and randomness, and sometimes it showed just how hard those concepts are to dramatize (True Detective’s second season suffered a similar fate).
Margaux: Similarly to Handmaid’s Tale, I didn’t/couldn’t watch it because living in 2017 is more than enough for me right now.
Trevor: It’s hard to watch futility played out on screen over and over, the one notable exception being the wonderful animated sequences in “The Law of Non-Contradiction.” But before we get bogged down in talking about what didn’t work, let’s talk about what did. By which I mean, hoo boy, that warehouse ambush was nice.
Margaux: It was the first (and only time) we ever got to see Varga truly scared and I rewound the elevator doors closing on Meemo several times so I could relish it. On some level, Varga’s cowardice was always just under the surface, but we finally saw it in action when he used his breath spray on Emmit as self-defense. This dude is useless unless you want him vomit something up or lie to your face.
Trevor: It’s almost as if he was recalling his conversation with Emmit: “On some level, food knows it’s food.” For the first time (maybe ever?) he felt like prey. I like that Nikki used her strategic acumen to funnel Varga into a position of vulnerability, and the off-screen massacre was a nice reference to Fargo’s first season, where Lorne Malvo did the same thing. Kind of odd to be rooting for the perpetrator this time (although I’ll admit that I wanted to see it, because I love Russell Harvard’s solid, almost primal portrayal of Wrench).
Margaux: Even though Nikki doesn’t get Varga in the end, what better representation of Varga is there other than an empty, beige trenchcoat. I’m telling you, my “he appears outta nowhere” theory is gaining traction! Later, Gloria describes Varga in the most apt way to Dollard: “he blew in on the wind one day.”
Trevor: I enjoyed that more than I did the next scene with Nikki, which had her confronting Emmit. Although I loved the Coen-esque touch of them putting their standoff on hold while the cop shows up, and honestly I didn’t even mind that Nikki got killed by a new, unnamed character (randomness and futility, remember), but it led to a scene later on that bugged me quite a bit. I will say, I do like the hell that Emmit is trapped in, with everyone around him dying. His car stops working just long enough for two people to die, then miraculously works again, as if this capricious universe of ours is just purposely fucking with him.
Margaux: The three-way standoff was…dumb. It could’ve all been avoided if Nikki stopped acting visibly shifty and if she didn’t let hurt pride get in her way as she continually kept going for her shotgun. I mean, girl, really? How else did you think that was gonna down? Was the idea that Emmit might get shot in the crossfire? Again, because I obviously must have a limited vocabulary without the help of a thesaurus, the whole exchange felt hollow. Especially the overhead shot of Nikki with a bullet in her forehead, what was the point? If all we’re supposed to get out of that scene is, “he’s a kitten now, you know. Ray” then I guess I’m good with it on second thought.
Trevor: I agree, that could have been avoided if Nikki hadn’t acted so forcefully. But I think at its core, this season of Fargo is all about just how goddamn much Ray and Nikki loved each other. And, yes, we got that wonderful line about the kitten, which Mary Elizabeth Winstead delivered perfectly.
Margaux: Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the real season MVP. She sold the fuck outta Nikki, she gave what could’ve been a paint-by-number con-woman a true heart of gold.
Trevor: I kind of want to gloss over the time-jump.
Margaux: Good because I hate the time jump. Fuck the time jump and the fucking title card it rode in on.
Trevor: I think it was only necessary for a couple characters (Gloria and Varga, namely), but I will say it’s nice to see that Sy has made incremental steps toward recovering. What bugged me the most about that scene in Emmit’s house was Wrench sneaking up behind him and putting a bullet in his head. I find it hard to believe that for five years Wrench has had vengeance on his mind; and even if he had, Emmit is a pretty public figure and he wouldn’t take that long to find.
Moreover, it recalls a development in season one that I wasn’t crazy about, which was Gus kiling Lorne Malvo instead of Molly getting to do it. I know that Fargo is one of those shows that makes it very clear it doesn’t owe us anything, and Noah Hawley writes such strong female characters that I don’t want to throw around baseless accusations of sexism, but it’s not a good look, to be frank. I’m totally fine with subverting audience expectations, but to me this landed with a thud. At least when Gus killed Lorne there was more of a sense of catharsis, because the two of them had had dealings in the past. This kind of felt like fan service, and I wasn’t nuts about it.
Margaux: You know, I didn’t care for it either, but hadn’t given as much thought as you, and I have to agree with everything you’re saying. Fargo has had a dubious track record with allowing the women of this show to get their man. And by “get their man,” I mean murder them. Sure, we could probably argue all day (and I’m certain Reddit is already taking care of that for us) whether or not Gloria gets her man Varga, and I kind of hate this finale even more denying us the definitive of who was actually right about “what was going to happen next.” Was it Gloria or Varga? In my heart, I want it to be Gloria – no duh – but there was something about the way Varga spits out, “men you can’t argue with” that set my teeth on edge because he’s right. Oh, how I hated this particular ambiguous end. If I wanted to not know if things ended happily ever after or not, I’d just watching the fucking The Graduate instead.
Trevor: Oh man, you’re gonna hate me for this, but I…kinda loved the ending?
Margaux: I, In-Living-Color-Men-On-Films-style, HATED IT.
Trevor: I completely understand and even agree with all the points you made above, and when I was watching it I felt underwhelmed, but I really like the ambiguity of it – and more than that, I like the idea of Noah Hawley just fucking around. If this really is the last scene of Fargo, forever, it’s cool to see him doing whatever he wants. I guess I’m just more psyched on Hawley himself than on that scene necessarily, but I like what the scene says and represents about its creator. I hope I’m making sense, I worry that I’m rambling. Intellectually, I want to say that Varga just waltzes out of there, smiling some horrible smile, but Fargo did so much work establishing the randomness of the universe that I think it could go either way. And earlier in “Somebody to Love,” the elevator door almost closed on Varga, as if to say, “Free ride’s over, buddy, you exist now.”
Maybe I’m reading too much into this, which is kind of the fun of Fargo, especially this season, which was naked in its ambition to be dissected and interpreted. And if this is the end of the ride, I’m going to miss taking it with you. You wanna talk stars for possibly the final time? Episode, then season, then *sob* series. (Uneven finale notwithstanding, I love this show.)
Trevor: Before that, one last Coen Corner: Wrench sawing the barrel off of his shotgun was directly from No Country for Old Men, Dollard’s office surrounded entirely in paper was, to me, a visual homage to Larry Gopnik’s enormous blackboard in A Serious Man, and the overall theme of the existence and unpredictability of evil in the world put this right in line with No Country too.
Margaux: I love this show, I didn’t love this season. I barely liked it, and again, that’s a me problem, not a Fargo problem necessarily. Noah Hawley always wants us to question these characters reality, and unfortunately, I had no idea who most of these characters were beyond a few details (the widow Goldfarb and her connection to Varga felt like a missed opportunity), which makes it hard to care. And in the frozen tundra of Fargo you’ve gotta give a shit, and if possible love, someone in order to keep coming back. And I guess I love you because watched this whole stupid season. So, it’s fiiiiine if this the last season forever or just a little while, I think it’s good to quit while you’re ahead, which could’ve also been a theme from this season.
“Somebody to Love” score: 3.5/5
Fargo season 3 score: 3.5/5
Fargo series score: 4.5/5
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