Margaux and I rave about last night’s otherworldly Fargo.
Trevor: Fargo is a consistently great show, but it seems like every season will have one episode that stands head and shoulders above the rest. In season one it was “Buridan’s Ass,” and now it’s unquestionably “The Castle,” a perfectly directed, acted, and written episode that was stunning in its hand-over-your-mouth audacity. It’s bold storytelling, and potentially very divisive, but I’m of the belief that it worked very well. In other words: holy shit.
Margaux: A truly satisfying penultimate episode of Fargo that makes me happy the finale is next week because I am running out of superlatives to talk about this show. Not sure where to even start, “The Castle” had too many perfect moments to count; from the fairytale like framework the story was told this episode (oh hi, Martin Freeman voiceover!), the thought provoking inclusion of the UFO (“It’s just a flying saucer, Ed! We’ve gotta go!”), and the betrayal of the Gerhardt family at the hands of Hanzee, Fargo can do no wrong.
Trevor: Let’s talk about that framing device, which I personally loved. (The inclusion of Martin Freeman was a great touch, and shows that between Coen brothers reference, Fargo will occasionally reference itself.) I’m glad that the show doesn’t use it in every episode – it would be too gimmicky, and its use here was the first hint that something about this episode will be drastically different.
Margaux: It was a smart to leave story book plot device to the near end because it’d be jarring to get a sense of the characters sort of inner monologue told to us before we got to know the Blumquists, Hanzee, and the Gerhardts better. I like that the narrative effect more or less confirmed our suspicions of their various motivations, and the call back to season one, especially while they depicted the oft-referenced Massacre at Sioux Falls, was a smart wink to the audience, regardless of whether you watched season one or not. Massacre at Sioux Falls had been talked about since the beginning of season two, and the sense of circle meeting to complete its end was solidified with Peggy watching the same WWII movie as she did in the cabin before Dodd cold clocked her.
Trevor: I loved the narration because it served almost as stage direction, as all the pieces were placed on the board. The massacre was a thing of beauty, deliriously well directed by Adam Arkin, who should start clearing shelf space for a richly deserved Emmy. Fargo has had a very compressed time frame this season, but “The Castle” was even denser. It only depicted a few hours, but managed to leave the viewer breathless and awestruck. Damn, I keep trying to offer analysis but I keep circling back to “episode good, Trevy like Fargo.” I want to add that I’m glad the massacre lived up to the hype that Lou was giving it in season one.
Honestly, at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, “The Castle” is the best episode of TV I’ve seen all year. There, I said it.
Margaux: Speaking of Lou, I can’t see him coming out of this season as an altogether happy dude. Between Betsey’s collapse, which he hasn’t found out about yet, and Hank taking a slug to the gut, it’s sad times in the Solverson residence. I like the touch of foreshadowing in the split screen between Mike Milligan and Betsy, the Welcome to South Dakota sign almost looked like a headstone the way it was positioned, then boom Betsy is face down in the kitchen. And despite Lou being escorted back to the Minnesota state line at the behest of the Chief of Police, who wants to carry out his ill conceived plan of using Ed as bait to entrap the entire Kansas City Mob in Sioux Falls, ends up nearly choked out by Bear Gerhardt if that UFO hadn’t showed up. I’d have more of a problem with the flying saucer showing up at the Motor Motel if it hadn’t been so heavily shown this episode, the shopkeeper that Handzee blows the head off of had, “We’re Not Alone” and “I Believe” bumper stickers in his shop and if it were the 90s, I’d think he was a huge X Files fan.
Trevor: The flying saucer was a mic-drop in so many ways. Yes, the foreshadowing has been heavy, and yes, we saw it in the premiere, but that appearance could have been explained as a flare or a weather balloon or something. But nope, Noah Hawley showed us the whole ship and made sure we knew that, yes, this is 100% an alien aircraft. Imagine the balls it took to include that. You’re telling a story about crime and capitalism in late-70s America, and 60 minutes before your season ends you add “Oh, yeah, there have been aliens this whole time.” And Peggy’s almost casual reaction made me wonder if aliens are just a fact of life in Fargo and it just hasn’t come up until now. Here’s a thought: what if we SEE the aliens? Goddamn, this show is thrilling.
Margaux: If you can have a death obsessed butcher shop clerk and a clueless, cherub looking couple as the most dangerous pair of people on Fargo, fuck it, why NOT throw in certifiable UFO?
But I must say, the most shocking part of “The Castle,” for me at least, is when Hanzee guts Floyd, sure it was made pretty obvious right before a commercial break, when he loomed over her as they watched Bear and Co storm the Motor Motel, but the direct, unapologetic eye contact he makes with her has he plunges the knife deeper was…something. I literally gasped, and then realized that, if you take away all of Floyd’s matronly trappings, she did raise Dodd, Bear, Rye…they didn’t just…turn out that way by chance.
Trevor: Definitely not. It’s good to keep in mind that Floyd Gerhardt is a badass. Also, for some reason it didn’t sink in until later that all the damn Gerhardts are dead. I wonder where the show can go from here – Hawley’s storytelling is so tight and economical that the only real loose ends are the Blumquists, Hanzee, Mike Milligan, and the UFO. But to be fair, Hanzee is a hell of a loose end; the fact that he survived the massacre makes me excited as hell for next week’s finale. I’m so glad that his role in the proceedings steadily escalated throughout the season.
Margaux: Hanzee was the harbinger of this massacre, so I figured he’d make it out alive. But I just flat out loved Mike Milligan’s response to rolling up to this living nightmare – “Well, okay then…” – and just gets back in the car right before the cavalry shows up. It’d be foolish to try and predict what’s to come in the finale, but I feel good in assuming it’ll ultimately be the Blumquists vs Hanzee, whether or not the Peggy and Ed’s luck will run out by then is the fun part to watch unfold.
Trevor: Never count Peggy out – like Hank said, she makes the cops look like the gang who can’t shoot straight. I expected this season to be good – but not this good. You wanna talk stars? Of course, we can gush about “The Castle” all day, but that’s really more for us than any readers.
Margaux: To paraphrase Dave Chappelle, I wish had more stars because I’d give “The Castle” all of the stars GAMbIT has, plus the ones in the sky and throw that UFO on top too. Very rarely does the hype of an event, in this case the massacre, live up to its intended expectations, and even rarer, does it exceed them. RIP the Gerhardts, long live the Gerhardts!
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