At last. The inevitable happened. The collision of the many characters this series has was a matter of time, and it started on this wonderful episode.
If you’ve been reading my reviews, you’ll know I have been loving how the writers have portrayed a delightfully creepy series of characters, being always a testament to the great movie the Coen Brothers made in 1996. You will also know that some of the things that have grabbed me about Fargo are an impressive dose of character development and the growth that each of them has experienced throughout the retelling of a true story that happened in the little towns of Bemidji and Duluth on 2006.
And, though all the main characters, like the assassin-for-hire Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) or the sad, grotesque Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) both make the viewership smile and grin, while driving the series forward with each new chapter of their crossroads, it was not until now that all that they have been doing reached a whole new level. Of death, of betrayal, of sadism.
On the one hand we had the story happening at Bemidji, where Lester remains at his hospital bed, his room guarded by the local PD. He has lost his brother’s trust, who has, knowing that the police have opened an investigation into the deaths of the former chief police officer, Lester’s wife, and Lester’s former bully Sam Hess, totally freaked out and tells his brother to get out of his life.
Lester’s reaction? Well, what any man who’s falling down a very dark hole of misery, violence and fear would do: Incriminate his brother on the assassination of his wife in what he believes is a masterful play to kill two birds with one stone: getting back at his brother and driving all suspicions of the crimes away from him. And the way this is portrayed, with not even a single word being uttered in the process, and with the unwanted help of all the useless hospital staff, made this whole viewing experience much more creepy, delightful and darkly fun.
With these actions, Lester takes a giant leap from simply being an enormous, useless coward, to a really creepy, evil, devious man who’s losing his soul and enjoying it in the process. And it’s terrible to see how these traits of his newfound personality come from just one, very primal instinct: the will to survive.
On the other hand, we had some serious shit going on in Duluth. The city was literally snowed under, with Fargo mobsters (Adam Goldberg and Russell Harvard) wreaking havoc in their attempt to not apprehend but cut the head of painful Lorne Malvo, who also manages to perform his share of evil, creepy and twisted actions, as part of his plan to gain one million dollars by blackmailing Stavros Milos (Oliver Platt); a plan that goes south fast.
It was scary and a bit gory to see how Lorne Malvo continued playing his partner in crime – the stupid personal trainer of Milos’ wife – for a fool, having him make the phone call to Stavros arranging the time and place to give the one million dollars, while continuing to instill the fear of God into the now terrified Supermarket King.
This plan seemed clean and well executed, especially after the cruel and terrifying death Malvo had prepared for the personal trainer. It was also a clever way to attract the entire city’s police to a place far from the delivery point using his too confident partner as bait. However, everything falls apart when, at the very last moment, Stavros has an epiphany, a moment of revelation, and remembering his origins and his father’s tale of how he found a briefcase full of money buried in the snow outside of town – presumably God’s gift – understands that if he gives back the one million to the cold snow, God will be satisfied and his ordeal over.
So, no money for Malvo, but what’s even creepier, in another more weird turn of events, when coming back to make peace with God, two more plagues fall upon Stavros: fish falling from the sky, and as a result of this, a car crash in which his only son dies: death of first-borns.
And always remember: These facts are so much creepier because we are told they truly happened a mere eight years ago.
Continuing with tradition, the episode left the best for last, as it finished with a crazy manhunt on the streets of white Duluth between the Fargo mobsters – two characters I have grown to enjoy, as they are portrayed with that great sarcasm of great Organized Crime movies – and a cold, heartless and fearless Malvo. On this first showdown Lorne gets the upper hand by mercilessly slaughtering Adam Goldberg’s character.
What’s that? Are you saying that you have enough killing for one episode? Well, Fargo‘s writers might disagree, seeing how, in a very tense scene, almost at the climax of it all, they have a more open than ever policeman Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) face the street war between Malvo and Fargo mobsters amidst a copious snowstorm.
Scared to death, Gus fires, only to mortally wound Bemidji police officer Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman), who had gone to Duluth to help the inexperienced policeman in solving Malvo’s case.
Is Molly really dead? Will Lester walk away free? What will Malvo’s next move be?
And, most importantly…Can this show get any better?