Fargo 1.08 “The Heap”

A lot of things happened in this episode, with all the current plots taking a series of weird and unexpected turn of events.

Since the series started, and knowing that this was a true story, and that there were going to be “survivors” – and therefore also many dead – I had this nagging suspicion that the end result could be cruel and unfair; no good guys winning this time or bad guys ending up in a hole.

Now, with only two episodes to go, those feelings are stronger than ever, as not only has Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) gotten away with murdering his own wife and being involved in the deaths of former Chief Police Officer and former bully Sam Hess – a long list indeed – but he is also regarded as a poor guy, whose brother has taken everything from him.

And inside, he is a psychopath, a changed man, one that believes that he has been able to cheat the system and get away with it. And in this episode, we see better than ever how that feeling empowers him to become a new man. A successful, driven one. With a caring new wife, a salesman of the year award, a brand new washing machine and a confidence to boost, Lester has gotten away with the crime.

This episode is surprisingly and beautifully broken in two, with a one year gap in between. It was amazing to see how the lives of all the characters could have changed so much in such a short period of time.

After sending an extraordinary amount of flowers to Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman), a sweet and shy Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks), with the help of Molly, finds the courage to ask her out – well, sort of – and looks like it worked out, because one year later they’re all living together at Bemidji, with Gus now a happy mailman and Molly a very pregnant Deputy Police Officer. However, we are shown that secretly, Molly continues to fill her board with all the evidence about the Lester-Malvo case that Bemidji Chief Police Commissioner Bill Oswalt (Bob Odenkirk) chose to overlook after throwing Lester’s brother into jail. In short, she pretends to be happy and fully realized, and she knows she should, but she won’t until she brings Lester to justice.

The beauty of this series rests in the small details: the silences, the frustrations, the lies and the pretentions, and depicting it all with a sensitivity and boldness that, eight episodes in, keeps feeling refreshing.

No character is forgotten, however. Remember the FBI agents who messed up and let Malvo kill 32 Fargo mobsters? Down to the file room they go, and down there they continue one year later, when, in a great sequence filled with that trademarked Fargo humor, they suddenly remember that it was Malvo who got them into that mess in the first place – showing us how the day-to-day can engulf us and have us forget how we got where we are.

Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) has only three scenes this time, but each of them carries more tension than the previous one. He shows all the sides there are to Malvo’s coin: he can kill a policeman in cold blood with just a belt, no sweat at all, and feeling no regret, like a trained assassin; or he can have a priceless casual conversation with the remaining Fargo mobster, finishing the chat by offering him a new lease on life and a chance to work together in the future.

However, that’s two Malvo scenes, as the third one might be the shortest one but also the one that carries more punch and drama. The beauty however, is that, though it may seem a casual, quiet scene, it is a message to both Lester and the viewers:

You can lie, you can hide, you can pretend you’re someone you are not…but in the end, your past will always be there to haunt you.

Always.