The third episode of Fargo opens with a flashback, allowing us to see just how the frozen dead man in his underpants got into the boot of Lorne's car. It's another fine example of the cold, quiet humour that the show has developed as Lorne (Billy Bob Thornton) appears silently at the end of the row of office cubicles before dragging the man out by his tie. After the titles, we're returned to the present day as Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) continues to look into his death whilst Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) admits to his superiors that he had Lorne in his sights that night but let him go with a warning. Meanwhile, Lorne has decided to get in on the Stavros Milos (Oliver Platt) blackmail himself as Lester (Martin Freeman) returns to work.
Over the course of the two episodes so far, various narrative threads, with parallels and crossovers between each, have been established with only figure connecting all of them. As malevolent presences go (his name alone is a suggestion of this), Lorne Malvo is a seemingly unstoppable and unpredictable one. We have yet to learn his agenda or who he is working for, if indeed he is working for anyone. The kidnap of the businessman seemed to suggest he is, but the blackmail plot offers up an alternative as it seems Lorne is working towards his own ideas there. His slow, steady torture of Stavros Milos (Oliver Platt) gets considerably worse over the course of the episode ending, quite literally, in a shower of blood. It's an icky, skin-crawlingly awful moment and one that reveals more of a picture of Lorne; his delight in torturing people is not limited to the simple mind-games he played with the Hess family, but extends to a macabre theatricality.
Lorne is also central to the investigation into Lester Nygaard, despite the police chief's continual denial of this fact. Deputy Solverson, who should soon be everyone's favourite character if she isn't already, is edging ever closer and finally establishes a connection between the two men in this episode. It brings her into contact with a parallel charact, Gus Grimly, as he drives over from Duluth to apologise for letting Lorne get away. Their dinner is pretty much an embodiment of the various aspects of Fargo; adorably sweet one minute as Gus wonders if Molly's nice and grotesque the next as Molly tells the story of flesh-bursting spider-eggs. The three actors, including Joey King as Greta, had a lovely chemistry in this scene and has made look forward to the inevitable moment in which Gus joins the investigation in Bemidji to aid in Molly's pursuit of Lester.
Out all of the disparate moments in this week's episode, it is probably Lester's that resonate the most. His arc over the course of the season so far has been one slow descent into guilt-ridden nervousness and he begins the episode in much the same way. He returns to work and is immediately faced with having to deliver insurance papers to the Hess family. Easily one of the funniest scenes of the episode, Lester is faced with Mrs Hess' legs as she not only demands to know when she gets her money, but propositions him for good measure. The nerves continue as he deals with the cut on his hand, a festering reminder of his guilt that is clearly infecting him both literally and metaphorically. Shortly after his meeting with Numbers and Wrench and then another with Molly in which he fails to convince anyone that he's a good lier, Lester looks ready to snap.
And snap he does, but not necessarily in a way we were expecting. Lester's narrative in this episode ends with him firing off a massive gun with his brother, a look of manic delight etched across his face. Lester may have invoked our sympathies in the first episode up until beating his wife to death with a hammer, but his path ever since has been a descent to the dark side, prompted by his relationship with Lorne. However, Lester is clearly not as good as Lorne at this career criminal thing and it's going to end badly, that much is all but confirmed now. What will be interesting is just who Lester takes down with him in the process.
Despite only one dog-related death, this episode of Fargo manages to be its bloodiest yet. Conversely, it also happens to be its sweetest. Watching Lorne weave through the people of Bemidji and set a large majority of them up for a fall is fast becoming compulsive and all the more compelling given we don't know why he is doing it.
- Becky
You can read Becky's review of the previous episode, The Rooster Prince, here.
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Lester (Martin Freeman) is still reeling from having killed his wife and giving himself a traumatic head injury to cover up his part in that murder and the one of the police chief. Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) is sure he's involved somewhere along the line in those murders as well as the earlier murder of his childhood bully, Sam Hess. However, she faces increased resistance from the new Chief (Bill Odenkirk) as well as Lester himself. In Duluth, Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) is tormented by his inaction when faced with Lorne (Billy Bob Thornton) and is attempting to justify his continue silence. Whilst all of this is going on, Lorne is sorting out a blackmail problem for local supermarket magnate, Stavros Milos (the wonderful, needs-to-be-in-more-scenes Oliver Platt).
The second episode of Fargo widens the playing field considerably, furthering the action in the little town of Bemidji alongside that of the Duluth subplots. It means the cast of characters increases and the plots are becoming slightly labyrinthine. As such, this episode is taken over slightly by the need to establish these various narrative strands and develop the characters within them. In doing so, it loses a little of the humour and darkness that made the opening episode such a joy, but the macabre atmosphere remains and there's a level of knowing throughout Fargo that ensures it is still enjoyable.
Much of this comes from the arrival of two men from Fargo, Mr Numbers and Mr Wrench (Adam Goldberg and Russell Harvard, respectively). Clearly a nod to Peter Stormare and Steve Buscemi's characters from the original Fargo film, Numbers and Wrench are cut from the same cloth as Lorne. Calm and disquieting, they also do very little to impose on those people around them and yet impose they do. In a nice nod to their cinematic counterparts, Wrench is deaf and the pair communicate in sign language (often at the expense of characters also in the conversation) in contrast to the verbosity of Stormare and Buscemi. This silence that exists between them, operating on another level of communication to the rest of Bemidji, builds up the enigma that is Fargo in this series.
The widening narrative also offers expansion in other areas. The first episode was tasked with place setting, introducing the characters, their surroundings and their backgrounds for the audience, as well as simultaneously aligning and distancing itself from the Coen brothers' film. Now that the characters and world in which they operate has largely been established, Noah Hawley becomes a little more ambitious in creating a work that is both satisfying at the level of plot, but also one that is multi-layered and explorable on a thematic level.
Violence is endemic in this society and something which the residents of Bemidji (and the wider Minnesotan area) don't seem to be all that aware of. Adam Bernstein's direction collaborates brilliantly with the characters' obliviousness by utilising the background to demonstrate just how surrounded by violence and death these figures are. The background of Lorne's meeting with Stavros about his failing marriage is a man butchering animals. During the conversation between Lester and his brother, Lester's nephew is seen playing with a gun on the stairs in a moment of supposed normality. Throughout these two episodes, there has been a constant juxtaposition between violence and domesticity, just like this one. Lester's murderous act takes place because he can't fix the washing machine. The Hess boys fight outside the family home. The presence of Lorne may have been the catalyst for actual violence occurring, but it's clear that Bemidji has always had its issues.
With this emphasis on the clash between violence and domesticity, there's also an intriguing depiction of gender roles going on here, particularly Gus looking after his daughter whilst having to take big moral decisions and Molly Solverson, striving to work hard in an environment everyone keeps telling her she shouldn't be in. Molly is consistently belittled and reminded of her gender by those around her, even her father. Allison Tolman's performance is excellent, capturing both the optimism and cynicism necessary for this role. Molly is extremely determined to catch her man, yet is constantly at war with the system around her that decides she isn't supposed to get that far ahead. Following Frances McDormand in the Marge Gunderson type role is no easy feat, but Tolman has that same steeliness about her character that made Marge so wonderful.
It may not have been quite as dark or bizarre as the first episode, but The Rooster Prince still maintains that macabre gallows humour and great performances that kicked it off. It's exceeding my expectations so far and I'm sincerely hoping it's a momentum that can be maintained right the way through.
- Becky
You can reading Becky's review of the previous episode, The Crocodile's Dilemma, here.
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Set as a ten episode limited series, Fargo opens in Bemidji, Minnesota, with a car accident involving the mysterious Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) and a man in his underwear trapped in the boot, who later freezes to death attempting to run away whilst Lorne wanders into town. The Bemidji police begin to investigate with Chief Thurman (Shawn Doyle) and Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tollman) taking the lead. Meanwhile, Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) is dealing with his nagging wife Pearl (Kelly Holden Bashar) and the school bully, Sam Hess (Kevin O'Grady) returning to punch him in the face. However, a chance meeting with Lorne in the hospital waiting room sets off a chain of events which Lester had only begun to fantasise about.
The Coen Brothers' 1996 film Fargo is widely regarded as one of their masterpieces, a dark blend of murder, Minnesota and Marge Gunderson, Frances McDormand's heavily pregnant heroine. When a TV series based on the film was announced, it was met with equal parts quiet optimism and cynicism. Part of an ongoing trend of seeing films adapted into television series, of which Bates' Motel and Hannibal are the most popular examples, it was easy to dismiss Fargo as merely riding the wave and using the name of a beloved property to draw in viewers. Thankfully, however, the first episode manages to allay some of those fears with a deliciously dark opening episode.
There are still plenty of ties to the Coen Brothers' original film, but Noah Hawley's screenplay uses it as more of a framework to reference and gain ideas from. Like the film, the action doesn't actually take place in Fargo; it operates as a sort of dark place on the horizon where bad people come from. Similar plot points are in play (the sadsack insurance salesman getting in with criminals, a car crash to investigate etc.) as well as characters clearly using their cinematic counterparts for inspiration, but neither feel ripped off or stolen from the film, but rather operate as homages. There's even a Big Lebowski nod in there for the eagle-eyed Coens fan.
The real strength in Hawley's screenplay lies in his ability to capture the tone of the film and the Coen Brothers' ear for whipsmart dialogue. The Bemidji police offer up a lot of laughs, particularly Bill Odenkirk's squeamish Deputy Oswalt, a man who can't face a crime scene for fear of losing his wife's spaghetti dinner. Then there is Billy Bob Thornton's Lorne, a disarmingly calm man with a penchant for knowing the rules of the motel before paying for a room there (his conversation with the concierge is a highlight). He acts as a sort of evil Puck figure, manipulating situations and people for his own ends, taking it upon himself to help Lester out with his Sam Hess problem and messing around with the family for fun.
However, Lorne also functions as the episode's line between black humour and outright malevolence. Thornton's calm performance is immediately sinister and his reactions to things around him are wonderfully deadpan. It's a scene towards the end of the episode in which this is showcased brilliantly; it's a face off between Lorne and Duluth police officer Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) that is a masterclass in tension-building because it is impossible to interpret the scene's direction. With Lorne around, the tone shifts from outright comedy to suspense quickly and dangerously, offering an unpredictability that never quite lets the audience settle.
The casting of Martin Freeman as Lester Nygaard also proves to be a masterstroke. The bewildered expression has been so perfected by Freeman across his career that he really ought to trademark it, but here it is replaced with one of despair. Utterly downtrodden by his life and family, Lester is the kind of man you root for in these situations, willing him to stand up and take action against those who would demean him. Which, of course, Lester does, but not quite in the way you want him to. The moment he takes a hammer to his wife's head (in such a cheery, slapstick fashion) is the big shock of the episode, another point at which you go from laughter to shock to nervous laughter so fast it makes your head spin like the Nygaard's washing machine.
With a body count that's already alarmingly high, Fargo has set the tone for its upcoming instalments quickly and effectively.. It's a dark, bizarre delight that also happens to be riotously funny and I can't wait to see where Hawley takes it next.
- Becky
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