FARGO - MORTON'S FORK - SEASON FINALE RECAP

[I feel like there is something wrong with me. It seems everybody who watched the show wanted Thornton's character to be killed. That was never the case with me, so naturally, I'm grieving.]

Many of recappers and reviewers compared Lorne Malvo to the devil, though in my opinion, he was more like a werewolf. One way or the other, he was turning people he would meet into animals (not necessarily predators - remember the guy from the motel, whom he convinced to use his boss's car as a toilet?). And  he died like an animal, wounded by the bear trap, still breathing after numerous shots taken at him.

Anyway, back to the recap. Lester goes to his shop, puts his car keys into Linda's hand and comes to Lou's diner to arrange an alibi. He orders grilled cheese sandwiches and ginger ales for himself and his wife, who, according to his words, went down to the office to pick up some papers. He asks to use the bathroom, leaves the place through the backdoor and calls the police from the payphone outside, anonymously reporting gunshots . Then he gets back to the cafe and waits.

Only seconds before he sees the police cars drive by, he realizes that he's left the e-tickets to Acapulco in the pocket of the jacket that Linda was wearing. He rushes to the office and plays grieving husband, screaming "aw jeez!", like that time when he was hitting his first missis with the hammer. He convinces Bill to let him say goodbye to his wife and tries to steal the tickets, but Molly doesn't let him do that.

Lou comes to the police station and tells his daughter about how Malvo asked him where Lester lives. Bill, Molly and the FBI agents interrogate Mr. Nygaard, but he denies knowing Lorne, and after realizing that the chief won't help him escape this time, he refuses to answer questions without a lawyer.

Deputy Solverson decides to use Mr. Bluebeard as a bait and sends him home with the FBI guys (considering they missed Lorne twice, at that point in the episode it was already clear that they were doomed). At the same time Bill realizes he's not capable of being chief and offers the position to Molly.

Gus calls his wife while driving somewhere to ask her not to take part in the search for Malvo personally, proving once again he's not the brave kind, and she promises him to stay at the station. As he hangs up, Gus sees a wolf in the middle of the road and stops his car. He notices a red BMW, that he's seen before, parked next to a cabin and comes closer to check it out. He sees Malvo getting into the car and driving away. Grimly enters the cabin.

Prior to all this Lorne used the police scanner and overheard that the FBI got involved. He once again proves being very resourceful, as he calls the bureau and successfully cancels back up with the help of the Bemidji police receptionist and the information from the notebook he stole from the agents' car earlier.

Malvo visits a car dealer, where the guy to whom Lester tried to sell life insurance to in the first episode (only then the guy was a librarian) works. Lorne chooses a dark Ford, which looks like an undercover FBI car and asks to go for a test drive.

Lester gets driven home and refuses to let the FBI agents in, so they wait outside. Soon they see Malvo's new car coming. They point their guns at the vehicle and demand that the driver gets out. As no one does, they close in. When they realize that it's Malvo's hostage who's behind the wheel, it is already too late, one by one, the killer takes them out.

Mr. Nygaard sees the abandoned FBI car and the blood trail on the snow and rushes upstairs. As Lorne breaks into his house, he hears Lester "speaking on the phone" from the bathroom. The killer approaches the room and takes a few steps, before he gets into Chazz's bear trap hidden under a pile of clothes and screams. The next moment Lester jumps out of the bathroom and takes a shot at his rival. Lorne manages to escape the bullet and throws "Salesman of the Year" award to the shooter's face (once again Lester's nose breaks from being hit against the glass, luckily for him, he doesn't lose consciousness this time). Then Malvo gets a hold of the gun and shoots back. Lester rushes to the bathroom and stays on the floor, pointing a gun at the door. After a few moments, he walks out and finds no Malvo, just the blood trail he's left behind.

Lorne gets back to the cabin and deals with the open tibia fracture. Only after he's done, Gus walks in and says he's figured out the riddle about shades of green. Malvo takes a look at him. "And?" he asks. Instead of an answer, Gus shoots him in the chest. Covered in blood, Lorne stays still for a while, as if dead, only to regain consciousness moments later, coughing and growling, like a dying wolf, until Grimly puts a bullet to his head.

When Molly comes to the cabin, her husband shows her the case with the tapes, and she listens to the one under Lester's name. Finally, she's got the evidence she needed.

   

Mr. Nygaard runs to Montana, but the cops spot him two weeks later. He rushes to the lake and falls through the ice, dying from what Numbers and Wrench planned for him a year ago.

Molly receives a call about his death. She goes back to the living room, where Gus and Greta watch Deal or No Deal. Gus says he's going to be given a citation for bravery and that Molly should have gotten it instead, but she argues that this is his deal.

"I get to be chief", she concludes.

Even though there were a couple things that I expected to play some role in the narration and that did not (like Lester's nephew noticing him in their house), as well as a number of loose ends - we've never got to know what happened with Mr. Wrench, Milos, Mrs. Hess and Bill's African kid, the main story still feels complete and there's even a happy ending of sorts, which nowadays is so rare in series like this. I don't think I've seen any other TV show that is as good as Fargo script-wise, and I'm afraid it'll be long before there will be one. There is no official confirmation of the season two yet (not that I know off, at least), but I'm positive it'll come, and hopefully, Noah Hawley can deliver another story of a similar quality. 

FARGO - A FOX, A RABBIT, AND A CABBAGE - RECAP

I guess, Molly is the fox, Malvo is the rabbit and Lester's definitely the cabbage in this week's episode.

First of all, we get to see how Lorne ended up in Vegas, surrounded by two cheerful ladies and an old guy. Turns out, for six months he pretended to be a dentist, got engaged to his hot assistant, hosted dinner parties  - and all of it to get to his "co-worker's" brother, who's under witness protection. Finally, the guy decided to introduce Malvo to his bro, a family reunion had to take place in Vegas. And that's where Lester spotted the guy who changed his life.

Being a changed man, Lester chooses to say hi. Lorne acts as if he's never seen the insurance salesman in his life and the party leaves. Mr. Nygaard catches up with them and gets into the elevator with the group, saying that the new Lester will not just let it go. So Malvo asks him the question he asked in the emergency room a year ago. Is it what he wants? Yes or no? After hesitation, Lester responds in the affirmative. Not sure what he expected to happen, but the next moment Malvo takes out his gun and shoots everyone but the salesman of the year. He tells Lester to help him throw the bodies to the dumpster, but instead Mr. Nygaard hits the killer from behind and runs away. He gets to his room, wakes up his wife and tells her to dress up. They leave for Bemidji, where Lester plans to pick up some things and fly off to sunny Acapulco.

Bill is out of town, so Molly acts as a chief in his stead. She gets a call regarding murders in Vegas - the Sin City police wants her to question a potential witness, Lester Nygaard. She comes to his new impressive house; he attempts to send her away, but Linda interferes. So he gives a statement: nothing out of ordinary, he saw nothing, he knows nothing. When asked about the reason why the couple returned earlier than previously planned, Linda lies that it was her idea.

Malvo also gets to Bemidji; Gus spots him driving by, but like during their first encounter, does nothing about it. Lorne comes by Lester's old house, the new owner tells him Nygaard's got his own insurance shop now with his name on the sign. The office turns out to be closed, so the killer tries his luck in Molly's father's diner. He orders coffee and a piece of an apple pie and tries to find out where Lester lives now. (I'm sure Lou recognized him, and after Malvo saw Gus and Molly on the photo, he (Malvo) realized that). Lorne leaves moments before Molly enters the place to meet with the FBI agents, who also arrive at the same time and pass the killer by without noticing him (again).

I'm gonna miss this guy.

 

They found out about Molly's calls to the bureau and came to talk to her. She takes them to her office to show the scheme on the wall. This is when Bill appears. He rolls his eyes on Solverson displaying her "collage" and says they caught the guy, but the agents criticize him for not caring about all the loose ends and praise Molly for her work.

Lester prints out the tickets, and together with Linda he drives to his shop to pick up the passports and some cash. He notices a lamp turned on, so he gives his wife his old jacket, tells her to put the hood on and sends her in. He remains in his car and watches Malvo appear behind his wife's back and kill her and then walk away.

I wonder if we see the wood chipper in the finale. Lester can't possibly leave the corpse in the office - the second dead wife within one year would look too suspicious. 

FARGO - THE HEAP - RECAP

Molly attempts to present the results of her investigation to Bill, but he's just had an omelet and therefore can't spend his energy on anything but digestion, so he tells her to let it go. After celebrating her own comeback with cake (with rifle made out of frosting on top), she comes to Lester's shop and watches him tell a story to his colleagues. He notices her, but acts as if her presence is not a big deal.

He's no longer the jumpy loser. Earlier he's purchased a new - silent - washing machine, thrown all Pearl's things away and stood up to Gina and her dumb sons by putting clips to each of the boys' foreheads, when she visited his workplace demanding $2 mln. This scene has impressed his co-worker Linda so much that she's called him "amazing".

Lorne Malvo kills the cop guarding Mr. Wrench's door and pays the deaf hitman a visit. He informs the guy he's unemployed, gives him the key from the handcuffs and tells him to find him, after healing up.

Gus sends an extreme amount of flowers to Molly. The day before the hearing on the shooting, he calls her and they plan to go on an official date. And then the time leap happens.

In about a year from when the main events took place, Gus works as a mailman, like he's always dreamed. He now lives in the suburbs with his daughter and Molly, who's very pregnant, just like her prototype from the original movie. She hasn't let Lester's case go, although when she calls the FBI about Lorne Malvo, it is apparent that she has not succeeded to convince anyone so far. The two agents, who once let Malvo kill over twenty Fargo criminals, work with the archives, so hopefully they will be willing to help her.

Bill is still a chief. He tells Molly a fascinating story of his black foster kid, who looks as if he's in his twenties. The kid was lost before he's had a chance to be introduced to his new American family, until Bill caught him shoplifting in Phoenix Farms and "recognized" him.

Lester accepts his first salesman of the year award in some fancy hotel venue. He's happily married to Linda and is definitely a changed man. Almost ready to call it a night, he notices a bunch of young girls making eye contact with him, so he sends his wife to her room, and follows the ladies to the bar. He orders a dangerous drink, Blood and Sand, occasionally checking out his target. And suddenly he sees Lorne Malvo, hair completely gray, entertaining a group of people. 

FARGO - WHO SHAVES THE BARBER? - RECAP

Lester's plan has worked. The gun has indeed been found in his nephew's bag while he was in school, and the police has searched his brother's house and found "the evidence".

Now Mr. Nygaard is being questioned by Bill. Luckily for him, Molly, who is alive, of course, is recovering in Duluth and can't participate in this interrogation. It would have not been so easy to trick her. But Bill basically tells the story for the murderer: Pearl had an affair with Chaz and when she broke it off, he hit her with the hammer. Lester overheard it, but when he went down to the basement, it was all over. Then Vern arrived and Chaz killed him too. After this mild interrogation, Lester walks free, while his brother remains behind bars.

At work he learns that Mrs. Hess has been denied the compensation for her husband's death, so he comes to her house and instead of informing her about this, he implies that if she is willing to "cooperate", he could speed up the process. And so they end up having sex. Breaking bad, are we now, Mr. Nygaard?

Lorne Malvo visits the office of his employer. He asks his boss who could he talk to in Fargo, and after he is denied the answer, points his finger on two phones on the desk and says that one of them calls an ambulance, the other one - a hearse, then he repeats the question. We do not know what the answer was, we only hear a woman scream from inside of the building as Lorne is walking away.

He goes to Fargo's "headquarters" and kills everyone inside (I loved how they shot this scene). Then he leaves, unseen by the FBI tail, who were supposed to spy on Fargo criminals, but did not notice anything suspicious before bodies started falling out of windows, since they were too busy quarreling about the quality of fast food.

As said before, Molly is in Duluth's hospital, and so is Mr. Wrench, whom apparently she managed to shoot before catching the bullet herself, and he is mourning his partner. Gus, being eaten by guilt, tells her he is responsible for her condition, but she doesn't seem to hold it against him. After her "chat" with the deaf guy, whom she recognized from the time when he and Numbers visited Lester's insurance shop, she uses a window glass in her ward to draw the scheme of how Hess, Lester, Fargo and Lorne Malvo are connected. But when she returns to Bemidji, she's devastated by the news of Chaz being arrested for Vern's and Pearl's murder.

FARGO - BURIDAN'S ASS - RECAP

A fish, the symbol Christianity, is killed, freed from its intestines and deep-fried in an Asian restaurant for the Fargo syndicate leader to eat. The old man insists that whether Hess' murder was related to the "business" or not, the killer must die.

In Bemidji hospital Lester discovers that he's detained - the policeman guards the door to his ward. His brother Chaz pays the unfortunate insurance agent a visit and tells him the police suspects he is involved in the murder of Pearl, Vern and possibly Hess. Lester tries to play the victim, but his brother remembers the call from the trunk of the car and thinks the older Nygaard got himself into something dangerous. He says Lester must give the police someone to make this go away and at the end gives a speech about how he thinks Lester doesn't belong in this world and that he's done taking care of the burden his brother's always been to him.

When Chaz leaves, Lester takes his incapable of movement roommate and moves him to his (Lester's) bed. He covers his head with the bandage, hides his coat and the boots under the sheets and gets the poor guy's bed. The nurse takes Lester to the radiology and when she leaves him alone, he escapes.

Lester runs to his house and takes the murder weapon, which he hid in the wall behind the "What if you're right" poster, takes Pearl's naughty pictures and her used underwear and rushes to his brother's home. He hides all of "the evidence" in Chaz's arsenal, from which he also takes a revolver, which he later hides inside of his nephew's school bag. As he leaves, the r-kid notices him, but disregards him. Lester returns to the hospital just in time, and no one notices his absence.

Molly is in Duluth. Grimly tells her that Malvo was spotted by the Jewish neighbor outside of his house in the car that belongs to the chain of supermarkets. The policemen visit the store, but find no managers.

In the meanwhile, Malvo returns to Don's house and lets him out of the closet. The trainer calls Milos and reads from the paper:

"Once upon a time there was a little boy. He was born in a field and raised in the woods. And he had nothing. In the winter the boy would freeze and in the summer he would boil. He knew the name of every stinging insect. At night he would look at the lights in the houses and he would want: Why was he outside and they’d be in? Why was he so hungry and they fed? It should be me, he said. And out of the darkness, the wolves came whispering."

After the call, Lorne knocks Don out and ties him with the duct tape to a piece of sports equipment with a rifle in his hands. Then he shoots out of the window and leaves. The police, thinking there's a dangerous shooter inside, makes a sieve from Don's house and eventually kill him.

Lorne drives in the terrible snow storm, listening to the police talking about taking Don down on the police scanner, when his car gets hit. Turns out it's the Fargo guys, who begin taking shots at him right away. He manages to escape and catch Mr. Numbers, whom he makes confess about Fargo, before slitting his throat. Gus and Molly, who happen to be nearby, hear the shots and find Numbers' body, then Molly runs off to chase the killer, and Gus, not able to see in the blizzard accidentally shoots her, confusing her with the criminal. 

Milos has an epiphany: God wants him to return the money! He asks Wally to bring his son back from the cabin, then goes to the fields and buries the case. As he drives home, he sees Wally and Dmitri killed in the car accident: a great number of fish fell from the sky and Wally could not cope with driving. God decided to take Stavros' first born after all.

I like how they they mix the obvious turns of events, like Lester setting up his brother and Gus shooting Molly, with the completely out of the blue ones: the fish and the end of Don.  

FARGO - THE SIX UNGRASPABLES - RECAP

A flashback reveals how Lester got a shotgun: he did not intend to, but the store owner convinced him to pay $55 for it and the pack of socks he wanted to buy in the first place. His wife wasn't too thrilled about this purchase, but she doubtfully was ever thrilled about anything, really. Then the story goes forward to the night of the murder, and we see Lorne taking the gun and shooting Vern Thurman. A pellet goes right through the chief's body and ends up in Lester's hand, and a House-like computerized video shows how the inflammation is developed in fast motion. 

I love the box titled "Pinhead" in the front.

 This brings us to the time when the main story takes place and we see Mr. Nygaard being mildly tortured for the name of Sam's killer. Threatened to die from swallowing his own tongue (hello, Hannibal!), the insurance salesman gives out Lorne's name, his supposed whereabouts and even mentions that the police has his photo. The Fargo guys get out as the bail is paid shortly after and Lester is finally left alone. They acquire the file from one of the corrupted policemen and get going to Duluth.

Gus tries to find proof that Lorne is not who he says he is by browsing the Internet and sees the photo of the killer in the article about the minister. Searching for "Lorne Malvo" brings no results. He can't sleep and sits in the kitchen with a glass of milk. A neighbor  from the building across the street, the supposed husband of the lady that showed her underwear to Mr. Grimly in the second episode, notices him and invites himself to the policeman's apartment. Gus asks the guy if he should try to put the criminal behind the bars endangering himself and his daughter or let it go. The neighbor responds with a story about a man who gave up everything, including his life, to stop people from suffering and concludes that only a fool thinks he can save the world. "But you've gotta try, don't you?" responds Gus.

In the meanwhile, the man that the naive policeman tries to protect the world from is busy. He buys a police scanner and a walkie talkie (angrily refusing from the pink one) and gets to Don's house. He calls his employer, Stavros, and hears him mumbling about broken promises and first-born sons and eventually saying he's going to pay the blackmailer. The killer records this conversation and we see a number of such records, including one under Lester's name.

Don is too excited about it, so Lorne locks him up in the closet by putting long screws through the door. Stavros takes the cash from the supermarket safe and puts it to the case and doesn't listen to his son who's trying to tell him about the pet stores. Malvo drives the businessman back home and tells him the unsettling story about sex between a woman and a dog and how a dog had to be killed to stop it. So he basically suggests Milos to murder the blackmailer, which is why he doesn't do it himself. 

As Malvo drives to the house of the Supermarket king, he notices Gus and blinds him with the headlights. Stavros says he dos not require Malvo's services anymore and wants him to leave the next day. 

Malvo follows the policeman home and while sitting in the car outside of the building, uses the walkie talkie to catch what Grimly's daughter, whom he heard using the device on the night when he first met the deputy, is talking about. The neighbor that told Gus the story earlier notices him and tells him to leave. Malvo threatens him in his usual manner, but eventually drives away.

Molly presents to Bill, who's worried about the coming snowstorm, all the evidence she's got, including Sam's bragging about breaking somebody's nose on the day of his murder, and he finally starts thinking that maybe Lester is not so innocent after all. Molly didn'n get it quite right yet, she thinks Malvo was hired to kill Hess, but things went bad, so he killed Pearl and injured Lester. She wants to question the salesman and bill tells her he's in custody. By the time they get to his cell, the guy has a fever and is delirious, so they have to get him to the hospital. On the way there Molly tries to ask him about Malvo, but he only mumbles "I've never paid him".

In the hospital the doctor informs her about the pellet and says Lester nearly lost his hand. He also mentions that Vern's widow's just gave birth to a girl, Bernadette, and Molly pays her a visit. Either the tragedy's made her smarter or going through with the labor, but Mrs. Thurman seems a lot smarter now than when we first met her.

Molly goes to Lester's house and checks the back of the washing machine, where the owner used to hide the weapon of murder, but, alas, it's no longer there.

FARGO - EATING THE BLAME - RECAP

Finally, we learn how Stavros got the money to start his supermarket business. Turns out, he fled with his family to Minnesota from the debt collectors. They ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere, and in desperation he asked God to help him. He then saw an orange scraper on top of a snowdrift, started digging and found a case with loads of cash. This was the moment when he became the believer.

Now he calls for a plumber to find out about the blood shower, so Don comes in, disguised as one, and tells him there is no sign of anything in the pipes that would have possibly caused this. He also brings up the Ten Plagues and suggests that Stavros' done something to upset God. The supermarket king loses temper and attacks the guy, but Wally interferes.

Don's next task is to buy loads of locusts, which he does, and Malvo releases them in Stavros' supermarket. As Milos comes out to oversee the insect invasion, he receives a call with the demand of $1 mln. 

Gus Grimly comes to Mr. Milos to follow up on the dog murder case and sees Lorne, who notices him in time and calls his boss requesting "a package". Grimly does the right thing and arrests the killer. "You're making a mistake - that's what you're gonna say a couple of hours from now," says Malvo as they drive to the police station. Gus calls Molly and says he's arrested the guy. She reports this to Bill, who goes to Duluth without her. 

Molly receives Lester's phone records and sees that he made a call to the motel on the night of the murder. She speaks to the staff and they recognize Lorne as one of their visitors from the photo that she shows them. The motel owner gives Molly the name he wrote in her book and her assistant mentions he found tokens from over the Lucky Penny, when he was cleaning the room where the killer stayed. Molly passes the name to Gus.

As Bemidji chief of police arrives, Lorne begins lying his way out - he pretends to be the minister and his alibi checks out. As he is being released, Gus yells "you're making a mistake" to his colleagues, and Malvo turns and smiles at him, as if saying "told ya". Grimly stops him on his way out of the station and asks: "How can you do that... just lie like that?" At first the killer just says some minister billshit and turns his back on the deputy. But when Gus yells "Lorne Malvo" at him, he smiles, like he wants to mess with the policeman, and turns with the strange look on his face. "Did you know the human eye can see more shades of green than any other color? Why?" he asks. "When you figure out the answer to my question, then you'll have the answer to yours," he concludes and leaves.

Lester gets abducted by Fargo guys. They bring him to the lake in the trunk of a car and as Mr. Wrench is drilling the ice, Mr. Numbers tries to make Lester admit he killed Hess. However, Lester's already on his way on becoming the predator, so he uses electroshocker on the guy and runs away. He sees a policeman and asks for a ride, and when the policeman refuses, he punches him and gets arrested and is driven away.

Gus comes to Bemidji to speak with Molly. He tells her about Malvo's riddle and she gives an answer to it - we see more shades of green, because back in the day we needed to notice predators hiding in the green bushes.

Wrench and Numbers pick up a fight with each other in a bar, get detained and brought to the same cell where Lester is kept. Awkward!