Loved Lester’s use of the beartrap. I also liked that he was last seen trying to escape, just as Jerry Lundegaard was in the movie (although he was in a motel under a false name).
I’m disappointed, though, that we never saw that scene from the previews with Adam Goldberg’s hitman offering somebody Funyuns. And I still don’t buy that Lester was able to both placate (the justifiably pissed-off) Mrs. Hess and still win a Salesman of the Year award.
Malvo isn’t a nice guy. He wouldn’t want to leave a witness to his murder of two FBI agents. I suspect he climbed in the car with the guy, had him drive it somewhere nearby out of sight, shot him, then walked back to Lester’s house.
Remember that the used car salesman and his wife didn’t buy life insurance largely because Lester was such a poor salesman.
Hitchcock also liked to say, “My characters do not call the police because that would be no fun.”
At the time I was practically screaming at Gus to call in his sighting of Malvo’s car - what if, while he waited for Malvo to return, Malvo killed Molly or his daughter? Gus would never forgive himself. But the BPD was such a poor excuse for a cop shop that I can understand acting as he did.
Well, it started in 2006. Remember there was that one-year flash-forward, but the opening title cards still said it was taking place in 2006!
Anyone else notice that the title “Fargo” appeared in black in the last episode? It was red in all the earlier ones.
Me, too. Remember Zombieland Rule 2: Double tap.
I think it was just a continuity error. I looked closely at that sequence and the gun shifted in her lap from one shot (ahem) to the next, from pointing at him to not pointing at him, without us actually seeing her move it.
Hmmm. Interesting theory.
Yes. The snowmobile dudes chasing Lester had U.S. Border Patrol shoulder patches.
There is indeed an FBI office in Fargo, although it’s not in the modern, concrete “Federal Building” shown in the TV show. Couldn’t find out how many special agents are assigned to it.
It’s weird, but the most surprising and horrifying thing in the series, for me, was the murder of the two FBI agents. They were characterized for so long as kind of comedic guys who, while not being the greatest at their job, were funny, nice, etc, etc - their characters didn’t scream “I’m going to be a victim!” I expected them to be in the epilogue, wrap things up, make a few jokes about how weird the case turned out to be, and so on. And then BAM, dead.
The green vision “riddle” also struck a chord with me. I don’t think it was there just to characterize Malvo as a predator - humans are hunters. Malvo, Molly, Gus, Lester, Molly’s dad - everyone. All that changes is who and why we’re hunting.
I just caught up on the show. I thought that was an excellent end to the season. I wanna watch the whole thing again from the start.
I think you’re right, her story was to say that Lester wouldn’t toss his other glove, it wouldn’t even occur to him to do that. Molly would toss her other glove, Gus would toss his after thinking for a second about how this stinks that he lost his glove. Malvo would toss his glove, but only after putting some razors or used syringes in it.
I also agree with you (and everyone else) that Malvo not quite being dead was terrifying.
I was terrified for Gus. There were a few scenes between when Gus went into the cabin and when Malvo got back. I read an interview with Noah Hawley who said that by then he was hoping you would have forgotten about Gus being in there and it would be surprising when he comes out. But I hadn’t forgotten, and I was still worried about Gus, even with Malvo having his terrible looking injuries.
In the same interview he said something about how while the show isn’t actually based on a true story, they kept the “true story” disclaimer in mind for structuring some things. The more expected thing would be for Molly and Malvo to have a showdown in the last episode, everything was leading to that. But instead Molly never even saw Malvo in the flesh (other than maybe a brief glimpse in the blizzard) and someone else took down Malvo, since that’s more true to life. Also in real life there are a lot of loose ends. I liked how not everything was neatly wrapped up in a bow.
I don’t think it was stated, other than he had a hearing coming up. Gus wasn’t highly respected, but he was still a cop, I wouldn’t be surprised if his boss or another superior advised him that it might be best for everyone if he resigned, instead of forcing them to go through disciplinary stuff and firing him.
I agree that Bill’s speech was perfect. The character has been great and Bob Odenkirk has been great as Bill. There have been shows and movies before where the cop’s superior is incompetent or stupid, or doesn’t trust the cop protagonist because he doesn’t like him or trust him for a stupid reason. I really liked how Bill was written, that he didn’t disbelieve Molly because of stupidity or arrogance or sexism, but because he couldn’t fathom the amount of evilness in this case.
Also, I really liked the end with Molly, Gus, and Greta on the couch. Molly will be able to handle things without becoming cynical or haunted. Also this is likely the worst case she’ll ever see.
Gus didn’t get a real good look at Malvo when he drove past. With all the trouble that Malvo has caused, and the initial fear and anger Malvo caused for Gus, I wouldn’t be surprised if Gus has thought he’s seen Malvo several times in the past year. It’s only after he hears that Malvo is back in town (and maybe he hears about the red BMW? I don’t remember) that he knows for sure that it must have actually been Malvo that he saw drove by.
We’ve seen Malvo threaten Gus’s family; I’m guessing he threatened the salesman’s family. Malvo could take the guy’s driver’s license and say “drive up to that house, and I’ll let you and your family live. Drive away, and I’ll go kill your family, then I will find you and kill you.”
I think Lester’s end was perfect. Also funny since that’s also what those two henchmen had tried to do before he got away.
I don’t think Malvo had any intention of Lester being a henchman. I think Lester just amused him. Malvo tries to stir up trouble and corrupt people, and it worked better than he could have ever managed with Lester.
Also, Lester and Malvo are both dead because they tried to prove to themselves and others about who they really are. Lester thinks he’s a real man now, wants others to know and acknowledge it, and wants Malvo to know and acknowledge it and acknowledge him. He pushed it, and it led to the chain of events that caused his death.
The funny thing is, Malvo also needed to prove himself to Lester. Needed to prove that Lester can’t just hit Malvo on the head and run away, he needs to pay for that. I think if Lester had just helped clean up the bodies, Malvo would have let him live, because it’s funny to Malvo to see how much he’s corrupted Lester. Malvo did not need to come back to Bemidji and kill Lester. Malvo has been seen by other eyewitnesses, and cameras, and has gone in and out of police custody before. Three little murders in Las Vegas isn’t any big deal to him, he doesn’t need to tie up the loose ends and kill Lester. Malvo could have gone on to his next job in Florida or Indiana or anywhere else, and lived to cause more havoc. But since he wanted to show that you can’t hit him on the head and get away with it, he ended up dead.
Malvo obviously doesn’t mind some loose ends. He’s let Lester and Gus live, he lets the deaf henchman live and escape, knowing that the he could come for Malvo at some point. He dragged out that office guy in front of many other office workers, not caring how many eyewitnesses and cameras there were.
[QUOTE=Octarine]
The green vision “riddle” also struck a chord with me. I don’t think it was there just to characterize Malvo as a predator - humans are hunters.
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I don’t know what the writers intended, but here is what both the riddle and Malvo’s end meant to me:
Malvo is an animal; a wild animal.
He is telling Gus that with the riddle. In the end, while we all want to apply “golly, is that legal?” logic, Gus is realizing, finally, that Malvo IS a wild animal, and dispatches him the exact same way you would a wolf or bear that had been caught in a leg trap. No long discussion, no questions - just do what has to be done. Gus’ only statement was essentially “I figured out you were trying to tell me you’re an animal, so here we go”.
Malvo would have have expected that Lester could have heard the shots and/or seen the agents being killed (and it turned out he did). So if Malvo had done that it would have taken time and Lester could well have escaped out the back door. Because of this time delay I think Malvo would either have shot the witness immediately leaving the car there or let him go.
I just did that and it was well worth it. I discovered many things that I never discovered before.
I loved this show the first time around and I loved it even more the second time around.
I suggest to everyone and anyone that spending the ten hours or so will be a very enjoyable use of their time. It was extremely high quality TV. Some of the best I have ever seen.
Maybe only 2 or 3 shows as good or better than Fargo. The Americans, The Sopranos and Games of Thrones come to mind. There may well be others. But those 3 are the only ones I can think of now.
Well, for one thing, I found that in most shots of those FBI agents, they always seemed to show their socks. That was just kind of strange. I don’t know the significance of that (yet).
IBM salesman and FBI agents have a bizarre reputation for having to wear white socks or really strange looking socks. Some scenes you would see a couple of men wearing some very strange looking socks before you saw who they were and you just knew that it was them because of that.
It’s hardly earth-shattering information. Just one of a several details that wasn’t apparent to me the first time I watched the show.
Also, in my previous post, I explained about the connection to Molly’s parable and the police/receptionist lady.
I’ve been kicking a name around in my head for the last few weeks, trying to remember where I’d heard it before. The dime finally dropped for me earlier today. About 2 episodes back, someone made a reference to Knuteson’s (or maybe Knudson’s). And it drove me friggin crazy.
Bunny Lebowski’s real last name was Knuteson. When The Dude is being talked to by the other PI (the bald one with the blue VW), he reveals that her name was Fawn Knuteson, and he was hired by her parents to try to get her to go back to them family farm in Minnesota.
I interpreted the glove parable a little differently than what I see in the thread.
I thought Molly was trying to say, in her roundabout way, that Lester wasn’t originally a bad guy, but by accident got mixed up with Malvo. This was losing the first glove. But then Lester embraced the evil, becoming evil himself. This was Lester tossing the second glove out the window.
For both the gloves and Lester, an unwanted situation started accidentally and unintentionally, but was eventually embraced, and finished consciously and on purpose.
Lester could have been in Canada in a little over an hour from Bemidji.And the roads along the MN/Canadian border are so remote that you could rent a 4x4 and drive into Canada without being seen by anyone for hours.
Hell, you could walk across one of the lakes into Canada in the winter.
