# Fargo S3 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 12, 2017, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313 "2017-04-12T13:44:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/61 "2017-05-05T06:00:06Z")
Chefguy: I had the same problems. There are two reasons she could have gone to California: 1. Investigate California as a possible motive for murder. But that was so long ago it didn’t seem relevant. And she would have had the department pay for the trip, rather than pay for it herself. 2. Personal reasons. Find and connect with his relatives, etc. For this I thought she did a poor research job. Google and various databases come to mind… ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/62 "2017-05-05T06:14:39Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I really don’t understand the reason for this episode. It really didn’t seem to have any point, other than to perhaps show her tenacity in an investigation. Style, man - style! Reasons and plot advancement are for suckers :p. > [@PastTense](#): > > 1. Personal reasons. Find and connect with his relatives, etc. For this I thought she did a poor research job. Google and various databases come to mind… They’ve made it pretty clear she’s olddddddd school. She wouldn’t know a google search if it bit her on the ass. Curiously the same lack plagued parking-lot-Stussy’s now deceased attorney as he had to have his secretary assist him. Not happenstance, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/63 "2017-05-05T12:56:24Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Style, man - style! Reasons and plot advancement are for suckers :p. > > They’ve made it pretty clear she’s olddddddd school. She wouldn’t know a google search if it bit her on the ass. Curiously the same lack plagued parking-lot-Stussy’s now deceased attorney as he had to have his secretary assist him. Not happenstance, I’m sure. Hey, the first time her attorney Googled something both he and his computers ended up dead, so maybe this Google thing ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/64 "2017-05-05T14:46:21Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I just saw it, and also had problems with the age difference (between the young writer vs the step-grandfather and the young woman vs the diner waitress). The waitress looked younger than the step-grandfather but the young woman was roughly as young as the writer. Yes, although the difference in ages there is not as extreme. The actor playing the young woman (Clint Eastwood’s daughter, as it happens) is 23, whereas the actor playing the writer is 25; the actors playing their older counterparts were born in 1952 and 1943, respectively. But the older Stussey is (according to people who spotted a plaque or something) supposed to be more like 82. Why they would make him older than the actor, when that just makes the disparity worse, I don’t understand. ---
**Author:** ![Panthan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Panthan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panthan)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/65 "2017-05-05T15:56:49Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I really don’t understand the reason for this episode. It really didn’t seem to have any point, other than to perhaps show her tenacity in an investigation. Well, the step-father got killed because his name happened to be Stussy. And he’d never have changed his name to Stussy if he hadn’t gotten mixed up with the producer and wound up bent over the toilet. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/66 "2017-05-05T16:33:57Z")
> [@Panthan](#): > > Well, the step-father got killed because his name happened to be Stussy. And he’d never have changed his name to Stussy if he hadn’t gotten mixed up with the producer and wound up bent over the toilet. I get that, but why is the explanation necessary and why go so far around the mulberry bush to get to it? I watch this series because of the quirkiness, but this just seemed like masturbation to me. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/67 "2017-05-05T16:36:11Z")
One of the recaps I read mentioned some of the episode was an homage to the Coen Brothers movie Barton Fink. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/68 "2017-05-05T17:02:05Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > One of the recaps I read mentioned some of the episode was an homage to the Coen Brothers movie Barton Fink. I had that feeling throughout the episode, dealing with a writer working on a script in a dingy motel room in corrupt Hollywood, and especially when they had the shot of Carrie Coon sitting on the beach looking out at the ocean, which matched the image Barton had hanging on his dingy hotel room wall. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/69 "2017-05-05T17:31:02Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I get that, but why is the explanation necessary and why go so far around the mulberry bush to get to it? I watch this series because of the quirkiness, but this just seemed like masturbation to me. I think honestly this show gets episode orders that are longer than the story Hawley really has to tell (I thought the same about his recent series Legion as well). In the first season, the stuff about the blackmailing really was irrelevant to the main story and pretty much just served as filler. But I prefer something like this, where they don’t really pretend it’s anything else but a “trip around the mulberry bush” as you say, and it’s a one-episode pleasant diversion. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/70 "2017-05-05T17:40:43Z")
So far, it hasnt grabbed me like 1 & 2 did, but it is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/71 "2017-05-05T18:55:31Z")
Thinking about the age difference; could it be that the Ennis Stussy she knew was not, in fact, that young writer? Could there be something else going on? Perhaps some sort of stolen identity thing where someone came along and took Ennis Stussy’s identity, not knowing (or not caring) that it was fake? And yes, I agree that the episode was a reference to Barton Fink. I don’t really recall the plot, but maybe there are clues to all of this in it. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/72 "2017-05-05T18:58:56Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Thinking about the age difference; could it be that the Ennis Stussy she knew was not, in fact, that young writer? Could there be something else going on? Perhaps some sort of stolen identity thing where someone came along and took Ennis Stussy’s identity, not knowing (or not caring) that it was fake? A number of people speculated in that direction on the AV Club. But I don’t believe that fits with the way this episode’s script was written. It seemed to me to clearly represent a tragic and heretofore unknown backstory for this crotchety old guy who got killed due to a case of mistaken identity. Particularly when you think about the toilet reveal at the end. So I think this is a case of questionable casting leading people to interpret the script in ways that were not intended. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/73 "2017-05-05T19:14:18Z")
Or they could have done all that to make you think that. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/74 "2017-05-05T19:28:07Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > I just saw it, and also had problems with the age difference (between the young writer vs the step-grandfather and the young woman vs the diner waitress). The waitress looked younger than the step-grandfather but the young woman was roughly as young as the writer. > > Yes, although the difference in ages there is not as extreme. The actor playing the young woman (Clint Eastwood’s daughter, as it happens) is 23, whereas the actor playing the writer is 25; the actors playing their older counterparts were born in 1952 and 1943, respectively. And the older Vivian was played by the real-life mother of the actress playing the younger Vivian. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/75 "2017-05-08T00:28:09Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > I had to watch it twice, once for the story, and a second time for details about the setting. It’s hard for me to watch since being from Minnesota, I’m looking for Minnesota-related anachronisms (?). Some that I noticed: > > - the anniversary party has snow on the driveway! No real Minnesotan would tolerate letting snow accumulate like that, especially if it was going to be driven on, since you’d never get it off until springtime or warm weather > > - no way would you drive a Corvette in Minnesota in the winter, given its rear-wheel drive, usually non-grip slick tires, and especially the low clearance - you’d be constantly scraping the bottom of the vehicle on snow > > - the accents sound like they’re copying Martin Freeman copying William Macy’s interpretation of a Minnesotan accent. Season 2 was better, since it was set in southern Minnesota where I would find a “northern-Minnesota” accent to be jarring > > - the “yield ahead” sign was not typical for Minnesota - looks like a Canada thing > > - Eden Prairie is a pretty big suburb of Minneapolis; it’s the home of the Minnesota Vikings (at least for now) and the home of the “Mystery Science Theater 3000”. I’d expect most Minnesotans would remember seeing “Eden Prairie” (but that was a pretty stupid criminal) > > - You can’t sell alcohol in grocery stores in Minnesota > > If I watched a third time (or took notes) I’m sure there’d more. > > But I still very much enjoyed this. Mary Elizabeth Winstead owns the screen in every scene that she is in and is the most memorable character (so far). Excellent points. I had been wondering if I were the the only one being driven crazy with the “Minnesota-isms” Between the half-Irish accents, the disconnect from technology, and the 1980’s-looking homes, it’s quite distracting. I think this season bothers me most since it’s the most recent and it seems to me that even in remote towns, there should be at least a few people keeping up with the times. In season 2, set in the 70’s, it was easier to overlook. Now it’s just making me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/76 "2017-05-08T01:52:46Z")
Sorry for double posting, but just watched episode 3 and don’t understand how Gloria got all the info she had while in LA. If she doesn’t use a computer, how did she track down all those leads so quickly? Did I miss something? ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/77 "2017-05-08T03:59:32Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > - no way would you drive a Corvette in Minnesota in the winter, given its rear-wheel drive, usually non-grip slick tires, and especially the low clearance - you’d be constantly scraping the bottom of the vehicle on snow I think that’s kind of the point. The character is holding on to the inheritance he received from his father instead of the stamps even though the gift has outlived it’s usefulness. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/78 "2017-05-08T04:10:52Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I get that, but why is the explanation necessary and why go so far around the mulberry bush to get to it? I watch this series because of the quirkiness, but this just seemed like masturbation to me. I don’t think you’re doing it right. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/79 "2017-05-08T15:18:30Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I get that, but why is the explanation necessary and why go so far around the mulberry bush to get to it? I watch this series because of the quirkiness, but this just seemed like masturbation to me. Her trip to LA did lead to a revelation: she came to realize that his past wasn’t the reason for the murder; that she could eliminate that avenue of inquiry. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313/80 "2017-05-08T18:41:16Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > On tonight’s episode Emmit mentioned contacting Stan Grossman, in case they were going to look into building condos on one of their sprawling parking lots. Could that be the same Stan Grossman from the original film? If so, is that the shared element? Good catch! Very likely (he’s the guy on the left): [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4YgJcArLfKE/To0A2kS45xI/AAAAAAAAI1U/gqa48TpDlOk/s1600/Fargo\_101Pyxurz.jpg](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4YgJcArLfKE/To0A2kS45xI/AAAAAAAAI1U/gqa48TpDlOk/s1600/Fargo_101Pyxurz.jpg) > [@davidm](#): > > …This is in spite of the fact that the whole thing was her chasing what is to us an obvious red herring. The murder has nothing to do with the victim’s past - he was the random victim of a stupid mistake - but of course she doesn’t know that. > > I think the LA trip may end up being her “Mike Yanagita” experience that causes her to rethink the investigation in some way… Could be. And did you notice the substitution of “California” for “Minnesota” in the opening credits? > [@SlackerInc](#): > > I can’t see Ray Wise grin, twinkle in his eyes, without thinking of the Devil in _Reaper_. That performance was so iconic, it obliterated _Twin Peaks_ for me. Agreed. Charming, gleeful but with an unmistakable air of menace. Very sorry they cancelled _Reaper_. And did you know he was in two unrelated _Star Trek_ episodes?: [Ray Wise | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Ray_Wise) > [@Sherrerd](#): > > I remember the claw ones, but as I recall they’d snatch a penny that you put in a slot… We had one of those when I was a kid. It was made of cheap, thin black metal and the hand was pale, glow-in-the-dark plastic. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > By the way, did she have her friend on the police force pull over the school bus just so she could talk to her son? That seemed an odd thing to do, but perhaps in a small town, they’re cool with that sort of thing. That’s how I understood it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s3/784313.md?page=5)