The arguments that have been made here in favor of both Nikki and Emmit are good. However, I am looking at The Widow Goldfarb and how (relatively) little she’s had to do so far, other than muck about with the timeline of Emmit’s whereabouts when Ray died.
If, hypothetically, Emmit were to be convicted of some sort of malfeasance, would his associated business assets be forfeited to the state? (If, say, drugs were involved, via a skillful frame-up…?) And would the state then auction off those assets at, potentially, bargain prices? Prices that would be more advantageous to the widow than the prices she’d have had to pay in the business deal previously under contemplation?
Goldfarb would only have been able to get hold of those books via a connection with either Varga or Nikki or Emmit, and if it were Nikki or Emmit the same ramifications already discussed would apply. So if Goldfarb is working with Varga, perhaps that could have come about via Varga’s deciding that Emmit is too unstable and unreliable to go on serving as his front. And killing off Emmit wouldn’t solve that problem, because with Sy still sidelined, there’s no one left to run the Stussy business.
Varga might well prefer Goldfarb, and might like to have her compromised (by being involved with turning over the books to the IRS) in addition to having her buy up the Parking Lot King assets.
(On the other hand I’m still thinking that Goldfarb has a preexisting relationship with Varga, but that’s based more on the casting than on anything we’ve been shown–Mary McDonnell is a pretty big name to be merely a peripheral character.)
Hmm… no idea. I hadn’t considered it being part of Varga’s plan, either. I though it might have to do with Ennis’s previous life, but recent developments don’t really support that.
I’m not sure about the rest of the exchange, I remember one thing for certain though, he said: “the guy I robbed is probably dead”, which sounded off.
I think what Varga has to gain is what’s happening right now. I think his long range plan was to take over and get rid of Emmit. So he started to set up a serial killer alibi. Some nut going around killing Stussy’s. I’m sure eventually he’d have killed Emmit and Ray in a similar fashion, but Emmit accidentally killing Ray with the glass and then Emmit confessing changed all that. So he had to go to another plan. Kill any more local Stussy’s with glue and glass, tying all the murders together. And he’ll get rid of Emmit in a way that it’ll look like depressed suicide.
Now the only thing that would render all that I’ve written moot, would be if Maurice confessed to killing the original Stussy. I may wind up re-watching that episode this week to see if he did.
It’s always bothered me that not only did we never see Maurice commit the crime but that the gluing death didn’t seem to jibe with how he’d have killed him.
I thought the gluing death was an accident. I figured he tied up Ennis, then glued his mouth shut to keep him from yelling and somehow the glue got in his nostrils and closed them. LeFay was a total screw-up and high as a kite.
So Maurice was sent to rob Emmit but through a weird series of mistakes end up at the wrong house. And coincidentally, it’s the same night that a fake serial killer starts his spree on the guy in that house he visited accidentally. I don’t buy it.
Actually I think this makes the most sense, Fargo-wise.
The essence of Fargo really isn’t the odd way people talk or the dark humor it’s the weird, odd coincidences that crop up. The coincidence of the UFO showing up at the motel last year at just the right time for example. I can see this odd coincidence of Maurice picking the wrong Stussy on the night that Varga begins his plan (if I’m not mistaken, it occurred the night before he introduced himself to Emmit) being perfectly natural in the odd Fargo universe.
But like I said, if Maurice confessed the murder to Nikki and Ray, this answer won’t fly.
Fantastic episode, everything is really coming together, and I can’t wait for the finale. Emmit’s speech was heart-breaking, as was him leaving and going to the car with Varga. And I love Nikki becoming a revenge ninja, I assume she was also who redecorated Emmit’s office with all the framed stamps. Also Carrie Coon is fantastic. Her speech about maybe not existing was a little on the nose but she sold it, and also sold the happiness about being seen finally by the sink and soap.
I just rewatched that part of the premiere, and while Maurice doesn’t say “I killed the guy” he does say “I sure hope the fellow with the stamps wasn’t a friend of yours Ray, cause well, let’s just say when an ex-con threatens ya, demands the goods, the smart money says co-operate.” And then when he’s demanding more money from Ray he says “considering the fella we robbed is probably dead.”
Also Gloria had just been at her Ennis’s place with her son, but had to “flip a b-word” and go back because the son forgot the gift Ennis had made for him. So it’s a coincidence that Maurice got there and killed and robbed Ennis while Gloria was on the road, but it would be even more of a coincidence if a random other killer was there, then Maurice was there, all in the time that Gloria was driving. Gloria does hear something at the house and it sounds like someone taking a few steps upstairs and a door squeaking, but her son walks into the kitchen at the same time, so it could just be a misdirection and it’s an old house making noises.
Okay. I’m looking at the first episode scene where Ray and Nikki are in the bathtub and the parolee bursts in. During the ensuing encounter he says
“I sure hope that fellow with the stamps isn’t a friend of yours Ray. Cause, well, let’s just say, when an ex-con threatens you - demands the goods - the smart money says cooperate.”
Later he says that he may be dead.
None of that sounds like he found him dead. It’s conceivable that he left him unconscious and then someone else finished him off after he left, but I don’t think that there was a very long time frame between when Gurble and son left and when they came back.
One notable thing is that while Gurble was in the house she heard footsteps upstairs but never found the source of them. It could have been the parolee, someone else, or, given the nature of the show, some supernatural thing.
Not a bad episode. Things are certainly moving fast towards next week’s finale.
According to Google Maps, as I thought, the murder victim Marvin Stussy’s house at 818 Elmhurst Drive isn’t a valid address in St. Cloud. Meeker County is real, though: Meeker County, Minnesota - Wikipedia
Loved the scene where Nikki and Wrench steal the tractor trailer with a fake grenade. Just before that, Meemo reached over or silently did something that the black guy beside Meemo smiled about - what was that? And did Wrench kill the guys in the SUV behind the big rig, do you think, or just disable their vehicle and scare them?
I hope Wrench killed Meemo after surprising him in the hotel room, but I suspect we’ll see him again. Good scene with Varga and Nikki chatting in the lobby, taking each other’s measure, scorpions in a bottle. But why wouldn’t Varga follow Nikki and Wrench out of the hotel afterwards, or have a flunky do so?
Great monologue by Emmit in talking about his longstanding guilt over Ray. Best line: “Thirty years I’ve been killing him. That’s just when he fell.”
Glad to see the persnickety IRS agent again! I posted awhile back that I thought the bad guys just might get nabbed for tax shenanigans a la Al Capone.
It’s Burgle, which is kind of a funny name for a cop, come to think of it.
I’ve been thinking about the name “Burgle”, and how she seems to be invisible at times… and wondered if it is a reference to Bilbo, who was hired as a “burglar”, and who actually could become invisible. Too much of a stretch?
Hawley has brought Missouri mobsters into the story (at least by mention) in the other seasons, so it wouldn’t be terribly shocking if there’s some connection.