The episode may have seemed like a diversion (or a “trip around the mullberry bush”) at first, but the end made it relevant. It may not connect directly with the plot of this season, but it ties in very much with the plot/theme of the entire series. Remember, these stories are excerpts from “The History of True Crime in the Mid West.” But really, it’s a show about karma: about how individual choices create bonds of cause and effect that connect people and events otherwise separated by geography and time, and how violence in particular is a metaphysical cancer that spreads itself along these karmic lines in ways no one can predict.
The producer and the waitress were bad people, minor forces of evil that pushed a good person too far and caused him to commit a murder. In the universe of this series, that murder cannot go unpunished, and moreover, it cannot help but draw other people in. If Thaddeus hadn’t murdered Zimmerman, he wouldn’t have changed his name. He wouldn’t have attracted the attention of the parolee Ray hired. Ray wouldn’t have been pushed into murdering him with the help of his girlfriend, Nikki, and all of the subsequent violence that we know is coming in the rest of the story could have been avoided. The story of this season could have been told without this episode, but then we wouldn’t know the real reasons for things, wouldn’t see the real pattern in the karmic web. The fact that Gloria does can uncover these patterns and trace the lines of the web, even if she doesn’t know what they are, is the reason she will be the one to kill the spider.
Zimmerman wasn’t murdered - he was injured/beaten for sure - I think we are to assume the injuries visited upon him by Thaddeus are the reason he is currently in the wheelchair/hospice location - But he is still alive. Thaddeus certainly appears to have assumed he had killed him - and likely believed to his death that he had.
I keep thinking that Ray Wise’s “bill of divorce” story has some meaning in all of this. Perhaps something about the future changing the meaning of the past?
We know:
1.Thaddeus badly beat Zimmerman up and
2. Zimmerman is currently in a nursing home
But how do you draw any other conclusions? My thought was that Zimmerman had probably recovered from his injuries after a few weeks (except perhaps the loss of his voice) and only arrived in the nursing home a few years previously because of other illnesses. And he could well have left Hollywood because of the corruption there and running out of money.
Loved the use of Prokofiev’s “Peter And The Wolf”.
Varga binges and purges. This evil menacing mastermind is bulimic?
Anyone else think that the scene where Gloria was questioning Stussy’s business partner about the Humvee was a callback to a scene in the original movie?
And what is up with Gloria not registering with electronic sensors?
Huh. A bulimic Brit gangster - it doesn’t get much quirkier than that.
Definitely some similarities between Marge’s questioning of Jerry in the original Fargo, and the chirpy cop’s (her name is Winnie Lopez) questioning of Sy. Sy saying that “cremains” was “the preferred nomenclature” also echoed Walter’s comment to the Dude about referring to “the Chinaman” in the Coen Bros.’ The Big Lebowski.
Must’ve been Sy who took the cellphone pics of Ray and Nikki that got Ray fired.
Great to hear Billy Bob narrating Peter and the Wolf - which reminds me that Martin Freeman also did some narration in the Fargo season after which he appeared.
Favorite line so far: “Basically, this is now my only non-micturated footwear.”
Wonder if there’ll turn out to be some kind of science fiction-ey reason for it, hearkening back to her ex-stepfather’s books? I definitely expect it will have some plot significance.
It’s really bothering me that Emmit and Sy haven’t really done anything wrong per se to get themselves in the middle of the chaos like prior protagonists. There is no reason they couldn’t go right to the cops, they are not covering up anything.
They did take a shady loan of $1 million. I’m not sure what the legality of that is, but even if it is technically above board just the fact that it will show in any investigation that it came from a gangster would give them a worrying twinge. Might be a hard one to explain away. “No officer - we had no idea that our very large loan that no bank would ever consider giving us came from an illegal source.”
Judging from the anniversary reception, social standing is also very important to Emmit. Don’t think he wants the embarrassment of a police investigation that’s likely to go public sooner or later.
No they haven’t. For example they haven’t found out yet that it was the parole officer’s girlfriend’s apartment that the air conditioner “accidentally” fell out of and crushed the killer.
They’re connecting the pieces much too soon in the season - there must be a much larger story going on. I worry for Ray - he’s got nothing to lose now.
I wondering if Varga’s bulimia could be due fear of food poisoning. I appreciate the view of his teeth, ravished by stomach acid.
I hope the door sensors not working for her is just a quirk. It made me laugh when the water faucets didn’t register her hands - I thought that happened only to me.
The first time we saw something not work for her - the door to the store - she seemed surprised, like it was the first time it had happened, and she seems puzzled and annoyed everytime since. So it seems like this is something new in her life.
I think at least some of the quirky stuff may be symbolic rather than being physically germane to the story.