Good catch! Didn’'t know Minsky did that.
RIP, Ray. You were a fuckup, but I kinda liked you.
Do we think Gloria is going to get to his place before the others leave?
That was awesome that the earbuds-wearing bad guy has an alternate presentation as a fussy tax attorney. I wonder if he really *is *a lawyer.
I thought there were two “No Country” callbacks near the end of the episode: the earbuds guy waiting in the motel room but then not being there when she enters; and Gloria saying “screw it” and turning the car around (which I thought was reminiscent of Moss lying in bed and deciding to go back to bring the guy water).
This season would seem significantly better if it were the second or especially the first season, or you hadn’t watched the earlier ones. There is a certain formula underneath the variations that becomes more apparent over time.
Sy can be kind of dumb sometimes, but I really liked his rant about how the plot his partner was imagining made no sense, to “turn millions into thousands”.
Yes, that Sy speech did an excellent job of highlighting the absurdity of Emmit’s paranoia.
(I remain in awe of this season’s wonderful casting. Not that previous seasons were lacking, of course.)
and Wrench returns -----
We never really got to see Nikki get beat up two weeks ago, right? And now she’s sitting next to Mr. Wrench, and they seem to know each other. Her actions destroyed the Stussy family, intentionally or not. I’m hoping she’s the mastermind behind Varga and that all of the shenanigans are the results of her evil, diabolical mind.
I just saw Final Destination 3 and Mary Elizabeth Winstead has only gotten better looking (and frankly, better at acting). I hope this series does great things for her career, like Alison Tolman is getting recognized.
Do they?
Wow. My first response was to say that’s a ridiculous theory, but I guess it’s just barely possible. If it turns out to be correct, you’ll deserve major props.
But why would she say “follow the money”, when that would likely lead to Varga? Also, didn’t we see her barely drag herself away from the scene of the beating, without any witnesses (but the camera) present?
Sepinwall’s review of the latest episode (link) gives some good insight as to why this season feels a little rote. Mr. Wrench’s sudden appearance gives me hope that Hawley is breaking the fourth wall, and that this season is ultimately going to comment on the nature of storytelling in a television series that’s necessarily repetitious (being 1) a continuing series, 2) an anthology, and 3) a remake/re-imagining of an existing property). If Mr. Wrench is just there as fan service, I’m going to be really disappointed.
I was thinking the same thing. The scene where the Russian made the cop walk away was just like the scene last season, where Malvo made the cop walk away.
And it really made no sense, since the whole reason he was there was because they couldn’t find anything out about the police department online. If they had profiles of the cops, and knew that the guy would back down, it would be one thing. To dominate a cop you know nothing about, except that he has a gun, is much less likely.
Also making no sense was Gloria being unable to get into the witness interrogation room, but being able to bust into the jail in the nick of time. And the other cops drawing down on her, when the assassin must have just run right past them.
Getting harder to suspend my disbelief.
I agree that it was derivative, but I’m not as disbelieving. I think Yuri started out suspecting that a small town cop who works in a combo library/police station is not likely to be that tough. Then he took his measure in person. (I just hope the guy plans to at least tell Gloria something about it.)
As for the scene in jail, why would they have any reason to stop the assassin, who just looked like a cop?
ETA: Nitpick, but it was two seasons ago that Malvo was the Big Bad.
Well, Gloria looked just like a cop, and they had no reluctance stopping her. They hear a gunshot, and they see a guy running away, I would think they would stop him, at least to ask what happened. On top of that, it’s not a huge department, so they should have been suspicious that a guy they’ve never seen before is in there at all.
And reviewing the scene on my DVR, it also looks like Gloria has her gun out before she could possibly have seen that he was doing anything that would make her pull a gun on him.
We heard the beating - we saw the results of it in the tub and in discussion. It (the beating) was clearly part of a larger plan by Varga to take care of the Stussey brother.
What the heck is the bus wreck about? Who are those cartoon characters doing the hijack? How could they possibly know the bus would be on a desolate road without any other traffic around? What am I missing here?
aren’t all roads in N. Dakota ‘desolate’ ?? 
The reason is obvious - the first attempt to kill her failed - he got away - they heard/determined she was being moved - this is the second attempt.
They (Varga and crew) cannot allow her to live as she can identify who actually beat her.
If they wanted her dead they would have killed her instead of beat her. And Varga came up with the plan to frame her for her boyfriend’s death. What’s wrong with that plan?
Varga’s guys intentionally beat her in a way to make it look like abuse by Ray - when Ray ended up dead (at the hands of Emmit) it just fell right into place.
However, that version of events (that She killed Ray due to the abuse) falls apart if she is able to testify about how the beating actually took place - which leads them back to Emmit and Varga’s crew.
So now, she has to die - which of course, to any sane cop, leads them back in the same direction anyway.
Would Varga really let those guys sell the business?
Nobody likes coconut cream pie.
Just got back from seeing “Wonder Woman” and was kind of surprised to see David Thewlis in the film. After not seeing him for awhile kind of surprised to see him a lot lately.
Now that there are legal partnership papers (Sy is not aware of, but Emmit is) - I doubt they ‘can’ sell the business - I suppose they could sell their half ?