# Fargo S4 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [December 31, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991 "2018-12-31T17:21:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**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:** [November 10, 2020, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/121 "2020-11-10T14:03:14Z")
When Oraetta was describing her childhood illness to Josto, with the “failure to thrive” diagnosis and her mother’s “special juice”, it seemed clear that she was being poisoned by her mother (i.e., Munchausen by proxy). But what wasn’t clear to me was whether Oraetta knew that she was never really sick. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/122 "2020-11-10T15:02:47Z")
She’s still my favorite char of this season. I don’t think she put that together - she may have and her first victim may have been mommy - but in the scene itself, its not apparent (unless the reaction to Josto’s story is the tell there) ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/123 "2020-11-11T04:44:15Z")
Yes to Jack Huston! He is the reason I decided to watch this season, having never seen any episodes of Fargo previously. He was my favorite character on Boardwalk Empire, I’m glad to see him get another TV role in a high profile series. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/124 "2020-11-11T04:50:54Z")
My first season watching, so who killed the Italian mama?? IOW, are we meant to be so confused?? And sorry, but loving Chris Rock, maybe because being a newB, I have nothing to compare it to. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/125 "2020-11-11T05:03:19Z")
> [@dummygladhands71](#): > > My first season watching, so who killed the Italian mama?? Chris Rock called down a kill team from Fargo–the guys that he sold the machine guns to “at cost” (never mind that his actual cost was zero). > **[The Pretend War](https://fargo.fandom.com/wiki/The_Pretend_War)** > > The Pretend War is the fourth episode of Season 4, and the thirty-fourth episode overall. It aired on October 11, 2020. Loy retaliates, Josto asserts his leadership, Ethelrida makes a disturbing discovery and the walls begin to close in on Odis.... ---
**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:** [November 11, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/126 "2020-11-11T16:14:42Z")
> [@txtumbleweed](#): > > The Kansas City police (and the Fargo gang, for that matter) seem to have received their fire arms training at the Imperial Stormtrooper Academy. Tell me about it. And for the big Italian guy to drive off _six_ of them, each armed with machine guns, with a pair of pistols, is just ludicrous. I also didn’t buy the big guy’s oath to the younger brother (after beating him up, no less!). Why he thinks the little guy is some kind of a criminal genius is beyond me. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > When Oraetta was describing her childhood illness to Josto, with the “failure to thrive” diagnosis and her mother’s “special juice”, it seemed clear that she was being poisoned by her mother (i.e., Munchausen by proxy). But what wasn’t clear to me was whether Oraetta knew that she was never really sick. Yes, that’s exactly what I thought, too. Loved the gangster miming fellatio during lunch with his future father-in-law. Glad Rock and Olyphant finally had a scene together! Favorite lines: “I like you.” “We Mormons are very friendly people.” “No. Pretty unfriendly, really. But it’s the _way_ you’re unfriendly. Like you’re doing me a _favor_.” The train-schedule board seemed too modern for 1950. Why did the OCD cop kill the marshal, the younger fugitive and then try to kill the older one? Does he think that’s what the black gangster wants? And brrr, that skeletal ghost is back. Both of the women saw it at the train station. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/127 "2020-11-11T17:08:08Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Why did the OCD cop kill the marshal… I’ve been thinking about all week. I think it goes back to what he said earlier in the episode. He went into law enforcement because of the power. Prior to being a cop, he felt small since everyone picked on him for being “tetched”. But as a cop, he didn’t feel small. He didn’t feel “tetched”. He felt like somebody. And aligning with the gangsters made him feel like a big somebody. And then here comes the US marshall. He’s real police, not play-play police like OCD cop. OCD cop is back to feeling like a small tetched nobody with marshall running the show. Also, marshall knows that OCD cop is dirty. OCD cop confessed this to him at the beginning of the episode. So I’m thinking he shot him for two reasons–one psychological and the other practical. I’m thinking he wanted to kill the women for fear they would snitch on him. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/128 "2020-11-11T18:55:33Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Why did the OCD cop kill the marshal Yeah, Deafy was my favorite character in the show. Only one I was rooting for, everyone else is a jerk or a criminal or usually both. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/129 "2020-11-11T18:57:18Z")
Well, he was racist, so not entirely likeable. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/130 "2020-11-11T19:01:53Z")
1. And everyone in the show is a racist. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2020, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/131 "2020-11-11T20:50:16Z")
1950, and I think the schoolgirl and her parents are… unlikely to be racists. ---
**Author:** ![YWTF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/d07c76/32.png) [@YWTF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWTF)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/132 "2020-11-11T21:15:33Z")
I’m invested enough in the story to see it through to the end, but I’m finding that the characters are not playing out in a manner that fits logic. 1. I was disappointed that the female outlaws demurely complied with Cannon’s order to get on the Philly train. Pains were taken early on to present them as fearless defiant types. They are unapologetic killers, thieves, and fugitives. But a little paternalistic instruction and some free Amtrak tickets was all it took to make them tip their hats and get along like good little girls? Hard to buy. 2. Cannon’s wife is portrayed as a Strong Black Woman (SBW). When the cops locked up her oldest, she didn’t mince words with Cannon. She is stern with him and doesn’t hide her feelings. She has a gun and isn’t afraid to brandish it in front of Italian assassins. But the problem is, it’s hard to reconcile a SBW with a mother who is putting up with a husband cold-hearted and power-hungry enough to _trade their youngest son to a rival gang_, all against her stated wishes. Now if she were written as an emotionally frail, timid woman who stayed drunk half the time to mask the pain of everything, I could more readily buy this. If she were written as a gullible type who could be easily persuaded that no harm could come to the boy, I could accept her going with the program. But she is not written this way. I just can’t imagine a SBW doing anything except raising hell until her baby was returned. (So far she is written much like the other middle-age black woman in the cast…both are stern maternal types whose raison d’etre seemingly centers around the loved ones in their lives). 3. I like the OCD cop and think he’s the most interesting character in the entire show. However, there was absolutely no reason for him to confess to being dirty to the Mormon cop. How did he know the fed marshall wouldn’t have marched right to sheriff and ratted him out? It ain’t like they had any fondness for each other. There are other annoying character weaknesses but I’ve decided to not let them get in the way of enjoying the story. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/133 "2020-11-11T22:33:59Z")
The outlaws don’t appear to be all that racist either. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/134 "2020-11-12T00:31:47Z")
“Tetched”? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/135 "2020-11-12T00:33:53Z")
Good points. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/136 "2020-11-12T00:38:33Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > “Tetched”? As in “touched,” as in “touched in the head.” As in “that boy ain’t right.” I don’t remember them using the term in the show; it’s old American dialect/slang. Think it shows up in Mark Twain? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/137 "2020-11-12T00:40:55Z")
Did they not make some very nasty cracks about Italians and also white people? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/138 "2020-11-12T00:53:22Z")
I don’t know. Did they? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/139 "2020-11-12T06:06:12Z")
I am sure about Italians. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991/140 "2020-11-16T09:00:09Z")
What. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-s4/826991.md?page=8)