Fargo S4

Cafe Society
181

There are a few theories that I read on reddit but all of them are complicated. It was interesting that Ethelrida knew that the ring could be used and when Loy realized whose ring it was, he immediately knew that it was the key to everything as if it was obvious.

The reddit theories all have to do with framing Josto for his dad’s death by getting his nurse lover to kill him. (And setting him up as Gaetanno’s killer as well). How does the ring do that though? They could make the same case without the ring.

182

I suspect the ring will be implausibly significant in the final resolution of the K.C. gang war.

The timeline for this episode is hinky, too. The newspaper dates show the war was raging from Jan. to at least early April 1951. But Satchel is still walking along with his dog, not having called home or hitchhiked or sneaked onto a bus to get back to his family. The serial killer nurse was hurriedly packing up to leave four months ago, but now we see her still in her apartment (and did they really need two plainclothes and three uniformed cops to finally bring her in on the arrest warrant?). And no one in the KCPD ballistics lab ever figured out that the young female fugitive and the deputy U.S. marshal were both shot with OCD cop’s gun?

I did like the gangster Happy Holloway looking at pictures of two of his ancestors (his grandfathers?), otherwise carried by a flunky, before deciding what to do.

Good to learn more about the ghost, the late slave-ship Capt. Theodore Roach. Far from a curse, though, he seems to have protected the sleeping schoolgirl from the murderous nurse.

So the big Italian thug kills OCD cop (who drops his own gun where he can’t reach it - d’oh!) before accidentally tripping, falling, shooting and killing himself (there’s a very similar incident in the Elmore Leonard book Out of Sight, and the George Clooney/J-Lo movie based on it). And I don’t know about you, but I really didn’t need to see the top of his head slide off and the brains ooze out. Bleccccch.

I would’ve thought 1951 was too early for a microfilm reader in a public library, but I guess they had 'em then.

Here’s the painting in Chris Rock’s office, BTW: Exécution sans jugement sous les rois maures de Grenade - Henri Regnault | Musée d'Orsay.

Best line of the show: "You take your hands off me. Police! Police!"
“Ma’am, we are the police.”

Also loved the schoolgirl’s question to Rock, “Is that what you see?” Great callback to last season.

Just one more episode to go.

183

BTW, when Ethelrida was negotiating with Loy, she mentioned that Oraetta had other valuables in her apartment. I thought Ethelrida was offering them to Loy, suggesting that he could steal them and get whatever value was in them. But surely the police would search Oraetta’s apartment and find her stash of souvenirs?

184

When Oraetta returned home after hearing that Dr. Harvard could recover, she started to empty the Trophy Room, as well as packing clothes. I thought she would do a runner, but then she was casually emptying a wastebasket, and then was dressed for work, albeit oddly with black hose rather than what I thought was standard uniform white. Then again, one day she was wearing a red slip under her uniform, which was odd. But then, Oraetta is an odd one all around.

185

Where did we see it had been 4 months between the episodes? And don’t forget, the conceit of this series is that it is all taken from the book - which includes UFO and Ghostly encounters.

As for the Nurse - she was clearing out UNTIL she found the notebook - that seems to have distracted Oraetta , and until she was arrested her latest victim was still asleep. She thought she still had time. Her mistake was openly threatening Ethelrida on the porch.

Telling Loy about the other trophies was to help him understand that Ethelrida wasn’t making it up as to how the ring came into her (or the nurses) possession - since she could have stolen it herself during Fadda’s funeral.

They likely didn’t check ballistics and took OCD cop’s word for what he found - The Marshal shot the one fugitive, the other fugitive shot the marshal and ran.

186

You can see the dates of the newspapers with the headlines reporting the gang war. You can also see the obvious change in seasons, from cold weather when Satchel and the Rabbi came to the Barton Arms, to the lush green fields when he’s walking down the country road and scares off the rednecks with his gun.

OCD cop was already in a bad odor with his fellow detectives. His immediate supervisor, “congratulating” him for being praised by the mayor, really doesn’t appear to be a fan. I doubt they would take his word for it that the gunfight turned out just the way he says it did.

187

It seems hard to believe that he’s still walking after four months. But perhaps he’s been moving from town to town and spent some time (weeks even) in one spot.

188

re: timeline - I’ll have to play closer attention when I rewatch this one - I hadn’t been really paying close attention to the dates in the papers.

re: OCD cop - well, we don’t know what he told them or what they thought - I agree that no one liked him, but I am not 100% sure that anyone definitely thought he was ‘dirty’ (other than the Marshal, who may/may not have voiced his suspicions)

189

She seems to have correctly assessed that she needed to run, and then didn’t. I suppose the notebook might have diverted her, and riled her up leaving her to stew, but all in all, mad as she is, she should have just run. She knew she was heading for being arrested and not just that, arrested for many murders, one attempted with a definite witness thus a good chance of going to the chair.

Still I suppose the arrest might have some significant effect on the end story, so hey, whatever, it’s a show called Fargo while being hundreds of miles away…

190

Satchel starts walking after the tornado in the dead of winter (in Fargo, anything is possible). When encounters the two guys in the truck its, at least, early summer. He’s been walking a long time. Someone up thread mentioned the use of color. There seems to be a fair amount of red sprinkled throughout.

191

I knew Chris Rock couldn’t make it to the end. At the meeting with the mob where he got taken down all the notches but left alive, I started thinking about who might kill him, thought of Murder Sister. But when he got home and Satchel was back, I wondered if he would kill him for giving him to the Faddas. But nope, it was Murder Sister after all.

192

Yeah, when he was looking in the window at his happy family, I knew he was a goner…

The after credit scene seems to tie back into other fargos, or am I wrong?

193

Hag! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
I wonder if Oraetta regretted that final wish. It was rather disturbing, considering her situation.

194

Yeah. You knew Rock was going to get it in the end somehow but I had forgotten all about the sister. I laughed out loud when the nurse replied after being given the option for last words.

I can’t figure out if that was foreshadowing at the end or what. All in all, a very good series.

195

Yes. Satchel grows up to be Mike Milligan from Season 2. He took the last name of his protector Rabbi Milligan. This was no surprise to the Fargo junkies who figured this out by Episode 3.

196

She seemed to really get off on it.

197

Her final wish was better than everything else that preceded it this season. I thought perhaps the killers would keep her around just for laughs.

198

Well, I’m glad I finished the season - Oreatta was still the highlight of the season for me and I would re-watch it just for her.

The rest of it - this is not a season I would re-watch. I re-watched season 1 and 2 multiple times - this one just wasn’t as ‘compelling’ (or maybe as ‘fun’?) in the story telling/writing. It was a good story overall, but just not quite what it was.

199

I liked the set-up of the season, but it seemed to kind of peter out in the last few episodes with people getting killed more or less at random.

200

Overall, decent to decent+. But there was a lot of meh. I’m don’t regret watching it.