Say what you will about Noah Hawley’s Fargo, but this series knows how to build momentum; season five certainly honors that tradition. We first encountered Dorothy “Dot” Lyon (Juno Temple, Ted Lasso) as she escaped an out-of-control school board meeting in episode one. Since then, Dot has fought back against a couple of home invasions, multiple kidnappings, and even a forced placement in a mental health facility at the behest of her mother-in-law. On top of those real world dangers, Dot has grappled with demons from her past and the demons in her mind. She has a fundamental and relentless will to survive – and she will not stop fighting, tooth and nail, to return to the life she carved out for herself.
None of this is surprising, but what is surprising about the final two episode arc of the season is that the show has a new trick up its sleeve. Not only do the final episodes of Fargo continue to build momentum, but they also find room to slow down and settle into a clear final sentiment that will stick with viewers for years to come.
Now, before we tackle the finer points of what it means to carve out a person’s destiny, please be warned that this review contains spoilers for the ninth and tenth episodes of Fargo’s fifth season: “The Useless Hand” and “Bisquick.”
5.9: The Useless Hand
We open on Ole Munch (Sam Spruell, Snow White and the Huntsman) and Gator Tillman (Joe Keery, Stranger Things) camped out in an ice house on a frozen lake. Munch’s dominance over Gator is so obvious and inevitable that we don’t even get a sequence to connect the dots from the moment when Munch appeared in the back of Gator’s squad car.
Munch menaces Gator with a blade roasting over an open flame while Gator tries to bribe his captor with an evidence locker full of vices. It’s desperate. We know that his efforts are worthless; as Munch puts it: “A rabbit screams because it knows only that it wants to live.” Before taking at least one of Gator’s eyes (that happens off screen – we see him later with a bandage over both eyes), Munch suggests that the problem is very simple, repeating an idea that several characters have suggested over the course of the season: “The bible says that what is taken must be given. This for that.”
Of course, Munch isn’t the only one who thinks he can speak for God. Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm, Mad Men) has taken his concept of “Constitutional Justice” to a new extreme. He knows that he has overstepped his boundaries and that consequences are on the way. He takes on the mantle of America’s Sheriff with all the mad confidence of Macbeth donning his armor for a last stand at Dunsinane.
We spend much of the episode establishing Tillman’s psychological state. He bemoans the weak “feelings” Dot awakens in him and tries to pass her execution off to an underling (another Macbeth move). He refuses to acknowledge the doubts of his militia-leader father-in-law, Odin, who can smell Tillman’s desperation. Odin wants to know if these are the “first days or last days” of his right-wing revolution, and even suggests that Tillman looks like “Hitler in the bunker.” Even as the walls close in and Tillman pieces together how Lorraine Lyon (Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight) used her sway to deliver a host of government muscle to his doorstep (state and federal support), he refuses to stray from his path.
Mirroring Macbeth once again, Tillman informs the host of government agents that this situation will not be resolved without violence. He insists that he will not stray from his predestined path, suggesting that, “God cuts our name into bone.” It feels worth noting that Shakespeare’s Macbeth had a slightly less articulate thing to say about “bone” just before enemy forces took his head:
“I’ll fight till, from my bones, my flesh be hacked.
Give me my armor. (Shakespeare, Macbeth 5.3)”
Tillman is ready to don the armor of his own flimsy facade and die for his principles. We may hope that he doesn’t get the satisfaction of such a simple ending and escape, but as long as Dot’s revolution of wives wins the day, we will probably be satisfied with any outcome.
Speaking of ideal outcomes, after working harder than any human should ever have to work to get a rusty old nail to pick the lock on their handcuffs, Dot is busy carving out her future. While Dot’s vision for her future is much simpler than Tillman’s, she gets sucked into his biblical language as well. During his speech to the military-police-FBI conglomerate, Tillman claims that Dot, the woman they are after, is Lot’s wife, and she “is already a pillar of salt.” Old Testament fans will know that God spared Lot and his wife from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but they were instructed not to look back on the destruction. Lot’s wife turned back, and became a pillar of salt. We do see Dot freeze up for one moment when she sneaks into Tillman’s bedroom and finds it unchanged since her escape ten years earlier. Her pain is still present and palpable. She is certainly traumatized, and in Tillman’s mind, Dot has broken some sort of pact with God; she is weak, damaged, and unredeemable.
We know that isn’t true. Dot’s reckoning with her past has allowed a level of reality into her fight; the woman who opened the season trying to deny where she came from has been forced to realize the complexities of her situation and take a more reflective look at people who wronged her in the past: particularly Tillman’s first wife, Linda. We know this is a process of healing, and we can assume that noted Kurt Vonnegut fan Noah Hawley knows this as well. In Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, he offers a much more loving depiction of Lot’s wife:
And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that because it was so human. (Slaughterhouse-Five, Chapter One)
Tillman may still be clutching at power, but we know that our hero, Dot, is only becoming stronger. More loving. More human.
Of course, this progression has won Dot a host of allies. Indira Olmstead (Richa Moorjani, Never Have I Ever) may be rocking a power suit in her new private gig, but she is still ready to fight for Dot. Lorraine surprises both Dot and the audience when she makes a sincere declaration that she has accepted Dot as her daughter. North Dakota Deputy Witt Farr (Lamorne Morris, New Girl) uses his screen time to assemble a rescue team for Dot. Her original allies, her husband and daughter, get a quick check-in on the phone before disappearing to prepare for a joyful and cathartic reunion next week. Heck, even after an angry encounter with Dot, it’s still possible that Tillman’s current wife, Karen (Rebecca Liddiard, Alias Grace), will reject her programming and answer Dot’s call before all is said and done.
It’s almost as if Dot can’t help but win over hearts and minds. In fact, there might be another ally we haven’t covered yet: Gator.
In this episode, Gator finally faces some consequences for his indulgent and hateful behavior; sure, he loses an eye or two to Munch in retaliation for his double cross (and for murdering Irma) – but the real consequence comes when he witnesses his father’s heartlessness. Even as Gator whimpers the words, “Daddy, I’m scared,” he is unable to activate his father’s compassion. Tillman abandons his desperate son in the fog, saying, “If there was ever a point to you, it’s gone now.” This statement confirms everything Dot suggested about Gator’s relationship with Roy when she was spitting venom in episode eight. Gator didn’t want to hear it at the time, and he tried to put up a tough front, but perhaps Dot’s truth will set him free.
Of course, we still haven’t uncovered this week’s most important ally: Munch. Our favorite ancient sin eater materializes out of the fog to save Dot when she is cornered at gunpoint in her hiding spot at the bottom of the Tillman compound’s mass grave. Dot is surprised to see the face of her savior, even though viewers have understood Munch’s respect for Dot since early in the season. Way back in episode two, Munch called Dot a tiger, and here, he levels the playing field for the finale: “Now, the tiger is free.”
5.10: Bisquik
After all of that setup for a showdown at the Tillman ranch, it comes and goes pretty quickly. Tillman’s turn as Macbeth continues as he slashes his father-in-law’s throat in return for calling out Tillman’s failures; Karen rounds the corner only moments later to watch her father bleeding out.
We have exactly enough time to think she might be ready to help Dot after all before Dot puts a bullet in Tillman’s belly. After a very long pause, Dot is interrupted by federal agents and realizes that she has to drop the gun and go into hostage mode if she is ever going to survive. Her fear and regret over leaving Tillman alive to fight another day sends North Dakota deputy Witt Farr on the trail of a reeling Roy Tillman.
Witt sneaks off without the team he has assembled. Why? It could be as simple as a poor tactical decision, but this reviewer thinks Witt thought he was on his way to finish off Roy Tillman out of a sense of obligation and debt to Dot. Unfortunately, Witt’s plan is misguided, and he ultimately opts to show restraint and do things by the books. This leaves Roy an opening to bury a knife in Witt’s chest. This decision begs a question that Dot will ask again later: why? Why should Witt Farr repay Dot Lyon in blood for saving his life? It’s not who he is or what he wants. It runs counter to his good senses. Had Witt simply stayed away, Tillman still would have wandered into the waiting hands of a SWAT team on the other side of his bunker. He had already dug his own grave.
We find out soon enough that the late Witt Farr was right: consequences are coming for the Tillmans. In fact, Tillman is nothing more than a joke for the rest of the episode. Lorraine and Indira show up a year later to mock whatever cred Tillman thinks he has earned in prison. Lorraine owns the federal judges at every level, and what’s more, the Queen of Debt has also put together special recovery plans for all of the inmates that can make Tillman’s life a living hell. He will suffer. He will be beaten. “That book” he liked to quote with such authority in his old life isn’t going to win him any allies. No, he will feel everything his wives had to feel at his hands. It’s poetic justice, to be sure, but as this episode tells us – debt is a rich person’s game.
This finale is much more interested in humility and love. Dot offers a destitute Gator a hug and the promise of cookies (more on food prepared with love later) in prison. Jennifer Jason Leigh eeks a few more laughs out of Lorraine’s cautious and clumsy attempt at unbridled love. We learn that Witt Farr left behind six sisters and a cat named Lucky. As Dot puts it, “no wonder he was so nice.”
It all feels too good to be true, but when we find Ole Munch sitting with Wayne (David Rysdahl, No Exit) in the Lyon family room, our hearts sink.
But then, in perhaps the greatest closing sequence of any television finale, our trepidation gives way to a perfectly paced, slow release of peace and joy. It starts when Munch is unable to activate Dot’s “fight” instincts despite all of his third-person showboating, talk of debt, and stuttering attempts to explain what it means when, “a man has a code…”
Dot asks a very good question – the same question we asked ourselves earlier when Witt stepped into those tunnels: why? Why can’t we do the more humane thing and offer forgiveness instead of debt? If Dot is Lot’s wife, as Tillman suggested in the previous episode, she is no pillar of salt. She is here to fight for humanity, and she is one hell of a warrior. Nevertheless, it takes Dot’s logic takes some time to sink it, but our best boy Wayne is there with the assist
In a stroke of pure comedic genius, Wayne is able to disarm Munch every time he tries to light a fire underneath his rhetoric. It all starts when sweet, oblivious Wayne fails to read the room and fetches a pop for “Mr. Munch.” When he returns with the pop; Munch is truly thrown by Wayne’s easy kindness. He inspects the pop and swirls it around. He is similarly disarmed as Wayne reminds us of gametime, frets that he has gone overboard with the spices in the chili, and offers an understated “Geez!” in response to the stories of men drowning in their seats on the longboat Munch took to the New World. Scotty (Sienna King, Under the Banner of Heaven) is similarly welcoming as she lets Munch share in the knowledge that a chimpanzee can learn to drive a car. Whether he likes it or not, Munch is becoming part of the family.
Of course, this is Dot’s story, and she remains our hero; however, this time, she gets to put down the rifle and pick up that trusty box of Bisquick. She doesn’t back down from the fight, but she offers Munch an ultimatum: wash your hands and help with dinner, or come back another time. As soon as we cut to Munch washing those hands, we know that Dot and her family will get the happy ending they deserve. After reducing Munch to a childlike state with measuring cups and honey, she gets him to sit down for a meal. She listens to his story and offers nurturing advice. Most importantly, she offers a meal prepared with love to wash away the taste of those bitter sins he ate centuries ago. Yes, he may have demanded pancakes from Irma earlier this season, but they weren’t given with love. Not like these biscuits.
We end on Munch’s unencumbered smile as the weight of debt and biblical justice lift from his shoulders.
Welcome home, Uncle Munch.
Noah Hawley and the Fargo crew deserve all of the attention and praise in the world for the effort they put into the fifth outing of this anthology series. Not only did they subvert the setup of the original Fargo (1996) to tell a story about powerful women, but they did it in show stopping fashion. Dot Lyon is one of the most fun and sympathetic characters of all time, and even though we got a sugary sweet ending, it wasn’t without acknowledging the pain we all have to swallow in order to come home, live in the moment, and enjoy the life we’ve fought for.
God doesn’t cut our names in bone to set us on a path, we craft our own futures with Bisquick and belonging.
