S05.E08: Blanket

[iMonrey]

17 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I thought there was an actual other candidate on the debate stage, in addition to Roy and the three Roy-alikes.  Or was that the moderator? No, the moderator was the woman asking about the tank et al, right?

There was another legitimate candidate but he was not at the debate. When Roy got there he asked where so-and-so was. That was the "real" candidate he was referring to. I assume Danish somehow persuaded the other candidate not to show.

[Tatum]

When Roy got on stage, there was a guy to his right, but he was not introduced. When Roy looked back at him when the three guys to his left started mimicking, the guy just shrugged, like, don't look at me.

 

While the three guys may have been unexpected, I also thought Roy seemed pretty unprepared for the moderator's questions, and looked taken aback. There is a possibility he would have fumbled even if the other guys had not been on stage. He seemed to know the moderator, but she did not look remotely intimidated by him. If he loses his cool that easily, and has so little influence outside of his little kingdom, I find it a bit hard to believe he's made it as far and as long as he has.

 

I did laugh when he said, I appreciate your "giddyap" there, but first answer my question...

[seacliffsal]

Every time I read the episode title "Blanket" all I can think of is Michael Jackson holding his son over the balcony of his hotel room in Berline under the blanket (and calling him 'Blanket' as well).  Just me?  Alrighty then.

[peeayebee]

No. Not just you. :D

 

2 hours ago, Tatum said:

ETA: I missed something with the setup with Munch and the loser son. Did Munch know he was being tracked by Gator? If so, keeping the tracker on the car and using the loser son as a decoy seems kind of dumb. Why not just drop the tracker and dispose of the son? The elaborate set up seemed kind of wasteful. And why leave the duffel bag full of money in the car? If it was all a trap for Gator, why not sneak up on him right away when Gator started breaking into the car?

I think there's a lot of questionable occurrences in the show that we can either fan-wave away or struggle to justify. Here's my attempt...

I think Munch must have known Gator placed a tracker on his car. How? Spider-sense? Maybe an earlier attempt by someone else in another job he had? So rather than return to Roy's ranch where he would have difficulty killing Gator and getting away, Munch decided to let Gator come to him. 

What would Munch have done if he didn't have a body to place in that rocking chair? Maybe he would have simply laid in wait for Gator to arrive and then kill him. Makes sense. But then he had the body of Mama Munch's son, so he devised the plan with the rocking chair. 

The bag of money? If Munch hadn't left it in the car, then Gator would have come into the house to retrieve it. Rather than have Gator break into Mama's house, Munch left the money where Gator could take it. Of course Munch didn't anticipate Mama coming along and getting killed.

If Mama hadn't gotten killed, what was Munch's plan? Once Gator thought Munch was dead, Munch could have just continued his life as if none of this ever happened. (Not sure what Roy would have done since he had Dot/Nadine anyway, but he was out a bunch of money for no reason.) But Munch is all about having debts paid, so wasn't he still owed money for all this trouble he's gone thru? I'm not sure.

And I could be wrong!

 

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

There was another legitimate candidate but he was not at the debate. When Roy got there he asked where so-and-so was. That was the "real" candidate he was referring to. I assume Danish somehow persuaded the other candidate not to show.

The guy Roy was asking about seemed to be someone involved in handling the election or the debate. He called him "Election Jerry. Jerry Belknap." So it wasn't the other candidate. Presumably Lorraine or Danish paid him to be absent.

[possibilities]

Lorraine gave that speech early this season, about how she doesn't need law enforcement. I think both she and Dannish are used to handling their own business. 

I also thought it was possible that any promises Dannish made to Roy would not be honored. 

He never understood, though, that Roy wants Dot and the sheriff job for his ego. His pride can't afford (1) to lose her, (2) to back down, ever, and (3) to "negotiate" with anyone, let alone anyone he regards as "soft" like Lorraine and Dannish.

[roughing it]

On 1/3/2024 at 12:46 AM, aghst said:

Indira didn't get mad but the expression on her face as she stepped just outside her front door showed sadness,

I believe that she had already "checked out" of the marriage, and this was just the final fork to stick in it, so there is no further emotion to be had.  It's done, over.

[DMK]

Yeah, I think Indira was fully ready to kick Lars to the curb but had so much on her plate, she had backburnered it. Him bringing a slampiece into their house pushed it to the forefront. 
 

1 hour ago, peeayebee said:

I think Munch must have known Gator placed a tracker on his car. How? Spider-sense? Maybe an earlier attempt by someone else in another job he had?

Maybe it was dark and Munch saw that green light coming from under his car. 

[Valny]

On 1/3/2024 at 7:01 PM, Johnny Dollar said:

When Roy finally gets his comeuppance, I hope it’s slow and painful. The use of a wood chipper would be a nice callback. 

Oh man, I cannot wait to see him get his, his son too. Gotta say, Hamm is really making me despise him, he is playing it so well. The kind of character you love to hate.  I hope Dot takes him out

[BetyBee]

Can Munch find a replacement sin eater and finally be done with living? I was thinking that may be what he has in mind for Gator, since he has a personal vendetta against him because he killed his faux mama. 

[peeayebee]

That's really interesting, though I don't know how it would work, plot-wise.

[bosawks]

That line reading of “Third time’s the charm” was just, chef’s kiss.

[ShannaB]

Just a few thoughts -

I can only assume that Dot was on a mission to find Linda.  She has been suffering from PTSD (duh!) and repressed memories.  Why repressed?  When she was unconscious she zeroed in on that windmill with the metal sheeting on the ground and she started digging.  She somehow saw Linda's body being dumped into that hole and the metal tub moved to cover everything and she repressed the horror until she witnessed Graves thrown into the same hole.  Who knows what she expected to accomplish but she was sleep deprived and beyond stressed.

I don't really care about Indira's marriage backstory.  We can fill in the blanks.  There are plenty of stories, dramas, movies etc about women who state that their husband is 'not the man they thought they married'.  We all have friends, clients or acquaintances that have probably said this to you before or after a divorce.

Roy Tillman may have pulled the trigger twice but Graves' hubris set up the kill.

I think that Dot's plight and her backstory really affected Indira and Lorraine and maybe Graves as well. Indira's speech to Lorraine about Dot not asking anyone for help made an impact on her and Lorraine.  Indira decided she had had enough of her man-child husband and spurred Lorraine into an area of protection and possibly respect.  Bonus for Lorraine to give her another reason to go after Tillman.  Can't wait to see her response when she finds out about Graves.  Will Lorraine change?  Doubtful.

Added thought - I think Lorraine sees a lot of herself in Indira.  Seems to me that Lorraine married a major man-baby too.  Was it ever mentioned if the family money was from her husband's side or hers?  Or if she started the business on her own.? I've known some well-to-do ladies who marry men of lower intellectual levels so they can take the reins.

 

 

 

[peeayebee]

Good question about Lorraine's husband. At this point, I don't think any of us can see why she married him. So it could have been for his money. Or, of course, he may have changed. He seems mentally affected, like early onsite dementia. Who knows, maybe HE was electrocuted. Like father, like son.

Not that the history of their marriage is important. Lorraine has full control of their marriage, of their life. That's all that matters story-wise.

[Tatum]

Dot called Lorraine an Ivy League royal wannabe in the first episode- doesn't prove anything, but based on that and Lorraine's comment that she wanted a daughter in law with "papers"- makes me think Lorraine comes from a modest background and is overcompensating now that she's rich.

[Bannon]

On 1/8/2024 at 12:47 PM, peeayebee said:

Good question about Lorraine's husband. At this point, I don't think any of us can see why she married him. So it could have been for his money. Or, of course, he may have changed. He seems mentally affected, like early onsite dementia. Who knows, maybe HE was electrocuted. Like father, like son.

Not that the history of their marriage is important. Lorraine has full control of their marriage, of their life. That's all that matters story-wise.

FWIW, I've met women from this region who came from very modest backgrounds who became serial entrepreneurs, and made themselves quite wealthy. Some of them adopted Lorraine's somewhat odd accent, perhaps as a way to distance themselves from their common background. Some of them also had husbands of a similar background, that they entirely outgrew, even if those husbands also tried to adopt the affectation of not being new money.

I'd love to read a JJL interview, and hear how she researched the part.

[rur]

1 hour ago, Bannon said:

 

I'd love to read a JJL interview, and hear how she researched the part.

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/jennifer-jason-leighs-accent-in-fargo-explained/

[Bannon]

40 minutes ago, rur said:

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/jennifer-jason-leighs-accent-in-fargo-explained/

Thanks. That really matches my perception, and is doubly interesting, in that I've read in the past that Buckley adopted his manner of speaking in good measure to obscure his Southern heritage. People really are endlessly fascinating.

[peeayebee]

I just read that article, and now I can't unhear Buckley when Lorraine speaks.

[Kel Varnsen]

On 1/3/2024 at 8:30 AM, seacliffsal said:

I was surprised that Danish thought the fiasco of the debate would be enough to keep Ray from winning the election.  It would be fairly easy to spread the idea that Ray is such a great sheriff that his opposition would go to great lengths to keep him from winning re-election.  It seemed like a 'fun' idea but not effective in the long run.  

Yea I don't see the incident at thew debate being a huge issue for someone like Roy. I assume Stark county doesn't have a huge population, and a big percentage of his base is probably his cult like followers. And then you have all the people he has either helped or has dirt on, like the nurse who basically ignored a woman asking for help because Roy threatened her family. For the rest of the voters a lot of what they hear about the debate would probably be rumour or second hand stories, the kind of thing they could easily brush off.

On 1/4/2024 at 9:37 AM, peeayebee said:

Yes, and another thing is when Witt told him, Danish obviously didn't know what he was supposed to do. He's clearly nervous about confronting Roy. He considers calling Lorraine but decides not to. I suppose he didn't want to show Lorraine his weakness or indecisiveness. So maybe when he went out on his own he was planning on impressing her?

My read was that he knows Lorraine doesn't like Dot, but he felt bad for her, wanted to help her and didn't want to risk Lorraine taking him out of it (or telling him not to). Dot was his client too, so as his last act was to put the needs of one of his other clients ahead of the needs of Lorraine.