S03.E10: Somebody to Love

[MisterBluxom]

33 minutes ago, cardigirl said:

I thought this season was great, especially episode 9, which seems to be the norm now, making the next to last episode the one with the biggest impact. Loved that Emmit was finally taken out, in his own home.  

Does the fact he was taken out in his own home get you to wondering if Mr. Wrench was given any help by Mrs. Emmit?

[AzureOwl]

22 minutes ago, withanaich said:

That's what I meant. I thought she was there to make sure Varga (or whomever) didn't escape ... which is why I thought she set him up to attempt just that. Because if anybody was going to abandon the others, it would probably be him.

That's unlikely, because the text mad to have come from someone Varga knew. A text from Nikki's number or an unknown number wouldn't have triggered that reaction on Varga. This was a warning from a source he trusted. 

Which is another thing that bugged me about that scene: why didn't he just get off the elevator on the SECOND floor? Does the elevator not stop at the second floor? What was the need for all the James Bond elevator-hatch-escape stuff? And aren't there, like, any STAIRS in that damn building? Shouldn't Nikki and Mr. Wrench have factored in someone trying to escape that way? Maybe Varga should have stationed someone on the stairs in the first place?

Varga really has no way of knowing how many people Nikki has with her. By that point he knows she's not working alone, but not that she only has one (formidable) guy working with her. As far as he knows, there's someone with a gun on every floor. 

And that's assuming that there is a second floor. It was a self-storage facility, I believe. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for it to have only 2 floors. 

[MisterBluxom]

1 hour ago, bosawks said:

At the very least season three reinforced my decision to never play bridge..........

Oh Dear, No!

Bridge is a fabulous game. You can play it in a casual way with friends and just enjoy it in much the same way as you'd enjoy watching TV with friends. But people rarely drink when they play bridge. So, it's much healthier.

Also, you can take it seriously and spend many, many hours studying and learning the game. It's a fabulous game and if you have the inclination to learn how to play it, it can give you a lifetime's worth of wonderful enjoyment. It's also one of the very best ways to meet new friends who will last for a lifetime. Some of the very best people I've ever met have been at the bridge table.

[AzureOwl]

4 minutes ago, MissBluxom said:

Does the fact he was taken out in his own home get you to wondering if Mr. Wrench was given any help by Mrs. Emmit?

Emmit never found out about Nikki had another accomplice. By that point he seemed to have completely left his guard down. Also, Emmit's wife doesn't strike me as the type to help have her husband whacked in the kitchen while her daughter and grand kid are in the next room.

[shapeshifter]

38 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

Apropos of nothing, I loved that Nikki learned sign language and could talk to Mr. Wrench.

Yes, and I think we saw some of that in 9 too. Did MEW already know ASL?

 

38 minutes ago, cardigirl said:

...

As far as the political talk, Noah Hawley has said in interviews that this story was influenced by the tenor of politics in this country at the moment.  That was the reason for the ambiguous ending.  Who will win?  Who has won?  I don't think the recapper was making stuff up....

Thanks, @cardigirl, for answering that question.
Now I just hope we get a Bridge player to weigh in on any double (or single) entendre regarding the use of the Bridge term "trump" by Nikki for her weapons.

[cardigirl]

6 minutes ago, MissBluxom said:

Does the fact he was taken out in his own home get you to wondering if Mr. Wrench was given any help by Mrs. Emmit?

I just liked the full circle.  Ray died in his home, at Emmit's hands (accidentally), so Emmit was taken out while mundanely getting a jello salad from the fridge.

I did wonder why it took Mr. Wrench 5 years to do it.  But we were not given that information.

 

Also, as soon as Nikki started telling Emmit that Ray was a kitten now, I kind of figured she was done for.  Still loved the line, though.

[Evagirl]

This is one season of Fargo I will NOT  be adding to my  Fargo DVD collection.  Saved me $20 bucks right there.

[cardigirl]

1 minute ago, shapeshifter said:

Yes, and I think we saw some of that in 9 too. Did MEW already know ASL?

 

In interviews, MEW has stated that she did not know how to sign, so they developed their own way of communicating with each other during that terrific scene in the woods. If you follow her on Instagram, she's posted a couple of cute videos.  One of herself and Russell singing together, and then last night after the episode aired, she posted one of herself signing.  I'll try to link it later, I can't do it at the moment.  Very cute.  

[Ellaria]

8 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Overall, there were parts and performances I enjoyed, but this season was definitely my least favorite of the three.  Just didn't feel as well written compared to the other two.  I definitely suspect that Noah Hawley ended up focusing more on Legion instead, and this suffered for it.  I certainly didn't feel like I wasted my time or anything, but I really doubt it will stay with me like season two did.  Curious to see if they'll have another go, or if this could be it like Hawley had suggested. 

My least favorite as well. It took me until mid-season to truly get engaged with the plot and then the finale happened. IMO, it was disappointing and not particularly memorable. Too many occurrences - like Varga and Company showing up at the warehouse, Nikki and Wrench taking everyone down - stretched credulity a bit too much. Yes, it's Fargo and therefore reality is a loose concept. That's why I won't argue about Emmit's car suddenly starting in order to provide him with an easy get-away. Still, there could have been a better way to handle the deadly meet-up. 

Maybe my disappointment with the finale and the season overall was the characters. Nikki was interesting but I lost all sympathy for her when she killed the cop. It seemed to be out of character for her to be that stupid and desperate. Gloria and Winnie were easy to root for. Beyond that, I had no emotional connection with this season. No one resonated with me like Molly, Lou and Hank from previous seasons.

4 hours ago, ghoulina said:

And Varga is, IMO, the worst villain this show has ever had. It might be because I'm rewatching season 1 on Hulu right now, but there is just nothing interesting or watchable about the guy. Malvo was amazing. Sure, he's a total asshole, but he was quick, clever, and often funny as hell. Mike Milligan could also be very charming and humorous and fun to watch. You knew they were bad guys, but you couldn't help but smile sometimes. They entertained me. They were complex and....well, interesting. Varga is just lame. His con was lame. His ramblings were lame. His eating habits were lame. He's a villain I didn't want to watch and I wanted LEAST to win, and then we get this ambiguous ending? No thanks. 

I'll watch next season, but they need to get the magic back from the first seasons, because this one was kind of a mess. 

Exactly. My dissatisfaction with this season lies largely with Varga. Honestly, once I got past my disgust with him, I found him boring. I tuned out his endless soliloquies about nothing. I still don't understand his motivations. I was indifferent and that should never happen with a villain. Gross and dull doesn't play well with me. Bad guys can even make me laugh, like Dodd Gerhardt. Actually, my favorite Fargo "bad guy" is Hanzee; he did so much with very little dialogue.

Nothing about this season was memorable, for me.

Edited June 22, 2017 by Ellaria Sand

[SunnyBeBe]

Well, I'll give this season a solid 3 out of 10.  Not a total waste of time, but, almost.  

I have pondered what to take away from the whole hot mess.  For me, it was that Ray came back as a cat and had expressive eyes.  

Gloria, you may be a smart cookie, but, don't reveal details of where you and your son will be spending your time over the weekend to a dangerous villain.  I mean, there are phones and emails.  

[teddysmom]

I'm very sorry that Nikki didn't make it. I know she wanted revenge on Emmit but she should have waited until she could do it somewhere like Mr Wrench did, where she wouldn't get caught. Real revenge would have been her forcing Varga to sign everything from Stussy over to her, then liquidating the company and taking off.

The stuff with the IRS agent and the last scene did make me think this was a commentary on Trump.

Not my favorite season, too many holes and questions unanswered. But the cast was top notch, as always.

[Magic]

1 hour ago, withanaich said:

 I was also under the impression that Nikki is the one who sent the incriminating documents (and Gloria's name and number) to the IRS guy, because she wanted to get Emmit every way she could. It seems like once Varga and Goldfarb cleaned out Stussy Lots, they didn't much care what happened to Emmit. He could have died, gone to jail, or lived off of his off-shore accounts for the rest of his life for all they cared.

Gloria told the IRS guy that Nikki must have sent the drives and it seems most logical it was her.  In a preview scene though, they seemed to show Varga tapping Gloria's (or the police's) phone and already hearing the IRS guy ask if Gloria was working on a case that involved Emmitt.  

Anyway, a season of many plot holes and themes that started and ended up not getting fleshed out.  It was pretty much a lazy writing mess in the end.

[Bannon]

1 hour ago, luna1122 said:

Pretty much anything is offensive to someone somewhere.

I also wondered, of course, how come Emmit's car started when it wouldn't before, and  how Varga got himself out of the elevator, and  who sent him the text. Russians? Aliens?  I'm still uncertain aliens aren't involved. Or Ray Wise, from a netherworld.

I am fairly alone in thinking Ewan is a good to great actor, apparently, and I felt he was so here.  He sold both roles for me. It's hard to feel empathic for men like Ray or Emmit, but I did, alternately, at different stages and times. I can't say I was sad to see either of them die, they were both shitty people, but I wasn't happy to see it either. I would have been happy to see Varga die, but, of course, the bad guys often truly do win.  As for the acting being subpar to other seasons, I can't agree at all.  Mary E Winstead, Carrie c***, Micheal S, David Thewlis...superior actors, imo, and they all gave it their all. imo.

Carrie C*** DID look really pretty with the longer hair and the vibrant blue of her new uniform. She'd promised to take her son to the fair for his birthday...the son would be 18 now, right? is that weird? when I was 18, I wouldn't be caught dead at a fair with my parents. But I was little shit, probably.

I really didn't mean to disparage the careers of any of these actors, I was just focusing on these 10 episodes, so maybe it had more to do with direction and writing. I said after episode one that somebody needed to he hired to tell the actors to turn the dial down on the accent control from "11" to "8". I almost didn't watch season 1, because early in episode 1, they had a scene where the protagonist had a conflict on the street with an old high school bully and his idiot sons, which was, in my view, just stupidly cartoonish. I like the Coen brothers, and like how Hawley has been inspired by their work, but it really requires a light touch, and when it goes wrong, it can be pretty off-putting. I just thought season 2 especially, to use a jazz term, kept it in the pocket a lot better than this season. This is not a terribly harsh criticism, since season 2 was among the best seasons of a television show I've seen.

[rhys]

Someone upthread mentioned that Nikki said "10 no trump." That's not a bridge bid. I may have misheard as I thought she said "# no trump." 

She was giving herself info on the firearms using bridge vernacular. Or placement mnemonics for bridge bidding. I don't know anything about guns but let's say in Nikki's brain, she used the term "one diamond [a low bridge bid] to indicate a small firearm. Then she continues to assign higher bridge bids to higher power firearms. Or perhaps where in the building those guns are going to be stashed

[MisterBluxom]

1 hour ago, AzureOwl said:

Emmit never found out about Nikki had another accomplice. By that point he seemed to have completely left his guard down. Also, Emmit's wife doesn't strike me as the type to help have her husband whacked in the kitchen while her daughter and grand kid are in the next room.

Oh dear. I must admit that slipped my mind. It's pretty obvious that hardly any mother would want to have any one whacked in the kitchen while her kids were in the dining room.

What a silly mistake. Thank you AzureOwl for not calling me "stupid".   Much appreciated. LOL.

Edited June 22, 2017 by MissBluxom

[WaltersHair]

Quote

I am fairly alone in thinking Ewan is a good to great actor, apparently, and I felt he was so here

No, I feel that way too. It wasn't a flashy performance which was right for the brothers. The problem that he had no worthy foil to work against. Varga was just, blah.

[DoubleUTeeEff]

5 hours ago, luna1122 said:

I am fairly alone in thinking Ewan is a good to great actor, apparently, and I felt he was so here.  He sold both roles for me. It's hard to feel empathic for men like Ray or Emmit, but I did, alternately, at different stages and times. I can't say I was sad to see either of them die, they were both shitty people, but I wasn't happy to see it either. I would have been happy to see Varga die, but, of course, the bad guys often truly do win.  As for the acting being subpar to other seasons, I can't agree at all.  Mary E Winstead, Carrie c***, Micheal S, David Thewlis...superior actors, imo, and they all gave it their all. imo.

I totally agree. I thought Ewan McGregor did a great job as both Ray and Emmit. Mary E Winstead kicked ass and took names. I always love Carrie C*** in anything. Olivia Sandoval as Winnie was also fantastic. The only one who left me cold was Varga but that might have been the writing more than the acting.

I don't mind that nowadays the penultimate episode of a TV season is usually the most exciting and that the ending is usually ambiguous but even so this finale was underwhelming. The only parts I really liked was the cop and Nikki shooting each other allowing Emmit to escape and also the IRS agent in the room of paper. Overall, I did enjoy the season though.

Edited June 22, 2017 by DoubleUTeeEff
wrote Ray when I meant Emmit

[bosawks]

2 hours ago, MissBluxom said:

Oh Dear, No!

Bridge is a fabulous game. You can play it in a casual way with friends and just enjoy it in much the same way as you'd enjoy watching TV with friends. But people rarely drink when they play bridge. So, it's much healthier.

Also, you can take it seriously and spend many, many hours studying and learning the game. It's a fabulous game and if you have the inclination to learn how to play it, it can give you a lifetime's worth of wonderful enjoyment. It's also one of the very best ways to meet new friends who will last for a lifetime. Some of the very best people I've ever met have been at the bridge table.

Soooo, there's no murder?

[DoubleUTeeEff]

38 minutes ago, MissBluxom said:

2 hours ago, AzureOwl said:

Emmit never found out about Nikki had another accomplice. By that point he seemed to have completely left his guard down. Also, Emmit's wife doesn't strike me as the type to help have her husband whacked in the kitchen while her daughter and grand kid are in the next room.

Oh dear. I must admit that slipped my mind. It's pretty obvious that hardly any mother would want to have any one whacked in the kitchen while her kids were in the dining room.

Was it Emmit or Emmit's wife who forgot the salad in the fridge? #jellosaladconspiracy

But really, it doesn't seem plausible that Emmit's wife would stay with him for 5 years before she would try for revenge. She was out the door immediately after she saw the sex tape.

[Lorimac]

This has got to be one of the best reviews I have read on PTV, thank you Jeff Alexander. I spent all night disliking the ambiguity of the ending ("Inception" much, eh?) but your review turned my entire opinion around.

[hendersonrocks]

I just love that the Minnesota State Fair and our love of all things deep fried, and usually on a stick (Snickers! Macaroni and cheese! And as of this year, avocado!), got a shout out in the finale. For all the ways in which the Fargo movie and now TV series have influenced the way people think about our accents and ways of living, we've earned a little love. (I actually wrote a paper in a college lit class - shortly after the movie came out - about how  the film affected me being a Minnesotan in another part of the country. SO MANY FARGO JOKES, virtually all of them bad.)

I've come to the realization that Ewan McGregor just doesn't really do it for me. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, on the other hand, was new to me and really freaking good. 

A couple of other, small, observations:

• The change in the Widow Goldfarb's attire and hair when she came into her new corporate role - was she just playing the part of a ditzy fashionista and really is a business suit and glasses kind of gal? Or is she both? I just found it jarring and assume it was a very intentional choice.
• Mr. Wrench and the dog's ashes in the Luverne bag were the only real connections or call backs I saw to the movie or seasons 1-2. What other ones did I miss?
• The cinematography of the prairie scenes on county highways never fails to take my breath away. I know the series is filmed in Canada, but those are the shots where it feels like they really could be in my favorite parts of Minnesota. 

Edited June 22, 2017 by hendersonrocks
because subject-verb agreement matters

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

Another Season Of Fargo Down In History

It's the final showdown between 'true' and 'story.'

[MisterBluxom]

3 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Yes, and I think we saw some of that in 9 too. Did MEW already know ASL?

 

Thanks, @cardigirl, for answering that question.
Now I just hope we get a Bridge player to weigh in on any double (or single) entendre regarding the use of the Bridge term "trump" by Nikki for her weapons.

Wasn't it NoTrump?  Seems to me that many people would definitely prefer NoTrump over Trump. But I don't want to start any fights about that. I'm just trying to correct what was actually said in the episode.

"Ten NoTrump" begins to make more and more sense now. It's not a valid Bridge bid, but it may well be valid in a different context.

Edited June 22, 2017 by MissBluxom

[iMonrey]

The whole scam going on with Stussy Lots didn't make a lick of sense. I mean, the IRS guy did a good job of explaining what went down, but I don't get how Varga and Goldfarb were working together when they seemed to be working at cross-purposes. If they were working together the whole time, and ultimately planned to "steal" Stussy Lots, why did Goldfarb ever bother meeting with Sy and Emmit? What if they had agreed on the spot to sell? None of Varga's elaborate plan would have come to fruition. If the long-term plan was to borrow millions under the company's name and then sell to Goldfarb for a song why didn't she just remain in the background until after the sale was complete? Why did Emmit assume she worked for Varga, instead of the other way around, if she was the one who ultimately profited? It seemed more likely she had hired Varga to pull off this whole scam. 

The car starting after the shootout didn't make sense either - Emmit could have simply taken Nikki's car or maybe even the squad car. That just looked like a continuity error. But I guess when you consider the whole bowling alley scene and try to figure out how that even made sense, it's a pretty minor plot point.

I don't think there's much question as to whether Varga or Nikki was right in the end. Varga seemed to know for a fact someone was going to come in and tell him he was free to go. He had to have known something she didn't. In any case, I'm not a fan of the "draw your own conclusions" type of ending. It's been done to death and no longer feels artsy or particularly clever - just lazy. It would actually be more daring to tell us what happened. Be brave, pick an ending. 

Overall I did enjoy this season more than the first two - perhaps I stand alone in that, but I simply wasn't a fan of either Billy Bob Thornton or Bokeem Woodbine. It's really all in the casting - I just liked this cast better than the first two.

Quote

My dissatisfaction with this season lies largely with Varga. Honestly, once I got past my disgust with him, I found him boring. I tuned out his endless soliloquies about nothing. 

Funny, that's exactly the way I felt about Malvo and Mike Milligan {shrugs}.

[meep.meep]

3 hours ago, rhys said:

Someone upthread mentioned that Nikki said "10 no trump." That's not a bridge bid. I may have misheard as I thought she said "# no trump." 

I think she said 3 or 4 no trump which is a bid

We don't know that Emmit's car stalled on the highway.  He may have just stopped because he wanted to call his wife.  And then couldn't get any reception.

I still think the red Minnesota trooper outfits look strange.

This was definitely lesser Fargo.  The characters weren't alive and 3-dimensional like in the previous two seasons.  I don't blame the acting, I blame the writing.  Other than the chase in the woods, there was very little suspense.  Just people going from point A to point B and talking with flat affect.

[tennisgurl]

This was a really weird, uneven season, that ended on a weird, uneven episode. It had lots of really good moments and episodes, but it was also bogged down by a pretty boring main plot, and some pretty lame characters who never really connected. But at the same time, it had some good characters and performances, and I kind of actually liked how it all got wrapped up, and it still made me want to see a fourth season.

I know that Nikki crossed a line when she killed the State Trooper, and karma required her to die, but I was still kind of rooting for her, because if nothing else she has been the most interesting and dynamic character of the season. Honestly, I don't even know if she was going to murder Emmett in cold blood. She really seemed like she was putting it off, maybe if the cop hadn't shown up, she would have just left, and everything would have been fine? Who knows. I also really enjoyed her partnership with Mr. Wrench, and him coming back to the show in general. He was always one of my favorite minions, so I was super happy to see him doing his thing with a new partner. I honestly wish we had seen more of him and Nikki. They seemed like they had a good partnership going, enough that she learned ASL for him (I may or may not have said "awwwwww") and Wrench avenging her death years later. I would have traded a dozen of Varga speeches or puking scenes for one more Nikki/Wrench scene.

Really, I think the biggest flaw in the season were the villains. Malvo was charming in his evil, and was interesting as a metaphor for the cruelty of man, plus it had Wrench and Numbers, who were likably quirky bad guys (so much so that they've shown up in all three seasons), the Gerhardts were interesting in how they combined family dynamics with their criminal empire, plus you had enigmatic Hanzee and super charismatic Mike Mulligan, and the bureaucratic members of the Kansas City Mafia, who I found to be really fascinating and funny in how they combined being boring businessman as well as criminal masterminds. This season, we had Vargo, who had his moments, but was mostly really gross, annoying, and smug. By the time of his last scene, all I wanted was for someone to wipe the smug grin off that assholes face. If wasn't like when I wanted to see evil defeated like with other bad guys in the franchise. I just wanted him GONE. And his sidekicks were by far the worst of the Fargo tradition of quirky assassin teams. Yuri only had three personality traits: hates woman, Russian, kills people. None of which are very interesting on their own, if that's all you've got, but together? You have a murderer (which we`ve seen a million times) a guy who hates woman without reason (which we`ve seen a million time) and an evil Russian guy (which, again, seen a million times), who just is a massively boring cliché. But at least he gets more personally than Meemo, whos name I had to look up because that's how uninteresting this guy is. His personality is Stoic Who Kills People. Riveting stuff. And while he isn't technically the villain, I would add the annoying moron sheriff, who was a one dimensional obstruction for Gloria to fight against.

However, I do actually kind of like how the story ended. I have seen the political stuff from day one, personally, just that this episode was the most obvious. I don't mind it, and I think it was subtle enough to ignore if your just watching for the story, but also clear enough if your watching for the allegory. Its not like this show has never had political commentary before, especially its second season, which was a big metaphor for Reaganomics and the end of the mom and pop stores in favor of huge corporations, with crime syndicates standing in for more traditional business. Hell, Reagan himself shows up as a character in an episode. This season was about the truth, and what makes something real or not real. You can apply that to the current political landscape (and it seems like this was the idea), or a more general way to explore truth, in a way that's always existed since powerful people even started existing. Gloria felt like she didn't exist because technology couldn't find her, and practically cried with happiness when her friend said she WAS real, and tech started working for her. Vargo freaking loves going on about truth and lies and how the truth lies with whoever is powerful. We even had the backstory of the step dad, who changed his name and whole life after killing someone who was pretending to be someone else. And, really, Fargo is the perfect franchise to discuss this issue. After all, this is the franchise that started its movie with the claim of "This is a True Story", and every season in its show has followed up with that claim. A claim that is a 100% lie. Granted, I'm not sure if it totally stuck the landing, and I'm not sure how this season fits into the greater rule of Truth in Fargo, but I think the ending left us with two people, representing two world views, and gave us two options. Who will win the day: Powerful people can choose the truth that they want, or the decent people who see the truth as something valuable and worth protecting? You can decide.

That being said, oh my GOD did I want to see the smug look on Vargo get wiped off his stupid, smug face. Actually, what I REALLY wanted was for the door to open...and Ray Wise walks in, telling Vargo that he's going to be coming with him, while all of Vargos victims stand behind him. It wouldn't have done much for the metaphor, but it would have been awesome!

In a way, I thought the ending, while more open to interpretation than other endings, it still fits in pretty well with Fargo. Evil people are always going to be evil, and they're always going to be running around, doing evil things, but there are also good people who are just living their lives, trying to enjoy the simple things, and want to make the world a little less dark, one deep fried snickers bar at a time. So, I'm glad I saw this season, even if it was my least favorite of the season (of course, season two is one of my favorite things ever, so it had a tough road even going on for me), and I'm still interested in seeing what could happen in a future season. Granted, it will probably take about 5 or 6 years to get it on the air, but still, I will still give it a watch.

[Bort]

10 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

Meemo, whos name I had to look up because that's how uninteresting this guy is. His personality is Stoic Who Kills People. Riveting stuff.

While wearing earbuds 24/7. Which is super-annoying, not to mention impractical. How effective a henchman can you be if you can't hear anyone sneaking up on you? I would have loved for Meemo to meet his end by somebody strangling him with his headphone cord.

[Doyounot]

So sad that nikki died! But i laughed so hard when she told emmit that ray was a kitten now just so he knows also her pretending to leave after he said he didnt mean to! Of course they didnt show which one was right but i wanna believe gloria was! The didnt want to keep doing the same over and over i get it but this way its not bullshit if you believe whichever you want!

As others have said glorias "ok then" was exactly how i feel about what happened this season. I still loved it just not as much as the other two.

I would be ok with it if they didnt do another one any time soon but then again i would still love another season whenever! Its just gotta be good not just repeating.

[cardigirl]

Rather liked this review.  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/arts/television/fargo-recap-season-3-finale-somebody-to-love.html

[tennisgurl]

So, I love that when you google Fargo, the first search that comes up in Related Searches is David Thewlis teeth Fargo. 

[SoothingDave]

52 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

 

We don't know that Emmit's car stalled on the highway.  He may have just stopped because he wanted to call his wife.  And then couldn't get any reception.

 

 

Yes, we do know that.  There were warning "dings" from the car and the engine just cut out.  He was clearly exasperated that he was stuck and then that the phone had no service.

There's enough crap on this series that isn't explained (like why the car stopped and then re-started fine later, or how Nikki would know about banking files and hard drives, or how she knew which IRS agent to send stuff to, etc.).

But we know Emmitt didn't just pull over on the side of the road on his own volition.

[Bama]

3 hours ago, AzureOwl said:

That's unlikely, because the text mad to have come from someone Varga knew. A text from Nikki's number or an unknown number wouldn't have triggered that reaction on Varga. This was a warning from a source he trusted. 

The text came from an unknown number.

 

No idea who sent it but my best guess is Nikki.  She wanted to take out Varga herself.

[Jodithgrace]

Quote

Soooo, there's no murder?

Oh..there very well might have been if I had taken up bridge with my Type A, card loving, husband, which is why I always refused. 

I was confused about Emmet's car starting up again, also. I could have understood it if he seemed shocked when it started, as if Karma had given him a gift, which is kind of what happened when he tried to confess to Ray's murder. But he seemed matter of fact about it. And of course, Karma did catch up with him 5 years later. 

One thing that I always think about whenever I watch Fargo is Malvo. I always wonder if the writers got his name from the rating system which rates most episodes, MALV. Of course, I'm sure the show was written before the ratings were applied, but I always think about it when ever that title card appears. 

The trouble with Varga was that he was more disgusting than frightening. He was so physically repulsive, it was hard to see any true humanity in him. I did like his unflappability. He always seemed to be two steps ahead of everybody, so he had no need to get upset about anything. That's why I would have loved to have seen him taken down at the end. But we will never know if he was , or if he was two steps ahead again, as he seemed to believe. 

[Razzberry]

More padding than a mattress factory.  Could they possibly have dragged out that abandoned building scene longer?  Pulling over the school bus again for another forgettable talk with...I can't even remember the kid's name.  

Highlights? 
Wrench hack-sawing the tent poles, I mean shotgun.  Nikki turning into Rambo Chigur.  A drooling Sy propped up at the dinner table.

From the moment Legion was announced I suspected that Fargo would suffer.  It's unavoidable, attentions are elsewhere - but what I didn't expect was what I interpreted as contempt for the audience with all the pissing, vomiting and toilet scenes.  Then again, I'd agree that we tend to see what we believe, not the other way around.

[Magic]

Just thinking about the season in retrospect, I am even more disappointed.  So many story lines started and not going anywhere after all?  Just picking a few, but I think almost ANY could be picked.

From the start, I thought I was on the wrong station when the East Berlin interrogation was going on, and it got a LOT of film time, and what did it ever mean.  Whether Yuri was ever tied to that or not is unclear to me, much less the overall emphasis on Russia (Peter and the Wolf, the Cossacks etc.) that never seemed to be tied to anything we were told about in the end after all.  Varga wasn't a Russian even if he admired Stalin.  He had a diverse team and his last destination was Belgium, so what did the Russian angle ever really add up to.

Ennis having his mouth and nose glued shut.  We are supposed to think Malcolm, the hothead with a gun, took the time to find glue and did that??  Who even does that, much less a spoon of a thinker who has a gun. And what about the creaking upstairs that Gloria heard.

And why would Varga and crew be soooooooooo smart to work for years in advance setting up their scheme (giving the loan to Emmitt in the first place years before showing up to collect what they felt was their due) that the IRS guy described, but did not pay taxes, which would bring about the downfall of the new company and waste all those years of planning?

And NO to Nikki giving the quote she was assigned by Paul in the bowling alley, to Emmitt!!!  NO it is obvious that the most evil one had to be Varga.  Emmitt was just a weakling weasel.  He didn't deserve to be the reason Nikki died or the quote.

And by Mr. Wrench killing Emmitt five years later, or Nikki killing the state trooper, are they walking the better path, as Paul alluded in the bowling alley?  What the hell was the bowling after all?  It got a lot of film time too, and for nothing reasonable or feasible.

I still think in the end each writer spontaneously moved the story down the road and the subsequent writers just tried to deal with what the last writer did by putting in a few Fargo like story lines to keep the season moving along or perhaps move their own agenda along no matter what it did to the overall story.  To cap it off, a weak ending that didn't bring closure to almost any storyline that was started this season.  Not even Gloria and Nikki getting to share some pie together.  

[WaltersHair]

Let someone else take it over.  I know showrunners are hella jealous of their babies, but I think there are a number of stories to tell, just let someone else tell them.

[DrScottie]

32 minutes ago, Jodithgrace said:

One thing that I always think about whenever I watch Fargo is Malvo. I always wonder if the writers got his name from the rating system which rates most episodes, MALV. Of course, I'm sure the show was written before the ratings were applied, but I always think about it when ever that title card appears. 

That's entirely possible, but they'd know it would be a Mature Audience Language ViOlence rating given what was in it. It certainly wasn't going to get a TV-PG or TV-14. 

[deux]

1 hour ago, SoothingDave said:

 

Yes, we do know that.  There were warning "dings" from the car and the engine just cut out.  He was clearly exasperated that he was stuck and then that the phone had no service.

There's enough crap on this series that isn't explained (like why the car stopped and then re-started fine later, or how Nikki would know about banking files and hard drives, or how she knew which IRS agent to send stuff to, etc.).

But we know Emmitt didn't just pull over on the side of the road on his own volition.

I think that Nikki planned that stop somehow. (she was there 1 min later in the middle of nowhere). But what really bugs me here is that Emmet did not pick up his cell phone before he left. His cell phone would place him at the crime scene. Hate it when writers think we won't notice stuff like that.

[ghoulina]

32 minutes ago, Magic said:

From the start, I thought I was on the wrong station when the East Berlin interrogation was going on, and it got a LOT of film time, and what did it ever mean.  Whether Yuri was ever tied to that or not is unclear to me, much less the overall emphasis on Russia (Peter and the Wolf, the Cossacks etc.) that never seemed to be tied to anything we were told about in the end after all.  Varga wasn't a Russian even if he admired Stalin.  He had a diverse team and his last destination was Belgium, so what did the Russian angle ever really add up to.

I thought that opening was to basically lay out the theme of the season - that there are two sides to every story. Everyone has their own truth. There is no one truth, but different perspectives. Just as the Stussy brothers both saw the division of their father's bequeathed items differently. But I do agree that there was a lot more focus on Russia that didn't really seem to go anywhere. 

 

34 minutes ago, Magic said:

Ennis having his mouth and nose glued shut.  We are supposed to think Malcolm, the hothead with a gun, took the time to find glue and did that??  Who even does that, much less a spoon of a thinker who has a gun. And what about the creaking upstairs that Gloria heard.

His name was Maurice :) But yes, I did NOT see him killing someone in that methodical type of way. It was odd. 

[WaltersHair]

Quote

One thing that I always think about whenever I watch Fargo is Malvo. I always wonder if the writers got his name from the rating system which rates most episodes, MALV. Of course, I'm sure the show was written before the ratings were applied, but I always think about it when ever that title card appears. 

Quote

That's entirely possible, but they'd know it would be a Mature Audience Language ViOlence rating given what was in it. It certainly wasn't going to get a TV-PG or TV-14. 

Okay, don't think I'm strange (too late), but when I watched the first season, I kept thinking I've seen Malvo's name before. I play a number of word games.  Lorne Malvo is an anagram for Normal Lover. Don't know if it was purposeful or not.

[SoothingDave]

40 minutes ago, Magic said:

Just thinking about the season in retrospect, I am even more disappointed.  So many story lines started and not going anywhere after all?  Just picking a few, but I think almost ANY could be picked.

From the start, I thought I was on the wrong station when the East Berlin interrogation was going on, and it got a LOT of film time, and what did it ever mean.  Whether Yuri was ever tied to that or not is unclear to me, much less the overall emphasis on Russia (Peter and the Wolf, the Cossacks etc.) that never seemed to be tied to anything we were told about in the end after all.  Varga wasn't a Russian even if he admired Stalin.  He had a diverse team and his last destination was Belgium, so what did the Russian angle ever really add up to.

Ennis having his mouth and nose glued shut.  We are supposed to think Malcolm, the hothead with a gun, took the time to find glue and did that??  Who even does that, much less a spoon of a thinker who has a gun. And what about the creaking upstairs that Gloria heard.

And why would Varga and crew be soooooooooo smart to work for years in advance setting up their scheme (giving the loan to Emmitt in the first place years before showing up to collect what they felt was their due) that the IRS guy described, but did not pay taxes, which would bring about the downfall of the new company and waste all those years of planning?

And NO to Nikki giving the quote she was assigned by Paul in the bowling alley, to Emmitt!!!  NO it is obvious that the most evil one had to be Varga.  Emmitt was just a weakling weasel.  He didn't deserve to be the reason Nikki died or the quote.

And by Mr. Wrench killing Emmitt five years later, or Nikki killing the state trooper, are they walking the better path, as Paul alluded in the bowling alley?  What the hell was the bowling after all?  It got a lot of film time too, and for nothing reasonable or feasible.

I still think in the end each writer spontaneously moved the story down the road and the subsequent writers just tried to deal with what the last writer did by putting in a few Fargo like story lines to keep the season moving along or perhaps move their own agenda along no matter what it did to the overall story.  To cap it off, a weak ending that didn't bring closure to almost any storyline that was started this season.  Not even Gloria and Nikki getting to share some pie together.  

So much yes to this!  Nikki was supposed to confront Varga and give the speech to him.  This was just wrong.

The writers didn't explain a lot of things, or think that they had to even make sense.  I was expecting the opening of the series to tie into something.

I interpreted the bowling alley scene as Nikki and Wrench being dead.  And then being sent back as avenging angels.  On a mission from God.  Or whoever Ray wise works for.

Having Nikki just be shot and die was wrong.  I expected her to confront Varga and then, her mission compolete, to be taken up in some way.  Maybe aliens.  Shaft of light from the heavens.  Something that had some logic.

Just sloppy and muddled and not enough respect for the audience to make a story that follows a logic.  I don't mind the open-ended ending with Gloria and Varga (other than the fact that Nikki didn't get him), but the rest was a mess.  

Why have a Spanish-speaking kid lead them to the building?  They had the freaking address!  No sense.

And no resolution to Gloria and her idiot boss Sheriff Eli.  The mess with her resigning, then picking up letter, and then apparently moving to DHS without any scene with her and Eli?  Unsatisfying.

Sad that this is one of the better shows on TV and this was done so poorly.  

Fargo, come back, but do better.

[Armchair Critic]

8 hours ago, ghoulina said:

He's a villain I didn't want to watch and I wanted LEAST to win

Malvo and Milligan I was kind of rooting for I never felt that way about Varga. My favorite season is still 1, I loved Billy Bob.

[Spartan Girl]

While opinion is mixed on Ewan's performance (there's only so much you can do with weird writing), you gotta give him this: he is an excellent crier.

[Gobi]

My prediction about Varga and Widow Goldfarb was correct, except that I predicted that they were not working together.

Emmit leaving the phone behind really bothered me, as well. Stepped on or not, it wouldn't be hard to extract his name from the phone and tie him to the shooting.

Emmit didn't deserve to die, while Varga deserved to drown in a vat of his own vomit.

I agree with those who found the ending not cleverly ambiguous, but rather a failure by the show to take a stand.

[SunnyBeBe]

2 hours ago, Magic said:

Just thinking about the season in retrospect, I am even more disappointed.  So many story lines started and not going anywhere after all?  Just picking a few, but I think almost ANY could be picked.

From the start, I thought I was on the wrong station when the East Berlin interrogation was going on, and it got a LOT of film time, and what did it ever mean.  Whether Yuri was ever tied to that or not is unclear to me, much less the overall emphasis on Russia (Peter and the Wolf, the Cossacks etc.) that never seemed to be tied to anything we were told about in the end after all.  Varga wasn't a Russian even if he admired Stalin.  He had a diverse team and his last destination was Belgium, so what did the Russian angle ever really add up to.

Ennis having his mouth and nose glued shut.  We are supposed to think Malcolm, the hothead with a gun, took the time to find glue and did that??  Who even does that, much less a spoon of a thinker who has a gun. And what about the creaking upstairs that Gloria heard.

And why would Varga and crew be soooooooooo smart to work for years in advance setting up their scheme (giving the loan to Emmitt in the first place years before showing up to collect what they felt was their due) that the IRS guy described, but did not pay taxes, which would bring about the downfall of the new company and waste all those years of planning?

And NO to Nikki giving the quote she was assigned by Paul in the bowling alley, to Emmitt!!!  NO it is obvious that the most evil one had to be Varga.  Emmitt was just a weakling weasel.  He didn't deserve to be the reason Nikki died or the quote.

And by Mr. Wrench killing Emmitt five years later, or Nikki killing the state trooper, are they walking the better path, as Paul alluded in the bowling alley?  What the hell was the bowling after all?  It got a lot of film time too, and for nothing reasonable or feasible.

I still think in the end each writer spontaneously moved the story down the road and the subsequent writers just tried to deal with what the last writer did by putting in a few Fargo like story lines to keep the season moving along or perhaps move their own agenda along no matter what it did to the overall story.  To cap it off, a weak ending that didn't bring closure to almost any storyline that was started this season.  Not even Gloria and Nikki getting to share some pie together.  

Good points.  I mean, IF some of the things listed above had been addressed, it MIGHT have made things a little more palatable, but,......IDK.....at this point, I don't really care about the characters that much.  Someone upthread said that the writing suffered due to Legion.  (I don't care for that either.)  Normally, when things are bad, I blame it on TPTB being lazy, sloppy, bored or being just to full of themselves to care. I can handle a lot, but, when things don't make sense and are pointless.....I just find it inexcusable.  But, I'll stay open.  Better luck next time. 

[Dowel Jones]

My question is, who in the world would loan a parking lot company $200 million dollars?  Certainly not any legitimate investors/banks/etc., so that leads me to think that the entire enterprise was a method to launder that money.  Having done that through the offshore accounts (which, by the way, are not nearly as secure as they used to be), one would think that the previous owners of that money would be more than upset if it was shown that their money went to some private sources.  Enter my hypothesis for the end of the show:  Varga is indeed freed to go out the door, but only to be met by a "representative" from those sources.  And he has neither Yuri nor Meemo to defend him. 

Oh, Mr. Wrench.  You ruined that perfectly good salad.

I was halfway expecting, and hoping, really, to see Anton Chigurch get out of that rattletrap pickup and greet Emmitt on the prairie highway.

If anyone stayed for the commercials after the finale, one was for, yup, Snickers!

In answer to a question upthread, I think that the FBI would have sent Varga's photo to Interpol as a BOLO.  Five years later, he slips up and is recognized through facial recognition software as he is leaving Europe, and DHS, which controls Immigration and Customs Enforcement, receives notification of his impending arrival.  Just my theory, anyway. 

Some lucky groundskeeper is going to find that stamp, and if he plays his cards right....

[annzeepark914]

I used to really miss Fargo at the end of Season 1 and Season 2.  Now?  I'm relieved that weird story is over.  I bet there are hundreds of stories (somewhat similar to the movie and season 1) that could be used.  Just watch a few 20/20's or other murder reality shows, change a few characters and scenes, put it in a snowy time of year and voila!  A really good Fargo is born anew.

[WaltersHair]

I've been wondering if Nikki shot that trooper, thinking he was a fake? Last time she was in jail or on a prison bus, things definitely went sideways.

Recidivist. That was the 20 dollar word Varga used to try and make her feel small. Maybe she'd decided she wasn't going back to prison no matter what.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, meep.meep said:

I think she said 3 or 4 no trump which is a bid…

Ah. That actually works for me in a round about way, although if I had made my mother happy and learned Bridge, I suspect the double entendre would be stronger. Now that it has been established upthread that Noah Hawley did say in an interview that the season was an allegory for current society, a lot potentially makes sense to me, even, for example, Wrench coming back in 5 years to exact justice—and also the disgusting characterization of Vega. But this is not the place for us to discuss political meanings.

 

5 hours ago, cardigirl said:

Rather liked this review.  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/arts/television/fargo-recap-season-3-finale-somebody-to-love.html

I particularly enjoyed this bit from a comment:

Quote

I hope I don't have a daughter anytime soon or else she'll be explaining why her name is Nikki Swango.

[rur]

3 hours ago, WaltersHair said:

Okay, don't think I'm strange (too late), but when I watched the first season, I kept thinking I've seen Malvo's name before. I play a number of word games.  Lorne Malvo is an anagram for Normal Lover. Don't know if it was purposeful or not.

Maybe I'm less creative or insightful than the others here, but I had always thought his last name was a riff on "malevolent".