Fargo (TV Series)

[A24 4,331]

Fargo S5

 

 

Now that was weird! Seeing an aged Don Draper as a bullying sheriff and this after I just have watched 7 seasons of Mad Men. Fargo 5 was watchable, as it always is, but nothing more than that.

[Jay 37,346]

Fargo 5x10 Bisquik

 

That was a great ending to what turned out to be a great season, and one of the best season finales I've ever seen.  I wouldn't complain if it became the series finale of the entire show! 

 

This is kind of a weird thing I've never experience before, where the season wasn't perfect, had its flaws, everytime I thought it could be heading into great territory it'd do something that really perplexed me..... and then the ending, specifically just the final scene (by that I mean the entire 15-20 minute ending sequence) was SO good, it retroactively elevated the entire season to greatness for me.  This is so refreshing after watching so much television where the opposite happens (shows are intriguing and seem to building to a big payoff, and then they don't stick the landing).

 

Before the great ending, we had a lot of wrapup to get there, most of which was honestly clunky or confusing.  Roy killing his new wife's father was interesting, kind of a hero moment because that guy was such a bad person, but also oddly strange because it was yet another murder Roy is committing.  Dot shooting him right after was awesome, but I don't know why it was never made clear if the new wife knew she was there, IE they were working together to take him down, or if it was just a coincidence?  I don't know if I would have preferred her finishing the job and killing him right there, or the ultimate ending we got for him.  More on that in a bit.

 

Before his ultimate capture, that scene with Witt was heartbreaking.  Witt was one of the easiest characters to completely root for (along with Dot and Indira)

 and man did I want him to survive the season.  The fact that was was too good and trusting even up against the prime example of a person you shouldn't be is just so heartbreaking. RIP Witt!  When Roy gets captured and the FBI agents tell him that it was Gator that sold him out, I was completely confused.  What does that even mean? They already had a ton of reasons to arrest him and put him away for live just based on the shootout at his compound + him murdering Odin + him murdering Witt (a STATE cop).  So exactly what did Gator tell them that changed anything?  I thought it was maybe where the tunnel leads to but come out, it was a big flat plain, they'd of found him without Gator's help.  'Twas weird.

 

I actually thought the little moment Gator shared with Dot afterward was nice.  He seems to have genuine remorse for everything bad he did and Dot seems to understand how much of that was his terrible upbringing by a truly terrible person.  Her reunion with Wayne and Scotty was so rewarding, and the interaction with Lorraine was interesting.  Does Lorraine actually feel empathy for everything Dot has gone through and overcome, or is she just happy she shot Roy and let to him being captured?  At least she's willing to receive a hug, at least for a short while lol

 

One year later, sort of wasn't expecting that.  I like to know that Dot is completely safe, and runs the dealership with Wayne, and Scotty is doing well too.  But I was not really sure what to make of Indira.  The second she told her husband off he was never mentioned again and I never got a sense of how she feels about the whole situation once he's out of her life for a while.  And I never was sure what to think about if her working for Lorraine was a good or bad thing, which only gets more complicated in the jail scene....

 

It's so fitting that Roy actually enjoys prison life (or at least puts on a convincing front that that's the case), between his swastika tattoo and he statement that the segregation of races and violence-based power dynamic all he ever wanted (yikes).  When Lorraine sends Indira away before revealing that she'll make his life a living hell by paying off everyone in jail to torture and rape him, that was just so strange.  Who am I supposed to be rooting for here?  Sure, Roy is a total villain and deserves some level of punishment for all his crimes.  But is it that?  And Lorraine, well, Lorraine is a villain too!  Sure, she kind of came around on Dot, and got the feds to go to Roy's compound and help save the day.  But she's still making obscene amounts of money off people who don't deserve it, and is not using her power to perform more crimes on a person in prison, as bad as he is.  I just don't know what the messaging is supposed to be here, nor how much Indira is on board with!  Maybe she'll turn up in another season or something....

 

And finally we arrive at the ending.  I think the show did a largely good job of making you forget about Munch, or at least assuming his story was over when he got his revenge on Gator, then freed Dot from the well telling her that the tiger was now free.  So for him to turn up in her home, AN ENTIRE YEAR LATER was so bizarre at first.  But as the scene went on, everything really clicked in to place, and the theme and message of the whole season was laid out so beautifully, elevated so much by just top-notch acting by everyone in the scene.  Wayne was SO FUNNY at just the right times ("we saw a tiger in the zoo once!"), and both him and Scotty had a perfect sort of smile on the outside, but you could tell aware on the danger inside.  Dot played every angle of the situation perfect.  Sam Spruell though ultimately just KILLED IT as a Munch.  From the cold delivery of his backstory (which I personally feel is probably his own delusion and not a magical reality of the show's universe) to the tiny ways he'd be shook from it by being handed a beer, or told to wash his hands, or asked to him make the biscuits, all culminating with that euphoric smile when he tastes the biscuit made with love.... utter perfection.  What a scene, and what great acting all around!

 

The theme of debt was so carefully woven into various parts of the story all season, and it was wonderful to see it culminate in this way.  Tiny housewife Dot convincing the big brute there to kill her that not all debts need to be repaid, that it is OK for debt to be forgiven at times, so amazing to watch unfold.  My only wish was that this idea somehow paid off into the other debt storylines.  Lorraine obviously runs a debt collecting company, and it seems that she was just go about business as usual, unchanged by what happened this season.  Wayne had that hilarious moment when he wanted to exchange "a car for a car, that's fair!", but it doesn't seem anything about his business will change.  And Indira was satteld with insane amounts of financial debt, either all or mostly due to her lame-ass husband, but they sort of made it seem like it was basically done away with by her just working for Lorraine for a long enough time? 

 

These are minor quibbles I suppose; While on one hand I would have liked to have seem some of these things explored more, the actual ending we got was so well done, I basically just leave the season feeling so completely satisfied by everything.

 

What did everyone else think of the ending, and the season as a whole?