That finale was, in the words of Lorne Malvo, aces!
We finally come to the conclusion of the series, “Fargo,” and it sure as heck didn’t disappoint.
With Malvo roaming Bemidji, the law enforcement is scrambling to find him. They are also terrified too. As Chief Oswalt says, the town is not ready for guerrilla warfare. And with a person like Malvo, that seems to be the only way to get him.
Lester is scamming his way out of another murder of another wife of his. His facade is crumbling before him. Even Lou seems suspicious of him when he’s creating an alibi for his wife’s murder in his diner. He even cracks up when he’s being interviewed by Molly. His lies are catching up to him.
Gus follows a hunch and locates Malvo’s hideout. He seems dead certain about protecting his family.
Without going into every detail, Lester outsmarts Malvo (after Malvo follows him home) by tricking him into his bedroom and planting a bear trap under some laundry to crush Malvo’s leg. Malvo flees wounded and as he’s patching himself up at his hideout, Gus puts an end to Malvo’s existence.
Lester two weeks later is chased by cops while on the lamb in Montana. He runs on thin ice and like Hell swallowing him up, he goes under and meets his end too.
This finale was intense. The suspense from the start to the end was incredible and that is something. The scene were Gus is poking around Malvo’s hideout was drawn out perfectly to raise the anxiety and switches back to Lester and the FBI agents being attacked by Malvo. This is similar to the first episode’s pace. I was so in tune with the FBI agents and Malvo, and then Lester with Malvo that I forgot all about Gus until Malvo saw that wolf (symbolism!) out his window.
And having Molly finally proven correct the whole time was just wonderful, although it took a lot of time and bodies to get there.
For 10 episodes, this has been one of the best written, produced and acted series in recent memory. Heck, I would put this in my top-5 favorite dramatic TV shows ever. The show took a lot of risks (jumping a whole year into the future on the eighth episode, I mean that’s quite a gutsy thing to do) and it definitely paid off.
And hats off to Noah Hawley. Given how revered the film is, and to add to that word with something just as equal in quality, he truly wrote an incredibly “10 hour movie” as he likened it when I interviewed him just before the series aired.
Observations:
* The guy who worked at the “alleged” library in Bemidji apparently works for the used car lot.
* Bill giving the chief position to Molly was touching.
* Like the reference to the film with the DLR (dealer) plates.
* “The other one now?” Molly on Lester’s second dead wife.
* It takes a bear trap and a lot of bullets to put Malvo down.
* Lester get’s his nose broken a second time by another bully in his life.
* Lester is wearing another obnoxious red coat when he’s caught in Montana.
* Molly saying “Goodbye Mr. Nygaard” like that was chilling. She knows he’s doomed.
That’s it. It was a fun ride these past 10 weeks. I’ve enjoyed watching this show and engaging with people on this blog, Twitter and Facebook about it. Thanks for following along. Now I will blog about things that are not “Fargo.” For the most part.
The JOE-DOWN 