Looks like I should’ve saved my mini-treatise on Doctor Harvard’s name for this week; sort of “paying tribute” kind of deal. It’s a bold enough way to start the episode, with Oraetta deciding to take matters into her own hands so she can figure out who sent the anonymous letter about her murderous ways. I’m not sure “giving her boss a poisoned macaroon” is the most straightforward approach here, but I appreciate the shock value, and the fact that she seems to get away with it, at least for now. It’s odd, though. I get that Oraetta’s creative approach to problem solving is intended to be a hallmark for her character, to make her more frightening and interesting to watch, and that’s true to an extent. But there’s an edge of randomness to her that makes her difficult to see as an actual character. Jessie Buckley is doing good work, and her basic motives at this point are sort of clear, but she could still do just about anything and I wouldn’t be that surprised by it.
That’s a dangerous area to be playing with, in terms of storytelling. Unexpected behavior can be a boon in a narrative—it keeps things fresh, it shakes the audience out of their assumptions, it puts them on their guard. But go too far and it becomes just novelty for its own sake. I complained about this earlier with Odis, and to be fair to the show, we absolutely did get a decent explanation for his quirks in the subsequence episode; so I haven’t given up on us getting a clearer idea of why Oraetta does what she does. But that sort of clarity should come sooner rather than later. We’re over halfway through the season now, and while I don’t need all the answers, I’d be a lot more invested in the coming war between Oraetta and Ethelrida if Oraetta made a bit more sense.
It’s a problem with the season as a whole at this point. “Lay Away” doesn’t lack for characters making big swings; as Oraetta murders her boss and rifles through his desk, Josto decides to go all in on getting his brother killed, and Loy decides not to take the bait. This should all be pretty exciting stuff, and the episode isn’t without its share of tension. But the same lack of cohesion, of forward motion, plagues this season almost as much as it did season 3; and while there, the choppiness felt like it might be moving towards an intentional point about modern life, here it’s like a story trying to remember why its being told.
Take Loy. This is a big hour for him. He learns from Josto (erroneously) that Satchel is dead, and he struggles with his rage and grief before deciding not to indulge either. He tries to do the “right” thing and send Zelmare and Swanee out of town to keep them from getting killed, threatening Zelmare’s sister if they don’t follow his orders; he sees that his credit card plan has either been stolen or scooped by the bank; and he decides to let Gaetano go and sow some chaos in the Faddas, rather than give Josto what he wants.
These are interesting choices. It’s just, I’m not exactly sure what drives any of them. Like Oraetta, Loy is unpredictable, but where Oraetta’s unpredictability is built into the design of who she is, Loy should be easier to parse. One of the hooks of the season was the idea of a Black crime syndicate—it’s not a new idea, but it feels new to Fargo, and a story about people of color turning to illegal means to get the power they’ve been denied in their ordinary lives has a lot of potential. But it doesn’t seem like we’ve gotten that at all. I have more of a sense of how the Fadda family works, partly because the show has spent a little more time behind the scenes of their operation, and partly because I’m just more familiar with the concept of the Italian mafia. Josto starts as a caricature and gets depth as he goes. But Loy hasn’t really made that jump. All I feel like I know about him at this point is that he invented the credit card (although we only really saw like, what, one scene with that?), and sometimes he’s angry, and sometimes he isn’t.
Chris Rock’s performance isn’t really making up the difference here, unfortunately. But he’s not helped by writing that seems reluctant to actually spend much more than a perfunctory amount of time on his side of the story. When Loy starts beating on one of his men (the fella who “let” Lemuel get picked up by the cops), it’s clearly intended as an expression of his rage and helplessness, taking out his frustration on someone who had the misfortune of making themselves an easy target at the worst possible moment. But while it’s shocking, it doesn’t change how we view Loy, or put him in a different context, or do anything more than check the box that reads “burst of unexpected violence.” It’s not a bad scene, it’s just not one that does much for anything else, because we don’t have the context needed to make it upsetting.
Same with Loy’s flashback memories of his son, Satchel. It’s just repeating scenes from earlier in the season in an attempt to convince us of the depth of Loy’s grief; but it doesn’t really land at all. Admittedly part of this is because we know Satchel is still alive, but mostly it’s just lazy writing. Instead of actually putting in the effort to build this relationship at all, the show simply repeats itself for a bit, and trusts that innate horror of losing a child will be enough to carry the distance. It benefits some from the fact that Loy doesn’t ultimately give in to his rage, instead deciding on a cannier play, but it still feels way too much like dead air.
Same with Odis’s brief flashback to his wife. It’s pretty, and the song she’s singing is good, but the repeated insistence that I care about what happens to Odis is starting to wear thin. Even with his backstory, he’s not all that interesting (for one thing, we don’t get any sense of how losing the love of his life and having a bad time in the war lead him to being a crooked cop), and I’m not emotionally invested in what happens to him. The biggest problem with this season is how poorly it’s managed to make any of this more than just a curiosity. If you are honestly wrapped up in the Fadda/Cannon war, more power to you, but outside off the novelty value of figuring out just who’s going to die when, it’s hard for me to get worked up about any of it.
The exception to all of this is Ethelrida, who continues to be defined more by her absence than anything else. Ethelrida is interesting and compelling and unique; even with her comparatively limited screentime, I feel like I have a good sense of who Ethelrida is, and I care about what happens to her. Oraetta is sure to be on her heels soon enough, and the on-going misery at the Smutny funeral home is one of the few aspects of the season that isn’t just going by the “warring crime families” rulebook. And yet all she does this week is show up and be uncomfortable as Loy’s men use the funeral home to store stolen goods. The worst thing I can say about “Lay Away” is that exciting things happen in it, and yet it still feels like we’re just killing time until the actual story arrives.
Stray observations
- I guess Josto isn’t going to worry about getting revenge on Doctor Harvard anymore. I wonder if Oraetta will go to him next.
- It’s not a good sign that I was disappointed about Gaetano surviving. Possibly the least successful character on the show at this point.
- Josto sends Calamita to kill Rabbi Milligan and Satchel, and then he tells Loy that Calamita already finished the job, claiming it was on Gaetano’s orders.
- One point in defense of Loy’s loose characterization: I was pretty sure he wouldn’t kill Zero (the Fadda hostage), but I wasn’t absolutely sure. Still, better writing would’ve made that moment as heartbreaking as it was unsettling.
- Loy does give a speech to Odis that sounds vaguely adjacent to a theme, but it’s like he popped over from a different series for a bit to try and give clarity to this one. Apart from the scene in the first episode where he failed to sell the credit card idea, we have so little sense of what it means for Loy and his men to live in this world that any discussion of what it means for “America” comes across as forced.
79 Comments
I hate to break it to you… but your not gonna get motivation out of Oreatta. Your better off asking her real life counterparts like Jane Toppan, Amy Archer Gilligan, Amelia Dyer, and Nannie Doss. You won’t get satisfying answers out of them either, just half hearted lies or obsurd boasts. Its because you know… serial killers are not known for being rational, Ed Kemper is probably the only one who could articulate why he did what he did. So just accept this lady is a serial killer with a slight grasp on reality and just go with it. Oh and before I forget, that lovely Country song that played when Otis was moving stuff around was Old Belle Reeds High on the Mountain. You might remember it as Mags Bennetts favorite song from Justified.
It makes sense to me that Oreatta’d obsess over the letter, both for the practical reason that she’s in danger of being caught, and just needing to know who it is.
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean nobody’s out to get you.Did they show what she poisoned Harvard with? I saw a box, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
From how much he twitched and gagged I’d say stricknine.
You need a spell check on that poison.
Correction its was self adhesive gauze. He wasn’t poisoned. He choked to death.
I went back and checked, and it does look like a gauze box.But I don’t see how she could put enough of that into that little macaroon to choke him, and still have it be so delicious, and if anybody checks at all, it’s going to be an obvious murder, which makes her a pretty solid suspect.Maybe they’ll think the Faddas did it?
I couldn’t understand why she left the macaroons behind. If others ate them and died, then it wouldn’t take a forensic scientist to determine they were poisoned, deem Dr. Harvard’s death a murder, and then investigate her.And speaking of leaving incriminating evidence behind: there’s now no question that Oraetta will find Ethelrida’s notebook, recognize and match the handwriting in it and in the anonymous letter to Dr. Harvard, and then (try to) poison Ethelrida. However, since Ethelrida and her parents are onto Oraetta’s pathology and modus operandus, it will be interesting to see how their confrontation plays out.
I think that’s right — it’s like looking for a reason why Odis has to have a perfectly orderly collection of figurines.I think it was last week’s review which said that Odis was this way as a result of the trauma of the mine sweeping. But that was backwards — he said he was given the job of finding mines because of his obsessive attention to detail. He was traumatized by the combination of his fiancee being murdered and the explosion in the minefield, but the trauma is separate from his condition.
Not that Odis shares any of Oraetta’s murderous impulses — the purest application of his talents was saving lives by finding mines.
I think it’s more like his condition and the trauma are inextricably linked. He started out with what was probably a milder case of OCD, and the dual events made it a lot worse. I’ve watched that happen with a friend, who was able to mask it fifteen years ago so that one wouldn’t guess he had a problem, but it’s gotten a lot more intrusive in the last few years after some traumatic events in his life.
Huh. I guess what needed to be clear is what we are classifying Oraetta as. “Serial Killer” certainly makes things easier, but as crazy as it sounds, that’s not how I saw her, or how I think the show has presented her, or really what I expect of Fargo. They’ve had sociopaths a plenty, but even, those were of the ‘contract killer’ mold, tied to the main players more significantly. Oraetta is a little too random, still, as the season winds down. But this should be a helpful re-adjustment of my expectations.
Shes a clear angel of death, now whether the specific impluse motivation is power or a twisted view of morality I can’t say. I’d lean towards the latter, she seems to go after people she suspects will die anyway. There’s a precedent for that, Catherine Woods and Gwendolyn Graham kinda did that along with sexual satisfaction. Also I would totally call her a serial killer, nobody will since the term is 20 years in the future. But she relishes taking a life, clearly has some disorder that to me reads like minor schizotypal combined with narrsassitic personality disorder and good old psychopathy. Combine that with taking mementos of the murders and keeping them to relieve the occasion, I see no other word then that.
I thought ‘serial killer’ as soon as it was revealed that she kills patients. There are a number of modern day people who have done the same thing.
I’m a fan of the Del McCoury version, myself:
Yeah I feel like the modern depiction of serial killers in books, cinema and television as some sort of criminal geniuses has poisoned perception of how they actually behave in the real world. The reason we’ve caught so many is because they’re not Hannibal Lecter, they’re mostly like Oreatta: disordered, impulsive, leaving a messy trail; they may think they’re smarter than everyone else, but oftentimes they’re actually not, and in some cases are actually of lower than normal intelligence. Really they just have no empathy and poor impulse control, and what emotions they have are twisted because of their (usually) abusive upbringing – and particularly in the cases of “Angels of Death” they can justify any of their actions in their heads – just like Oreatta. While Malvo was entertaining, this strikes me as more realistic. You know, in the show with the ghosts and UFOs and raining fish…
Dead on. Silence of the Lambs and Criminal Minds has altered the perception of these people to be clever and smart. The reality is while smart serial killers are absolutely a thing, most aren’t. The average IQ is 93, below average. Many are disorganized, kill on an impulse, and are caught fairly quickly. Hell nowadays most are caught so quickly these days that I’d really consider serial killers not a thing anymore. Of interesting note but medical bases killers, specifically female killers, tend to last longer. I mean the worst serial killer in history bodycount wise was Harold Shipmen with over 200 deaths.
Yeah, one of the reasons they’re so hard to catch is because, outside of their ‘rituals’, there is little rhyme or reason to their killings.
That’s all well and good … so why is she in this show? This show is about warring crime families in 1950 KC. And also about a random serial killer? Why?
This season has felt like it’s just a lot of build up so far. Build up to what I don’t know, war I guess? Everyone getting killed? Joe Bulo somehow coming out on top somehow since apparently he’s a thing now? The Etherida stuff is interesting but it also feels like it’s on the far edge of everything else happening, because right now besides being related to certain characters she’s not actually involved in any ongoing events.Also what’s the deal with that damn ghost and will it ever amount to anything?
Also what’s the deal with that damn ghost and will it ever amount to anything?
They’ve used it enough to where there better be some kind of payoff. This doesn’t seem like the UFO or just random bits from other seasons. If there isn’t a payoff, I’m gonna downgrade this season (and Hawley) quite a bit.
what’s the deal with that damn ghost and will it ever amount to anything?Reddit has theories. https://www.reddit.com/r/FargoTV/comments/ja8ljc/i_just_figured_out_whos_mr_snowman_is/
I want to root for Loy’s crew here but seeing as its Fargo, I know pretty much everyone is gonna die so its sort of hard to invest too heavily in the story.And while I am enjoying the season, its got too many characters and plots. I still don’t know hardly any of the subordinate gang members names. And all of the plots are moving so slowly I don’t see how they’re gonna come together (if they are meant to at all). I get the feeling we’re gonna keep getting slow burns until everything blows up all at once and that’ll be the end.
Well, someone is going to survive as this season is supposed to be about starting the powerful KC crime syndicate seen in the other Fargo seasons.
So why the hell hasn’t Rabbi picked up the damn phone and called Loy to tell him Stachel is okay?? He’s got to know Loy is going to find out Josto doesn’t have him anymore sooner rather than later.
Also: Count on whitey to steal Loy’s credit card idea.
I think this is all happening within 24 hours of the order to kill Satchel. Josto is trying to get Gaetano killed before Loy finds out Rabbi has his son alive.Presumably Milligan is trying to put a lot of distance between himself and Kansas City and wants to be far enough away that he can’t be found before he makes any calls.I don’t think the bank stole Loy’s idea. Diners Club started in NY and what happened was both Loy and the KC bank were scooped. Although Loy’s idea was cards specifically for the KC Black community, and redlining at the time would effectively block Diners Club cards from being issued to anyone living there. The title of the show, Lay Away, is probably a reference in part to lay away plans which were used a lot by merchants in Black communities around then in the place of credit cards, often with predatory interest rates, and that may be where Loy is headed.
I don’t think Milligan is particularly interested in whether Loy knows Satchel is okay or not, and might think that it’s riskier to contact Loy than to just try to get the hell out of dodge.
What? Do you realize that he’s taken the boy away from both families for his safety. He doesn’t want them to be around either.
Cos something has to lead to Satchel turning out to be Mike Milligan >.>
Last week, Milligan told Satchel it would be up to him whether he wanted to return home after they had laid low for a while. That’s why he didn’t call. He wants the boy to have the choice that was denied him.
It was a good idea.
As good an idea as “dry cleaning”.
If Stachel is Mike Milligan then its possible/likely he never makes it back to his family.
We haven’t seen how these two crime families actually run their businesses. I even forgot how they make their money. Showing the operations, especially Loy’s, would be interesting and provide stakes for the war where one or both can lose them.The show continues its very clunky metaphorical ambition to be about America, with only speechifying, not through the characters and story.Sidelining the two most interesting characters is a choice alright. It’s a waste of Jesse Buckley, really.Not good for his character when I was yelling at Loy’s wife to shoot what’s-his-name. Both C and G are terrible characters.
Its kinda clear the Cannons make money from illegal sport betting. In his hideout the blackboard lists a variety of sports like boxing.
Also loansharking, which is how he took over the funeral home.
why Oraetta does what she does
I don’t think it’s all that complicated: she’s a psychopath.
I think you’re missing the heart of Zack’s question, though. While, generally speaking, it’s silly to question the motives of a serial killer, it’s a question that MUST be asked here. Because, otherwise, WHY IS SHE IN THIS SHOW?! This is a show about warring crime families in 1950 KC. If she has no motivation other than “she’s a psychopath,” then … ok? So how exactly does she fit in with the broader themes of this show? Maybe the connection is there and I’m not getting it. Or maybe it will become clearer as the season progresses. But right now? No idea.
Yor last sentence of the. review summed it up well. A good amount of stuff happened yet it almost felt like filler because you know more is coming. Talking about Oraetta’s unpredictablility-my roommate who has not watched this show was there for the beginning. Trying to explain why a nurse would not help him and kill him in the first place was…a struggle.
Normally I really like a great TV show over a movie because you get the opportunity to delve deep in characters and setting. This season, everyone feels like caricatures and the setting is generic… So far I think it would have worked much better as a 90 minute film.
Did you try “She’s a serial killer”?
A List of Fictional Characters Ranked by Their Success (or Lack Thereof)Are You Familiar with the Blood Atonement? Edition1) Oraetta “I did try my hand at pistachio, but the color alone was a wave-off” As predicted, serves up some macaroons with a side of death to Doc Harvard. It’s gotten to the point that Jessie Buckley’s performance is so specifically based on Heath Ledger’s Joker, that she did a little waddling shuffle-step around Harvard’s dying body, and it took me right back to the hospital scene in The Dark Knight, where Ledger did a very similar shuffle-step in a nurse’s outfit and a red wig before blowing up Gotham General. Up big from last week.2) Josto “Leave him for the birds.” “Right, from the Bible.” Makes his play, to kill Gaetano, crush Loy’s spirit, and scotch Violante’s peace offering, all in one move. Sadly, Josto’s is a weird kind of strength that screams of weakness. Rather than making a deal with his enemies for Gaetano’s death, he tries to weasel them into doing his bidding, based on a murder that’s promised, but not yet delivered. A murder that’s in Calamita’s presumably-capable hands. Up from last week.3) Zelmare and Swanee “Everybody wants us, but we ain’t to be had.” If they make it to Philly, never to return, I’ll miss them. But I got to take issue with Loy—Philadelphia’s no place for an outlaw. You got to send ladies like that West, not East. They stay even from last week.4) Gaetano — has a good week just by sitting in a chair and bleeding. That’s the kind of week it was. Up big without even trying.5) Deafy “No, that’s my trick. You heard me just fine!” More seen than heard again this week. His confrontation with Odis was a head-scratcher, because Deafy played a relatively weak hand, given that we know he knows a lot more about Odis’s sins than he let on. Alas, it seems the only time he’s not tailing Odis is when Odis has his encounter with the Outlaws. Unranked last week, down from the last time he was ranked.6) Odis “If I knew where your Mormon god was, I’d drive through the night and I’d stab him in the fucking eyes!” “You guys know you’re wanted, right?” It’s a real discipline, to be able to pack your whole life into just two bags. Has the first confrontation with Deafy you could really call a draw. Up from last week, slightly.7) Violante “I’m simply telling you how it is. There are people you can kill, and people you can’t.” Violante’s been a hard one to rank, because he’s such a consummate consiglieri, it’s hard to tell what his own wants and goals are. This week, he’s representing the guys in New York, and getting outflanked by Josto, so things don’t look so good for him. Previously unranked.8) Ethelrida — has her meet-cute with Lemuel, who was taking advantage of her parents’ newfound loss of control over their lives to store some illicit Cannon merchandise at the funeral home. Lemuel in turn has his meet-cute with Mr. Snowman. I’m sure this will turn out fine for everyone.9) Loy Cannon “Last I checked, you couldn’t cut a fart” “You get in the dirt yourself and you show him how to be an animal!” Loy’s at the end of it all, his whole self disintegrating. The little sign on the wall for Diner’s Club was just an extra bit of spit in his eye. Even so, he’s not sucker enough to buy Josto’s ruse. I really don’t see Zack’s complaint this episode—we’ve seen Loy’s business—the bookmaking is up on his blackboards, his loansharking is obvious through the Smutnys, we’ve seen his guys steal guns and trade them to other criminal organizations, we see crates of what looks like hijacked booze at the funeral home. In contrast—and this is where I feel like I’m taking crazy pills—the Fadda criminal organization’s income structure is a complete mystery. Josto seems to make money by hanging out in his dad’s office, having fun run ins with Oraetta, and playing war with the Cannons. Deafy suggested that Gaetano’s favorite hangout is a Fadda rub-joint, but (IIRC) we don’t see a single woman of ill repute there, who might deliver a tug onto a pud, if needed. We see the Faddas bringing guns into Kansas City, but they seem to only be for personal use, not for sale. To say their criminal enterprise is thinly sketched would be an insult to sketch artists. How do they make money? Down from last week.10) Buell Cannon “To be fair, it’s what we call a rhetorical question” So was Loy telling her about Satchell, or was that another fantasy sequence, like Loy thinking about garotting Ziro with a jump rope? Because I don’t see that woman lying peaceably in bed with him after that fool went and lost her boy. Previously unranked.11) Leon Bittle — gets the belt, which is kind of sad, even for a character who’s never posted any kind of win. I’m kind of hoping now that Leon (who I never would have guessed was nicknamed “Happy”) doesn’t live up to my predictions and become the Cannon family’s betrayer. After this episode, that fate’s too easy and obvious. Unranked last week, but down from his previous lousy-ass ranking.In MemoriamDr. Harvard “Extraordinary!” Even eats poison like a conceited prick. I’m a week late, but I just don’t get the complaints about the names this season. None of the names in this show, American, Italian, or otherwise, is standard (the closest we get is Leon). The absurdity of Dr. Harvard’s name was lampshadesdright off the bat, when Josto’s response to hearing his name was something to the effect of “Are you kidding?” So in a way, it’s a comfort to see that Harvard died the way he was named—as a condescending caricature.Words of Wisdom from Loy’s GangOmie “Boss. They need to be dead.”Opal “Kill or be killed. Win or lose. It ain’t complex.”
The Faddas’ had the slaughterhouses, and the trucking routes to Cleveland and Dallas.Not any more though.
consiglieriIt’s consigliori. The Italian word is “consigliere” (“consiglieri” is its plural form), but in the slang of Sicilian-American mafia it becomes “consigliori”.
Thank you. By the time I noticed the typo, the Kinja editing window had closed.
“…Con-seee-gleee-eehhhhhhhh-riiii….”
I agree that the Fadda organization is overly sketchy but the Cannon one is reasonably drawn. I think a fault of this season is not establishing early on what Gaetano was even doing there or how he fit in to the Fadda operations. His motivation would be a lot less puzzling if we knew more about the specific things he was after.
Failing to define just what the hell Gaetano is actually doing is one of the few faults that I have with this season. Did New York send him out there just to get him out of their hair or something? Did someone actually think he’d bring order to things after his dad died or did they send him specifically to start a war? Did I miss the reason while I sneezed or something?
I get the feeling he’s being passed around like a hot potato because nobody wants that kind of trouble on their turf.
I have a feeling that’s true but a slight nod towards it would be appreciated.
Odis is the gritty reboot version of Monk.
I’m at the point where I’m very ready for Deafy to make a big play and actually… do something even if it gets him killed. His biggest moves this season have been kicking in the funeral home’s door for Zelmare and Swanee and not finding them, and then rushing to the hotel where Zelmare and Swanee were to… not find them again. Apart from that all Deafy’s done this season is sit in cars, stare silently at the main cast, and occasionally give Odis a hard timeHe’s a great character, and I’ll take all the Olyphant I can get, but they desperately need to actually do something with him
100% with you on this. Olyphant has done more in 1 episode of The Mandalorian than he has in 7 episodes of Fargo. Can we get this guy some action?
you’d think it would be easy for a man who looks like Timothy Olyphant to get some action!
Yeah, the Deafy dam has to break soon. I think holding Oliphant, Wishaw, and Buckley out of a couple of episodes—mixing in an odd silent moment of Deafy in his darkened car or Oraetta banging her head against the wall in GoutGuy’s hospital room from time to time just to keep them in the mix—has been a smart budget move to afford the cast they’ve got. But unlike Oraetta or Rabbi, Deafy’s story feels like it’s been jogging in place, and I’d love to be done with the cycle where Deafy stages one confrontation after another with Odis that doesn’t really change the dynamic between them. It’s getting to the point where I’m starting to root for Odis to outsmart him, because he and the outlaws are simply more fleshed out characters than Deafy is.
To your last point, I’m actually finding myself weirdly rooting for Odis despite not caring for him at all the first half of this season. He’s an oddly tragic character and I was certain he was done for when Loy picked him up this episode; the fact that he’s still kicking makes me weirdly hopeful for his chancesI’m definitely not at against sidelining cast for a bit – S3 did it superbly having Nikki and Mr Wrench AWOL for about an episode, before making an absolute explosive play which shook up everything when they came back. I guess my issue with 4 is we’re not having those big moments when a character is gone for awhile, they’re just offscreen and then return more or less in the exact same position as we last saw them. When Oraetta’s story is pretty much advancing one scene per episode, Ethelrida has had maybe three lines of dialogue over the last three weeks and Deafy is doing a whole lot of nothing that definitely starts to get to me a bit. (On the other hand, Whishaw being absent an episode after his big moves last week felt perfectly natural, and it now feels like an event is going down whenever Rabbi shows up again)
Oddly for Fargo, there are a LOT of wildcards this season. It usually has one or two but this season is full of ‘em. I hope it all comes together in the end and I’m super interested in how Hawley will pull it off.
Loy’s monologue this episode was good. I’ve just accepted that that’s his thing: monologues. We get at least one Loy Monologue once per episode. More likely twice. You could rank the monologues by now. Which is fine for me, because with acceptance comes appreciation. What’s a gangster movie without several monologues about America? He’s not going to stop monologuing, that’s for sure. Not until another character gets over on him with a bigger, more succinct monologue. Loy and Josto were at first presented as co-lead characters, I think now – what with the monologues – that Loy is clearly the show’s main character (Ethelrida notwithstanding).
Yeah, it’s professional malpractice if you hire Chris Rock for a series that likes its monologues, and you don’t let him cut loose with two monologues per episode. And for the most part, those monologues have been good, because if Loy’s not the protagonist of this season, he’s at least its tragic figure—a guy who put up his son as table stakes in his play for the American Dream, and who right now seems unlikely to get him back, or achieve the American Dream, either.
I’m actually with the reviewer when it comes to Loy. Yes we’ve seen that he is good at his businesses. But what makes this guy tick is a bit harder to peruse, and I’m not connecting with him in the ways the show may want me to. When he’s beating his own men, I’m indifferent. When he grieves the loss of the son, I’m indifferent. Even when they try to make it seem like he’ll kill the other boy as payback, I didn’t for one second believe he was going to.
To Zack’s point, Loy is more of an idea than a character, hence all the monologues. I enjoy them well enough, but the Black Crime Syndicate concept hasn’t had much baring on plot, outside of speeches, and these guys could be interchangeable with any rival gangster organization so far. At best, I’d say we have a better understanding of how Loy thinks, compared to Josto. That’s why stealing the credit card idea is the one moment where I really connected with him. He’s a business man. That had to be crushing.
I agree with you that I didn’t believe for a second Ziro was in real danger, and I think the decision to make that scene with the jump rope a fantasy sequence instead of an actual moment of doubt for Loy was weak sauce (particularly after that was done more effectively with Satchel and Antoon in the previous episode). Still, I don’t get the claim that we don’t understand what makes Loy tick, because as you’re pointing out, we saw it pretty clearly in the second(?) episode, with him and Doctor Senator pitching the credit card to the banker. He has a million dollar (y’know, 1950 dollars) idea, but it doesn’t work unless he can get white businesses to buy in. And I remember at the time that it seemed discordant, for this hardened criminal to put on a 500-watt Chris Rock smile for the banker. But at this point in the season, it doesn’t seem so out of place, because Loy’s the criminal that Zellmare talked about in her outlaws monologue. Despite all his cynicism, awareness of history, and street smarts, he buys into the system. He (and Josto, for that matter) wants to go legit, wants himself and his family to be part of the American mainstream. That’s what drives him. The big difference between them is that unlike Josto, Loy can’t just marry a WASP alderman’s daughter and hope to be accepted as a real American.Now, on some levels, it feels like the show doesn’t trust us to understand that, or the basic history of African Americans in the U.S. I think that’s just the reality of white content producers trying to say something about race in 2020. They overexplain it. They don’t have the confidence telling the story of Loy and his syndicate that they have in telling us about the Faddas, because they figure their white fans have all seen the Godfather (and the Sopranos, and previous seasons of Fargo), and they can fill in the background of the Fadda universe with their imagination like Zack did. It’s also, I’m guessing, why the Cannons’ story has a lot less comic absurdity than the other storylines. Because they’re worried that absurdity might be criticized as racist if African Americans are the butt of those jokes.Still, the reason I didn’t feel much when Loy was whipping Leon was because the story hasn’t given me reason to care about Leon. And while I was more sympathetic to Loy’s grief than you were, that sympathy was tempered by the fact that we know Satchel isn’t really dead.
Better summation than the article!
I don’t think Leon’s nickname is Happy. One of Loy’s cohorts tried to quell the beating, saying “He’s Happy’s cousin” and they need Happy to help in the war.
Okay, that makes a lot more sense. I didn’t see Opal as willing to stick his neck out for Leon after the tongue lashing he and Omie gave him in the previous episode, but I missed the line about him being Happy’s cousin.
Swanee’s “Old as the rivers. Old as the trees.” was a nice touch.She should’ve given Loy her outlaws speech. He might’ve let them stay and mix it up a little. Maybe they could’ve made a deal for the funeral home.I wondered if it was her or Zelmare in the coffin, but I guess not. Was that the ghost?
that was definitely Mr. Snowman in the coffin. my initial theory was he was only haunting the Smutneys, because he’d only interacted with Ethelrida and Zelmare/Swanee. now we’ve seen him watching a member of Loy’s crew with no connection to the Smutnys… I have no idea what to think haha
“The biggest problem with this season is how poorly it’s managed to make any of this more than just a curiosity.”Nailed it. I only keep watching ‘cause I figure Ben Whishaw has got to have more to do eventually. Rabbi is the only character that I’m vaguely interested in.
I’m also mostly vested in Rabbi and he didn’t show up once last night. This season has been clunky and disjointed (I hate using these words to describe a show because it feels like a lazy description but there’s no other way to describe S4) and my interest in what happens has really taken a nosedive the past two episodes.
“Unexpected behavior can be a boon in a narrative—it keeps things fresh,
it shakes the audience out of their assumptions, it puts them on their
guard. But go too far and it becomes just novelty for its own sake.”Like a UFO? That was the best part of that very good season. I’ll admit, this season is kind of meh. Last season was kind of meh. But there’s still too much of the season left to just write it off. I’m no quitter, I’m in for the long haul. And yes, I’m hoping for a UFO type moment although I’m guessing there won’t be.
My biggest “fear” going into this season was if Chris Rock would be any good. As good as he is as a stand up, his acting career has been less stellar. But I’ve been really surprised by him. Maybe it’s because of my lowered expectations but if there’s a problem with this season of Fargo, it’s not Chris Rock.
I thought this episode was great, and it had to do with Rock as Loy working through the puzzle of who he was going to be and what he was going to do. When he was whipping Leon and asking him if he just wanted to kill Gaetano, go to war, and do… what, exactly, he was establishing that he was at a loss himself about what to do.
The flashbacks as he was mourning what he thought was the death of Satchel showed him recalling how he wanted to get ahead by being smarter than anyone else, and they flowed nicely with the scene showing he had decided not to throw away leverage by strangling Zero, then the scene where he met with Josto and realized he could use Gaetano to his own advantage.I’m finding Loy to be a really compelling character (and Rock is playing him well) who is hemmed in but dealing with it in a more interesting way than, say, the Gearharts in Season Two or Emmit Stussy in Season Three. I don’t know if he’ll end up any better off, but he seems a lot better at playing his cards.One thing I don’t like about his character is too many heavy monologues, although I liked this episode’s sit down with Odis who kept objecting that he had no idea what Loy wanted — we don’t either, but for some reason this time I’m OK with waiting. I also thought the shot of the two sitting on the bench was just beautiful.
Yeah, I should’ve added that I thought this episode really gave Loy a new dimension, someone who has been in control, sort of spinning out of control yet still in control. And it all made sense to me; of course finding out your son is dead would throw anyone (especially someone who is under stress and prone to violence anyway) into despair and momentary irrational behavior coupled with him feeling like he got swindled out of his credit card idea. The scene of him whipping Leon was a great way of showing that, I thought. I think it also foreshadows what is to come. Although, not sure how long they’re going to keep the news of his son away from him. Seems like something they can only extend like one more episode? And once he finds out, does that calm him down? Or will he have set things into motion that can’t be turned around? But regardless…I don’t know if this show will ever reach the heights of season 1 or 2 but it’s good enough that I’m willing to let it try.
I also really liked the final scene between Loy and Odis. I disagree with the reviewer and find both of these characters pretty interesting, and I like that Loy clearly has more empathy for him than Josto does even though Odis is a corrupt sadsack cop. The show repeatedly demonstrates that Loy is stuck between trying to be a powerful gangster, like the leaders of the Faddas, and trying to be a legitimately good person who helps the people around him. I think one question this season is proposing is “what can you do to survive and still come out a good person?” Odis became a corrupt cop, likely due to his inability to make a living doing anything else with his condition and PTSD. Milligan betrayed his father. Ethelrida’s parents took a shady loan. This is kind of a rambling post, but to sum up: I agree that this season is a lot more interesting than the reviewer seems to think.
Agreed. Also I like the metaphorical parallels between Loy and Odis, and the contrast between their different ways of handling the worst news they’ve ever received about the brutal deaths of loved ones and of key military comrades, while navigating a minefield in a war they are fighting in.
Gaetano being freed was good for the dramatic buildup but as an audience member I was really hoping they would kill off the character so we would be spared his cartoonish acting moving forward.Oraetta is one of the best parts of the show but still feels untethered and on her own unrelated show. A show I would religiously watch.Chris Rock isn’t bad but not strong enough of an actor for his role. Rather than being immersed in his performance I am distracted by it being a novelty.Every time the Outlaws show up the show gets an injection of life. Don’t go to PA, girls!Not sure if I need Mr. Snowman explained. I wouldn’t be opposed to him having a deeper meaning or heft but I won’t hold my breath. He can be just an ominous harbinger of the inevitable doom and I can live with that.
But the same lack of cohesion, of forward motion, plagues this season almost as much as it did season 3
Disagreed, at least about Season 3. That season has more coherent themes and developments with decent amount of characters that are easy to keep track of, topped by one of series best villains in V.M. Vargas.Agreed about Season 4, at least in parts. The sheer amount of characters made it quite hard to keep track, which slow down necessary developments and keep the plot from being as intriguing as the previous three seasons. Even so, I am still enjoying the story and is tuning in every week to see where everything are going next.If Noah Hawley decides to make Season 5, I hope he go back to roots to what made Season 1 and 2 so damn great because as good as Season 4 is, that’s the weakest season thus far AND the weakest in Hawley’s works. I had more fun watching Season 2 of Legion, which is saying much.
so that’s how we get mike milligan, yeah? i do hope we see more of ben whishaw, though. i really, sincerely hope all these threads will come together in a satisfying way. obviously it’s hard not to compare this season from the stellar s1 & 2 (still enjoyed 3, but not as much as the others) but it’s already been 7 episodes. this season being 11 episodes instead of 10, and the major size of the cast, i figured it was gonna be a bit slow, however.i enjoy it nonetheless – it makes s2 even richer with the connections and i never tire of the visual style and score/soundtrack. chris rock is stellar! jack huston is great! jason schwartzman makes me smile with how silly he can make josto (though he can be scary) and jessie buckley is sublime!
Ethelrida is interesting and compelling
The kid who’s barely around? Yea I don’t understand this at all.
I disagree, but to each his own.
I think I read somewhere that this season got hacked up and put back together to create an extra episode. Part of why episodes are short and part of why the entire season seems incoherent and disconnected. I’m hanging in, but it seems to be failing to me.
“Every country has its own type criminal; in America, we got the
confidence man, snake oil salesman, grifter; they don’t rob you so much
as trick you into robbing yourself.”Hey, watching Fargo just to hear his commentary on modern day America, makes it all worth it.
My son and I have been watching faithfully ever since Malvo, but nothing has lived up to that one. After this week’s episode, he said (and he always knows what’s going on when I don’t), “I have no idea what’s going on in this show anymore.” I’ll stay with it for Ethelrida, but I’m sick and tired of mafia porn. Fargo was much better when the criminals were the threat to the good but often feckless townsfolk, not the main characters.
Those aren’t macaroons, goddammit! And I don’t even think middle America knew what macarons were in 1950. You could make the case that Francophile Oraetta might, but it’d be a flimsy case at best. Macaroons, on the other hand, would have been closer to a standard cookie.