TV Review: Fargo (1×04) “Eating the Blame”

We are predators, and sometimes forces are beyond our control.

That is the message of this week’s Fargo which may be the best one yet.

So many of these characters are terrible people. Sure they may entertain us such as Mr. Numbers and Mr. Wrench do, or they may pull at our sympathy like Lester, or maybe they’re simply naïve fools such as Police Chief Bill-but the undeniable truth is that there is hardly a good soul in the mix.

Which makes characters such as Molly and Gus so easy to root for and which makes characters such as Stavros and Lorne so fascinating-how did they come to be and what justifies their actions?

With Stavros his roots are in God. We’re given a flashback of his at the beginning of the episode that showed him younger and down on his luck. However he comes across a large amount of cash and proclaims that God is real, that God must be real to account for the fortune that has befallen him.

Which makes his manipulation by Lorne all the easier. Last week he had blood pour from his shower and this week his grocery store is infested by bugs. The Biblical Plagues are beseeching him and because of his devout nature he’s becoming unhinged.

Lorne on the other hand doesn’t strike us as a religious type yet that’s the nature he adopts to provide himself with an alibi when Gus takes him in to the station after having seen him on the side of the road.

Later when Lorne is released Gus asks him how he can lie so effortlessly and Lorne answers him with a question. “Why can the human eye see more shades of green than any other color?” It isn’t until later when Gus is with Molly that he gets the answer. Humans are predators and in the wile predators needed to learn how to find their prey.

This scares me in regards to Gus’s safety but it adds an extra element of intrigue to Lorne who we’ve seen adapt to any and all new situation he finds himself in.

Kill or be killed is his nature. He’ll use who he needs to survive and sacrifice the dead weight. He knows how to get by, to disappear in plain view and attack. He is an ultimate predator.

Meanwhile characters such as Lester are struggling to stay afloat. Mr. Numbers and Mr.Wrench are on to him-although for the wrong murder-and despite having succumbed to a heinous act of violence in the murder of his wife, it isn’t in his nature to be a survivor. He isn’t built for the harsh nature and despite his violent intent when it came to killing her, he didn’t fully think about how he’d continue in the aftermath.

It’s interesting to note that the more obvious piece of incriminating evidence against him is still lodged in his own hand-and he’s too cowardly to pull it out.

He’s grabbed by Mr. Wrench and Mr. Numbers later (who provide the majority of the comedic moments for the show this week) and in a desperate moment when he’s about to meet his death he uses his stolen taser and knocks Numbers out and escapes but it’s a close shot and I’m not convinced that because he got away that he’s any safer. The last few minutes are some of the most tense that the shows had.

Gus and Molly are dealing with the ramifications of being decent, smart people who are only out to do good.

This makes me consistently scared for their well-being, so good job show.

This week confirmed my fan status and has me wondering just how much more they can do next. I’m sure the answer is a lot.

9/10