‘Fargo’ Leaves A Door Open In Its Terrific Third Season Finale 

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‘Fargo’ Leaves A Door Open In Its Terrific Third Season Finale

just concluded its third season, and I have a review of the finale coming up just as soon as I ask you if there are phones in Belgium…

“So for now, just know that sometimes the world doesn’t make a lot of sense, but how we get through it is, we stick together.” -Gloria

“But which of us can say with certainty what has occurred — actually occurred — and what is simply rumor, misinformation, opinion?” -Varga

I use two quotes at the start of this review because there were two wholly incompatible worldviews presented throughout

season three: Gloria’s belief that there are things that are true, and that we are bound by our responsibilities to one another; and Varga’s belief that the only thing that matters is how much you can get away with. That split has been there in earlier seasons, too, where the innate decency of the Solversons stood in contrast to the amorality of Malvo, Lester, the Gerhardts, etc. But the show in those years sided with Molly and Lou, tending to spare the good characters while unleashing violent justice upon the wicked, as if Noah Hawley were typing the scripts at the bowling alley bar while Paul Marrane looked on approvingly.

Season three did not operate this way, up to and including its ambiguous final scene, where Peter and the Wolf face off in a Department of Homeland Security interview room, each of them confident in predicting who will come through that door in a moment: for Gloria, that it will be three DHS agents there to take Varga to a jail cell; for Varga, that it will be a man too powerful for Gloria to override as Varga is set free.

“Somebody To Love” ends with both of them waiting to be proven right, and Hawley told me he wanted to leave it for the audience to decide(*). It’s a Schrodinger’s Box of a finale: until that door opens, Gloria could be right or wrong, and same with Varga. Ordinarily, the show’s moral ethos would point towards Gloria being correct about Rikers and the Snickers bar, but so much of season three has been about the way the world no longer makes sense, and how easy it is for the Vargas of the world to transform reality into whatever they desire, so I fear the powerful man will be arriving rather than the three DHS agents.

(*) It is one last unintentional echo of Carrie Coon’s other spring show, whose finale also left viewers to decide what exactly happened, and what was real.

After a rough start to the season filled with too many echoes of better-developed characters from

stories past, these last few hours were pretty amazing: beautiful to look at, finally taking full advantage of the cast Hawley and company had assembled, and deftly mixing concrete answers with

On the one hand, we know for sure that Nikki Swango died in a shootout with a state trooper, that Mr. Wrench wiped out Meemo and Varga’s other henchmen and years later executed Emmit Stussy, that Sy awoke from the coma but is badly incapacitated, and that Gloria left Moe’s department to work for the federal government. And on the other, there’s mystery about the mechanics of the bowling alley, if not on what actually happened there (Nikki and Wrench were spared, Yuri was judged and sentenced), what connection Yuri has to the Yuri of the season’s East Berlin prologue, and who is coming through that door. It’s a fair enough balance for a season that has been much more about the elusiveness of truth in the modern world. And if justice wasn’t served in every story, it felt appropriate to the darker tale Hawley and his collaborators weaved this time around.

RIP, Nikki Swango, who ironically was doomed by the same man who saved her. Had she not felt the need to deliver Paul Marrane’s warning to Emmit — when it arguably would have been better-served on Varga had the opportunity arisen — and get the wording right, she likely would have been driving her truck away from Emmit’s corpse by the time the trooper rolled up. It’s a sad end for the season’s best character, but not an undeserved one. Nikki’s love for Ray was real, and it was his decision to try to steal the stamp that set her down this path, but she did murder Maurice, and set up Meemo and the others to be slaughtered by Wrench. These are not innocent people, but neither were Nikki’s hands clean even before she gunned down a cop who was only doing his job.

"‘Fargo’ Leaves A Door Open In Its Terrific Third Season Finale"

Perfect ending scene. I had some of the same frustrations as you, Alan, for a lot of the season. But even though the characters generally weren’t as well-drawn as in season 1, I thought the story itself was much more satisfying in the end.

And, again, perfect final scene. Just perfect.

Good season probably the weakest of the three but that’s still superior to 95% of what’s out there…

Reminds me of Radiohead albums, even their worst album is better than most music out there. Although I’d rate this season second best, not nearly as good as season two but slightly better than season one.

Alan – quick correction, that was not dessert, but “salad” – Jello salad! That’s made a lot in Central PA PA Dutch country, and I guess is in Minnesota as well. Loved the finale and was also struck by how it was ambiguous just like the Leftovers. Not seeing Varga die was hard for me, he was a pretty loathesome character and his over the top teeth wore both my wife and I down. Thewlis is a great actor of course (do you know Mike Leigh’s Naked? Brutal. Anyway, like you I would be happy for another season.

Jello salad – and sometimes there’s things in it like lettuce and peaches. That takes me back a lot of years.

Alan, who sent the text to Varga telling him that the files were with the IRS?

Also, I liked your summary of the alternate worldviews presented by Burgle and Gloria. For some reason it immediately made me think of the two theories of investing that I read about in a Random Walk Down Wall Street – the Firm Foundation Theory and the Castle-in-the-Air Theory. Should things be valued by some intrinsic standard of worth, or are they simply worth what people believe them to be worth?

I assumed it was from Swango to get him to panic and trap himself on the elevator without his henchmen.

I was thinking the text came from the Widow Goldfarb.

So Nikki and Wrench were “spared” at the bowling alley — very cute

Color me unimpressed. Harley didn’t need to spend 10 hours on poor characterization and uninspired plotting just to prove the point that “stories” and “narrative” are artificial constructs in a random world.

He wasted a lot of time to put his finger in my eye. David Chase was better at it.

I’m with you, but for some reason, I think we’re in the minority. We won’t change others’ opinions, but I do know that it wouldn’t be a lauded finale if this was season 1 and the show didn’t have two great seasons on its resume already.

I loved this season. But I never saw season 1, which seems to make people judge the other seasons more harshly.

When Burgle and Varga stopped talking and the camera went to the clock, I understood that we were going to be left hanging. I yelled at the TV, “No! Don’t you dare do that to me! Don’t you dare leave me hanging!” But it dared. And afterwards I decided I was okay with that.

Return of the Jedi was the 3rd best of the original Star Wars films and it was still good.

A lot of this shows appeal was how everything was a self contained season. Stories didn’t carry over.There are some common threads but the story itself is told. This show is so good that I’m coming back for the 4th regardless, but I think this was truly Fargos first big mistake.

Can we get a Swango and Wrench season 4. Just a wacky buddy road movie where they build up their resources, maybe act as hired guns.

I meant the period after they left the bowling alley. Wrench teaches Swango sign language and how to kill.

Right?? Those four months must have been something. Hell, even if the whole season just was him teaching her to sign and that’s the whole show, I’d watch every frame.

It took some episodes for me to get on board, but really enjoyed this season. Last 3 episodes were amazing, music was phenomenal, Coen references applently, and connecting back to previous seasons would have felt unoriginal (although Wrench may have moved up a few spots on my yet to exist top Fargo TV character list). I’m a bit torn on the trend of ambiguous show endings lately, although it could still be a Leftovers hangover effect. Fingers crossed for a season 4.

So, Nikki sabotages Emmit’s car to get it to stall in the middle of nowhere. How did it start for him to drive away scott free? What am I missing?

Yeah…me too. I figured he’d take the truck.

That plot hole spoils the perfection of that scene.

Emmit driving away in any other car links him to that trooper’s murder, since it’s a Stussy company rental.

But how did his car start working again? The show erred in not establishing how that could be possible.

Plus his phone was lying in the middle of the crime scene. How did the police not catch that?

Not only ruined the scene, but somewhat ruined the finale for me. I couldn’t get that out of my head. Why did his vehicle suddenly work after the breakdown? And, quite frankly, unless I missed him picking up the scattered pieces, Emmit’s Blackberry was smashed in the middle of the road (as I just noticed the poster above me mentioned as well). Would seem to be some easy evidence connecting him to what had just happened between Nikki and the Trooper.

Didn’t the trooper also have his license and registration.

I’m glad it’s finally over. The show I loved so much in season 1 and 2 alternated between bizarre and boring over these ten episodes. Dull characters, aggravating characters, nonsensical plot, strange attempts at the supernatural. I honestly don’t know what the point of season 3 was, and I don’t care to find out anyway.

If Hawley and Fx someday make a fourth season, I’ll check it out. But my enthusiasm and loyalty to a once-brilliant production is over. I appreciate their efforts, but this was largely a waste of time imo.

I get that, and appreciate it. But the nebulous yet organized nature of Varga as an unknowable yet supremely prepared bad guy was thrilling. Someone who can bullshit well “in the moment” is very appealing. Can he do it because he has done this before? Is he freestyling? I think I look fondly on this season with good reason.

I will also never drink random tea EVER.

Also, I’m surprised that more hasn’t been made of the fact that Fargo was using music very similar to The Leftovers. How is this not a bigger deal?

IMO there’s an 80% chance you are right about Varga being released. He has the means to enter the USA undetected. Also, to know whether he is wanted for any crime here. All those computers

in the truck? The off-shore accounts? It’s open to speculation why

he is returning now, but I’m sure he has a good reason.

Yes, Jello mold salad–consumed with dinner.

There’s a 100% chance both happened: Varga was released, and Varga was carted off to Riker’s Island.

If S3 closed with us observing Schrödinger’s door, per Erwin Schrödinger’s cat both outcomes are potentially true until the door opens, allowing for the observation of who comes thru it.

Hugh Everett would say, if he could say, that both outcomes are not merely potentially true – rather, each outcome will have happened, in separate ‘worlds’, each branching of the moment of our observation … if the story to that point were, in fact, “true” – which it was not.

The end to Season 1 was, I imagine, to many the most satisfactory among all 3: the Worst all dead, the Best all alive, happy & basking in the promise of their future together – a Hollywood ending.

The end to Season 2 was mixed – the most alike almost everything in the actual living of our ‘true’ lives. I suspect the feeling left by the ending would be the most familiar to the most viewers – a Realist ending.

Season 3 has brought the Quantum ending – my favorite by far, of the endings at least; tho, I expect viewers’ opinions will vary the most widely on it – naturally.*

The only ending left to be exploited is the Horror. I have no idea whether Hawley will decide to take his audience there, but if he does, there’s lots of precedent within the body of work of the Coen brothers.

*a pun. See, among others, Alex Rosenberg on “naturalism”: tinyurl.com/y774e6ts .

To listen to a bunch of opinions on this far more expert

& much better informed than mine, & very likely yours: [www.youtube.com]

Gloria’s last struggle with being invisible to technology came when she took Winnie’s phone call while at the IRS agent’s office. It looked like maybe she tried to use her fingerprint and the phone didn’t pick up. She had to do it again.

By chance, I watched the Coen’s A Serious Man last night — so it was immediately apparent that the naming of this episode of “Someone to Love” is a nod to the importance of that Jefferson Airplane song in that film (including the final scene).

I’m so torn on this season, and a little surprised to see Alan praise it so highly. I don’t mind the ambiguous ending, in fact I’d say based on everything that’s been built up this was the logical outcome. But ultimately I’d have to give this year a thumbs down.

There are the obvious pros- the acting and cinematography alone made this worth my time. Music was good too, although maybe not quite to the level of the first two seasons.

It’s a shame I didn’t love this because I think the themes Hawley chose to play around with are perfectly in line with the current nature of our political and economic world. But toying with the nature of truth created one too many plot holes. And as you’ve noted Alan, the characters took way too long to get off the ground. I wasn’t rooting for characters so much as I was rooting against the villains (and certainly against Moe and the state’s bureaucracy).

Another big weakness and departure from the other seasons was the lack of humor. Seasons one and two were filled with darkly comic moments that this season was largely devoid of (I’ll admit that the first episode was definitely funny, but not much afterward).

I pose this thought/question to you all: Could Hawley et al have told the same story of this season more effectively in just 6 or 7 episodes? I’m inclined to think so.

While I loved the finale, I also feel rather frustrated by it. My biggest problem is Nikki never delivered Paul Marrane’s message, so while the bowling alley was a great scene, it didn’t really lead anywhere other than Nikki getting closer, which is a rather giant loose end. Also for much of the season nothing happened, then everything happened right at the end and it felt rushed and we didn’t really get time to sit with it and think about what is happening. I liked a lot of the ideas it is playing around with, I just feel like this is a far better, more streamlined and focused season here that we didn’t get.

First time catching a Fargo season and I was thoroughly entertained. Nikki Swango continually backing up during the standoff made me chuckle.

I hope Burgle was right in the end, but I suspect Varga is too powerful to be imprisoned.

If there isn’t a S4 at least we still have Legion!

I loved the basic grey theme and desaturated color throughout the 2011 scenes. It made the officer who happened upon Nicki and Emmitt seem to come from another world. The lack of saturation was even emphasized more by the promos for the FX series on crack which featured super-saturation and appeared either at the beginning or end of the commercial breaks.

Yes! It seems like he’s dead, but I’m not sure, he was strapped to a stretcher and not in a body bag, so there’s still hope. I really want him to still be alive.

I guess I’m too literal but there were too many loose ends in the finale for me. Varga is an older ou of shape guy and somehow was able to escape the elevator in a few seconds and nobody was able to find him. How convenient.

Nikki, the master mechanic, Riggs emmit’s car so it would just so happen to break down on a desolate stretch of highway, and when Nikki and the trooper miraculously shot and kill each other, emmit’s car equally miraculously starts up and he drives away.

Wrench, a criminal who can’t hear or speak and who escaped from the prison bus, is able to avoid arrest for 5 years after also being involved in a massacre.

The only disappointment I had in finale is we didn’t get that scene where the cop explains to one of the murderers how their priorities are all screwed up. Happened in Movie and Seasons 1 and 2, and to me it is distinctive to Fargo.

I wish we had seen a wedding ring on Gloria Burgle’s finger in the final interrogation scene set in 2016. Her personal life was so sad and empty, outside of her son Nathan, that it’d be nice to see a hint of happiness.

In keeping with the season’s theme that life is a series of stories that compete to be the “true” version, I liked how every time Gloria mentioned Ennis to her son Nathan, he replied that Ennis wasn’t his grandpa and thus wasn’t really family. Even that little bit of reality had to be negotiated.

Poor Ennis was family and not-family like the episode’s ending was just and unjust.

My strongest belief watching Fargo has been that everyone who does evil will not escape their punishment in the end — even the spectacularly elusive Lester Nygaard got what was coming to him in season 1.

This ending was great, but I am going to mourn the demise of moral certainty on Fargo.

I think it ends like this: 1) Varga is released; 2) after he eats his celebratory ice cream while sitting on the john, he opens the stall door and there’s Wrench; 3) BANG!

Sometimes it seems like there are those are above the law, but fate or justice or cosmic comeuppance or whatever you want to call it eventually comes, just not from the direction you’re expecting.

So does the show, or else you missed the scenes where Nikki Swango was literally running through the forest wearing a red hood(ie) and came upon a magic bowling alley.

Hawley, if you’re going to do an S4, please wait until you are able to do it justice without plot hole short cuts like the bowling alley B.S. or cars magically starting up again (or, per S2, UFOs appearing, or murderers not killing their enemies when they obviously have the upper hand).

I don’t think the bowling alley was a plot hole. I think it was one of those intentionally open ended things for the viewer to ponder on. I like the idea that it represents purgatory. The UFO was introduced in the first episode of S2 and used only once after if I recall correctly, more as a plot device then a hole.

Since it’s common to link the show to specific Coen movies, this season reminded me more than a little of Barton Fink, up to and including the ominous elevator.

I immensely enjoyed the last three episodes of the season. For me, the bowling alley scene explained the ending, and Burgle’s conversation with her sone explained everything that lead up to the ending.

A la the scene between the Dude and the Stranger from The Big Lebowski, “sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar eats you.” Everyone gets their karma in the end. Yuri gets it in Fargo’s bowling alley, and Varga will get his, but does it happen at the DHS holding tank? Probably not. He’s a binger, eating bar after bar, without any real consequences other than horrible teeth.

What Burgle tells her son about his grandpa struck me as a theme for the show. All of the Burgles, throughout season 1-3, are witnesses to terrible violence. They handle it well as authority figures, whether they’re ready to or not. Gloria has everything figured out, but doesn’t tell her son about why his grandpa died because he’s not ready. Characters who become more immersed in the ills of the world see it as less colorful, hence the shootout in the snow at the end of season 1 and the Hotel massacre in season 2.

Varga is privy to the violence and injustice of the world and he uses this to enrich himself. While he may get away at the end, the bowling alley assures us that his time will eventually come. It reminded me a lot of the Soprano’s series finale. Tony may not have died violently then and there, but he will.

As beautiful as the highway scene was, there were too many plot holes. How could Emmet get away after leaving his phone in a car that had just broken down? Despite that, the cinematography made up for the problems of that scene.

I loved the season and the finale. One quibble I had was that Emmit was able to fire up the vehicle and drive away from the shootout scene after the car had just broken down.

The show could have solved the problem of Emmit driving away in his car with two lines of dialogue.

Cop: I’ve got a can in the car, but first I need to see your license.

The season and finale weren’t that good. Samey and silly at times.

Alan, best recap/review I’ve read. Particularly insightful about the incompatible world views. Thank you and I love all your reviews!

Prolly the least strong of the 3, but I’m a sucker for the Coen flavors. Still one of the can’t-miss shows. Hoping Hawley meets the dude in the bowling alley for more inspiration.

I’m one of the first to complain about the lack of characterization and depth in a show, so excellent written TV dramas like Fargo are usually right up my alley.

So it’s embarrassing to admit is but there was a little too much cuteness going on throughout the series, each having to do with whatever violence was being suffered by a character. We saw it when Nikki was being beaten up: we only heard the grunts and noises of her being kicked: we never actualy saw her, and this created a lot of discussion around “just how badly was she beat anyway?”

Then we saw it when Vargo’s gang was being killed: we stood there in the elevator as Varga heard all of the gunshots going on around him. Nice effect, but once again, a little too cute for my taste.

It’s a nice variation on the principle of “show, don’t tell.” I would have preferred to see the gangsters get blown to smithereens. Seeing such a fascinating character as Meemo being carried out was a letdown.

Somewhere, Quentin Tarantino is gnashing his teeth, I’m sure of it.

Personally, this felt like a first draft to me. Story threads from out of nowhere, the weird return of Mr. Wrench, the use of music and midwestern platitudes and time jumps to move the story forward all seemed like so much duct tape. It seemed to me that Hawley had his focus on the excellent Legion instead of this show, and we were served a mishmash of half-baked ideas patched together with phony mystery in lieu of engaging stories or satisfying character arcs. More reminiscent of Westworld, Vinyl, or the second season of True Detective. Contrasted with Better Call Saul, this show looked even weaker. I know that FX pushed Hawley to get this one out, but he really should have stopped at the perfect second season rather than weaken them all with this ten-hour road to nowhere.

I liked this season but it did feel really uneven. Some outstanding episodes sprinkled in to a Fargo season one coloring book.

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