Fargo episode 6, titled “Buridan’s Ass,” just finished airing. Our recap breaks down the episode that’s the first in the second half of the season.
This recap will be very spoiler filled.
Buridan’s Ass is the concept that if placed equally between food and water, an equally hungry and thirsty donkey will die because it will be unable to make a decision on which necessity to choose. If Fargo has anything to say about it, humans don’t have the same indecision.
It shouldn’t come as a big surprise, really, that Fargo would end up taking a turn like it did tonight. It had seemed that the show was largely a game of catch-up with Lorne and Lester starting out ahead and Molly and Gus slowly catching up. It would have been nice to see the show play out that way, but nice doesn’t necessarily mean good television. Sometimes there’s no better television than the one that slowly warms your heart and then rips it out and stomps all over it. Thanks, Fargo.
Tonight’s episode was about people entering a new path for the first time, forever changing their lives. The few exceptions were those who continued on their paths that they’ve long traveled, only to face even more consequences than they ever have.
Ever since the premiere, it has seemed that Lester has just been trying to live with his actions and their results. You can’t blame him, really. Fantasizing about the death of his wife and longtime bullier was probably something he had been doing for a very long time, but they were likely just that, fantasies.
Then all of a sudden they were no longer fantasies but realities, and Lester has been trying to live his life ever since. That’s not something that you’re allowed to do when you’re involved in murder, however, and Lester was faced with that realization more than ever today. Playing the ol’ make-them-think-the-other-guy-is-you-long-enough-to-go-home-and-hide-the-evidence-and-frame-your-brother-before-returning-unnoticed trick, Lester proved that he’s not going quietly.
In a telling shot, Lester looked at the picture of his brother’s family. Instead of seeing their family as something too important to break up, he saw the picture of his nephew and figured out a way to get them to find the incriminating evidence. Lester is gone; there’s no chance of redemption in his future.
Lorne, however, has been gone for a very long time. It was no surprise to see him flip the blackmail situation on its head once again, and it came as no surprise to see him lay down numerous human lives as if they amount to nothing because to him, they really don’t. We’ll likely not get a Lorne Malvo back story anywhere in the next four episodes, and that may be for the best. Who is Lorne Malvo and how did he become little more than a shell of a human? We’ll likely never know. Who is he working for? Now that’s a question we’re curious whether or not will be answered.
And while Lester and Lorne are gone in the metaphorical sense, it sure looks like Molly may literally be gone. Poor, poor Gus. Poor Gus, who never wanted to be a policeman, who only ever wanted to be a mailman and to bring happiness into people’s lives. In any other show that wasn’t set in such a harsh, murderous reality, Molly and Gus would already be dating, as it’s clear they have a connection. But it takes a show like Fargo to take the innocent one with the stronger emotional feelings and have him shoot the one who is impossible not to adore.
Assuming Molly is dead and not merely wounded, this will shake Gus to the core. Will he be able to solve the cases on his own? Will some form of punishment come down on him for shooting her? It shouldn’t, but with Gus’ luck it could.
This episode of Fargo is about as dark as any episode of television you’ll find. Where will the show go from here?
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