All in all, “A Fox, A Rabbit, And A Cabbage” has succeeded in defying my expectations for this show, and expertly generating tension while setting us up for what promises to be a hell of a finale. Noah Hawley has paid off last week’s risky time-jump beautifully, and the show’s narrative has only gotten better because of it.
On one final note, it’s worth pointing out that despite Lester’s various, horrific crimes, Hawley made us feel a little bit more sympathy for him this week. Once Lester heard Malvo’s voice in the bar, his newfound confidence began to crumble before our very eyes, and the old Lester started to peek through. He begins to stutter again, and is constantly changing his plans with Linda, acting in ways that will surely throw up some red flags when Budge and Pepper come knocking on his door. He even grabs his old jacket from the basement, which nearly signified that his transformation had fully began to regress.
Hawley almost, almost, made us care about Lester’s well-being again, by giving him a demon to run from. This episode of Fargo was a reminder that Malvo is the true master here, while Lester was simply another of his pawns. Just when Lester had been planted firmly on the side of the victim again, Hawley pulled that rug out from under us and showed Lester’s true colors. He gave his wife his orange jacket and sent her in to grab the passports, knowing full well that Malvo was inside waiting to kill him.
“Oh… put your hood up, huh? I wouldn’t want your pretty face to freeze.”
Additional Thoughts:
- It’s sad to see Stephen Root enter and exit the show so quickly, but his death was made even more shocking by the assumption that they wouldn’t have cast an actor of his calibre for such a small role.
- Several things pointed toward the notion that Malvo is the devil. The silhouette caused by him standing in front of the elevator, the blood spatter resembling wings behind him; and his notion of not having a piece of pie as delicious as Lou’s since “the Garden of Eden.”
- I get the feeling that Gus won’t tell Molly that Malvo is back. He’s never under-estimated what that man his capable of, and may want to keep Molly off of his trail in order for her to avoid harm’s way.
- Who knew that Malvo was such a great dentist?
- We’re reminded of the fact that Malvo carries a suitcase full of tapes, which are apparently recordings of confessions from his various disciples. Lester obviously wasn’t the first person whom he sent on the path of metamorphosis.
- Bob Odenkirk only gets about a minute of screentime this week, but completely sold Bill’s shock at the FBI’s acceptance of Molly’s theories.
- I wonder if that bear trap that Lester has in his basement will come into play next week. That would line up perfectly with the story Malvo told Mr. Wrench last week about the bear who chewed his own leg off to get free from one, only to die an hour later “on his own terms.”
- Poor Linda. Her only crime was having way too much faith in people, and for falling for a psychopath. She was given the most poignant line in the whole episode though: “You don’t even wanna know the disarray people leave behind.”
