Fargo Recap: Showdown at the Tillman Ranch Corral

Oh, Gator. There’s really no reason to like Roy Tillman’s failson, but it’s hard not to pity him. As Roy’s kid, the odds of him not turning out to be a hateful, violent doorknob were pretty slim, and we’ve seen him commit some pretty unforgivable acts. But we’ve also seen, in puppet-assisted flashback, the scared kid he used to be and sensed that everything he does is a futile attempt to please his dad. Even his room — filled with posters of metal bands and pin-ups — suggests someone who’s never quite fully grown up, as does the sad way he calls out for Roy after Roy turns his back on him. Joe Keery plays him well as a jerk, but a jerk with real vulnerability who might have turned out differently had he been raised right. (Or maybe not. Maybe he was born to be this awful.)

Gator’s undoing plays out over the course of the episode, first during his time as Ole’s shack-bound prisoner, which is followed in turn by his blinding, a forced march across the frozen plain, then finally his return as a “useless hand” to Roy. (Ole clearly thinks Gator was doing Roy’s bidding. Would his twisted sense of honor have made him act otherwise if he knew the truth?) Like most of this season’s storylines, Gator’s ultimate fate remains to be determined by the season finale, but it seems to reach its tragic climax in this episode.

Some ways away from Gator, Dot similarly finds herself bound and hoping to escape a shack. But Dot has better luck. Via a mix of guile and determination, she frees herself from her shackles while eluding Roy’s watchful eye. But while Dot might have escaped, she’s still not free. Trapped on the Tillman ranch, her fate becomes the focus of everyone else in “The Useless Hand,” the penultimate episode in what’s shaping up to be Fargo’s fifth and best, or at least most consistently satisfying, season. From her office, Lorraine’s among those on the hunt, but her distance shouldn’t be mistaken for uselessness. High above the Twin Cities, she has the ability to summon help from those in power, including “the Orange Idiot.” (“It’s time I got something for my money,” she declares.) She also has a powerful, new, and sharply dressed lieutenant, Indira, who seems to have taken Lorraine up on her job offer and is throwing herself into the assignment with typical competence. Lorraine has connections that can summon the full power of the law down on Tillman Ranch, but Indira has contacts, too. When she clues Witt in on what’s up, he springs into action.

But Roy’s not without contacts, either. These include the “patriots” who watch “America’s Sheriff” livestream a call to arms to bring their beans, bullets, and big fucking hammers for a standoff in the making. And a standoff it is. But what’s Roy’s endgame? And, on a more fundamental level, what does he really want? Put another way, as Odin does: is he Hitler at the beginning of his career or at the end? Is this the beginning of a revolution or a desperate last act? Whether or not Roy is a true believer in his right-wing extremism or just using it as a convenient way to hold onto power has been a question all season. (A season that, it should be noted, keeps finding more ways to seem topical.) This may answer it at last.

There’s a third possibility that doesn’t rule out the others: It could be a need to find, retrieve, control, abuse, and possibly kill Dot at the root of Roy’s actions. Karen seems to think so. Catching Dot in the bedroom Karen shares with Roy, she reveals that he’s kept Dot’s picture on the wall (eww!) never changed the sheets after all these years (ewwwwww!). Dot tries to bring Karen to her side and seems to be gaining a little ground until Karen threatens to kill her, at which point Dot knocks her out and makes her escape, but not before turning on the gas stove in an ultimately failed attempt to booby trap the place.

Dot does, at least, secure a phone, which she then uses to call Indira, unaware that Indira’s now with Lorraine. When Lorraine gets on the phone, we get a couple of revealing moments. Without fully dropping her steely resolve, she seems genuinely disturbed, maybe even saddened, by the news of Danish’s death. What’s more, Dot wants to know why Lorraine is helping her. Her mother-in-law can’t give an honest answer because, it would seem, she’s come to care about Dot. Who saw that coming? And yet, the development makes sense. Lorraine’s been offering glimpses of vulnerability almost from the start. As the crisis has mounted, her vulnerability and, gasp, human emotions become harder to hide.

As Dot searches for a safe place the cavalry rolls up in the form of the FBI, the ATF, the SWAT team, and Witt, who asserts himself as a key player in the rescue effort. And it will have to be a rescue effort. When Roy arrives at the gate on horseback, he makes it clear he won’t be backing down. He’s got a “battalion of gunslingers” behind him and would like them to leave. But they’re not leaving. And Roy’s not moving. “This is the path I’m on,” he tells them, then keeps going with a threatening (but eloquent) monologue. This is not going to end well.

And that’s just the external threat. Roy hasn’t even considered the possibility of a threat already within his ranch’s walls. As a fog rolls in, so does Ole with Gator on a leash and a dramatic monologue of his own about useless hands. Ole hands Gator with force, which allows Ole to escape and, presumably, deepens Roy’s disgust with his son.

As the episode ends, a single threat turns into a dual threat. As Roy’s men discover Dot hanging out in the pit they use as a grave, Ole takes them out and then rescues her, extending a hand of respect to a tiger who’s now back on her feet (and armed to boot).

Exciting stuff: I briefly feared Fargo peaked with all that mid-season excitement, but clearly not. This episode starts to bring all the plot threads together without underselling the characters. It’s been a season filled with violence (with, it’s safe to assume, more to come) but also a series of battles of wills. All that ends with the next episode, and, at this point, there’s no obvious conclusion in sight.

Okay Then!

• It’s worth considering the ethics of Indira’s choice. Has she gone to the dark side? And, if so, did she have any choice? Lorraine at least offered a way out of a hole Indira didn’t dig for herself. And just how dark is this dark side, anyway?

• Whether or not Karen has any future role to play this season is unclear, so let’s consider her as well. She obviously hates Roy and always has, but their marriage seems akin to a royal marriage motivated by regional politics. Together, they formalize the union between the Houses of Roy and Odin. But she also seems to be a true believer in her dad’s hateful nonsense.

• “You know what a witch hunt is, right? Not witches hunting men but men killing women to keep them in line.” Again, this is an of-the-moment season or at least an of-the-recent-past-and-possible-future season.

• A grim detail: In the pit, Dot wields a bone as a weapon, presumably Linda’s.

• Hats off to director Thomas Bezucha (director of the very good Let Him Go, which kind of got lost during the pandemic) and cinematographer Daryl Hartwell for ace visual work this week, especially those final, foggy scenes.