atoz-52096
All that begins, culminates; atom into atom, ice into ice, skies into skies, oceans into oceans, blood into blood, bones into bones. And while traversing this endless loop you chance upon the people you are destined to meet; to achieve a bit, to lose a little, to make a mistake here and there, to commit a sin or two.Well, meet Lester Nygaard. He is not your regular protagonist aka hero.He is just an average American man with just an average wife, feeding his family through just an average job, brooding over just the average household troubles, and of course the not so average washing machine. The worst of all his possessions, however, is his naïve gutless heart. Bumping into Sam Hess wasn't a chance encounter, it was a call of fate. A broken nose leads him to the hospital in Bimidji where he finds the wicked Lorne Malvo seated very casually with his partially amusing, partially menacing demeanour. Now when you see Malvo at first, your heart would probably skip a beat or two. That man deserves it. He is tempting you see; with his black eyes, with his precisely chosen words, with his sinful thoughts. Could remind you of the one-who-can't-be-named, you could say? This man will not only offer you the forbidden fruit, he will watch you gulp it down your throat while he dusts his hands off standing far in a corner, or perhaps stares at you from behind through the looking glass. He knows how to flaunt the worth of the sin you are yet to commit. It is difficult to be careful in front of him because the apple that you just ate? It will swell your heart with an other-worldly courage and the gutless stomach that you always whined about? Oh, it is seething with the darkest of your dreams now.When Lester met Malvo, little did he know that the highway ahead is crooked. The Yes never made its way out of Lester's mouth but Malvo could see through the red crystal beneath his shivering chest. And in another night, Sam Hess was en route his journey to death. What started with a few minutes of confused silence of Lester gradually turns into a vicious cycle of long old troubles being resolved, some through blood, some through bullets.What if they're wrong and you're right?A hammer into Pearl's head, once, twice, thrice...a few more till she drops dead on the floor. In his panic, Lester makes a call to Malvo, the scavenger who is delighted to have finally made his first hunt. A few minutes later when you see Malvo there, your heart takes a back seat, feeling a bit of pity for Lester followed by a sigh of relief, except Malvo isn't there to rescue him. By the time Molly, the deputy police officer reaches the house, Lester is six feet down in the shit he never intended to create. A dead officer, a dead woman; he chooses to bump into the wall and collapse.The most charming element of the show is that it is full of unintentional escapes, some leading you home, some into the wild. But nothing ever rests, mind you! Every detail grows into building towards the next grand climax, and what follows is more dilemma, and chaos. In the most iconic scenes, however, the violence is barely visible. You won't find a distorted skull, a rotten body, or a pool of blood grossing you out. Instead, what would hit you hard will be the multiple layers of haze plunging you into the wayward fate of Bimidji, leaving you somewhat hollow.When Lorne ruthlessly kills every mobster in the headquarters, it is beautifully filmed from the outside. The screams get louder, the suspense thickens, but all that is visible is the camera moving along with Malvo, window to window, floor to floor, revealing nothing until the glass breaks and you finally see the mess inside.Since you have been a witness of this sublime whodunit, you know the truths, however absurd they may be, but in the randomness of all the happenings, every single encounter has missing pieces and that is what leaves you helpless. It's all there, but it still isn't, as told by one of the FBI agents. It concretes the recent twist as the two agents make their way into the story. Not sure if anyone else got reminded of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet there, though *Shrugging*.The brutality proceeds hiding beneath the cloak of the ordinary, everyday suburban life. Life and death can both feel random and meaningless, that's the point Fargo sends home with each turn that it takes.Neglecting the screams of what he burns and whom he kills, Lorne Malvo heartlessly steers the ship towards the deadliest shores, posing a riddle after riddle.Why does a human eye see more shades of green than any colour?The boy who is raised in the woods and the wolves who encircle him.A fox, a rabbit, a cabbage.The savage chronicle of lies, regrets, puzzles and deception lusts for the viewer's pity and hatred at the same time. The road keeps getting narrower, and muddier.The most cinematic scenes from the series are, however, the many ways Stavros Milos encounters his losses, inch by inch. The biblical fables infuse more drama into the killings - the flashback from his past, the bloodbath, the flood of flies, King's death, the raining fish. God is real, he cries, oblivious to the fact that it wasn't God all this while, but the wolf residing just around the corner.By the end of this 10-episode long season, Lester turns into a monster full of vindictive plots. The contrast reflects through the parallels; when he murders his first wife, he can't think straight and ends up inviting more trouble home, but 9 episodes later, his second wife Linda becomes a very well-plotted target of his own demons. Like he says in the elevator, the old Lester would let it slide by, but this one, no, not this one. He is familiar with the lengths Malvo can go to, except this time he also knows how to weigh the risk well. To save his resurrected self, he keeps committing these bizarre frenzied acts - from setting up his brother to letting Linda die.While the whole series leaves your heart discontent, the last episode marks the perfect stroke. Gus killing Lorne puts all the loose ends together. For a while, it feels that it came too easy and the tables will turn, but Gus puts him down before he could even get up. Lester dies while running across the thin ice and that is the absolute satisfaction the story deserves. All this while you think there is a pattern, except there isn't, and that is what Morton's Fork chooses in the end.
