How ‘bout that ending?!
I read complaints earlier in the season that this installment of Noah Hawley’s epic crime anthology was perhaps moving a bit too slow. The thing is, this series has always started off with a slow-burning spark that eventually led to something more explosive. Case-in-point: episodes 5 and 6.
Let’s start with the ending: Ray Stussy is dead, and technically it was his brother Emmit (both played with effortless duality by Ewan McGregor) who killed him. It was an accident, sure, but chances are that fact won’t matter much to police chief Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon), who as episode 6 concludes is on her way over to the scene of the crime.
When the season began, I pictured Emmit as a villain and Ray as ‘hero’, of sorts, though especially in the last two episodes I’ve found that perception totally flipped. Sure, Emmit may have done his brother dirty when they were young, but Ray has let that notion control his entire life: any of his shortcomings, he traces back to Emmit and the damn stamp. While I certainly understand Ray’s frustrations, I also find it hard to root for a character who lacks any self-awareness or responsibility for his own life. It’s been interesting to see how much Emmit actually cares about his brother, and with V.M. Varga (David Thewlis) stepping into the ‘villain’ role, Emmit and his associate Sy are looking more and more like the tragic figures of this tale.
Seriously – how disturbed were you when Varga put his junk in Sy’s cup and then forced him to drink out of it? I said in my last review that Sy (the fantastic Michael Stuhlbarg) has become one of the most interesting and entertaining characters in the series. Like Emmit, I thought at first that Sy was one of the darker figures in this anthology, keeping Ray away from the fortune that he felt he deserved, but the most recent episodes have swung the power away from Sy and left him in perhaps the most vulnerable position of any character.
I still can’t help but feel for Ray and his lover Nikki (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), though my sympathy started waning around the time they sent a doctored sex tape to Emmit’s wife (you’ve got to admire their tenacity, though, right?). It all went downhill for the duo after that. Sy set up a meeting with Nikki that inadvertently left her on the receiving end of a brutal beating from Varga’s men; Gloria began to draw a parallel between her deceased step-father and the Stussy brothers; and, eventually, Ray ended up dead, ironically stabbed in the neck by a shard of glass from the frame that displayed Emmit's much sought-after stamp.
I have to note how remarkable the cast is here. I genuinely feel like I'm watching two different actors play Ray and Emmit, and every character from the nefarious V.M. Varga to bumbling detective Winnie Lopez (Olivia Sandoval) feels perfectly cast. Honestly, the hardest part of these reviews is trying to ensure that everyone is given their due. Hamish Linklater and Mary McDonell have joined in on the absurd fun in recent episodes, and Goran Bogdan and Andy Yu continue to thrill as Varga's unpredictable and sadistic henchman.
As it stands, Emmit is not only feeling the heat from Gloria in connection to Ennis Stussy’s murder, but he also has the IRS on his back – and Ray’s dead body surely won’t help support his claim that the brothers didn’t have a feud of any sorts, even with Varga planning to pin it on Nikki. The question is, who will take the fall in all this? Better yet, who’s going to make it out alive?
If the first two instillations of Fargo are any indication, no one is safe: in fact, it’s likely that there’s at least one mass casualty event coming somewhere down the line. Ray’s death caught me totally off guard, but I should have known better. Personally, I’m hoping to see Emmit and Sy still standing when the final credits roll, but I know better than to be presumptuous.
What are your thoughts on season 3 of Fargo so far? Were you shocked by Ray’s sudden death? Who do you think will be the last man – or woman – standing? Hit the comments and let us know what you think. For more on Fargo and all my other SpoilerTV work, feel free to follow me on Twitter.
