Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, Martin Freeman, Bob Odenkirk, Keith Carradine, Joey King, Susan Park, Stephen Root, Helena Mattsson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Lorne Cardinal, Jennifer Copping, Jade Davis.
When the Devil makes the most of the innocuous then you know it’s time to be really terrified.
The penultimate episode of the astoundingly well-written and superbly acted Fargo, A Fox, A Rabbit and a Cabbage, sees Billy Bob Thornton’s Lorne Malvo living a seemingly normal life as a dentist, good friends and a nice house and with the added bonus of having somebody who actually seems to like him…deception though is an easy game for those that eat apple pie at the Garden of Eden and the long easy smile and the use of the phrase, “Aces!” would have anybody reaching for a gun in retaliation.
Yet that what Lorne Malvo is, he is just terrifically bad, he is so charmingly manipulative that a smile and a gesture easily goes a long way, superb for those that have bought into the whole premise of Fargo, not so cool for those that get in his way, and the biggest stumbling block that has appeared in his life are the townsfolk of Deluth and in particular Lester Nygaard.
Not that Lester Nygaard is a saint as over the course of the series he has become a changed man and not for the better and yet still the viewer finds themselves understanding him and rooting for him above the excellent Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson and Colin Hanks as Gus Grimly. The Devil, eating pie at Lou Solverson’s Diner calmly announces that the Apple Pie is the finest he has eaten in a while and the man who, just as calmly but with fear building in his hear, sends his new wife into the office to collect their passports and watches as Lorne Malvo shoots her at point blank range.
Who is the one to admire? Who do you really root for? Of course Lorne Malvo is just a hired hit man, a man who can somehow get so close to his quarry that even respectable people allow him to sort their dental problems out and of course Lester Nygaard sells life insurance…who would you truly trust?
In one of the most tremendous scenes of the entire series, Lester Nygaard corners his tormentor and cause of his new found assertiveness in a lift. The conversation ensues and Malvo offers him a choice, the same choice he offered him in episode one; yes or no, the deaths that followed could be seen as Nygaard’s fault, the last temptation of The Devil has begun.
Fargo concludes next Sunday.
Ian D. Hall