Fargo: “Who Shaves the Barber?” Review

Lester’s actions lead to severe consequences for the people close to him. Malvo deals with his Fargo problem.

(Credit: FX Networks / Via: FanSided.com)

Note: The following review goes into detail about the episode. SPOILER ALERT!

We’ve seen some incredibly low acts on this show’s short run so far, but planting a gun in your young nephew’s school bag to set in motion the framing of your brother for the murder of your wife takes the prize. Lester has always been intelligent, but now he’s starting to show his cold and calculating side. He had grown to hate his wife and was envious of his brother, so he ended her life and destroyed his brother’s. Lester has been quite bumbling in the past but here he sticks to his plan, fools the police yet again and ends up walking away scot free. He then manipulates the Hess widow into sleeping with him for one last victory over Sam Hess. This new found confidence makes me wonder if it will get the best of Lester in the end, as he may find a situation he can’t lie and cheat his way out of.

As if we needed any more proof of how much of a badass Lorne Malvo is, he single-handedly took down the entire “Fargo” organization we’d been hearing about since the early stages of the show. I had thought they’d have a bigger role to play in the latter stages of the season, but I have to admit the scene where Malvo ripped through their building was just perfect. A big, epic firefight would have been nice, but not getting to see exactly what took place inside that building may have actually worked even better. There was a certain Keyser Soze element to it, with the scene allowing us to build our own picture of what was taking place inside the building, thus furthering the legend of Lorne Malvo.

“FBI.” (Credit: FX Networks / Via: SpoilerTV.com)

One thing that seems to be a recurring theme on the show is the ineptitude of the law enforcement involved here. With a couple of notable exceptions, the police involved in investigating Lester and Malvo’s crimes have completely dropped the ball. It took a hell of a long time for Molly to convince Bill that Lester knew more than he was letting on, but he managed to undo all that this week. He completely bought into Lester’s frame job and then basically walked Lester right through his interview afterwards, putting all the right words into Lester’s mouth. The two FBI agents (a great and hilarious cameo from Key and Peele) we meet this week take it to a whole new level however, with them sitting in their car arguing about hygiene standards in fast food outlets while Malvo slaughters a whole building full of people across the road.

Thankfully though we do still have Molly, who managed to survive last week’s shooting with only a missing spleen. She seems to be the only law enforcement officer for miles who is actually good at her job. Gus Grimly just isn’t cut out to be a police officer, but even he can read between the lines and see that something isn’t right with the whole Lester situation. Molly quickly gets out of that hospital bed and hops back into her investigation, including interviewing “Mr. Wrench,” who ended up in hospital with Molly after she shot him. Mr. Wrench and Mr. Numbers have been two of the standout supporting characters on the show, and another layer may have been added to their relationship this week when Mr. Wrench learns that Mr. Numbers is dead. It may have just been me, but I thought his reaction hinted at a bit more of a personal relationship than we’ve seen.

(Credit: FX Networks)

Molly evoked Marge Gunderson during her “interrogation” of the deaf hit-man, something which is always good to see. “Fargo”the TV series has already proved it can stand on its own two feet, so one or two nods like this one to the original film are definitely welcome. Of course Molly has always stood out as a kind of Marge surrogate and she showed again that she has her predecessor’s tenacity, working through the clues and quickly putting together the links that we, the viewer, know are completely correct. Unfortunately by the end of the episode she appeared utterly defeated as she learned of the developments brought around by Lester’s frame-up.

THE BREAKDOWN

“Fargo”hasn’t really done much wrong so far, with the show steadily improving each episode. There’s only three episodes remaining now and it’s still completely up in the air how all this will end. Lester is on top of his own world right now as he appears to have gotten free of everything. But one particular cloud on the horizon could be Lorne Malvo, if he manages to figure out Lester put Mr. Wrench and Mr. Numbers on his trail. The question I’m most looking forward to learning the answer to is: Can anyone, or anything, stop Lorne Malvo? He’s an absolute force of nature, appearing and disappearing at will. After this episode I’m leaning towards no, but this show continues to surprise so we’ll just have to wait and see.

How about that Key and Peele cameo? Who shined the most in this episode, Lester or Malvo? Shoot us up in the comments below?