Not Everything Worked in the 5th Season of 'Fargo'

By Kaleena Rivera | TV | January 20, 2024 |

By Kaleena Rivera | TV | January 20, 2024 |

(spoilers for the fifth season finale)

After a tense ending in episode 9, with Dot (Juno Temple) narrowly saved by Ole Munch (Sam Spruell)—for reasons that would not be laid out until later—and the Feds preparing to storm the Tillman Ranch with dozens of Roy’s (Jon Hamm) heavily armed acolytes awaiting, the season finale ends, not in a hail of bullets but with biscuits around a table. It’s an ending that hearkens back to early Fargo seasons, a trend that creator Noah Hawley has maintained since the beginning of this season, though breaking bread with an adversary, an immortal one at that, is wholly new territory. It’s imaginative, but this particular plot thread, like several others in the season, leaves something to be desired.

This season spent much of its ten episodes hovering around the “quite good” mark, with occasional downward dips through a draggy season midsection (I’m still resentful of the fact that episode 7 amounted to little more than, “but it was all a dream”), though most of the time is well spent. Despite his awfulness, Gator’s (Joe Keery) pathetic tale is affecting; the story of a boy turned into an insecure goblin by a monster of a man is worthy of sympathy. Although Gator hasn’t come anywhere close to redemption—though he’s paid a dear price for his transgressions—his end is appropriate as both a measure of justice (prison) and the hope offered to him (maternal affection via Dot).

But there were enough developmental loose threads to keep season 5 from achieving greatness. The most obvious example being the now former Deputy Indira Olmstead (Richa Moorjani), a character who starts the season with a tremendous amount of potential only to wind up with the least amount of payoff, a shame considering how the show was able to boast a higher-than-usual number of strong female characters. Sure, she gets rid of that no-good husband of hers at last—I trust her considerable pay bump comes with lawyer perks—but once in Lorraine Lyon’s (Jennifer Jason Leigh) employ, Indira ceases to be an active player, barring a single fateful phone call to one doomed deputy. It’s as though the moment she swapped the uniform out for those sleek but sensible slacks, Indira’s story came to a screeching halt.

Our other primary law enforcement officer, Deputy Witt Farr (Lamorne Morris), also suffers from being underused. In the battle against good and evil, the latter, unfortunately, wins out more often than it should. Witt was never going to be long for this world, heedless as he was in the face of danger (the way he valiantly tried to get Dot out of the hospital despite being hopelessly outnumbered was proof enough). The moment he walked into that escape tunnel, it was obvious he was never going to walk out of it again. But as much as I didn’t want to see him die, what I wanted more was at least one substantial scene that would have allowed Witt’s characterization to be remotely independent of “save Dot.”

When it comes to Dot and that final dinner table scene, I remain unconvinced of the simplistic framing of forgiveness (“You wanna know the cure? You gotta eat something made with love and joy and be forgiven”). Winning over Ole Munch with the power of domesticity feels a bit like giving the Care Bear Stare to the Babadook. It’s a well-acted scene, to be certain, and I found the comedic aspect a more convincing draw than the imposed graciousness (the abrupt appearance of the orange soda is arguably the funniest thing to happen in the entire series). Even though it’s an end that rings hollow for Mr. Moonk here, it admittedly registers as a more natural culmination for Dot, who’s at long last able to shield herself with the very thing she’s been in pursuit of the entire time: a peaceful home.

Kaleena Rivera is the TV Editor for Pajiba. When she isn’t tempted to spend the weekend making drop biscuits she can be found on Bluesky here.