What I’m Watching: Fargo

Fargo: Season 1, Episode 5 “The Six Ungraspables” (B+)

I wasn’t sure at first what this episode was doing reviewing scenes that we had already seen, but it turned out to be one of the more helpful types of flashbacks employed (I usually find such things irritating). Watching the trajectory of the bullet and how it got lodged in Lester’s hand before zooming out to find him uncomfortably seated in the cell between Mr. Numbers and Mr. Wrench was enormously effective. The story of how he purchased his gun as part of a minor sock stop, which resulted in his wife telling him he could easily shoot himself in the face, was just as impactful. Fortunately, Lester’s cell-bound misery didn’t last long, though now he’s in for trouble of an entirely different – and legal – variety, thanks to Molly’s detective work, which helped her to deduce pretty much exactly what happened, save for that tiny little detail of Lester never actually hiring Lorne since he volunteered for the job all on his own. The fact that Bill responded to her report with a less than dubious attitude was a big get, and remarking that Lester happened to be in custody seemed to help to sway things in favor of Molly’s hypothesis. Gus was also making some good progress, but Lorne is onto him too, intimidating Gus’ new neighborhood watch friend and noting where Gus and his daughter live. Stavros really isn’t doing well, and it’s hard to tell whether the biblical problems he’s having are worse than the way that Lorne is messing with him and making him doubt himself.