Fargo: Who Didn’t Survive the Bloody Season 5 Finale? (Plus, Grade It!)
Fargo’s fifth season wrapped up on Tuesday in classic Fargo fashion: with a hail of bullets and plenty of bloodshed — and then a nice home-cooked meal.
We open on the frozen North Dakota tundra, with a blinded Gator hobbling around and whimpering until he finds a hut and feels his way down a long underground tunnel. He emerges through an escape hatch located just off Roy’s property, where the feds and a SWAT team are preparing, guns drawn, for a standoff with Roy and his goons. Roy gets mocked by his father-in-law for tolerating weak women and sons… so Roy wheels around and slashes the old guy’s throat: “Rot in hell, you piece of s–t.” Roy’s wife sees this, and Roy runs after her, but he stops in his tracks when Dot is right there holding a rifle on him. She shoots him in the gut, kicking his gun away as she approaches, lining up for the kill shot. “Give us a kiss,” Roy taunts her, but then the feds rush in, ordering Dot to drop her weapon and letting Roy slink away. Witt promises her, though: “I got him.”
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He follows Roy’s blood trail to the hut with the underground tunnel, and once he’s inside, Roy sneaks up behind him with a knife. Witt catches him, though, and orders him to drop it. Roy kneels down as if to drop it — but then lunges up and stabs Witt in the chest, killing him. (Noooo!) Roy doesn’t get far, though: The feds are waiting for him when he climbs out of the escape hatch. (“Your son gave you up, by the way,” an agent tells him.) Dot reconciles with Gator, promising to bring him cookies in prison, and she tells an agent she wants to thank Witt… but the agent just shakes her head sadly. Dot does get to go home and reunite with her husband Wayne and daughter Scotty, and even Lorraine is proud of her: “Shot him in the stomach, they said. That’s my girl.” She even accepts a hug from Dot! Reluctantly, but still.
We jump to a year later, with Dot and Scotty laying flowers at Witt’s grave. Indira is there, too, and we learn she’s taking care of Witt’s cat. He had six sisters, Indira says, and Dot replies: “No wonder he was so nice.” Not so nice, though, is Roy, who’s serving a long sentence in federal prison. Lorraine visits him to twist the knife, letting him know she knows lots of judges, so he shouldn’t get his hopes up about an appeal. He actually likes the primitive order of prison, he says, but she tells him his “real punishment” is about to begin. She’s set up a fund to pay down the debt of every man in this prison… except Roy. “I want you to feel everything that your wife’s felt. Every blow. Each humiliation. Fear.” She hands him a single pack of cigarettes on the way out: “These might come in handy.”
Meanwhile, Dot and Scotty arrive home with sour cream to make chili — but they find Ole Munch sitting in their living room with Wayne. Ole insists that he and Dot have unfinished business, but Wayne just greets him warmly like an unexpected guest, fetching him an orange soda. Ole says “the debt must be paid,” but Dot counters: “What if you can’t? Isn’t it more humane to say the debt should be forgiven? Isn’t that who we should be?” She has to make biscuits, so she tells Ole if he wants to stay, he can wash up and help. While they make biscuits together in the kitchen, Dot assures him she understands that he lost some money and a partner in all this, but he made a choice to do this, after all. Plus, she’s a mom, and his own mom would do anything to get back to him if they were separated, wouldn’t she?
They all sit down at the table to eat chili and biscuits, with Scotty saying grace as they all hold hands. Ole launches into an ornate monologue about how he once ate fleas on the moors before rowing across the sea, “frightened all the time.” He had to eat bitter sins because he was starving, and now he cannot grow old or die, and he has no dreams left: “All that is left is sin.” But Dot cheerfully encourages him to move past all of that: “You’ve got to eat something made with love and joy, and be forgiven.” She hands him a biscuit, and Ole bites into it, his eyes closing in ecstasy — and he breaks into a big smile.
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