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A review of “Happy”, this week Fargo, to come as soon as I hit an American alderman …
“Everything that happened, we are here now.” —Josto
This episode from last week was so special after a really high and low Fargo The year was less reassuring than it could have been, because it was so out of place in terms of style and focus. Obviously, it’s great that Noah Hawley and his company were able to create a stunning black and white. Wizard of Oz tribute in the midst of their vast gangster saga, but it hasn’t done much to justify some of the more uncertain picks from this season’s main arcs.
“Happy” is not the artistic triumph that was “East / West”. But crossing the Kansas-Missouri border and catching up with all of our surviving characters – some of whom didn’t maintain that distinction for a long time – this final chapter makes the season’s various feuds and character combinations more vital and interesting than most of them have from the start.
Or maybe it’s just that Ethelrida is coming back to prominence.
You remember Ethelrida Pearl Smutny, right? Narrated the season premiere, seemed to be in the middle of a lot of different stories in the first few episodes and then just… gone? Even though she was a high school student and not a cop, she fit very comfortably into the Molly / Lou / Gloria slot of the morally upright hero who is smarter than the bad guys keep mistaking her for. And E’myri Crutchfield seemed, like Allison Tolman, a great find from Fargo casting team. But in just a few episodes, Ethelrida was pushed to the margins for the benefit of various gangsters, lawyers and outlaws. (So, by the way, Oraetta Mayflower, who was positioned in those early episodes as Ethelrida’s most direct rival.) When she appeared in episodes midway through this season, it was almost like an afterthought. .
With “Happy,” Ethelrida rewrites herself at the center of the narrative, and the episode is much better for that. The war between the Faddas and the Cannons rages on to an almost absurd degree, especially at the heels of Zelmare and Swanee killing what looked like dozens of innocent civilians at the station
. The Faddas are clearly winning, especially after Loy’s attempt to recruit Leon’s oft-mentioned cousin, Happy, who turns against Happy, with Happy instead organizing the Faddas to install Leon as Loy’s replacement. But chaos reigns throughout Kansas City.
Especially given the season’s themes of how non-WASP ethnic groups are marginalized and repressed by the establishment, it’s especially odd that the state doesn’t call on the FBI or the National Guard to deal with the rising tide triggered by an Italian gang. fight a black.
Later, Captain Roach will do Ethelrida a favor, interrupting Oraetta’s attempt to poison the girl and scaring her across the street to her own apartment, where the police are waiting to arrest her for Dr. Harvard’s attempted murder. This is the first time the family curse seems to have worked in someone’s favor. Dibrell said Roach was more interested in the “sun” than anything Zelmare once tried to give him, and Oraetta, with her white uniform and chipper-like air, has the trappings of the sun, though we know how dark his heart is. Ethelrida sleeps most of the time, only waking up so that she and her parents can watch Oraetta’s walk. But based on the way she behaves in the previous scene on the porch and the last in Loy’s office, she might have been willing to watch the two monsters in her room.
FARGO –
Jessie Buckley as Oraetta Mayflower. Elizabeth Morris / FXNumerous events that are not directly related to Ethelrida also occur, including Gaetano murdering Odis… and dying moments later when he slips while walking, accidentally blowing his brains out while falling. It’s less a Coen tribute than a tribute to Steven Soderbergh, since it evokes the death of White Boy Bob in Out of sight
; but it’s also a karmic reward for the time when Gaetano murdered the busboy and the bartender because the busboy was laughing at him for slipping on ice. Odis isn’t a great loss to anyone, especially the season, but Gaetano had become even more entertaining becoming Josto’s pathologically devoted guardian than when he tried to kill him. The brothers share one last happy moment as Gaetano recounts why he was sent back to Sardinia when they were children, but the violence in the universe of Fargostill has consequences, and the brothers’ need to punish Odis for betraying them causes the big man to bleed a few feet from his latest victim. It’s also similar to the death of Danny Crowe
Justified
, which perhaps makes Elmore Leonard the guideline, and still makes me wish the Coens followed through on their plans to adapt Leonard’s
Cuba Libre
.
We also see the first real glimpse of Satchel Cannon becoming Mike Milligan when, on the way home from the Liberals to Kansas, a few racists in a van stop to harass him. Satchel has barely spoken at all at this point in the season, but he proudly pulls Rabbi’s pistol from his belt and tells his stalkers, “This is my world. I am the boss. I tell you what to do. It would be a triumphant moment if we didn’t know how disappointing Mike’s life will be, and how this series’ morality wheel ends up crushing men like him and Gaetano.
As memorable as all of these other scenes are, the climax is Ethelrida braving the lion’s den herself, sitting down with Loy Cannon to convince him to free his family. Despite being at its lowest with the state of mob warfare, he’s still far more powerful than she is, and only indulges her presence on behalf of his eldest son. But she impresses by identifying the Henri Regnault painting of which Loy has a copy in his office – and seems to impress him even more by revealing that the ring she has in her possession once belonged to Donatello Fadda. We’re not sure what the play is exactly, but Crutchfield and Chris Rock play the end of the episode in a way that makes it clear that like most of what Ethelrida says and does, it’s very smart.
Better late than never to bring it back to the fore. A few more thoughts: * This was the episode that was about to film before the quarantine shut down production in March. In the first few minutes, I was looking to see if the characters stayed further away from each other for Covid security reasons, like the way everyone in Loy’s hotel suite was sitting at a distance when Happy met Loy. and Buel. But it seems like a choice to make the directing more dramatic, as later scenes, like the Fadda brothers in the car, brought the actors closer together. Covid precautions are a complicated thing, but everyone managed to film OK. Yet we are at a time when even shows that were set long before the pandemic cannot help me think about it while watching. * Finally, it took me a few episodes to realize that Joe Bulo, the tall, mustached soldier Fadda played by Evan Mulrooney, is the younger version of the Kansas City union middle manager played by Brad Garrett in season two. In the 70s, Joe will be the supervisor of… Mike Milligan.
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