We’re not even halfway through this season of Fargo, so dropping an episode that feels like an action-packed finale this early in the season is an act of either supreme confidence or foolishness. But it seems like the former. So far, season five has been suspenseful and thematically rich; opening this episode with the sort of bang other series would save for the end suggests Noah Hawley and his team are nowhere close to exhausting season five’s potential.
As “Insolubilia†opens, Gator and his Nightmare Before Christmas–clad cohorts stage an attack on the Lyon house to the accompaniment of Tiny Tim singing “I Got You Babe†(which certainly makes an already unsettling moment even more so). Though the home invaders are better skilled at stealth tactics than might be expected, the attack ultimately does not go smoothly for them. One goon gets killed. Another is pinned under an attic ladder (then hit with a toilet top, the second time this season a commode has played a crucial role in an action scene). After a lot of violence, they leave empty-handed.
But it’s not like the visit is without consequences. Gator and Dot (or “Nadineâ€) have a face-to-face talk in which she confirms that no, she won’t be going back with him. Gator follows this by bellowing “Nadine†a lot, which gets Wayne wondering who this Nadine person is, until he’s electrocuted by one of Dot’s booby traps, then rolled off the roof as they escape. Oh, and the house burns down. All in all, not a good night for parties on either side of this confrontation.
Roy knows none of this, but he’s not having a good night, either. Recent developments have sent him to church to talk to his “old friend†Jesus about the Midnight Man and to recount a story about an horrific murder where he saw “Beelzebub himself.†This might sound unlikely, but so does Ole sneaking into the Tillman house, tracking muddy footprints all over the place, and smearing some kind of weird rune on the walls of the Tillman kids’ bedroom. (Are they Welsh? That might help explain the sin eater business last week.)
At the police station, Witt and Indira continue their team-up, though Indira quickly finds herself distracted by a call from a collector regarding her husband’s unpaid debts. In voiceover, Lorraine establishes a thematic connection while talking to a reporter from Forbes. Debt collection? That’s what she does. Sure, her company, after acquiring debt others consider uncollectible, hounds those that owe them. But it’s just an attempt to restore their dignity by way of debt consolidation and payment plans. It’s noble, really. Even if those in Indira’s position can’t see it that way.
At the hospital, Dot schools Scotty in the art of creating a cover story. Wayne just had an accident, that’s all. Or at least that’s what they’re going to tell people. Like Dot’s kidnapping excuse, it doesn’t really make much sense. Nor does it stand up to Lorraine’s scrutiny, when she arrives at the hospital with Danish by her side. (She is not happy and demands service and asks Danish to put together “the Saudi package†to see to her injured son.) Indira’s not buying it either, after she arrives. And Witt, who accompanies her, really isn’t buying it. “It’s good to see you again, Mrs. Lyon,†he tells Dot, who ineffectually tries to deny they’ve ever met.
Dot’s saved by a woozy Wayne’s timely revival. And she’s perhaps further saved by Wayne’s — well, let’s be polite and call it his trusting nature. He can’t remember it clearly, but if Dot tells him he touched a wire while plugging in some lights, it must be true.
Indira and Witt are the only ones in pursuit of the truth, though agents Joaquin and Meyer are coming at it from a different angle. They bring their Roy concerns to a justice named Crenshaw, who delivers a story about Mao’s war on sparrows and what it does to the food chain. (Roy’s the sparrow in this scenario, a pest whose elimination causes more problems than it solves.) Nonetheless, Joaquin and Meyer remain undeterred, especially after they learn that Dot, “the second wife,†has been found. (Second. Hmm … So either Roy is a polygamist and Karen came first, or there’s a first Mrs. Tillman we know nothing about.)
While this is going on, Ole is having a bath and babbling apparent nonsense in a muddy tub. “Only kings,†he says, “had the freedom to want. And now everywhere you look you see kings. Everything they want they call their own. And if they cannot have it they say they’re not free.†Okay, maybe that’s not nonsense, especially with the way the episode cuts to Roy as the monologue progresses. Munchs interrupted by his mother–slash–involuntary landlord (this remains unclear), whom he tells he wants “pancakes.†(Maybe, in his own way, he’s just a simple man after all.)
Roy’s also simple in his way. He knows he can do whatever, so long as he can cover it up sufficiently. But this whole Munch-Dot situation has gotten a little out of hand, and he needs a fall guy. That brings him to Joshua, the guy Roy beat up for being an abusive husband. That makes it hard to feel too bad for Joshua, who, after getting a story about Roy’s ancestors, gets called a beta male and, after pulling a gun on Roy, is killed so Roy can hang Munch’s crimes on him. This sort of solves one problem, while another remains: Gator shows up with the news that he was not able to retrieve Dot/Nadine after all. It’s something for Roy to think about as he rides off into the sunset.
Okay, Then!
• Danish has one of the episode’s best lines when he says, “With all due respect, we’ve got our own reality.†That may not be, as Witt replies, “a thing,†but Lorraine and those in her circle have the money to make it feel like one.
• Jennifer Jason Leigh is doing a brilliant job getting laughs for saying the most awful things. To wit, when Scotty is told she can eat a Snickers bar for breakfast: “Are we on welfare?â€
• “Insolubilia†takes its title from a medieval term for the study of impossible-to-resolve statements of the “liar’s paradox†variety. E.g, “What I am now saying is false.†Think on that for a bit.