#fargo 5x04

[cycat4077]

Fargo S5 E4: Insolubilia - Notable moments :)

Just some of the immediate things that popped into my head.

Spoilers under the cut!

I love love loved the opening scene! The Jack Skellington mask was so eerie and creepy. Joe Keery's movements with it, as well, made it feel as though Gator really was this calculating predator hunting its prey. Plus, the camera angles and lighting really built suspense. Usually in horror scenes it's over-the-top and they are relying on the anticipation of jump scares. But the opening scene really made the fear feel real.

Dot. This poor woman... Her looking back on her burning house was absolutely tragic. Juno Temple really conveyed through just her eyes how Dot felt like everything she had wanted and built for herself was slipping away. Dot wants to live happily with her family in a warm, cozy house. Yet she watched it all burn, and you could feel her pain. Plus the scene where she climbs into the hospital bed with her husband further drove that pain home. She was literally clinging to the one thing that had made her feel normal and loved for 9 years (besides her daughter, of course). Yet, even that was slipping away given that her past had caused him to get hurt (with permanent memory loss?).

The exchange between Gator and Dot is SO interesting. There's history there! Dot should have immediately been on the offense against him, yet she called him out. In previous episodes, we had Gator refer to her as Dot despite him knowing her real name. There seems to be some respect/care there deep down on both sides.

The timeline doesn't support Gator being Nadine/Dot's son - she's in her 30s and he's at LEAST in his 20s - but that also means that Gator would have grown up with Dot around for at least part of his life. She likely took on a mother-like role to him in some capacity. It's going to be really interesting to see if Dot will be able to find the soft Gator that the director eluded to (and that the Jack Skellington imagery eludes to) and help him turn his life around for the better.

The scenes with Ole Munch absolutely make my skin crawl, but his monologue in the bathtub was actually really powerful. Especially the part where he says that as soon as the people who are used to getting everything they want can't have something, they claim they have lost their freedom. (I'll leave it at that ^.^)

FINALLY confirmation that TWO of Roy's wives were MIA. I've had this theory since the first two episodes that Gator's mom had gone missing. Roy likes his wives young and submissive. Based on Dot/Nadine, as soon as those wives want control of their lives, Roy retaliates. I assume it is no different for his first wife which has to be Gator's mom. I've had it in my head that Gator witnessed his mother's murder as a boy but Roy has conditioned him ever since to believe that it was either an accident or deserved. I can't wait until more backstory is revealed!

Speaking of Roy...my goodness. I have never really watched anything where Jon Hamm had a major role before but I can definitely see why so many people praise his acting. Roy's last scene was so cold and calculating. It is such subtle acting and it's brilliant! We really got to see how evil Roy is and it was beautifully acted.

And because I find Gator to be such an interestingly layered character, I also loved to see his reaction to what Roy had done at the end. When he walked in, for a moment, he was no longer the tough guy, unphased by hurting others. There was a moment of shock and potentially disapproval on Gator's face when he saw the man writhing and slowly dying. I think it was a moment of "woah, did my father actually do that?" however, it was quickly replaced by turning that concern towards Roy. I like to think that the delivery of that scene hinted at the conditioning that Gator underwent during his upbringing to always put his father and his father's intentions as top priority.

We'll see how it all continues to unfold, but for someone who has never watched any previous seasons of Fargo, I'm absolutely loving the writing, acting and filming of the whole thing :)

[thefutureiswhat]

Fargo 5x04 // 5x07

[macthebrazen]

Fargo 5x04 "Insolubilia" ★★★★★★★★☆☆

[multimetaverse]

Riverdale 5x04 Recap

Reggie getting lines is the first sign this must be a dream sequence

The Saving Private Archie sequence was well done. The twist where Hiram shoots Archie was a good one I’ll give RAS that

When discussing Archie in the army with some friends last week I said that they would only refer to Archie having been in a war and would only refer to the enemy as the enemy and lo and behold

Archie reading a book is already the most unrealistic thing abut this ep

Archie reading a Farewell to Arms is in keeping with the writer’s usual subtlety 

The Second World War style army uniforms work great with the show’s aesthetic 

Toni’s pregnant! And the White Wyrm is Pop’s basement!

RAS said we’d probably find out who Toni’s baby daddy is in 5x08. Presumably it’s someone we know which doesn’t leave a long list of potential father: Reggie or Sweetpea would be at the top of the list

Pop Tate better not be dead

Trash bag killer sounds nice!

A Fargo name drop

Is Betty sleeping with her instructor? That’s so unethical

Oh god they’re going full Silence of the Lambs with Betty having been kept in a pit by the trash bag killer

So the Trash bag killer captured an FBI agent and instead of killing her he held her captive for 2 weeks until she either escaped or was rescued or was let go? Unless there’s gonna be some big twist that really doesn’t sound likely to me

That serial killer brother (along with her serial killer dad) is exactly why Betty would never have been let into the real FBI

Chadwick is such a douchey name ( and he lowkey dresses like Hiram). He wants kids after just a year of marriage and wants Veronica to work less? Lotta red flags already

I’m going to quote an interview RAS did with E News regarding the timeline:

"Yeah, we're definitely in a time paradox," he says. "I think it would have been less jarring if we'd had the organic season break. But yes...the show's timeless so that's what we're hanging on to, to be honest. Like yes if you if you really, if you really analyze it it's like we're either in 2028, or we've been seven years in the past...there's a discrepancy there for sure." And yes, he also acknowledges that Veronica claimed post-jump that it is still 2021."Yes, she says it's 2021," he agrees. "But I think in the graduation episode it was also 2020...there's a discrepancy there for sure."

I have extremely low expectations for the Riverdale writers but fucking around with the timeline you’ve already established is just a slap in the face to the audience. Better shows than Riverdale have botched their timelines and it’s always a symptom of big problems in the writers room when they can’t even handle that basic task. Not to mention the contempt it shows to the audience 

Graduation was in 2020 so it should be 2027 now. Even if they didn’t graduate in 2020, Fred’s tombstone said he died in 2019 so how does that math add up? If  it’s now 2021 and the kids graduated back in 2014 then that would mean that Riverdale High’s first graduating class was in 1939 rather than 1945 which would mean that those classmates who inspired Archie to join the army were enlisting months before the Second World War broke out and two and a half years before the attack on Pearl Harbour caused the USA to enter to war

All strong marriages are built on deception (was that a reference to Katy Keene from the now cancelled Katy Keene show?). This accident better have really been serious if they keep bringing it up

Nice to see Hermione again

They look fine for surviving a helicopter crash

Chadwick collects faberge eggs just like Hiram... and Veronica decided to sell it... methinks Chadronica is not gonna last

Ah yes Fitzgerald and Hemmingway, two writers known for their happy lives and  peaceful deaths of old age, really good examples to live by Jughead

Lmao! Only Jughead would be seduced by a chick wanting him to read her book

Good on Kangs for staying together this whole time

Cheryl is straight up living in the 19th century and I’m here for it. Thank god Nana Rose is alive

Reggie working for Hiram is an interesting twist

Kinda weird that Toni is trying to get back together with Cheryl when she’s pregnant with some dude’s kid. Honestly it makes perfect sense that Cheryl would believe that she’s cursed

Omg is Cheryl gonna get into art forgery?? That would actually be so great

Of fucking course we’re circling back to Hiram’s real estate deals

Thank god Pop Tate is alive

Man how stupid do you have to be to hitch hike nowadays especially when the truck that pulls up has a fucking skeleton on the front!

Once more I’ll quote RAS on the serial killer plot:

"As that mystery unfolds, it starts enveloping all of our characters," Aguirre-Sacasa says. "And in some ways tragically, including a character we've known and loved since season one."

That’s a vague statement that something bad will happen but if he means that a character we’ve known and loved since S1 is dying then it won’t be any of the mains. Sheriff Keller would be a good tragic death, the last of the good dads left in Riverdale

In another interview focusing on the ships RAS mentioned that Bughead would still have a lot of trauma from the Barchie kiss to work through, that Barchie would have a deep connection, and that Varchie still have a spark but Archie wouldn’t make a move on Ronnie while she’s still married

I would be surprised if Chadwick doesn’t meet a violent death at some point so I don’t think he’s a long term obstacle. If Hiram is the big bad for the remainder of the series then there’s a path to get Varchie back together as they team up to take him down

RAS also mentioned how nice it was to not always have to write couple scenes, to be able to have Betty scenes without Jughead and Veronica scenes without Archie and vice versa. An odd statement to make as no one was forcing him to keep those couples together. The writers could easily have broken up Varchie after Hiram’s numerous attempts to kill Archie or used the fact that Bughead had a shared half brother and their parents were living together in a romantic relationship to sink them

Well until next Riverdalers

[thefutureiswhat]

Fargo 5x01 // 5x04

[thefutureiswhat]

Fargo Season 5: Where 3 Roads Meet

This theory is in collaboration with @tdciago.

For a while, I've wanted to share my thoughts about this season as it relates to the act of writing a story. But I haven't really had a clear idea of how the storytelling motif lines up with other aspects of the season (and where it could be leading) until now.

This Is a Story

As showrunner Noah Hawley said in a GQ interview:

“But it was exciting to go back to the movie after four years for the first time to really say, Well, let's look at the movie and let's riff on it, and do what I call a game of telephone with the movie, which is if you give two writers the assignment to write movies about a man who kidnaps his wife, this season is a different writer's version of the same story.”

This season, perhaps more than any other, has drawn frequent attention to the fact that it's a story, starting with Lorraine telling Dot to "write your own pulp fiction."

Munch tells Roy, "A man has only so many words in his lifetime. For us, there are very few left." Sounds like something a book character would say as the pages start to run out.

Danish tells Roy that he can make the other Roy Tillmans disappear "as quick as I made them." Sounds like something an author would say before killing off a character... which is what this story's author does in that very scene.

Then there's the fact that the opening text ("This is a true story.") is written in Times New Roman font, as if it's being typed on a computer or printed in a book.

What's especially interesting is that this season doesn't seem to be a finished story, but rather a work in progress. Whoever the writer is, they're apparently indecisive about formatting and plot points, and lazy about fact-checking. And their writing is downright clunky at times.

The spacing of the opening text's final line ("Out of respect for the dead...") differs between episodes. Sometimes it's single-spaced, and sometimes it's double-spaced.

In 5x05, "The Tiger," we're suddenly given a title card calling the episode "Chapter Five," and a narrator is introduced. This concept is dropped in the next episode.

Then there are all the continuity errors and inconsistencies. First it seems like Roy hired Munch, and Munch brought Donny into things. But later, Gator says he found Donny, who apparently brought Munch into it.

The amount of time since Dot ran away from Roy is also unclear. Roy says she hid from him for "nine, ten years" (Wouldn't he remember? Or is it the author who can't decide?), but the FBI agents tell Indira she went missing eleven years ago.

Characters travel great distances, sometimes hundreds of miles, in hardly any time -- often on foot. Other times, characters don't seem to even know where they are. In 5x08, Roy seems to know the nurse at the hospital and says he's sheriff of the county, but Witt says later that the hospital is "outside Bismarck," which isn't even close to Stark County.

And perhaps the biggest oversight of the entire season is the fact that Wayne is magically electrocuted by exposed wires on the windowsill... while the power is out in the entire house.

In 5x04, the author makes some awkward word choices. Roy describes Baylor Maze as "sitting there in his easy chair, taking it easy." About a minute after Witt says that "ghosts don't photograph," Lorraine talks in a voiceover about a minivan "giving up the ghost."

And perhaps most noticeable of all, Lorraine and Dot bicker at the hospital about Scotty staying in a hotel after the fire. Seconds later, Lorraine asks for service and a nurse tells her, "This isn't a hotel." Weird analogy. Why not a restaurant?

As a writer, these moments stood out to me. If I were proofreading this episode, I'd probably change a couple of those words, so as not to be repetitive. But maybe this story's author hasn't gotten to the proofreading stage yet.

We've Got Our Own Reality

Some would say that all of these examples are simply oversights or continuity errors on the part of Noah Hawley and his co-writers. But what if they're not? What if they were placed there intentionally to show that we're witnessing various drafts of a story, strung together in such a way that we hardly notice anything is off?

A recurring motif this season has been the concept of different realities. The show has even invoked the idea of a time loop, through dialogue like "loop's closed" and "circle back," and by using the song "I Got You, Babe," which plays at the start of each loop in Groundhog Day. It's as if we're seeing moments from different loops (or drafts), in which things are slightly different.

Playing on the idea of multiple realities, this season has also felt the most removed from the rest of the series. So far, there have been no direct connections to past seasons or returning characters. Even the opening text changes "the events depicted" (as we've seen in Seasons 1-4) to "the following events."

Danish tells Witt, "We've got our own reality." What if he's talking about the characters in this season? Who is writing their story? Is it someone who already exists in the universe of the movie (and by extension the rest of the series), and therefore Season 5 takes place in a fictional universe within that universe?

See @tdciago's recent post for more about that idea, and who the author might be.

It's the Crossroads

So what does all of this mean for the rest of the season? Well, what if the "work in progress" nature of the story becomes unmistakable in the final episode(s)? What if this season has three different endings, like a choose your own adventure story?

Maybe the season finale will be "where three roads meet," with the roads being the different versions of the story we've been watching. Why three roads, you ask? Because this season appears to be referencing the story of Oedipus Rex.

Gator's official character description says he has "daddy issues up there with Oedipus Rex’s." Notably, Oedipus kills his biological father at a crossroads where three roads meet. We've already seen some possible foreshadowing of a similar event this season, including Roy's use of the word "crossroads" in 5x04.

The number three has also shown up this season, particularly in 5x08. Danish convinces three men to change their names to Roy Tillman, and the first is number 313 at the court; Dot tells Roy there's a three-day minimum for ordering an ice cream cake for Scotty's birthday; she also tells him, "third time's a charm" about his marriages; Danish gets gas at pump 3.

Many viewers seem to agree that Roy should end up dead by the end of the season, but they don't all agree on who should do it. The show has already seemed to foreshadow Roy's death at the hands of both Dot (theory here) and Gator (theory here).

Maybe we'll get to see both of those deaths, plus a third option where he causes his own demise, or he ends up in prison. Maybe we'll see other characters (like Dot or Munch) die in one version of events, but survive in another -- because the author is just as indecisive about about what should happen as the viewers are.

The Lady, or the Tiger?

Will we ever know which one is the final draft? Probably not. Another story referenced this season is "The Lady, or the Tiger?" The story ends with a man choosing one of two doors. Behind one is a tiger. Behind the other is a lady for him to marry. We never find out what's behind the door he chooses.

This season has referenced the story in a few ways, the most obvious being the repeated references to Dot as a tiger. But there are other details that point to "The Lady, or the Tiger?" in particular.

In 5x01, we see two paintings behind Indira as she sits at her dining table. In the painting on the left is a lady with flowers on her head. On the right is a tiger.

5x05, "The Tiger," obviously contains a number of references to tigers. But it also features several uses of the word "lady": Vivian Dugger calls Lorraine "lady" at lunch; Roy said he caught Dugger with a "lady of the evening"; the narrator refers to Dot as a "lady tiger"; and Lars tells Indira, "Babe, there's a lady in our kitchen."

Will this season be as "insoluble" as "The Lady, or the Tiger?" Or is Dot right that "third time's a charm," and the third option will be the official one? Can we really even declare one version the official version, when it's all made up anyway?

By the end of the season, will we be the authors, choosing whichever version of events is most satisfying to us? To borrow a phrase from Linda, which truth is the true truth?

[thefutureiswhat]

Roy's disappearing act, Fargo 5x04