“Show, don’t tell” is one of the first rules that anyone who fancies themselves a writer must absorb. As with most writing advice (avoid the passive voice, “I before E except after C,” etc.) it should really be presented as more of a guideline. Sometimes simply telling is good. A character acknowledging their reality is powerful, or funny, or terrifying when it’s done right. It annoys me, is the takeaway here, but even with a show as brash and unsubtle as Fargo, I found myself frustrated by this week’s episode, “The Tiger,” and its fragmented, obvious storytelling.
First, for some reason, this episode features the occasional voiceover (provided by Jason Schwartzman) in the style of a nature documentary. As Dorothy lays fitfully in the Lyon household, Schwartzman tells us about “the tiger [...] one of the fiercest hunters on earth.” It’s nothing we don’t already know (nor is it something we’ve only been told once. Ole Munch called her a tiger in episode two, and her last name is Lyon, for God’s sake). The whole exercise feels more like a self-satisfied flourish (something I’m willing to indulge Fargo in a lot of the time) than anything useful to the viewer. Later drop-ins about the tiger and its propensity for cunning, camouflage, and protecting its young elicit a similar “well, duh.”
Framing device or no, “The Tiger” is Fargo year five’s weakest episode to date, with a lot of anticipated crossover sit-downs either underdelivering or repeating information. First thing’s first: Lorraine and Roy finally come face to face, the immovable object vs. the unstoppable force, respectively, in Dorothy’s life. Roy makes it clear he’s simply doing what he considers “right” and fair: taking Dorothy back and holding her to her vows. He’s not after money. “Nadine,” he insists, is his property, and the only accepted payment is his renewed control over her. Standing in his way is, as she calls herself later on, the “zookeeper,” who, less out of moral obligation and more for the sport of it, counters Roy’s arguments with her own perspective. Neither, of course, is much concerned with Dorothy’s personhood at all. In fact, Lorraine had her shipped off to the psych ward earlier that morning.
Even for someone as fierce and slippery as we’ve seen Dorothy to be, her hasty escapes (plural!) are a little too quick and neat, seemingly designed only to pile more adversity onto Dorothy, more reasons to look over her shoulder. Within the span of about 15 Fargo minutes she escapes her binds in the psych ward, incapacitates a nurse and steals her scrubs, switches the name on Wayne’s room with a poor, intestinally-challenged asshole called Jordan Seymore, then gives those pesky FBI agents, who again pop up out of nowhere, the slip with the ol’ “Just gotta use the bathroom real quick” trick. Have any of these people ever seen one movie?
With Dorothy on the lam once more and Roy’s reputation preceding himself, the Lyon household is on full lockdown. Even Danish Graves can’t leave the property without providing ID. If I were a (presumably) highly-trained, highly-paid security team, I’d position my people around the perimeter of the property instead of just huddled outside a van in the driveway. But such things are not in my control, and so Dorothy’s able to easily emerge from the tundra behind the house, scoop up Scotty, and disappear again.
Meanwhile, Lorraine once again is in battle mode, this time entertaining a visit from Indira. Without Graves or Indira’s kowtowing boss, I was looking forward to this, but it’s again just an excuse for both characters to trade philosophies. Lorraine plays her first card, having looked into Indira and noted her crushing debt. “You went into debt willingly,” she sneers. “At least the animals in the zoo fight.”
We know, of course, Indira is doing her best, and most of that debt is thanks to Lars, who never met a set of golf clubs he didn’t want to upgrade. At the very least, the episode saves the best one on one ’til last, Indira coming home to find Dorothy and Scotty posted up in her kitchen. For all of Noah Hawley and Jason Schwartzman’s “telling” this episode, it’s what’s not said here that hits hard. Indira is the only person Dorothy can trust, because Dorothy’s seen the integrity in her. She asks if Indira will look after Scotty for a few days while she “takes care of something,” and Indira’s infinite capacity for understanding allows it, but not before Dorothy sits down and tells her the truth. “Price of admission,” she says, lighting a cigarette. We finally get a new tiny piece of Dorothy’s backstory, with Tillman’s clan taking her in when she was just 15, and Roy making her his wife at 17. “They never hit you when it’s going their way. It’s when they’re weak, and just pretending to be strong, and need something to climb onto to feel big.” Indira notes the “they,” here, which could be simply “men,” but something tells me there’s more to Dorothy-before-Dorothy’s story than the tyrant sheriff and his Old Testament violence. Hopefully next week we’ll learn more, and the show won’t devote most of its runtime to repeating itself, however stylishly.
Stray observations
- Wayne, still hospitalized and doing his best Dougie Jones from Twin Peaks greets his wife with a helpless “What’s money?” this week. Thank God the kidnappers didn’t bother checking a picture of Wayne before taking poor Jason, eh?
- No Ole Munch this week. Presumably, he’s gnawing his way through a tower of pancakes while “mama” shotguns a couple of six-packs.
- We haven’t seen much of the wicked-ly talented Lukas Gage as Lars, but he makes the most of his screen time this week. Walking in on Indira and Dorothy’s tête-à-tête he observes, nonplussed, “Babe, there’s a lady in our kitchen.” Now that’s how you do “telling”!
- Another botched kidnapping, another humiliation for Gator, who’s now playing second fiddle to another one of Roy’s guys, Bowman.
- Jennifer Jason Leigh gets yet another monologue to absolutely devour, scenery and all, during Lorraine’s meeting with two men whose bank she wants to buy, to get into the credit business. “Everyone loves a lender, not so much the repo man.” She even engineers herself a #girlboss moment, cutting $10 million from her offer price after the bank’s owner calls her “Lady.” I imagine she considers herself a feminist, but thinks the endpoint for the movement was when she declared herself the winner.
- “You want unlimited freedom, without responsibility. There’s only one person on earth who gets that deal.”
“The President”
“A baby.”
Fargo is available to stream now on Hulu.