Just announced that it's dropping April 19th. We're getting back to back Noah Hawley on FX (Thank you Based God)

Ewan McGregor is the lead in dual roles with Carrie Coon and Mary Elizabeth Winstead co-staring.

Takes place a few years after Season 1. A few characters from Season 1 will pop up.

Remember guys this is it for a while as he's pulling a Louie with this show.

Carrie Coon (plays the police chief), David Thewils and Michael Stuhlbarg (the "villains"), Jim Gaffigan, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jim Gaffigan, Shea Wingham, Scoot McNairy, Karan Soni, Fred Melamed, and Thomas Mann.

Basic descriptions of the other characters are out there, along with minor over-arching plot details.

Regardless, can't wait. Season 2 was my favorite single season of anything not named "The Wire."

Stuhlbarg and Melamed are a couple of my favorites.

I might put it in their top 5.

is on the come up. Throw in Wigham and Scoot? Damn. Can't wait. Season 2 was pitch perfect.

I dug what I'd seen so far but wasn't fully engaged and just ended up forgetting about it.

Apparently it's one of the best shows on TV and Season 2 had the gawd Bokeem. I'll definitely rectify my error before April.

Still don't think they needed the Oliver Platt storyline. But yeah, by the end, it gets really good and then season 2 is top notch.

Also, this is the guy that is doing Legion, which after two episodes is one of my favorite shows on TV right now.

I'll leave it at that.

You don't have to see season one to enjoy season two. Season two took place before season one, so take that for what it's worth. Hard for me to compare both seasons because it's been a while since I've seen them, but I will say Bookeem Woodbine and Kirsten Dunst both put on acting clinics in the second season. Plus the storylines in the second season were pretty stellar as well.

A couple of references to season 1 but they don't affect the story at all. More "Ooh, that person is related to the guy in season 1." or "So this is what they were referencing."

Might even be better to know the references before season 1.

>I'll definitely rectify my error before
>April.

Did you definitely rectify your error before April?

in a looooong time.

Went back and watched season 1 and while it was good I might not have watched until the end if I didn't see season 2 first.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

i want to rewatch. looking forward to season 3.

I have complete faith in this show after the first two seasons

because the guy went to do Legion?

It was Legion but also wrangling the cast since they have people with active movie careers involved.

And he's writing another novel. Dude is working!

...on the ground, which is why there was a pretty big gap between Season 2 and 3. I'm guessing it would be a lot of cramming to get a new season written and the filming crammed in to have a season 4 ready by April of next year. Plus, now he has Legion and all these shows in development.

.

Good to be back watching bumbling criminals.

when she first got up nude to distract dumb ass, and then dropped the AC on his head

I was like... i'm in love

The opening scene was great but beyond that nothing really grabbed me. I felt like the accents were more inconsistent than ever.

I still love me some Mary Elizabeth Winstead but it felt like a story that I'd seen before. David Thewlis was intriguing so we'll see where it goes.

Then again, I felt like season 1 was haphazard for the first half but Hawley really brought it home.

She looked at it and was blown away. Seems like that's the inspiration for the figurine he built for his grand kid but that went over my head. Seems like an important part to the story too.

Laughed out loud when the dumb criminal who was supposed to rob the brother asks him... "stamp? Like... a..... postage?" And he licked his finger.

Maybe for another alien side-story like last season.

The grandfather gave the kid the sculpture that was based on a sci-fi book that he was hiding, somewhat inexplicably. Not sure we're supposed to know more than that right now.

Even if they never incorporate it into the story, the East Germany stuff was brilliant.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

.

really took me out of it.

I know geography on TV shows never really matters, but even as high and forgetful as he was, there's no way Maurice could get that confused unless he had no earthly concept of where Eden Prairie is and was just planning on driving in a random direction until he saw a road sign. Then when Ray yells at him for what's supposed to be a short drive, I had to go back and confirm where he was supposed to be leaving from.

It'll be fine from this point forward, but it confused the hell out of me for no reason.

>really took me out of it.
>
>I know geography on TV shows never really matters, but even as
>high and forgetful as he was, there's no way Maurice could get
>that confused unless he had no earthly concept of where Eden
>Prairie is and was just planning on driving in a random
>direction until he saw a road sign. Then when Ray yells at him
>for what's supposed to be a short drive, I had to go back and
>confirm where he was supposed to be leaving from.
>
>It'll be fine from this point forward, but it confused the
>hell out of me for no reason.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

>really took me out of it.
>
>I know geography on TV shows never really matters, but even as
>high and forgetful as he was, there's no way Maurice could get
>that confused unless he had no earthly concept of where Eden
>Prairie is and was just planning on driving in a random
>direction until he saw a road sign. Then when Ray yells at him
>for what's supposed to be a short drive, I had to go back and
>confirm where he was supposed to be leaving from.
>
>It'll be fine from this point forward, but it confused the
>hell out of me for no reason.


A large crux of your point depends on if Maurice is a long time native of that area like you are. Was it established that he was born and/or raised from Minnesota?

Given that Noah Hawley seems to write and create with great attention to detail, I can see how that would bother you if the two locations are that far apart as it seems from your post.

and people in the sticks know all the other little stick towns and developments around them.

unless he had just moved there that week it didn't really make sense.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

they get enough stuff the day after, but they don't get this, or that, or Better Call Saul, so I just have to avoid the entire conversation and wait a year to see what's up.


just finished season 2 two weeks ago, love the characters but I really loved how small season 1 was.


real curious to see how season 3 connects to the previous two and turns out...a year from now.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

(my homeboy told me S2 was the shit, so i watched that first)

has its own little pleasures.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

...and really dug all the references to S2.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

This season is only 10 episodes, right? Going to be interesting to see how quickly everything ties in together seeing as how this episode was somewhat slow. With the Shea Wigham (sp?) character in the mix, there appears to be a lot of moving parts this season.

Noah Hawley thus far has been undefeated with this prior shows, so I have faith that this will be stellar television.

Holy shit that was good. I'm going to watch it again.

Layered and imaginative

Love the animation of the step dads story, all the lil symbolic connections, the amount of small details that connect dots in the plot and character backgrounds.

Just great narrative work

Plus the Diner they were in, i was there last week lol

Fantastic storytelling

When Sy is in front of his hummer just pointing at Ray and then struggles to open the door, gets in, points some more, then drives off, and we see the boots on Ray's car, I was dying

or when Gloria and her new chief are talking about the investigation and he just starts going off about war and ieds and she's like wtf, hilarious

.

it feels like it has so much symbolic meaning. I just haven't teased it out yet

Am I the only one?

There's a ton of plot lines going down, but the show feels as if it isn't moving all that quickly. I'll give the show more time though before I fully stick my thumbs all the way down.

i'm not jumping ship or anything but they definitely had me hooked by now in prior seasons and it just hasn't happened yet

There are def some cool scenes and great potential but i'm still not all the way bought in to this storyline

I didn't love the first half of the season but then everything came together perfectly.

The Sheriff shutting down the murder investigation feels fairly arbitrary and phony. I could see if it was a big city police department and there was a lot of shit but seems like they'd have the time to fully look into the case, ESPECIALLY if someone connected to an officer was involved.

I feel like we finally hit the point of no return for the Stussey Brothers. They still slipped into aw shucks mode a little too often for everything going on but now that their ladies have been attacked, it should be full steam ahead.

The LA one is the only one i truly loved

N/m

I don't know nor do I really care if I missed a great deal of what I missed either. The story lines for this season are just plain flat out boring me to tears. I'll continue to watch so I can get a sense of closure, and the acting this season isn't bad or anything, but I just don't care that deeply about these characters.

also i wonder how the sci-fi this season will play out with the characters, being that Gloria isn't "recognized by sliding doors, and electronic soaps and water faucets.

thing that Gloria explored. Did something from his past come back to haunt her stepdad? Was it even him with a changed name or someone else? That whole thing confused me.

This season took a bit to get going but Varga is a great villain and I can't help but root for Nikki to win.

He left Hollywood after getting played and thinking he killed Zimmerman. He took the name looking at the imprint on the toilet when he was throwing up.

My guess is he ended up in Minnesota

but the first season was very light on sci-fi (from what I remember) and the second wound up pretty heavily, inexplicably sci-fi for a brief moment in each of the last few episodes.

then this season started out with her being unseen by automatic doors that responded to others normally and her step father being a disgraced sci-fi author. so, obviously begs the question, when is the sci-fi going to hit the fan in this season, or was all that a red herring and a wink and a nod to both those who loved the spaceship appearance during the shootout and those who remain utterly perplexed by it.

I'm in the latter camp, and really hope we get an answer for it before this anthology series is over for good.

there is some obvious ties to the theme of Bioshock / Bioshock Infinite ("there's always a lighthouse, there's always a man, there's always a city") in this case it being always a malevolent force, always a police officer apart from the understood ways of the world, always a small town imposed on by larger forces.

the question is where the aliens/sci-fi fit in, and when.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

and she wasn't coming up. while she's obviously a recognizable physical presence, she's faded into the background since coming back from L.A. and putting everything together from her living room while nobody cares, bad or good guys.

It's odd to me that the general tone of this thread is "meh". I think this is really artistic television and probably the most confident from an aesthetic standpoint this show has been. Lot of great shots and moments, and Ewan has been great playing two sides of a coin.

Also a big fan of what Sthulbarg has been doing this season, just his facial reactions have been hilarious.

One thing I will say, though, is I think they're leaning on the stilted dialogue a little hard this year. It feels more transparent than it did the previous two seasons. Almost every sentence out of anyone but Varga's mouth is somehting to the effect of, "I'm talkin' aboot, well, you knooow. And why's it always gotta be about the, what's it, sadomasochism?" It's real hard to impersonate for a good example, lol, but I wonder if anyone else agrees with me that it's a bit over the top and lost a bit of its charm as a result this year. I get these characters are super flummoxed but I wish they'd dial it back just one notch.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwNvCNfBpAY

aka the friend with the cleft asshole.

They've been showing it on HBO all the time these past few months, so the connection was fresh in my mind.

that was in a Cohen Bros. movie that also appeared on the Fargo anthology series?

there are probably a few others

>that was in a Cohen Bros. movie that also appeared on the
>Fargo anthology series?

Along with Knox Harrington, there's Michael Stuhlbarg and Frederick Melamed, who both appeared in "Serious Man."

Stephen Root was also apparently in Season 1, but I'm having a hard time remembering who he was. I think he was the guy Billy Bob went undercover to kill towards the end of the season.

I don't think anyone from Season 2 has been in a Coen Bros. movie before.

but when he ran into Lester in the elevator, he killed Root instead to prove a point and, I'm paraphrasing from memory, "give you what you want."


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

is one of the best Coen Brothers characters ever. That movie is underrated.

I don't mind that they killed off Ray. I hate the way they executed it...

Really he was gunna be petty about the brother giving him the stamp finally only to have that silly you take it no you take it "struggle" and the random glass in the neck?

Nah... would've preferred they argued and Emmit just smashed him over the head to death

Ray's death just felt cheap...

Also Lolzers at the gah damn moon landing propaganda from VM, which makes sense cause he a Soviet and they lost the space wars of the 60s

hoping the season ends on a strong note but so far i'm not all that impressed

and in terms of how they tell the story: fractured, from different POV, with allusion, and then intense small moments of violence, it's still great.

right now its the weakest of the three, but it's still better than anything not named Atlanta or the The Americans

though they're all very good.

uhh Season two of BCS is def NOT better than any of those or adding Mr. Robot, and I doubt highly either of the ones I aint seen are better than the first 4 seasons of the Americans or this. Sorry breh this is next level story telling

Season 2 of The Leftovers is one of the best examples of storytelling on a TV show I've ever seen. It's criminally underwatched, definitely watch the whole series if you get a chance.

Fargo is good but everybody else seems to like it more than me. I wouldn't put it in my top 3 current shows right now. Then again I liked Season 1 much better than Season 2 unlike everybody else.

.

She's trying to see Swango, and used the same loophole Qualls used to get into the room undetected..... Didn't seem that far a leap in logic that like the scared cop at the police station, someone created an event to lure dude away from that desk.... Qualls goes in and so does the sheriff who's still trying to figure a way to get in... She notices the guy gone and seizes the opportunity.....

I enjoyed the most recent episode mainly because of the dinner scene. Spectacular performances all around and I had some huge belly laughs at the way McGregor's character was so transparently awful in reaction to this brother's death.

The one issue I had with the episode last night though was how in the hell did Carrie Coon's character end up getting access to the jail cell? The prior scenes excellently showed the bureaucratic hell she had to put up with in trying to do the right thing for the case, yet she some how is able to show up right in the nick of time to save the witness? I had a huge problem with that since it contradicts what the show expertly established a few scenes ago.

Also, wasn't that Vargas dude opening up the McGregor's character's Christmas gifts when the episode started? Did he unwrap and then re-wrap the gifts when the McGregor character eventually got home? That's not an issue I had with the episode per-say, just something I'm curious about.

didn't lock the door behind him? She could've been hovering tying to get access to Nikki and noticed that shady copper entering the area and rode along. The new chief, Shea Wiggims (sp?) is killing it. The mashed potato stuff had be dying.

I just need someone to fuck up Varga and his crew. They are too damn smug and I need that to end. Enjoying it.

>I just need someone to fuck up Varga and his crew. They are
>too damn smug and I need that to end. Enjoying it.

Varga and his crew are the same folks from season two that put Bokeem Woodbine's character behind a keyboard, right? I'm assuming as much seeing how brazen and confident they are with their actions.

they were just there, wrapped up again perfectly. Varga is such a weirdo its great.

I think they tried to do the scene where Billy Bob scares Hanks into not doing anything, with the scene in the police station w the deputy and the Russian guy. didnt really *mind* it, but it was super obvious they tried playing up that dont do anything to stop me bc im a scary villain and youre a nice cop doing your job.

especially since the previous scene is those cops bascially telling her to fuck off if she doesn't get a signature.

>especially since the previous scene is those cops bascially
>telling her to fuck off if she doesn't get a signature.


If/when the Carrie Coon character successfully takes down either Varga and his crew (not likely) or the living McGregor twin (more likely), I hope it's done plausibly and won't involve too many leaps of logic, similar to how she was able to get to the jail cell right in the nick of time.

The guy she sat next to on the bus...was he one of the "twins" from season 1? He looked like the tall one and the music queued up when he was revealed.

It was Mr. Wrench, the deaf hitman, from Season 1.

when they queued up the music, i was like "oh shit!"

>It was Mr. Wrench, the deaf hitman, from Season 1.

.

i can't remember if they did it in earlier seasons

The bus escape, the tribute to the Fargo film with the car passing by, the chase through the woods. I busted out laughing when the Russian caught the crossbow colt to the dome. Would have been the perfect death too, but I can see why they kept around for a bit longer. Plus, the final fight between Nicky & Wrench and the henchman was all types of awesome.

Then the encounter in the "bowling alley" was similarly great. Ray Wise as The Cowboy was all sorts of awesome.

I think it lost a bit momentum after the 3-month flash forward, but it ended on the right note. And those first 30 minutes more than made it for it.

those first 30min, breh, wow

Can anybody break that down for my simple ass

They seemed to imply that it was possibly some sort of heavenly weigh station for souls to be judged, that appears as different things to different people. The guy there, who appeared earlier in the LA episode, is named Paul Marrane. That's apparently one of the many names associated with the folkloric story of the Wandering Jew, a legend of a man who mocked Jesus when he was on the cross and was sentenced to wander the Earth for eternity until the Second Coming.

Marrane tells her that she's and Wrench have been judged to be on the righteous path, and sends them back out into the world to confront evil.

Then Yuri stumbles in, and is judged for his sins, and is confronted by the souls of the victims of Massacre of Uman (which Marrane told Nikk about before) who were murdered by Cossacks (Yuri is also a Cossack).

Or maybe Nikki and Wrench just stumble into Bowling Alley and they meet and weird guy who lets Nikki plays with a kitten and then gives them his car. Then Yuri stumbles in, talks to the same guy, then decides to head off to parts unknown.

.

When Yuri enters the Bowling Alley, Marrane tells him that he has a message for him from Rabbi Nachman (the guy he'd be talking about with Nikki) and Helga Albrecht. Helga Albrecht was the victim of the murder in the first scene of the season. And in that first scene, the Russian officer kept on insisting that the poor schlub who was being set-up was really... Yuri Gurka.

It would seem on the surface that the Yuri Gurka who murdered Helga Albrect back in the '80s and the Yuri Gurka who's here working for Varga couldn't be the same person. But maybe this is Hawley doing the science fiction/mystical thing.

I think you got it

cant wait to see how they tie it all together.

This revenge plot that's shaped up the last couple eps is awesome. i really enjoyed how they plotted against Varga and crew and the showdown scene when they were talking was amazingly done.

It's all about "truth vs. stories," like the Russian interrogator said. Particular that stories that people in power tell themselves and others to keep themselves in control. The Russian Colonel insists that Jakob Ungerleider is really Yuri Gurka because they both live at the same address, and the state can't be wrong.

With the murder investigation in this episode, the chief is presented with two possibilities: the truth, and the story where all the murders were perpetrated by a vagrant with a blood lust towards all people named Stussy. He chooses the story because it wraps everything up in a nice little bow and it prevents him from having to admit Gloria was right along and that the whole thing stems from the Stussy brother's feud and all the associated complications.

Or with the Stussy brothers: all this time Emmit has told the story to Ray, himself, and everyone who'll listen that he only got the stamp collection because Ray insisted on getting the Corvette. Except this episode he admit that Ray was telling the truth all along: he knew the stamp collection was worth more and manipulated Emmit into choosing the Corvette. But he keeps insisting that the story is real because he can't be wrong.

to show about Swango & Wrench knowing about that truck and it's contents before last night? How did they know the truck was going to be at that intersection before they successfully jacked it all by their lonesome?

But knowing what was in there or finding the goods that quickly once they hijacked it didn't make much sense. That part happened too fast for it being the first time they'd been inside the truck.

It's not enough of an issue to take me out of the story but i thought the same thing as well.


>to show about Swango & Wrench knowing about that truck and
>it's contents before last night? How did they know the truck
>was going to be at that intersection before they successfully
>jacked it all by their lonesome?

if 'Looking Out The Front Door' played as the credits ran; I suppose The Leftovers might have gone that route more so than Fargo did. It's pretty clear in my responses throughout this thread that I didn't care too deeply for this season, and this final episode I suppose perfectly encapsulates how crappy this season was. I literally threw my hands up in the air when that IRS dude called Carrie Coon's character right before she was going to leave the department. Also find it very hard to believe that Wrench dude would have survived that gun attack without getting too shot up as well. So many errors this season, meh.

I'm sure folks here will disagree with me though, so let's here it. What did you folks think about this season as a whole?

I think I was more into it than most throughout the season, but they lost me with the last ep. The usual "tying things up in a way that leaves everyone dead or unhappy" felt lazy. The last scene did nothing for me. I liked Varga but the Stussy brothers became less interesting over time. The law enforcement characters were definitely less interesting than previous seasons. Favorite character was Nikki cause I thought she was just in it to screw over Ray at first and then she shows how cunning and vindictive she is in the second half of the season.

This Vince Gilligan quote from this article comes to mind.

http://gothamist.com/2017/06/15/interview_vince_gilligan_peter_gould.php

"Kind of the great thing about doing this job is the unknown, is the challenge of figuring out where you're going. You're hiking across virgin territory. You're trying to make it to the North Pole except you don't know what's between you and there and maybe you'll wind up somewhere else instead. It's the challenge and the voyage of discovery."

Fargo had a story they wanted to tell, and when they felt like they were going somewhere else, they pulled some bullshit to get it back on track.

Having Emmit kill Ray by accident is an example. Having the Swango and the trooper kill each other is another.

Some really good shit after those 2 events, but I thought that was kinda non-committal on the writers part. Based off of how Ray went out, I already knew Swango wasn't gonna kill Emmit. I called that shit before it happened.

It's still way better than a lot of other shit though.

I'm of the opinion each season has been a little less impressive than the last, though my feelings on season two being less than season one are rooted almost entirely in the random UFO showing up; both are equally stellar in my eyes otherwise. but with season three you can't help but tally up all the small conveniences that move the plot along.

I'd say none of your grievances with the season were as glaring as Emmit's car breaking down on the side of the road, leading to the showdown with the police officer and Swango, and then when it's over he just gets in his broken down car and drives away.

my other gripe with this season was the construction of the sentences felt more transparently dressed with flair than the last two seasons, almost like the writers were challenging sentence structure convention on purpose. don't get me wrong, I love the casual dialogue and natural feeling conversation of this world, but every episode there were three or four moments where I was taken out of the scene for a moment by some forced language.

but overall? beautifully shot, awesome character stuff from McGregor, Coon, Thewlis, Sthulbarg, Bogdan, Whigham, Yu and everyone else. do I wish they'd have kept closer to Coon's character and her weird pursuit of the truth in those first three pseudo-X-Files episodes? Probably. Shifting the focus to the twins so strongly was probably a poor idea. But I still found this season thoroughly entertaining and I'd gladly watch it again.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Not as good as the other seasons but y'all seem a little extra.

>Not as good as the other seasons but y'all seem a little
>extra.

.

could've been better but overall it was cool...hope they are back to top notch form next go around though

Also the final scene went over my head.

All in all it left me like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

>Also the final scene went over my head.

great acting, lots of tension, high-quality sound track, memorable scenes, and lots of lit theory around the role fiction plays in every day life. I mean what was it episode 8, after the prison bus was flipped, those first 30 minutes where some of the best tv ever.

some of the critiques:

it's not they killed the wrong characters, but the way they killed them off (Ray and Nikki, even Emmit, though I was satisfied with his murder) was cheap. Also too many of the murders happened "behind the curtain"..

they intro'd the sci-fi stuff than never rally touched back on it after Gloria and Winnie had that convo in the bar... which I'm assuming was used as a signifier for the season theme of perceptions of truth / what stories are true. Gloria had the perception that something was up with her cause technology didn't recognize her (making the viewer believe maybe she's other than human), but after Winnie "sees" her (with the pep talk and hug), Gloria's perception changes and guess what tech starts to work for her... I felt it was a decent execution...

Also after such a great episode about the grandfather "Stussy" (ep3) that part of the narrative never really comes into play...

lastly, Varga was a great villain, but he should've died...

the end was perfect though which narrative will come true Varga's (power-elite) or Gloria's (power from below)

I am fine with the idea of the bad guys getting away or winning but Gloria could have sat her but on a couch the entire season and the Stussy storyline would not have changed at all.

Also it seemed weird that Swango was the avenging angel of death but the death she was trying to avenge was purely accidental.

Emmit Stussy just seemed like a weird character to focus on because he really wasn't a bad guy, he appeared to genuinely try to do right by his brother, and didn't really exhibit the greed you see in other Fargo characters that get dragged in these situations.

Showdown was a bit of a let down because we didn't get to see any of it. Hard to believe Vargas crew would walk into what so clearly looked like a trap.

These are the type of nits you don't notice unless it really just all come together.

A few great scenes and a lot of great performances, but it didn't touch last season.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

>I am fine with the idea of the bad guys getting away or
>winning but Gloria could have sat her but on a couch the
>entire season and the Stussy storyline would not have changed
>at all.

That's the point. You've nailed the point of her storyline. She doesn't change anything, but she remains resilient and hopeful.

>Also it seemed weird that Swango was the avenging angel of
>death but the death she was trying to avenge was purely
>accidental.

Its accidental nature was beside the point. If Emmit had done right by Ray and not been such a patronizing asshole, none of this would have happened.

>Emmit Stussy just seemed like a weird character to focus on
>because he really wasn't a bad guy, he appeared to genuinely
>try to do right by his brother, and didn't really exhibit the
>greed you see in other Fargo characters that get dragged in
>these situations.

Nah, he wasn't genuinely doing right by his brother at first, he fucked his brother years ago and then proceeded to do only just enough to keep holding over Ray's head how grateful Ray should be for having a brother like him. Ray's life was the way it was *because of Emmit.* It drove Ray crazy, and Emmit *still* gave him the high-hat all the time.

Now, did Emmit realize these mistakes and come down from that eventually? Sure, largely because of the even bigger life mistake he made, greedily taking that loan from Varga without doing due diligence, which ultimately got a lot of people killed. But he was unquestionably a greedy little shit.

>Showdown was a bit of a let down because we didn't get to see
>any of it. Hard to believe Vargas crew would walk into what
>so clearly looked like a trap.

I didn't mind not seeing any of it. We saw the after-effects and got the point. I also thought it was pretty clear that Varga suspected it was a trap but didn't really have a choice, as she had actual evidence of his wrongdoing. He also continually underestimated her, so it was fairly consistent with his treatment of her from the beginning.

Varga didn't really have a choice. He figured he had enough hitters to handle any kind of set up. Plus as you said, despite impressing him, he looked at Nikki as an amateur.

Meemo's face when Varga let the elevator door close lol

>Meemo's face when Varga let the elevator door close lol

HA!

.

then he drove off after the shoot out. is there an explanation for this? lol

that was really my only gripe with the finale

I also don't buy that she doesn't shoot him with a quickness

.

I didn't get why his car broke down in the first place, then she starts her speech... Cop doesn't shoot her but clearly knows she's up to something.... Stussy is unharmed and walks away

Shit kept happening to him but not happening to him. He was the central figure, and everyone's main target, but it was everyone around him getting fucked up, or killed and he'd wind up unscathed. At least until Mr Wrench got him

>I didn't get why his car broke down in the first place, then
>she starts her speech... Cop doesn't shoot her but clearly
>knows she's up to something.... Stussy is unharmed and walks
>away