‘Fargo’ Season 3 Episode 8 Recap: Who Rules the Land of Denial?

Fargo Season 3 Episode 8
Goran Bogdan as Yuri Gurka, Andy Yu as Meemo, and DJ Qualls as Golem in ‘Fargo’ season 3 episode 8 (Photo by Chris Large / FX)

FX’s Fargo season three episode eight was a bizarre, twisted tale that welcomed back an intriguing supporting character and said goodbye to at least one villain, leaving another bad guy’s fate dangling for at least one more episode. Episode eight titled ‘Who Rules the Land of Denial?’ begins by showing the bus crash was actually a much more elaborate setup than originally assumed. A mini-ramp was quickly built to launch the bus, guaranteeing it would fly in the air and likely land on its side.

The action picks up inside the bus as Nikki’s seatmate, Mr. Wrench (Russell Harvard), works to set them both free while watching three men (wearing animal heads) attempt to cut through the bars and enter the back of the bus. Nikki (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) scrambles out the back emergency exit while her newfound friend goes hand-to-hand with Golem (DJ Qualls), the man who attempted to inject her at the police station, as the other two men (Yuri and Meemo) stand back and watch. Mr. Wrench and Nikki escape into the woods, leaving the men behind to try and sort out which direction they fled.

A couple listening to Christmas carols drives by the scene but doesn’t stop once they see the men standing outside the bus in animal heads. They speed off but Meemo (Andy Yu) jumps in his car and is quickly on their tail.

Nikki and her fellow fleeing felon continue through the woods, and it’s only when Nikki asks about the plan that she finds out her new friend is deaf and mute. They’re still held together by a chain, and Nikki can’t believe her luck. Noises not far away force them to hide as Yuri (Goran Bogdan) and Golem appear in the forest.

Morning arrives and Nikki keeps up a running commentary that her new partner can’t hear. He uses a stick to ask who’s after her, and she replies by writing, “Sorry.”

Yuri and Golem use binoculars and see Nikki and Mr. Wrench not too far off. Just then an arrow pierces Yuri’s bear head. In an incredibly Fargo-ish scene, hunters have mistaken the fake head for a real bear.

The two hunters arrive and find the headpiece stuck to the tree with the arrow holding it in place. Yuri gets the drop on them and the next scene shows he and Golem now have their weapons. They track Nikki and Mr. Wrench further into the forest, and Golem spots a piece of fur from Nikki’s jacket stuck on a tree branch.

Nikki and Mr. Wrench cross a small stream and slouch down against a tree for a brief break. Nikki, who looks like death warmed over, silently recalls her last conversation with Ray as she walks behind Mr. Wrench.

The sky darkens as the trees thicken, and Nikki and Mr. Wrench discover a campsite with an axe. As Mr. Wrench uses it to attempt to break the chain, they come under attack. Arrows whiz by and then Mr. Wrench is cut from behind by Golem. Nikki and Mr. Wrench attempt to flee but being chained together works against them. Nikki is shot with an arrow in the leg and Golem races up to attack again. However, Nikki trips him with the chain and they begin attacking him, stabbing an arrow through his hand as another arrow whizzes by. They keep up their attack on Golem, pinning him against a tree stump and choking him with their chain. Mr. Wrench throws the axe at the unseen attacker in the woods while they continue to pull hard enough to actually decapitate Golem. His head falls to the snow while his body remains seated.

Blood covers the snow around them as Mr. Wrench pulls out the arrow that has pierced Nikki’s leg. He also manages to finally break the chain between them and helps Nikki to her feet. They pass by the axe dripping with blood and stuck in a tree. Immediately underneath on the ground lies a severed ear.

Nikki and Mr. Wrench continue through the forest and spot a blinking light which turns out to be from a bowling alley. Inside, Nikki fixes her hair, helps her friend into a seat, and then makes her way to the bar where she orders a double Whiskey and one for her friend. The place is empty except for Paul Marrane (Ray Wise) who you might remember as Chief Gloria Burgle’s seat companion when she flew to Los Angeles. Paul tells Nikki all days are long and that life is suffering, which does nothing to cheer her up. He then pulls out a kitten from a box and tells her its name is Ray. Yes, Ray!

She pets the kitty with her bloody hand as Paul talks about old souls attaching themselves to new bodies. Nikki holds Ray up and looks into his little kitty eyes as Paul goes on to describe lost souls who cannot find bodies. When he asks if she’s been to “this place” before, she replies, “The bowling alley?” He then asks, “Is that what you see? We all end up here to be weighed and judged, as it is now for you and your friend.” Paul continues, telling Nikki he believes her new friend (her fellow convict, not the kitten) is on a better path now. As for Nikki, by way of announcing her path, he says, “Who will rise for me against the wicked? Who will take a stand against evildoers?” and then offers her a ride.

Paul says there’s a green Volkswagen Beetle out front and she can take it. The keys are under the mat. She thanks him but he says what he wants is for her to deliver a message to the wicked at the right time. “Though thou exalt thyself like the eagle, though thou make thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.” Nikki attempts to repeat it, but Paul chuckles and tells her she’ll remember. As she gets up to walk away, Paul asks for Ray back. She kisses his little furry head and hands him over, asking Paul to do her a favor and give Ray a little bowl of beer when the Gophers play.

Nikki and Mr. Wrench get in the car and leave just as a bloody, one-eared Yuri enters the bowling alley.

(A brief refresher: In season three episode one a man named Jakob was interrogated in East Berlin in 1988 and accused of being Yuri Gurka. Gurka was being sought for the murder of his girlfriend, Helga Albracht.)

Now it’s Yuri’s turn to order a Vodka and napkins. Paul once again appears in the next seat at the bar and he knows Yuri’s name and all about his past. After calling him Yuri Gurka, Cossack of the Plains, grandchild of the Wolves’ Hundred, Paul passes on a message from Helga Albracht and Rabbi Nachman. Yuri sees a vision of Helga surrounded by hundreds of friends and family members, all victims of the massacre at Uman perpetrated by the Cossacks.

Fargo Season 3 Episode 8
Goran Bogdan as Yuri Gurka, Andy Yu as Meemo, and DJ Qualls as Golem in ‘Fargo’ (Photo by Chris Large / FX)

And now we finally catch up with Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon) who’s watching her son, Nathan, open his Christmas presents. He’s a bit sad because he misses his grandfather, but she assures him they’ll figure things out. She’s called away from her Christmas morning off to respond to the prison bus crash scene. On the way there she passes the now-dead couple on the road who had been happily listening to Christmas carols in their car just the night before.

Gloria asks the officers at the bus crash scene about Nikki, but they haven’t completed their body count yet. The marshal in charge explains there was an assault on the bus by three people and they don’t really know who is missing yet. He’s correctly assumed the dead couple down the road were killed because they saw the attack on the bus. They were killed execution-style.

The marshal tells her he’ll let her know when he finds Nikki, but that there are no women on the bus.

Sy (Michael Stuhlbarg) shows up at Emmit’s but it’s Meemo and Varga (David Thewlis) who answer the door. Sy wants to talk to Emmit, however, Varga ushers him into the dining room instead and tells him he’s now $5 million richer than he was just yesterday. It’s a bonus and Sy has no idea how to react. He’s not interested in the food Varga offers but does accept some tea. It’s a special recipe, according to Varga, and Sy finds it a little bitter. After a bizarre pause in which Varga stares intensely at Sy from just a couple of inches away, Sy’s ushered from the house without ever getting to see Emmit.

As Sy’s about to get into his car, he spies Emmit (Ewan McGregor) in an upstairs window. Sy waves but Emmit simply turns away.

Sy makes it into work but it’s obvious he’s feeling ill. He barely makes it to the reception area before he vomits and falls down, landing flat on his back. He’s rushed to the hospital where the doctors attempt to save him, inserting a respirator and hooking him up to machines.

Fast-forward and now it’s March 15, 2011. Three months have gone by and Sy’s still in the hospital and now has a full beard. Emmit pays him a visit and then is questioned by Gloria and Officer Winnie Lopez (Olivia Sandoval) as he leaves Sy’s room. They’ve been told it’s toxic shock, but the doctors don’t really know what caused it. Gloria thinks it was poison and Emmit simply does not want to talk about this, telling them he’s already spoken to Gloria’s boss. They claim they’re on their lunch break and just happen to be at the hospital. They follow Emmit outside, getting on his nerves by revealing they know he’s been buying up new properties and expanding his business.

Emmit’s demeanor changes as he sees his brother’s car parked where he left his own vehicle. He tells Gloria and Winnie he must have parked somewhere else and hurries off.

Back at work, Emmit tells the receptionist he thinks his car was stolen but then brushes off her offer to call the police. He’s checking through his messages at his desk when he notices a framed photo of the 2-cent stamp on his desk. He looks up and the same photo is in frames all around his office – dozens of them, in all different sizes. The receptionist has no idea where the new pictures came from, and when she suggests Varga redecorated, Emmit stammers and agrees.

Emmit calls Varga and claims Ray is alive. He can feel his dead brother watching him and suggests they get more men. Emmit thinks Ray and Nikki are setting him up, but Varga says if Nikki was smart she would have run away to Canada. When Emmit tells Varga Ray’s car was at the hospital and now the 2-cent pictures are all over the office, Varga reminds him he won and suggests he sit tight because Meemo’s on the way. They need Emmit to sign papers so they can sell a shopping mall that Emmit wasn’t even aware they owned.

Meemo and Varga have made themselves quite at home at Emmit’s place and seem to be happy. Emmit, however, is not dealing with his brother’s murder well at all. When he wakes from an alcohol-assisted sleep, he discovers he has a full mustache and calls out to Meemo for help.

Meemo rings his boss and says just one word, “Mustache.” Varga arrives back at Emmit’s and can’t understand how or why Emmit now has a mustache glued to his face. Emmit refuses to sign any more papers with all the weird happenings. He blames himself and all his transgressions as quietly Meemo hands Varga two pills. Varga says he describes Emmit to his bankers as a hero, but even heroes can have setbacks. He also hints that Sy will be dead soon and then hands Emmit the pills, describing them as a mild sedative. Varga tells Emmit to sleep and that things will be clearer in the morning.

Meemo carries Emmit up to bed and takes off his shoes before leaving him there alone and shutting the door. The instant his bedroom door closes, Emmit’s eyes pop open and he reveals the two pills are still in his hand.

Back with Gloria, she’s at her desk looking over the divorce papers that will end her marriage with Ron. She says goodnight to Officer Donny Mashman (Mark Forward) who calls her Chief. She corrects him, reminding him she’s now a deputy. Gloria and Donny are working out of the real police station now, no longer in the Eden Valley satellite office inside the library.

After handing her divorce paperwork to an officer to go out with the morning mail, she looks up and sees Emmit. “My name is Emmit Stussy. I want to confess,” he declares.

More on Fargo:
Fargo Season 3 Episode 1 ‘The Law of Vacant Places’ Recap
Fargo Season 3 Episode 2 ‘The Principle of Restricted Choice’ Recap
Fargo Season 3 Episode 3 ‘The Law of Non-Contradiction’ Recap
Fargo Season 3 Episode 4 ‘The Narrow Escape’ Recap
Fargo Season 3 Episode 5 ‘The House of Special Purpose’ Recap
Fargo Season 3 Episode 6 ‘The Lord of No Mercy’ Recap
Fargo Season 3 Episode 7 ‘The Law of Inevitability’ Recap
Fargo Season 3 Episode 9 ‘Aporia’ Recap