Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm) is listening to “Sixteen Tons” on the radio while he rolls up to the murder scene/gas station as FX’s Fargo season five episode three gets underway. For once, his son Gator (Joe Keery) has done the right thing by not broadcasting the fact Ole Munch killed his partner and left a menacing sign on his dead body. So far, only Roy’s aware the gas station’s upped its body count by one.
Gator praises Ole Munch’s big balls, and Roy points out Munch has altered the size of Gator’s. They’ve gotten smaller.
Roy orders Gator to dig up all the info he can on Ole Munch. And he warns his son to sleep with his gun cocked until the situation’s handled.
As for the sheriff’s dead body, they’re setting it up to look like he died in a car crash. Since Roy rules the roost, his death will be labeled an accident.
Roy returns home to find his father-in-law, Odin Little (Michael Copeman), is visiting and wants to talk business. He needs another shipment of guns. Why? Because 1776 is coming and they won’t take the country back by peaceful means.
Their conversation reveals that Roy’s been ordering weapons for the sheriff’s department and then claiming the shipments have gone missing. But with the Feds sniffing around, he’s leery of providing Odin and his crazy, conspiracy-nut followers with more guns right now.
(Reminder: this season’s events take place in Minnesota and North Dakota in 2019.)
Roy kisses his current wife, pauses to admire framed photos on the wall (including wedding photos with his former wife, Nadine, aka Dot), and checks on his twin girls. He’s in bed when Karen (Rebecca Liddiard) opens a chest full of sex props. Roy’s too distracted to be into it, but Karen keeps trying to entice him into a little canoodling.
He pushes her away, too busy obsessing over Dot. (Never would have guessed Roy has nipple rings!)
Meanwhile, Dot (Juno Temple) is keeping an eye out for any late-night action on their street. She’s got a plan, and to pull it off, she can’t have any nosy neighbors monitoring her movements. Dot’s one smart cookie and makes her way around the neighborhood, changing street signs. If Roy’s minions are still coming for her, they’ll have a dickens of a time navigating the mislabeled streets.
Wayne (David Rysdahl) is off to work, but first, he’s happy to report he called the alarm guy and will be taking the afternoon off to go to the gun store. Apparently, Dot’s makeshift system of exposed electrical wires and sledgehammers over the door convinced the poor guy that his wife’s taking the family’s security very seriously.
Dot barely hears him because she’s busy making the following shopping list:
Shotgun
Pistol
AR-15 ?
Juice boxes (apple)
Cheese
You know, your typical doomsday prepper list.
Dot announces she’s changed their Halloween costumes. Now, Wayne will be a zombie and she and Scotty will be zombie hunters. (They already have a version of Negan’s “Lucille.”)
“Maybe we can find something for the costumes at Gun World. Bulletproof vests and the like,” says Dot.
Bismarck, North Dakota
An elderly woman trudges through the snow with a cart full of beer, returning home only to discover she has an unexpected visitor. It’s Ole Munch (Sam Spruell), and he declares that he lives there now.
And now we take a strange trip back in time 500 years to Wales in 1522. A man who looks exactly like Ole Munch is being punished and agrees to eat a dead man’s sins. (A meal is placed on the corpse in the coffin.) He takes the sins onto his own soul.
We return to current events, and Munch has made himself at home at his mother’s house, whether he’s welcome or not.
Wayne and Dot hit up Gun World, with Dot insisting stopping power is their number one priority. She also displays a wealth of knowledge about guns, and Wayne is justifiably stunned by the weapons she selects. Dot doesn’t flinch an eye at the $5,000 price tag, but every part of Wayne’s lanky body flinches at the grand total.
The clerk informs them there’s a seven-day waiting period for a background check. After all, he wouldn’t want to sell to psychopaths…or socialists. Dot is disturbed by the news but doesn’t have a legitimate excuse/believable lie that would allow her to make it a big deal. Instead, she checks out pepper spray as a stopgap measure.
Gator fumes in his room amongst his Don’t Tread on Me flag and risqué photos of models. He repeats, “I’m a winner,” believing that saying it will make it true. It won’t.
North Dakota Deputy Witt Farr (Lamorne Morris) braves the icy sidewalk and enters the North Dakota Highway Patrol headquarters on crutches. His co-worker, Pete (Nathan Crockett), is shocked he’s back already since he’s supposed to be recovering from being shot.
Witt’s there to check out anything they recovered from the dead kidnapper, and Pete reveals someone’s beat him to it. Witt heads to the evidence storage and discovers Gator looking through the dead guy’s box. Gator slips the man’s wallet into his jacket just as Witt walks up. Witt knows he took something, and Gator claims Witt’s just seeing things. The situation escalates to Gator threatening Witt with violence, with a side helping of overt racism just because he’s a creep.
After Gator leaves, Witt discovers the evidence box now only contains a Slim Jim wrapper. On his way out, Witt gets the business card left at the desk by Gator.
As Witt’s doing an internet search on the Tillmans, Minnesota Police Deputy Indira Olmstead emails him a copy of Dot’s arrest report.
And speaking of Indira (Richa Moorjani), she and her boss meet with Lorraine Lyon (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and her attorney, the deliciously named Danish Graves (David Foley). Lorraine continues to insist her daughter-in-law was never kidnapped and any evidence to the contrary is nonsense. Indira doesn’t back down. She’s got the facts on her side – and Witt’s eyewitness account of the events. (Kudos to Noah Hawley for another season filled to the brim with dynamic female characters.)
Lorraine ignores Indira, aware she won’t get anywhere with her, and turns her attention to Indira’s male boss. She’d loved to wrap this up once and for all and hints she’s willing to spend a little cash to do so. It doesn’t work, and Indira’s supervisor backs her up.
Since the events took place in North Dakota, Lorraine and Danish conclude their interview with the Scandia police with a warning that any further questioning should be done by the North Dakota – not Minnesota – authorities.
Once the officers are gone, Lorraine orders Danish to bring in a Vegas security team headed by Earl Huffman they’ve used on prior occasions. Multiple teams will be stationed to protect the Lyon family, including a team devoted to covering Wayne’s house.
Lorraine’s seen Dot’s other side and believes now’s the time to keep her close. A former CIA agent is diving into her background.
Ole Munch pays close attention to the police radio he took from the dead sheriff.
Roy had thought it best to leave taking care of Dot until after the election, but he’s reconsidered the situation. It’s Halloween, and on All Hallow’s Eve, the dead return…and Dot’s basically returned from the dead, at least in his life. So now Roy wants Gator to take guys they can trust and hit Dot’s house. They can wear masks for cover since that won’t stand out on Halloween.
Gator absorbs the instructions but isn’t as cocky as usual. He knows Dot’s a force to be reckoned with. Plus, Ole Munch is lurking out there somewhere, just waiting to strike.
Night’s fallen by the time Gator and three buddies head to Scandia, with Gator warning them Dot’s the one they need to watch out for. Wayne shouldn’t be a problem.
A montage shows Dot putting the finishing touches on Wayne’s zombie costume, Roy taking a seat in an empty chapel, and Ole Munch studying newspapers and his Bible. Wayne does his best zombie impression while Munch munches on pages of the Bible.
The streets are full of snow as Ole Munch strides through the trick-or-treaters.
Dot puts the finishing touches on her homemade security system before heading out with Scotty and Wayne. The phone rings seconds before she steps outside, and on the other end is a voice that sends waves of revulsion coursing through her body.
“Nadine…honey, is that you? Oh, Nadine, honey, is that you?” sings Roy. “Seems like every time I see you, darling, you got something else to do.”
Dot cuts off the song before Roy finishes, hanging up without uttering a word.
Ole Munch performs some sort of weird ritual, sacrificing a goat and covering himself with its blood.
Gator and his buddies cruise Nadine’s neighborhood with its recently rearranged street signs.
Dot takes special note of the van that’s passed her family a few times as they trick-or-treat. As the family returns home, Dot sees the van a few houses away. The driver puts it in reverse, and by the time Dot has followed her family to the front door, the van pulls up right in front of her house.
Dot steps inside, locks the door, and checks the sledgehammer poised to smack anyone who touches the light chain.
Episode three ends with a door creaking open and Ole Munch, dripping in blood and leaving bloody footprints, walking into a house.
* * * * * * * *
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 1 “The Tragedy of the Commons” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 2 “Trials and Tribulations” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 4 “Insolubilia” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 5 “The Tiger” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 6 “The Tender Trap” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 episode 7 “Linda” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 8 “Blanket” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 9 “The Useless Hand” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 10 “Bisquik” Finale Recap
