FX’s Fargo season five episode seven begins with the introduction of an obnoxious new character. However, don’t get too attached to the deadbeat dude as Ole Munch (Sam Spruell) decides to wipe him off the face of the earth in an act that’s brutal yet justifiable within the episode’s first five minutes. Can’t say that the jerk didn’t have it coming.
Dot (Juno Temple) is burning the candle at both ends, trying to keep ahead of Roy Tillman and his many minions. She briefly nods off at the wheel but wakes before the car drifts off the road. Dot wisely decides to grab a meal and a coffee at a roadside café.
Poor Dot, she nods off again right at the table, waking to the delivery of smiley face pancakes.
Back on the road, she pulls over in the middle of nowhere and walks a short distance to a windmill. Buried at its base is a box containing a postcard from Camp Utopia with a note of apology from Linda.
Dot navigates snowy roads until she runs out of gas at the turn-off for Camp Utopia. She’s forced to walk the remaining distance, which is actually perfect since there isn’t a road leading into the camp, despite the sign pointing the way.
Dot makes it to the main house and walks in while a puppet show is underway. The room is full of a couple dozen women watching the performance – a performance that involves a male puppet beating a female puppet, who apologizes for making a mistake. The male puppet threatens to kill her and continues ruthlessly beating the female puppet with a piece of wood.
Dot has flashbacks to her own treatment at Roy’s hands. She faints.
Dot wakes to discover she’s in a bed she doesn’t recognize with a woman she doesn’t know talking to her about a baby bear sleeping in the wrong bed. Dot’s shocked to learn that all the women at this camp go by the name Linda. It’s a transition name they’re each given after they leave an abusive relationship.
Dot confesses she’s tired, and Linda says it’s normal after fleeing a relationship. Dot corrects her, explaining she’s been in a loving marriage for the past decade. Her trauma occurred before her current marriage.
Dot reveals she needs her Linda’s help because she knows about Roy. This Linda explains they call Linda Tillman “Saint Linda” and that she built Camp Utopia to help abused women start new lives. Dot doesn’t share the opinion that Linda’s a saint, although she did take her in when she was on the street.
Dot’s brought to Linda, whom I’ll refer to for clarity reasons going forward as Saint Linda, and instead of a warm embrace, Dot punches her in the face. The other Lindas are shocked, but Saint Linda understands why she deserves that.
Saint Linda calls her Nadine, and Dot corrects her while insisting she needs to go with her to tell the police about Roy’s abusive behavior. “You used me. You fed me to him so you could escape,” snarls Dot, adding, “You left your boy, too – Gator.”
Since Saint Linda and Dot don’t agree on the truth, the group will hold a tribunal to sort things out. That means Dot will have to tell her truth via a puppet show.
Meanwhile, Wayne (David Rysdahl) is on babysitting duty while at work. Scotty (Sienna King) does her homework while Wayne, who’s still not all quite there, has a discussion with a salesman about a family that wants to buy a car. They have a decent trade-in but bad credit, and the salesman thinks he’ll have to turn them down for a loan because they don’t qualify.
Wayne notes the potential customers are a nice-looking family and decides that a car for a car is the best way to go – even though that doesn’t make a lick of sense, business-wise. The salesman points out that isn’t how capitalism works. They’ll take a $13,000 loss if they just let the family drive off in the car they fell in love with.
“Give a car, get a car. Each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. That’s in the Bible, right?” says Wayne.
The completely confused salesman delivers the good news to the family, and they’re overjoyed over their unexpected good fortune.
Back at Camp Utopia, a Linda walks Dot through the steps of making her puppets, including examining the wood to see her true self in it.
Later, Dot sits next to Saint Linda at the dinner table, and they discuss Dot’s favorite foods. Dot notes that Saint Linda hasn’t asked about her 27-year-old son, Gator, and describes him as someone who wants to be good but also wants to be like his dad. (Diametrically opposed desires.)
Dot insists she’s in control of her life now, but Saint Linda won’t let her skip the process of putting on a puppet show. It’s integral to healing.
Over at the Tillman ranch, Gator (Joe Keery) loads his rifle and heads out to hunt down Ole Munch. (He placed a tracker on his car at the end of episode six.) The tracker emits quick beeps, indicating Gator is near his target. He spots the car and pulls over, aiming his rifle at the silhouette of a man in a rocking chair visible through a second-story window.
He shoots, unaware that it’s a setup. Ole Munch smokes and pulls a rope from another room while the man he attacked with an axe at the beginning of the episode is propped up in the chair.
Gator’s impressed with himself for taking down his sworn enemy. He fetches the tracker and is shocked to see the bag of cash in the backseat of Ole’s car. It’s locked so he breaks a window. Just as he’s reaching in, Ole Munch’s mom arrives home from her daily beer-buying grocery trip and hits him with a bag of fruit. She yells, “Thief!” as the two struggle.
Gator shoves her away and she falls, cracking her head on the frozen curb and instantly dying. Blood pours from her head as Gator runs away. Ole Munch steps outside and discovers his deceased mother lying in a pool of blood. His anguished face indicates Gator’s going to very much regret his actions.
Wayne shares a special moment with Scotty as she prepares to fall asleep. Forgetting to bring a book to read in bed, Wayne makes up a story about Dot that’s heartbreaking in its display of how much he loves his wife. In his story, Dot is loved by the sun but forced to fight against the darkness to save the rainbows. That’s why she had to leave her family at home.
Dot wakes up at Camp Utopia with a renewed sense of purpose. She sets to work creating puppets to help tell her truth. Once finished, Saint Linda reminds the other Lindas not to challenge or interrupt Dot as she speaks her truth.
The puppet show is an exceptionally smart method of feeding viewers more details on Dot’s backstory. In it, Dot recalls being a young girl who was set upon by human wolves once she started menstruating. She’d run away from home when she was saved by Mrs. Linda Tillman while shoplifting cookies.
Linda took her home and introduced her to Roy and Gator. She was only 15 years old, and at the beginning, Roy just seemed big and strong, like a normal dad. But then Linda started pushing her toward Roy as a way of diverting all the abuse from herself onto a new target.
Gator used to seek comfort from her while Roy beat his mom.
Linda left to visit her sister, and Nadine became the woman of the house, complete with all the physical abuse that came with that position.
When Linda returned, Roy got back to the business of beating his first wife. After which he’d go to Nadine, declaring what they had was true love. Linda finally left for good, packing a bag and sneaking off in the night without saying goodbye to Nadine or Gator.
The puppets reenact the beatings Nadine continued to suffer at Roy’s hands after she became his wife.
The puppet show ends, and the Lindas take turns hugging Dot. Finally, she stands before the woman who introduced her to Roy, and Saint Linda agrees to go with her to face Roy together.
As they drive, Linda apologizes for leaving Dot and Gator, and Dot asks why she didn’t take them with her when she escaped. Linda doesn’t answer. Dot thanks her for coming with her to face Roy.
However…and this is a huge twist…none of this actually happened. There isn’t any Camp Utopia or “Saint Linda.” Dot didn’t just spend time with Roy’s first wife, the woman who saved her from the streets only to place her in harm’s way by bringing her to live at the Tillman Ranch.
Dot nodded off in the café and dreamed the whole encounter.
She finishes her meal and heads to her car, but her timing is rotten. An out-of-control big rig skids into the parking lot, runs into a car and forces it across the parking lot and right into Dot. She comes to in a hospital bed, and the nurse says her husband’s there waiting to take her home. Dot believes she means Wayne, but of course, she’s wrong.
Roy (Jon Hamm) steps into the room and closes the door. He calls her Nadine, and Dot quivers in fear as he leans in and quietly declares, “I gotcha.”
* * * * * * * *
New Fargo season five episodes air on FX on Tuesdays at 10pm ET/PT.
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 1 “The Tragedy of the Commons” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 2 “Trials and Tribulations” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 3 “The Paradox of Intermediate Transactions” 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 8 “Blanket” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 9 “The Useless Hand” Recap
- Fargo Season 5 Episode 10 “Bisquik” Finale Recap
