**Spoilers about the final episode below.**
Another season of FX’s “Fargo” ended last night, leaving viewers with more questions than answers. Where seasons one and two of the anthology ended with more finality (since season one more or less lays out the future for season two), this third season concluded with the same titillating ambiguity that defines the overall show. “The future is certain,” our villain Varga (David Thewlis) declared ironically in the open-ended finale, as the season — perhaps the show — drew to a close.
While we may never know how this particular story ends, the show presented an addictive third chapter with the same bleak cheer as its predecessors. If creator Noah Hawley has perfected one thing during the series’ run, it’s his ability to encapsulate the ambivalence of the Midwest. Blizzards rage on and (and in the case of “Fargo”) gunfire peppers the streets, but these Minnesotans still refuse to curse — even as the show traps them in countless “Aw, jeez” situations. Much like its eponymous Coen Brothers film, this violent, masochistic show is ever at war with its humble characters.
“Fargo” doesn’t just recreate the black comedic style of the original film, it also mimics its gender roles. Season one acted as a fairly direct interpretation of the film, with Lester (Martin Freeman) standing in for Jerry (William H. Macy), Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) mirroring Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Molly (Allison Tolman) as a contemporary Margie (Frances McDormand). Season one stuck to a typically misogynistic formula, casting its few female characters as shrews, skanks, or simpletons. Molly acts as the only realistic woman on the show, made intentionally likable by romance and pregnancy subplots. Season three acts as a response to season one in many ways. Set four years ahead and 150 miles away, a bungled murder, familial politics, and an out-of-town sociopath sets season three in motion. In this iteration of the “Fargo” framework, Ewan McGregor plays two dupes, Ray and brother Emmit; David Thewlis takes up the role of the evil juggernaut Varga; and the magnetic Carrie Coon plays the virtuous Officer Gloria Burgle. While the wily villain/unwitting anti-hero/lawful woman dynamic stays fixed from season one to season three, several female characters attempted to break the show’s gendered mold in this latest season.
Nikki Swango, played by the chronically underrated Mary Elizabeth Winstead, stole the show for her own arc towards the end of the season. Nikki, an ex-con, sought to avenge the death of her dopey fiancé Ray by killing his brother. Though she was killed off after a run-in with a State Trooper, she proved a worthy adversary to the seemingly unstoppable Varga, robbing him of $2 million and massacring his men in yesterday’s final episode. Though many male characters in the show wrote Nikki off as a floozy (Varga’s henchman Yuri memorably told her that “Pretty girls should only open their mouths when they see a dick,” which, yikes), she ended the show as somewhat of a hero. It’s a shame that she died at all, but her death was hardly gratuitous or exploitative — unlike, say, her beating scene — so I’ll take it as a win.
Officer Gloria Burgle, on the other hand, started off the season as the show’s go-to Marge stand-in before proving herself somewhat of a renegade. Whereas Molly in season one regularly defied her superior officer, those interactions were played for comedy rather than tension. Gloria, however, is caught in a power struggle as the male chief of the county police does his best to undermine and discredit her at every turn. That chief becomes somewhat of an antagonist to the show himself, with no cheery charm hiding beneath his sexist exterior. Gloria sees a real turning point in her story when she runs into Winnie Lopez (Olivia Sandoval), a low-level officer for St. Cloud Metro. Though Gloria “I’m Not Like Other Girls” Burgle seems to write Winnie off as a chatty airhead at first glance, Officer Lopez soon proves to be an essential asset to Gloria’s investigation. The two work together on the case for months, battling office sexism and a tangled web of crime. In the season’s penultimate episode, Winnie even solves Gloria’s deep-seeded fear that she is invisible. If you’d told me in 2014 that “Fargo” would show one woman rediscover her own personhood because of another woman, I would have been confused that the show had more than one important female character. The relationship between officers Burgle and Lopez was a delight to watch, sisterly, empathetic and while not ultimately romantic, intimate.
The real triumph of “Fargo” season three is how much the show’s writing has evolved, and its female characters best exemplify that development. It’s probably not a coincidence that this was the first season of the show to ever feature a female writer — Monica Beletsky penned episode four, memorable for its Peter and the Wolf introduction, and co-wrote episode eight. None of this is to say that nobody can write outside of their gender, but media has historically been dictated by men and, thus, portrayed women in particularly unflattering ways. It’s a shame to see the show produce some of its most compelling characters in what may be its last ever season— especially since season three ended with an unsatisfying five-year time skip. Still, ‘tis better to have loved and lost…
Though this last-minute reversal of regressive gender tropes hardly solved the issues with “Fargo” (it would be nice to see a gay person on screen for more than two seconds or to see some fat people in this entire Midwestern show), it made the show excitement-worthy in its final few episodes. The start of this season lagged a bit, thanks in part to a lackluster showing from Ewan McGregor, who tried to do what Tatiana Maslany has done on “Orphan Black” for the past four years. It found its footing around episode four, though, and gave fans a characteristically stylish finale last night. I won’t be surprised to see some of the cast show up in this year’s Emmy nominations—especially not if Carrie Coon finally gets her due.
