Fargo – The Birthplace of Civilization

By: Kelly Kearney

A shot heard around the world…or at least around the Kansas City mob scene. This week’s episode of “Fargo” ends in a predictable if not tragic killing that is sure to spark an all out war between the Fadda’s and Loy Cannon.

Dear Dr. Harvard…

After last week’s discovery of Nurse Mayflower’s (Jessie Buckley) collection of poisons and murder victim souvenir’s, Ethelrida (E’myri Crutchfield) takes time out of her birthday celebration to pen a tell-all letter to the Angel of Mercy’s boss. Pretending to be a fellow colleague, the newly crowned seven-year-old describes a series of unexplained deaths linked to Dr. Harvard’s latest hire. When her father, Thurman (Andrew Bird), interrupts the birthday girl’s train of thought she confides in him about her suspicions with their neighbor. She goes on to tell him she thinks the pie Oraetta Mayflower baked on Thanksgiving, the one her Aunt’s girlfriend devoured before their house was raided, was indeed poisoned. Her fears are shelved by her father’s inability to take his teen daughter seriously and so Ethelrida tracks down her Aunt Zelmare (Karen Aldridge) for some advice. The teenager wonders if she on to something and, if she is, should she alert the head of Mayflower’s hospital before more people wind up dead? Zelmare puts things into perspective when she basically tells the teen to drop it – something Ethelrida cannot do when Marshal Dicky Deafy Wickware (Timothy Olyphant) questions her at school. The zealous cop pumps the clever teen for any information on the whereabouts of Zelmare and Swanee (Kelsey Asbille). After threatening her with expulsion and putting an even bigger target on her head then she already has with the racist school’s principal, Ethelrida buckles under the pressure and outs her Aunt’s location. She is not the only one coughing up truths about the two escaped convicts. When Loy Cannon (Chris Rock) shows up at the Smutny home, he is a mix of both calm and volatile like the eye of a storm. Sitting at the kitchen table. He orders Dibrell (Anji White) to cut Zero Fadda (Jameson Braccioforte) a slice of her daughter’s unfinished birthday cake while he explains the reasoning for his visit. Thurman paid off their loan with Loy’s own money. Monies which were stolen by his sister in law, Zelmare and vomiting girlfriend, Swanee, during their stick up at his safe house. Normally this kind of reveal would end in bloodshed and Loy does threaten to cover the walls of their home with Smutny blood, but he has a better idea. Thurman will sign over the funeral home and tell Loy where he can find the two women. If he refuses, Cannon will kill his entire family. Thurman has no choice but to agree and it isn’t long before Loy tracks down the two women in their hideout. Lucky for them Cannon gets there before Deafy finds them and offers the ladies a job. He wants them to be his “invisible soldiers” in the war against the Fadda family. The Italian family will never see them coming and Loy is counting on it.

Josto’s Power Move

Instead of kicking off a mob war the old fashion and deadly way, Josto (Jason Schwartzman) goes another route with Cannon and tries to prove to his brother Gaetano (Salvatore Esposito) that there are other ways to skin a cat like Loy, so to speak. Where the Sardinian Fadda sees the foundation of their family’s success as one built on top of the bodies of their enemies, Josto is a planner and likes the long game. His payback for Loy’s hijacking of their gun shipment comes in the form of a jazz club raid. Lemuel Cannon (Matthew Elam) is the target and the young jazz musician winds up a victim of a police brutality and a subsequent arrest. One that’s been instigated by Josto and the cops on his payroll. Putting a battered Lemuel behind bars is just step one of Josto’s plans. He also sends Odis Weff (Jack Huston) and his team on a raid of Loy’s safe house. Everyone inside is arrested and Odis swipes the bag of smelly cash Loy just got back from the Smutnys. Something that Deafy witnesses but remains silent about, probably plotting his own reveal for a later time. The police raids are a message from Josto to “stick to the deal” because he has the law on his side, meaning The Fadda in charge will not tolerate any plots to thwart his father’s deal or start a war, regardless of what his brother does or says. It’s a power move that Josto thinks that gives him the upper hand in the ever growing tensions between the two families. He all but admits this when he goes to the jail to brag and insult the new detainees. What Josto doesn’t seem to realize and, thanks to Rabbi Mulligan (Ben Whishaw) he begins to, is that his brother the biggest threat to the Cannon deal and an ensuing war. Rabbi clearly knows the signs of a family member gone rogue and warns his boss that unless he puts Gaetano in his place, he will build an army and come for Josto’s throne. It’s a warning the mob boss hears but mostly ignores; prompting Rabbi to start his own plans for an escape that include Satchel (Rodney L. Jones III), the Cannon boy he swore to protect. It seems Rabbi isn’t loyal to either family, but has a special bond with the boy who has been thrust into this son trade, something he is all too familiar with.

This Means War

It is unfortunate that Josto did not take Rabbi’s warnings seriously because when the mob boss is otherwise distracted by praising himself with the jazz club and safe house raid, Gaetano does exactly what Mulligan said he would do. He gathers his loyalists and heads to the diner to infiltrate a sit down brunch with Doctor Senator (Glynn Turman). Like a typical mob boss, he has his second in charge Constant Calamita (Gaetano Bruno) do the dirty work while he stuffs his face with a hot fudge sundae from a safe distance. When Doctor Senator arrives to meet fellow consiglieri, Ebal, he doesn’t find his Italian counterpart. Instead, there is a dead diner owner, a shot busboy and Constant waiting for him. Apparently, the two dead men ate a bullet for an icy slip and fall Gaetano took outside the diner.  The embarrassed wannabe mob boss hands out punishments quicker than you can say “lazy Americans” and inspires Constant’s ever-growing need to fulfill his boss’s wishes with a war to end all wars. Violence begets violence and killing the two innocents feeds into Constant’s thirst for murder.

When Doctor Senator arrives at the diner, Constant informs him of the change in plans. There will be no more sit downs between the Faddas and the Cannons and he threatens the usually calm and academic Senator with a Fadda takeover that will not end well for Loy and his men. The threat doesn’t seem to scare Loy’s most trusted mouthpiece. After all, this is a man who spent six weeks in a room with Hitler’s henchman, the Italian lackey doesn’t scare him. What does is an escalation with the two families sparked by this sibling rivalry between Josto and Gaetano. Having heard enough of their threats, Senator walks away from the meeting, but Constant follows him to his car. With the full support of Gaetano, Calamita shoots Doctor Senator and his driver and leaves the two men dead in the cold dark street. It was inevitable that the brains and soul of the Cannon organization would be the first main character to die. When it comes to starting a war, what better way than to kill the show’s conscience? Remove the brains from the Cannon syndicate leaves Loy and his business vulnerable for a takeover.

After a screaming fight with his wife over his family’s ungrateful attitudes towards all Loy has given them, he gets word of the hit on his friend and the driver and shows up at the diner before the cops do. Standing over the man who was instrumental in his success leads Loy into a darkness that can only be vanquished by his own need for vengeance – something that up until now Senator has been able to calmly control. With the death of his most trusted partner, it is a good thing Loy has been working on a plan to seize control of Kansas City. It is a plan that will unite Mid West crime families in an attempt to stop the Italians from gaining any more power. It all relies on a deal he made with Fargo’s crime boss, Mortie Kellerman, over the gun shipment heist. The stolen weapons made their way into Kellerman’s hands when Loy cut him a low cost tradeoff deal, the guns for a partnership. It’s a win, win for the Fargo boss who, apparently, was wise enough to recognize a deal when one fell into his lap. He gets cheap guns and the Italian family is taken out making room for his own possible power grab in Kansas City. The deal means Kellerman will be loyal to Loy if and when he needs back up with the Faddas. And, from the looks of things, that time is now. Kellerman, along with Zelmare and Swanee, are the keys to making the Fadda family pay for what they have done to Lemuel and Doctor Senator. A war is brewing in Kansas City, and Fargo just joined the union with a supply of troops. May the best mob boss win!