Fargo – The Land of Talking and Killing

By: Kelly Kearney

Whether we are in North Dakota, Minnesota or Missouri, murder is what ties all four season of Fargo together. In “The Land of Talking and Killing” it’s Thanksgiving and in between turkey and poisoned pie, both families begin to lay the groundwork for a simmering mob war stirred up by a slaughterhouse take over and Sardinian brother with an appetite for murder.

Prison Break

We begin at the dead of night as two escaped convicts, Zelmare (Karen Aldridge) and her prison girlfriend Swanee (Kelsey Asbille), burst from a sewage pipe to smell their first whiff of freedom. Covered in waste and grime the two women head to a local bar where they clean themselves and rob two people for their clothing. A woman loses her fur coat to Zelmare and a man is forced to give up his western fashion so that Swanee can pass as a cowboy. It’s not long before Ethelrida (E’myri Crutchfield) is awakened at night to the sounds of both convicts at the door and we quickly find out Zelmare is her aunt and Dibrell is less than pleased to see criminal sister on their porch. Whatever bad blood the two women have will have to wait until morning because Dibrell’s (Anji White) husband Thurman (Andrew Bird) invites them to stay for the night. After the two explain their self-paroled status everyone sits down for a meal, but right away Ethelrida’s parents are not impressed with Zelmare or her rude traveling mate. Apparently, Swanee grew up on a reservation and uses that as an excuse for her impolite and non-existent manners as well as her lack of literacy, something that Zelmare admits she’s working on with her young companion. When Swanee says the white man tried “raping the Native out of me,” we see that hate in 1950’s America comes for every race, creed and nationality inside the land borders. While literacy can help lift some out of their oppressive reality they struggle to survive in, Swanee is a criminal at heart and doesn’t seem interested in changing that. So, when she mentions her career goals include a bank robbery it’s obvious this woman is going to need more help than any book can offer. Their bragging over such lawless pursuits are enough for Dibrell to send her impressionable teen daughter to her room. Ethelrida doesn’t need these two criminals filling her clever head with dreams of a life of crime. Always the dutiful daughter, the teenager leaves the room but still keeps her ears glued to the conversation going on in the kitchen. She overhears Zelmare and Swanee claiming they escaped from prison the minute they heard Thurman and Dibrell went to Loyu Cannon (Chris Rock) for a loan. That “leg-breaker” is famous for his high interest rates and brutal punishments if his clients can’t pay their loans. According to Thurman, Loy offered them a deal of 10% interest for the first month with increasing interest every month after until the debt is paid. Predatory lenders have to stay in business somehow and offering loans to people who can’t afford them is the key to their success.

Shots Fired!

Over at the private hospital that turned Don Fadda (Tommasco Ragno) away Dr. Harvard (Stephen Spencer) is meeting with a wealthy and overtly racist donor in hopes she will fund a new cancer wing. When the meeting is over he escorts her to her car and the two go down in a blaze of bullets. The donor dies, but Dr. Harvard survives and meets with Detective Odis Weff (Jack Huston) who is forced to listen to the doctor’s racist tirade about the Italian “undesirables” he refused to help. On top of that, Harvard didn’t even get a good look at his attackers, which doesn’t help Detective Weff solve this case. Even worse than his thoughts on Italians, the Doctor also has a distaste for people suffering from mental illnesses. As the Detective gets ready to leave the office, he stops at the door and repeatedly knocks. It’s a way to soothe his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but the heartless Harvard mocks the man and mutters to himself, “Is he some kind of retard?” When it comes to asking the police to help you, it’s never a good idea to give them a reason not to. This ableist racist doctor wouldn’t know decency if it fell out of the sky and hit him on his empty head and from the look on Weff’s face he knows it.

Across town Ethelrida’s father sends her to Kingdom of Mercy funeral home to get formaldehyde. A young white man meets her at the door and tells her to wait in the back because there is an Italian funeral taking place inside. The curious girl agrees to stay out of sight, but then sneaks a peak at Don Fadda’s service. Nurse Mayflower (Jessie Buckley), who came to pay her respects to the man she killed, catches the teenager spying and strikes up a chat about her fluency in French. Her complement is back handed and filled with racist digs and poor Ethelrida just smiles and nods through the verbal assault. They get interrupted by Josto (Jason Schwartzman) who spots Oraetta and can’t seem to remember who she is or why she’s at his father’s funeral. The new mob boss has little time to greet her because he’s too busy ordering his men to finish off Dr. Harvard for good.

After the service Josto gets into an argument with his fresh off the Sardinian boat brother, Gaetano (Salvatore Esposito) bragging about the work he did for Il Duce, while also reminding Josto that their one true loyalty is to themselves and their wealth. The family played both sides of the Italian fascist take over. They supported Mussolini until it was no longer advantageous for them and then they cheered his public execution. Josto listens to the rantings of his sibling lunatic and then reminds him that he isn’t in charge.  For Gaetano business, family, country, in that order are what should drive them, and he tries to sink that into Josto’s head by shaking a box of his enemy’s teeth in his face. The rivalry between the brothers almost comes to a head when Loy arrives with Zero Fadda (Jameson Braccioforte) to pay his respects. Zero has been living with Loy since the trade and seems nervous about how his former family will react to his visit. Loy gives the kid a pep talk and says the boy will be able to tell how they feel when they look him in the eye. Gaetano is the first to meet Loy and Zero on the front lawn of the Fadda home and immediately gets in the rival boss’ face. Josto intervenes and stops the argument before it gets violent. Lon lets Josto know that with the death of Don, “things have changed” and the two will need to have a sit down and work out where the family’s go from here. Josto shrugs off the offer because nothing has changed in his mind. Its business as usual. As a sign of good faith and to calm Loy’s increasing suspicions over how the Fadda’s are treating his son Satchel (Rodney L. Jones III) under their roof, Rabbi (Ben Whishaw) brings the boy outside and promises he’s being cared for. The look on the Satchel’s face says otherwise or maybe he’s just tired of peanut butter sandwiches and sleeping on the floor. His father promises him the trade won’t be forever and soon he will be able to come home. Then, he asks Rabbi to talk to Josto and convince him to take the meeting and discuss a change of plans.

Slaughterhouse Rules

At the warehouse where Loy does business, he meets with Doctor Senator (Glynn Turman) about his run in with Gaetano and Josto’s refusal of a sit down. The Fadda family is distracted with the death of Donatello and Doctor thinks that makes it the perfect time to expand their business by seizing the Fadda slaughterhouse. Not only will they take it over, but they plan to tell Josto his father agreed to give it to Loy during their last meeting. Of course, the whole thing is a lie. In fact, the Don shrugged off that very suggestion when Loy brought it up, but his sons won’t know that. Don is dead and there is no way Josto can prove the deal wasn’t made but refusing his father’s final wishes puts the new Italian boss in a tight spot, especially with his brother and those in the family who respect the old ways of their dearly departed Don. Doctor asks Lon if he thinks this risk is worth it, and the boss says it is if they want to expand their power in Kansas City. Not to mention is will stir up trouble between the Fadda brothers, who are already on the verge of a familial war.

Meanwhile, back at the funeral, Ebal (Francesco Acquaroli) talks with Josto and Gaetano about what they predict Lon’s next move will be. They assume something is coming and Gaetano suggests they just kill the entire black mob and be done with them. Josto is not ready for all out war and puts his brother’s killer idea to rest. For now, they will continue to respect the deal their father made. The three men are interrupted by Josto’s fiancé and her father, who are there to pay their respects. After an awkward moment with his betrothed, the woman’s father reminds Josto that the wedding is an arranged one and without the power of the mob behind him, the his political aspirations will be in jeopardy, as will his support for their marriage. Apparently, Josto promised to make him Mayor of Kansas City and even though the two hate each other ,Josto isn’t going to go back on his deal. Then, Detective Weff shows up to get more details about the shooting outside the hospital and it’s immediately clear the nervous cop is on the Italian’s payroll. Harvard is alive and for now he needs to stay that way, but since the wealthy socialite died in the shootout, Josto needs Weff to come up with a suspect they can pin it on.

You’re Fired

Back at the hospital Nurse Mayflower’s murderous spree is halted when the head of the hospital notices she’s been leaving a trail of bodies in her wake. The amount of deaths under her care is too much to ignore, but she claims none of it is her fault. She wouldn’t have given out the wrong mediations if their doctor’s prescriptions were legible! They agree on a compromise, which looks more like blackmail than anything. Oraetta Mayflower agrees to keep story about their illiterate doctors out of the press if the hospital gives her three month’s severance pay and a letter of recommendation for her next employer. The hospital manager agrees and the Angel of Mercy is free to kill again.

When we see Mayflower next, Ethelrida is watching her walk home from her porch across the street. The nurse stops by to tell the girl hello and offers her a job cleaning her house. Obviously, the teenager is offended because her bright future does not include working as a domestic for a racist killer nurse. She has no interest in being Oraetta’s “special project,” but the girl is also polite and doesn’t offer up much of an answer. Oraetta takes her vagueness as a yes and says she’s heading home to make the girl’s family a special thank you pie. We later see her special ingredient is a bottle of Ipecac syrup poured into the apple cinnamon delight.  Now that she doesn’t have patients to kill, she has no choice but to move on to her neighbors!

At the slaughterhouse Doctor Senator and the boys successfully take the business and it’s an easy coup because the men working are caught by surprise and unarmed. The Fadda men flee to inform the rest of the family, who soon show up with Gaetano and enough guns to kill everyone. The Sardinian psycho, who has now nicknamed himself king “in the land of taking and killing,” but Doctor isn’t interested in his chest pounding declarations. He explains that Don Fadda agreed to this deal as he takes the old man’s seat behind his desk. As we hear the sounds of cows being killed in the background, Doctor decides to gather up his troops and leave for now. He promises, no threatens, they will be back to collect on their deal. They can either turn over the slaughterhouse like their father wished or start preparing for war.

As the episode draws to a close we watch all the characters sit down for a holiday meal. Loy and his family gather around the Thanksgiving day table while Gaetano takes the seat at the head of the Fadda family’s and Josto forces him to move. Across town Oraetta leaves her poisoned pie on Thurman’s doorstep and he proceeds to take the offering inside for their own celebration. As everyone is occupied with their turkey and stuffing we see Dick ‘Deafy’ Wickware (Timothy Olyphant) and a group of cops kick the door in on Thurman’s funeral home. His escaped convict sister-in-law’s freedom days are numbered.