Fargo – The Nadir

By: Kelly Kearney

After eight episodes of standing in the precipice of war, the brutal bloodbath we’ve been waiting for finally comes to Kansas City. Thanks to one dirty cop, criminals from “up North, an overzealous Marshal and a whole lot of hijacked machine guns, the episode kicks off the carnage with three converging plotlines that leave a slew of bodies in its wake

The Poisoned Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

After Nurse Mayflower (Jessie Buckley) served her boss, Dr. Harvard (Stephen Spencer), her special poisonous macaroons she heads home for an impromptu bedroom romp with Josto Fadda (Jason Schwartzman), a man who meets her needs and insatiable kinks. Once the two do the deed, secrets are spilled over some good old fashion pillow talk. Josto goes first with a declaration of love partnered with the news he is engaged to be married. He explains the marriage will be one for convenience, and that his father coordinated this political sway. Thanks to his soon-to-be father-in-law eyeing up a position in public office, Don Fadda saw this as a perfect opportunity to compromise a powerful family and use them to maintain their hold on the Kansas City streets. An in with the political world can only be a good thing for the continued success of the Fadda crime family, regardless of the fact Josto would rather play mattress tag with Nurse Serial Killer.

The next post-coital secret to be outed comes from Oraetta, who offers up a glimpse into her past as well as a clue to her killer hobby. It seems that the nurse spent a lot of her childhood in and out of hospitals due to her “failure to thrive.” In reality, Oraetta was a victim of her mother’s Munchausen By Proxy syndrome and the “special juice” her mother lovingly gave her was probably the very thing keeping a young Oraetta from thriving. The fact her mother was poisoning her seems to be lost on the nurse, who claims the woman was a devoted and loving parent; two things nobody would ever call a woman who purposefully tries to kill her kid for attention. Add to the fact her mother got away with it thanks to the sexual favors she offered doctors to keep their silence, it’s clear Oraetta gets her killer ways from the woman who raised her. Josto listens to her story and tries to find common ground with Oraetta’s abuse by saying the Irish mob boss he was traded to was also abusive. This and the cheating doesn’t sit well with Oraetta. She breaks up with him, deciding to leave town for good. It’s better to say goodbye to Kansas City before her boy toy gets hitched and Dr. Harvard can testify against her in court. That’s right! The not-so-good doctor survived her poisonous cookies and is now recovering in an out of state hospital. His survival partnered with that letter which outed her deadly deeds means the killer nurse has no other choice but to hit the road before she winds up in jail.

While packing for her escape, Oraetta spots Ethelrida’s (E’myri Crutchfield) notebook she accidently left behind in the killer’s closet full of souvenirs. The handwriting looks familiar and Nurse Mayflower is able to match the script to the letter that was sent to Dr. Harvard. This clue is all the Oraetta needs to convince her to stay in Kansas City and come up with a plan to stop the clever teen from ending her kill streak. She stays focused on the house across the street and watches Ethelrida flirt with the oldest Cannon boy, Lemuel (Matthew Elam). With Loy (Chris Rock) forcing Thurman (Andrew Bird) to sign over the funeral home as payment for the money Zelmare stole, it seems Lemuel will be a constant in Ethelrida’s life. From her shy and flirtatious banter with the equally smitten young man, it seems she is not too upset by this.

Gaetano Bends the Knee

Next, we head over to the Fadda’s home base where Josto gets the shock of his life when his brother Gaetano (Salvatore Esposito) shows up very much alive and ready to take his disloyal brother’s life. After Loy told Gaetano his brother wanted him dead, he let the volatile Sardinian go in hopes he would unleash his wrath on Josto and take the competition out. That plan didn’t go as expected when Gaetano realizes his brother was willing to kill Satchel, start a war and let him die all to ensure the Fadda’s beat Loy. It’s twisted, but it’s enough for the blood thirsty Italian to finally have respect for his brother. Risking it all, even his own life, is enough for Gaetano to swear his allegiance to Josto and unite these brothers against one common enemy: Loy Cannon. Teamwork – Fadda brother style.

When Loy catches wind of his failure to take out Josto by way of his unhinged brother, he is forced to call in some reinforcements from Fargo. It’s not long before the Minnesota boys show up and start stalking the Faddas during a sit down meal with the matriarch of their family. Outside the house, the Fargo crew is armed with the machine guns Loy stole from Calamita (Gaetano Bruno) as payback for Doctor Senator’s murder. In an instant, the bullets start flying and Gaetano pulls out his handgun and starts to shoot back. He manages to hold the line, driving the guys from Fargo back, but not before many of his Fadda foot soldiers and their mother are killed in the action. Never underestimate an Italian boy’s love of his mother. Now, more than ever, Josto and Gaetano have a reason to put an end to their rival once and for all.

A New Chapter for Odis Weff

Meanwhile, Marshal “Deafy” Wickware (Timothy Olyphant) gets closer to capturing the two escaped convicts at the train station after he has a tense meeting with Loy at his home. The two sit down for some good old bad cop meets mob boss games. Cannon all but laughs in Deafy’s face when he tries to use his badge like weapon and his religion like a racist noose around Cannon’s throat. Been there, survived that and then some. Even when he pulls out his gun and questions what kind of man would trade his son for his own business’s success, Loy stays firm in his arrogance and flexing his mob boss muscle. In fact, to prove how unphased he is by Deafy, Cannon goes out of his way to insult the man who is fairly certain Loy is the key to finding Zelmare (Karen Aldridge) and Swanee (Kelsey Asbille). After a lot of posturing and low-key digs at Loy, Deafy leaves the meeting with one piece of information: the two convicts are on their way to Philadelphia by way of a 10 o’clock train. The tickets, courtesy of Loy Cannon, came with an order to hightail it out of Kansas City and start a new life away from the mob wars. Zelmare and Swanee saw their “get out of Dodge” demand as Loy offering them forgiveness for the slaughterhouse hold-up. Little do they know; this whole thing is a set up and Loy has no intentions of letting them go without paying for their money heist. After all, he didn’t get where he is by showing mercy to those who wronged him.

Outside the train station, Deafy readies his troops to prepare for the take down, with orders to bring them in alive, unless they’re forced into a situation where that isn’t possible. Before the law and order brigade descends on the two convicts, Odis Weff (Jack Huston) shows up announcing he’s found the light…so to speak. Odis informs Deafy that the reason he made deals with the devil (both Fadda’s and Cannon) is due t a lifetime struggle with his OCD. He explains that his uncontrollable illness forced him to seek out control in other avenues, mainly by grabbing on to power any way he can. The power the mob gave him helped Odis feel safe and in control of something in his life. After some heavy introspection, he has determined that a cop’s life is what he wants and he is done playing both sides of the crime street from the middle. In fact, he wants to prove his dedication to his career by helping Deafy take down the female escapees. With that admission, the two are interrupted by a phone call that piques Deafy’s interest. When the call ends, Deafy instantly agrees to allow Odis to help if he admits to who was on the phone. Odis then spills the tea about Loy ordering him to the station to make sure the two women never come back to Kansas City. It’s implied that if they refuse to leave, his orders are to kill them both.

Don’t Go to Philly if You CAN’T Handle the Heat of Kansas City

As Deafy and the men get into position, Zelmare notices something is off. She spots the suited men approaching and reaches for her hidden machine gun and that’s when chaos reigns down on everyone! It is a total massacre and she, along with her love Swanne, mow down the majority of Deafy’s team and a few innocent travelers caught in the crossfire too. Luckily for Odis, who is still in Deafy’s car having a panic attack, he has no idea of the blood bath he is about to walk in to. When he enters the station the floor is littered with bodies and a shocked Odis carefully steps over them as he searches for any signs of life. He makes his way to Deafy, who has his gun drawn on the fleeing convicts who just ran out of bullets. Tossing some handcuffs to Odis, Deafy orders him to place them on Zelmare and Swanee, satisfied that the job he was sent to Kansas City to do is coming to an end. Odis takes one look at the women and the Marshal and then turns and shoots Deafy in the chest! The Marshal falls to the floor and Odis turns the gun on Swanee, plugging her directly between the eyes with a bullet. After watching her lover fall to the ground, Zelmare takes off running before Odis can kill her, too. Weff lays down on the station’s floor right next to a dying Deafy, who knows he was just double crossed by the twitchy dirty cop. All that is left in this train to carnage is a panicked Odis made nervous by the judgmental stares of a dying Deafy Wickware and that blasted ghost who keeps popping up like a warning of more horrors still to come.