Fargo – The Pretend War

By: Kelly Kearney

“Who is in charge – the ape or the pipsqueak?” That is just one of the many questions this episode tries to answer. With two rival families each having their own fair share of squabbles within their ranks, things become even more muddled when an Angel of Mercy and two escaped convicts are added to the mix – an X-factor that neither the Fadda’s nor the Cannons know are variables in this mob war equation. With split screens showcasing the juxtapositions of holiday cheer and ominous crime sprees, the battle lines have been drawn and no poisoned pies or Il Duce fanboys can stop it. ‘Tis the season for murder, Fargo style.

A Burning Ring of Fire

After his failed hit on Loy Cannon’s (Chris Rock) son, Lemuel (Matthew Elam), Constant Calamita (Gaetano Bruno) is on to his next mission – driving a shipment of guns at night to an undisclosed location. Suddenly, he hits the breaks when he winds up trapped in a roadblock in the form of a ring of fire putting the hitman in the crosshairs of Loy’s men. The black mob knows he was behind the attack on the oldest Cannon boy and they have decided payback is a dish best served fried to a crisp. With guns drawn and the flames burning higher, Loy’s men kill Constant’s driver and highjack the truck, but not before leaving Calamita with a permanent reminder of what happens to anyone who crosses their boss. With the scorching barrel of a shot gun, they brand the Italian hitman on the cheek. It is like a scarlet letter outing him for ignoring the two family’s peace agreement, something that Josto (Jason Schwartzman) questions the following day when he spots the mark. Thanks to Rabbi Milligan (Ben Whishaw) spilling the beans about Gaetano’s (Salvatore Esposito) orders, a threatened and irate Josto knows that his seat at the head of the table is at risk from not only Loy Cannon, but his Sardinian brother, too.

That following day finds Doctor Senator (Glynn Turman) and Ebal (Francesco Violante) back at the diner sharing breakfast and an informal sit down. This time it’s the Fadda’s consiglieri who occupies story time as the Italian talks about what it means to him to be an American. He explains that it is a constant game of pretending you are one, while also knowing the freedom you’ve been sold on is only offered to those who look the part. Immigrants and black Americans have to take their freedom by force because the pursuit of happiness is nothing, but empty words haphazardly flung from the mouths of the privileged few. If being an American is a pretend game where you ignore the truth then Ebal cannot assimilate to that culture, especially when he knows the Fadda family is involved in a cold war with the Cannons that is getting hotter by the minute. There is no ignoring that threat and the two men need to come to some kind of agreement before they, and many more, wind up dead. The key point to this breakfast chat is that Ebal has no idea about the ordered hit on Lemuel or the fact his boss’s brother is behind it. That puts him at a disadvantage because Doctor Senator is all knowing and criticizes his counterpart for not having a handle on Josto’s men. If nobody knows who is in charge, and the boss is distracted by a brother gone rogue, that leaves the Faddas open for another take over. Their guard is down and they can expect Loy not to take that as an opportunity to expand their reach in Kansas City.

Loy Weighs His Options

After his meeting with Ebal we see that Doctor Senator’s suspicions about Gaetano seem to be correct, but Loy isn’t interested in rushing into a war that could cost him his son, Satchel’s (Rodney L. Jones III), life. There are the many layers to the  reasons why Loy won’t jump the gun; from his desire to legitimize the business through his credit card venture to the safety of his family. Attacking the Fadda’s will have to wait until they have all the pieces to this puzzle. One thing is for sure, Loy knows the Faddas are not stupid enough to risk their strongholds in Kansas City and the hit on his safe house would definitely fall into the category of dumb and risky. It must have been a random crime, and not ordered by Josto Fadda.

To prove his theory right Loy goes to Rabbi, someone he sees as disloyal thanks to his past crimes against his own family. He threatens him with a knife and orders the Irishman to bring him Satchel and find out who was behind the recent attacks. Stabbing the Faddas in the back seems like a good bet, but it puts Rabbi in a tough spot since Josto also ordered him to spy on Gaetano. Can he survive this middleman game or will he be the first of many casualties in this escalating power struggle? Rabbi is smarter than either family gives him credit for. He has managed to come to an understanding with Loy while also being an informant for Josto. Milligan is juggling a lot of balls, with his own survival being of the utmost importance.

Speaking of the Fadda brothers, fresh off the news of Gaetano’s power move the mob boss blasts his way into an unauthorized meeting between his brother and a few of his men. Bullets go whizzing past Gaetano’s head, missing their target but not their intended meaning. The attack on Lemuel led to a hijacked truck and the loss of three hundred guns that Loy Cannon would have never taken if he was not pushed by Gaetano playing boss man. It was an order that he had no right to give, no matter how many times he sits in Josto’s chair. The act of aggression doesn’t do much to sway either Gaetano or Calamita. Both seem hell bent on killing Loy Cannon and not interested in taking orders from the Fadda son they both perceived as weak. The two men have been put on notice, but not just from the head of the Fadda family. Marshal Deafy (Timothy Olyphant) also adds them to his own hit list. The Mormon cowboy and his new partner Weff (Jack Huston) roll up to the Fadda nightclub just as Gaetano and Calamita are leaving their meeting with Josto. In what is clearly a threat, Deafy walks the two men down racist memory lane when he tells them a story about what happened to a group of Italian immigrants who dared to move into the very white and Mormon state of Utah. It’s not clear if these characters in his story were mobsters, not hat it mattered much to the story, because they found their end come in the form of a noose courtesy of Deafy and his friends. The men were hanged and dragged by horses until they were decapitated, simply for existing in a state of white rage. The tale is just another clue that whether you are black or white, being an “other” means you will meet the same end regardless. It seems the freedom game is fixed and the rules are stacked against anyone society deems lesser, in skin tone and in birthplace. Deafy, who casually slipped that murderous threat into this story, comes off like some sort of self-proclaimed hero whose job it is to protect his own from the people he views as subhuman. Ironically, the Mormon marshal is himself an outsider in this urban landscape, but his brutality and taste for murder is as Kansas City as you can get. He fits right in with the Fadda’s and the Cannons, something he could see if he had an ounce of self-realization or enlightenment.

Ethelrida Uncovers the Truth

While the two families try to uncover the fuzzy truth behind this “pretend war” the women of Fargo are clearly the true deciders of everyone’s fate. Nurse Oraetta Mayflower (Jessie Buckley), who always has a plot baking in that venomous brain of hers, tracks down Josto for their date. The two skip the typical dinner and a movie for a game of auto-erotic asphyxiation, one this killer nurse seems to excel in. Afterwards, Josto leaves and her post-coital glow dulls to the sounds of a knock at her door. It’s Ethelrida (E’myri Crutchfield) on her stoop and she is looking to take the Nurse up on that job offer to clean her house. The Smutny family could use the extra cash and the teenager says she is for the challenge if Oraetta still needs the help. Maybe she is shocked to see the child alive and well after leaving that poisoned pie on her family’s doorstep, but the Oraetta is definitely rattled by the girl’s surprise visit and nervously agrees to hire her. With that, the Nurse leaves Ethelrida to her own devices with strict rules on what to clean and which locked rooms to avoid. Bad move by the Angel of Mercy because this girl is clever and almost immediately uncovers her boss’s stash of poison, as well as newspaper clippings of obituaries and a few souvenirs from her victims. Oraetta Mayflower is a textbook serial killer with a trail of evidence in her house to prove it. Tempted by a gold ring that catches Ethelrida’s attention, the snooping teenage maid makes the terrible decision to swipe it. She has no idea the ring was the one Nurse Mayflower sucked off Donatello Fadda’s cold dead hand. It’s a move that could be the Smutny girl’s undoing, but for now her family has bigger worries than some stolen jewelry.

After her Aunt Zelmare (Karen Aldridge) and her girlfriend, Swanee (Kelsey Asbille), held up Loy’s safe house the two women hid out in a motel room to wash the vomit soaked cash and recover from the poisoned pie. The following day Zelmare secretly meets with Thurman (Andrew Bird) to give him the laundered money to pay off his debts to Loy. She knows what it means to owe that man and she doesn’t want her sister and niece to pay the loan back with their lives. With the bag full of smelly stacks of Benjamins, Thurman shows up at Loy’s house and the funeral director is all smiles. He is relieved to be out from under the mob’s thumb, having no clue he is paying the man back with his own stolen money. Loy knows the story Thurman is spinning about a surprise inheritance reeks of a lie the minute he gets a whiff of that grotesque scent. His men told him about the barfy tag-team who hit the safe house and that smell can only mean one thing: The Smutny family is about to be dragged into this pretend war, but not if Dibrell (Anji White) kills her husband first. Owing money to a mob boss is bad enough, but trusting her lying ex-con of a sister is unforgivable. What seemed like a simple loan has now tuned into a deadly game that could cost them all their lives. Let us hope that ring Ethelrida stole will bring her better luck than its original owner because her family’s lives might depend on it.