Fargo – The Useless Hand

By: Kelly Kearney

In an action-packed edge-of-your-seat episode that manages to bring all the characters of this story together, “The Useless Hand,” sets up next week’s finale by settling last week’s cliffhanger and pushing us to the edge of another. With Danish now dead, Ole hiding in the backseat of payback, and Wayne busy caring for their child, Dot’s last hope might be in the hands of Officer Witt Farr–who insists he owes her a save after she saved his life in the Halloween shootout. If the officer is going to take on Roy and his militia he is going to need help, and thanks to a very surprising turnaround, Lorraine Lyon might be the woman to offer it.

Munching on Revenge

After sneaking into Gator’s (Joe Keery) patrol car at the end of last week’s episode, this week opens on an ice fishing shack sitting in the middle of a frozen and desolate lake. Inside, Ole Munch (Sam Spruell) has the Tillman boy tied up and blindfolded as he heats a knife on the fire. Gator tries to play nice with Munch–offering him drugs and guns for his freedom, “ I have a flamethrower–no joke,” but all Ole is interested in is biblical justice for Irma’s taken life. “The Bible says what is taken must be given for death,” and with that, he takes his flaming hot knife and makes good on his promise to Irma, “ an eye for an eye.” Gator’s screams can be heard echoing off the frozen landscape as his captor plucks his eyes out with the business end of the scorching hot knife. Later, we see Ole dragging a bloody and blindfolded Gator through the desert–the ultimate punishment for ripping him off and killing old Irma.

Over at the Tillmans ranch, Dot (Juno Temple) is still handcuffed to the cot and struggling to break free. Our little feminist fighter isn’t about to give up, even after her hope went ankles up with Danish Graves (David Foley) down into Roy’s (Jon Hamm) mass grave. Surprisingly, after the beatdown he gave her, Dot still has a flicker of fight left in her and she won’t stop until she finds a way back to Scotty (Sienna King) and Wayne (David Rysdahl). Luckily, she has time to use everything in that barn to her advantage because Roy is away from the barn as he’s preparing his militia for their big “Make America Great Again” war against the FBI. He won’t be back for a while and that gives her ample time to troubleshoot those locked cuffs and after falling and breaking through some rotten floorboards, she gets her chance. She starts kicking through the wood until she makes a big enough hole to crawl into and then slides the cot over the opening and waits.

Up at the house, the Sheriff is cosplaying WWII General (and we know which side he identifies most with and it isn’t the woke Allies) as he supervises the men digging trenches and loading up their trucks with enough weapons to take on a small city. It’s all ego-building and chest-pounding patriotic patriarchy for Roy now that Lorraine (Jennifer Jason Leigh) embarrassed him on stage at the debates. He isn’t going to win that election now and his position was the only thing keeping him out of the feds’ crosshairs. Instead of taking his loss at the polls like a man and facing the FBI charges with his head held high, Roy is planning an insurrection of sorts, as if he is some North Dakotan dictator– sans the Kim Jong Un haircut. He tells Bowman (Conrad Coates)–the ranch hand, to rally the men and lock down the gates. The feds aren’t taking him off his land, he will go down fighting and take all of his men with him. It’s a familiar case of Hell hath no fury like a toxic man full of scorn because Roy doesn’t even seem to care that Dot’s whereabouts could be discovered in his little ego war. He is taking his chances since he plans on killing her before the feds get through his gates. In typical Roy fashion, he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty so he sends Bowman to do the killing for him. When Bowman shows up to take care of Dot, he assumes she escaped and has no idea that she is down below picking the lock on her cuffs with a nail. Once she’s free, Dot crawls out of her hole to find the barn door unlocked and an armed militia gathering outside. If she is going to get away she is going to need a lot of luck and some help, but nobody is getting on Roy’s property to save her now. Dot is going to have to save herself.

Indira Olmstead is on The Job

Over at Lorraine’s offices, the billionaire is still trying to contact Danish but her newest and smartest-dressed employee, Indira (Richa Moorjani), says the man’s phone has been turned off since it was last tracked to Tillman’s ranch. Lorraine is concerned and orders Indira to skip calling the Governor and, “tell Jerome to call the orange idiot. It’s about time I got something for my money.” Lorraine is done dealing with small-town idiots, she wants to take this to the biggest idiot in Washington.

Meanwhile, Indira calls Witt Farr (Larmorne Morris) and tells him Dot is trapped on the Tillman ranch. She can’t help him as she is now on a different assignment, but she begs him to go save Mrs. Lyon. He hops in his car and takes off towards Dot–something he promised he would do when he saw the scared woman leaving the hospital with Roy.

“Grab your beans and your bullets and your big f**king hammer because it’s balls to the wall time,” rants Roy into a video camera as he live streams to all his fans and voters in Stark County.  In a familiar call to arms, Roy uses fear to ignite a murderous rage in his fellow “patriots” hoping it will influence them to pick up arms and go to war with the government in his honor. Of course, Roy plans to be safely tucked behind the front, second, and last line of defense, but he still talks a good game and his men fall for it. He never tells these cowboys about how easily the military-industrial complex could squash this Sheriff’s tantrum in seconds. Roy and his ego are convinced that one hundred or so local gun-toting traitors can win a war against the federal government, but maybe they won’t need to be drone-struck out of existence because it’s still possible that his victims will have the last hoo-rah!

Karen Makes The Wrong Choice

As her husband and his men all hop in their pickup trucks to the music of the Village People, Karen (Rebecca Liddiard) takes the opportunity to check on Dot but she has already bailed on that torture shack and is heading up to the main house to use the phone. She calls Wayne, who is practically breathless with excitement when he hears his wife’s voice. The two don’t talk long before Karen and her gun show up and make Dot drop the phone. The armed woman’s contempt for her is all wrapped up in Karen’s self-hatred for the oppressive relationship she’s in and the abuse her children are forced to go through. As much as she spits venom at Dot for the way Roy treats her, Karen is still protective of Roy and her comfortable life. Dot’s testimony would upend that and orphan their children. She makes it clear she isn’t going to let Dot go no matter how many times the woman appeals to her sympathies as a mother. The second Dot gets off this ranch, Karen assumes they are all going to jail, and she is right, the two youngest Tillmans would wind up in the custody of the state. It is still better than what both women allude to when mentioning Roy’s attention to Karen’s daughters. That truth seems to strike a nerve in the woman and it gets further plucked when Dot–one victim to another, says they can end this misery once and for all. If they stop Roy, both Scotty and Karen’s girls are safe. That gives Karen pause but the moment is gone as quickly as it came on. She raises her gun to shoot but Dot is faster. She grabs the barrel and yanks the rifle from Karen’s arms and then knocks her out with the butt of the gun. Now Dot’s free and has a weapon but she still can’t get off the property without being seen. Not to mention the fact the bullets between the feds and the militia are about to start flying and she could get caught in the crossfire. She needs a plan, and luckily she knows that house well enough to pass from room to room swiping a disguise and turning on the gas stove before anyone knows she is even there. She left a trap for Roy and now anyone who ignites a spark in that house will blow it off of its foundation.

Whatever the amount Lorraine donated to the orange idiot’s campaign must’ve been substantial because the President sends out an entire military– state and Federal, convoy to put down these North Dakotan cowboys and bring her daughter-in-law home. Luckily for Dot, the President’s Sharpie didn’t send the convoy to Nebraska because when they roll into Stark County it looks like an actual war is about to break out. On the government’s side, the special ops are led by FBI Agents Joaquin (Nick Gomez) and Meyers (Jessica Pohly)–the duo determined to bring Roy Tillman down for misappropriating funds to weaponize this very militia in front of them. It’s a bit of validation for the feds and a whole lot of macho overkill for Roy and both sides could be deadly for Dot. Lorraine tells her as much when Dot finds a spot to hide and uses a swiped cell phone to call Indira. The boss lady grabs the phone and is shaken over the news about Danish’s murder. Immediately Dot gets quiet, assuming the woman who already hates her is going to hate her now that Danish died trying to save her. Dot’s mind is put at ease when Lorraine shows her true colors and tells her she needs to hide from the convoy. She makes Dot cry when she ignores Dot’s fears to give the woman a pep-talk, “No daughter of mine is going down on the one-yard line” she says. Underneath that stern voice and cold personality exists the warmth of a mother terrified for her family–one she is now proud of thanks to Indira’s insistence. Speaking of the former cop and current Lyon whisperer, she tells Dot to keep her phone on and find a place to hide until the cops can track her location. The only place Dot can think of is the same place he dumped Danish and Linda Tillman’s bodies–the grave.

When Officer Witt Farr shows up at the ranch, Indira calls to fill him in and send over Dot’s coordinates. She begs him to save her friend and almost immediately he convinces the FBI and SWAT team to let him lead the hostage rescue. The FBI considers Dot to be a crucial witness to their case, and that puts her at the top of this convoy’s priority list.

Tiger, You Can Come Out Now

“Are you Hitler in the Reichstag, or Hitler in the Bunker?” Odin (Michael Copeman) asks as he questions Roy’s commitment to the cause as they watch the convoy troop numbers keep growing. Odin is a real piece of work, but he might be the only person who pushes Roy’s buttons. As horrible as the man is, his father-in-law is worse. Somehow Odin always manages to bully Roy into bending to his will–like the militia, the stolen funds were all Odin’s idea. Now he is bullying Roy into fulfilling his 1776 fanfiction dreams–to die in a battle of Christofascists vs. The Deep State. When Roy approaches the gates on horseback he does what Odin wants and tells the agents they’re trespassing on his land and he doesnt recognize their laws on it. He threatens to kill them when they insist he de-escalate things by handing over Danish and Dot. This prompts him to go on one of his famous biblical rants about Dot being Lot’s wife and “now a pillar of salt who can’t come back.” With that admission of guilt, he ends the meeting with a threat about his men flanking them from all sides if they don’t leave. Then Roy giddyups back inside the ranch’s gates and moseys on home to a miffed Odin who isn’t happy with this peaceful pause. Likewise, Witt Farr isn’t happy that this encounter didn’t bring him any closer to saving Dot. So, he gets the troops ready for a rescue; he won’t give up until he returns the favor and saves Dot.

Speaking of the missing Lyon, Roy enlists Bowman to finish Dot off and sends him to the grave knowing she would hunker down on the property until the dust settles. While Roy checks out the dug-out tunnels under the barn, he gets a taste of a Western-style stand-off when he spots a leashed and bloodied Gator getting dragged across the sand by Ole Munch. When the two meet face-to-face, Ole waxes poetic about double crossers and hands that steal being cleaved from the body as penance for theft. He really gives Roy a taste of his own monologue medicine, and just as the Sheriff pulls out his gun to shut the man up, Ole disappears in a cloud of dust. A crying Gator falls into his disgusted father’s arms, and instead of helping his blind and frightened son, he just leaves him in the desert screaming for help. Roy blames Gator for all of this bad luck because he didn’t listen and pay his debts to Ole when he was told to. While searching for Dot he found the hidden money he told Gator to give Ole and now the United States Government is at their door. He has no sympathy for a bad-luck lizard boy and is even less used to him now that he can’t see.

Outside the gates, the rescue team with Witt Farr are gearing up to storm the property. They only have one rule: do not shoot the hostage even if she is armed. Witt Farr now thinks her safety is key to settling his debts and he isn’t about to let some trigger-happy agent rob him of that. So, in formation they line up and breach the property line, just as Bowman and two other men spot Dot’s gun next to the gravesite. When the men slide back the metal basin covering the grave they see Dot armed with a human bone and a look of sheer terror and determination on her face. Bowman aims the rifle and prepares to shoot and that’s when three gunshots ring out from somewhere Dot can’t see. The men sent to kill her go down and that’s when she hears his voice calling, “Tiger, you can come out now.” It’s familiar, she knows it belongs to the person Roy sent after at the start of the season. Wisely she is apprehensive to climb out of the hole, but when she finally does, Ole hands her the rifle and nods towards the house. Cryptically, he says, “Now the tiger is free,” free to end Roy’s terror and make sure he meets that maker he’s been using as an excuse to terrorize the town and legions of young women. In the finale episode next week, let’s hope Dot rips Roy Tillman to shreds and finally gets to make Scotty those birthday pancakes. Maybe Ole can skip the sin cake for a bit and join Dot and Wayne for some syrupy justice with a side of Sheriff’s bacon.