Fargo: Season 1 Episode 6: "Buridan's Ass" Review

"Not apprehend.  Dead.  Don't care extramarital.  Don't care not related.  Kill and be killed.  Head in a bag.  That's the message."

- Moses Tripoli

Episode 6 of Fargo finds Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) and Don Chumph (Glenn Howerton) setting a meeting to get the million dollars from Stavros Millos (Oliver Platt).  Malvo has no intention of splitting the money with Don, so he knocks him out and ties him to a work out machine and duct tapes a shotgun to his hands.  Malvo than fires several bullets out the window to keep the police preoccupied while he gets the money.  The Duluth Police Department raids the house and kills poor Don, who can do nothing to escape his fate.

On his way to the meeting, Malvo gets into a car crash caused by Wrench (Russell Harvard) and Numbers (Adam Goldberg), which starts a shootout in the middle of a blizzard.  Deputy Solverson (Allison Tolman) and Officer Grimly (Colin Hanks) are up the street getting coffee when they hear the shots.  We get one of my favorite scenes of the season as the five people hunt each other through the white-out blizzard.  Malvo forces Numbers to reveal that the Fargo Mob put out the hit on him, before Malvo slashes his throat.  In the confusion, Grimly accidentally shoots Solverson.

Meanwhile, Milos has changed his mind about giving the money to his blackmailers.  He decides to put it back on the side of the road where he found it.  On his way back to Duluth he comes across a car wreck and finds the dead bodies of his head of security, Wally (Barry Flatman) and his son, Dimitri (Gordon S. Miller), who crashed their car when fish started raining from the sky.  Milos is devastated, believing God killed his son even after he gave back the money.

Back in Bemidji, Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman), is visited by his brother, Chazz (Joshua Close) who warns Lester he needs to give up the name of there person behind the murders and decides Lester is too much of a burden and refuses to help him any more.  Lester manages to escape the hospital and goes back to his home.  He collects the hammer he used to kill his wife as well as several racy photos of her, and a pair of her panties.  He takes them to Chazz's house and plants them in his gun safe.  He than takes an unloaded piston and plants it in his nephew's backpack, hoping it will lead the police to Chazz.  He then manages to sneak back into the hospital, very satisfied with himself.

What Works:

This is one of my favorite episodes of the show.  There is so much great stuff here.  First is the death of Don, which is pretty sad, but also an extremely creative death.  We really get to se see Malvo at his most evil, and poor Don is helpless to save himself.  

We also have the epic blizzard shout-out.  It's great to see Wrench and Numbers take on Malvo, and the fact that not even they are a match for him is unsettling.

Finally, Lester's scheme is utterly brilliant.  It's ruthless and cruel, and we see he is just as diabolical as Malvo, and I love it.  Lester has come a long way, but it's believable and wholly entertaining.  This entire episode runs on all cylinders.

What Sucks:

I got nothing for you.

Verdict:

The strongest episode since the premiere, Buridan's Ass is an iconic episode of Fargo and one of the best of the series.  Everything works.  Every character is well utilized, every story has a big moment. It's such a huge episode, that it makes you wonder who the hell the rest of the season is going to play out after this.

 10/10: Amazing