Fargo: Season 3 Episode 5 "The House of Special Purpose" Review

"We're in trouble here.  Enemies are at the gates...inside the gates!  Fornicating with our cookware!"
-Sy Feltz



The 5th episode of Fargo's third season picks up with Ray Stussy (Ewan McGregor) proposing to Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who accepts.  They proceed to make a sex tape with Ray disguised as Emmit Stussy (Ewan McGregor).  They leave the tape on Emmit's front step with a note asking for $100,000 or they will show the tape to Emmit's wife, Stella (Linda Kash).  Unfortunately, Stella finds the tape, watches it, and leaves with the rest of her family before Emmit even knows what is happening.

Sy Feltz (Michael Stuhlbarg) is confronted by V. M. Varga (David Thewlis).  Varga takes over Sy's office and to establish dominance, puts his genitals in Sy's mug and has Yuri Gurka (Goran Bogdan) and Meemo (Andy Yu) force Sy to drink out of it.  Sy then has a meeting with Ruby Goldfarb (Mary McDonnell), who is interested in buying Stussy Lots.  Sy thinks he has found a way out for himself and Emmit.  The two have a brief fight, but Emmit gives Sy the power to go after Ray and Nikki with everything he has.  Sy and Nikki try to negotiate over the phone, but decide to meet in person at one of the Stussy Lots.  Their meeting is interrupted by Yuri and Meemo who proceed to beat Nikki senseless.

Meanwhile, Varga meats up with Emmit and tries to convince him that Sy and Ray are actually conspiring against him.  Before Emmit can do anything about it, an IRS agent (Hamish Linklater) arrives to take a look at the Stussy Lots' books due to Ray withdrawing a large some of money from Emmit's accounts.  Varga calms Emmit by telling him they will just show the agent fake books.

Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon) and Winnie Lopez (Olivia Sandoval) take Ray into custody for questioning and learn that the Stussy brothers are indeed feuding and Sy was the one who hit Ray's car, but Chief Moe Dammick (Shea Whigham) doesn't buy it and forces them to let Ray go.  He returns home to find a badly beaten Nikki.


What Works:

If we didn't hate Varga before, we most certainly do now.  This guy's villainy knows no bounds in this episode.  The scene where he puts his junk in Sy's mug is utterly disgusting.  It's one of the most grotesque scenes in the series, but it's something that will stick with you.  On a less fun note, we now know that Varga is anti-Semitic.  Up to this point, he's been the kind of villain we are sort of rooting for, but that is no longer the case with this episode.  He's an odious man that we now want to see get taken down.

This is also a breakout episode for Yuri.  His inclusion in the main cast has always been baffling to me, but he finally gets a solid amount of screen time in this episode.  He is a part of the aforementioned mug-drinking scene, which is great thanks to his fake sympathy for Sy.  But later we get a nice monologue from him about the similarities and differences between the northern Midwest and Siberian before he beats the crap out of Nikki.  Now we know he is the muscle of the season and this guy is willing to beat women.  It leaves an impression and gives us the desire to see him taken out as well.

The whole sex-tape storyline is really funny and absurd.  The idea of Ray pretending to be Emmit and making a tape like that is just hilarious to me.  The feud between the brothers is ridiculous, but in a fun way.  It just keeps escalating and escalating and I love it.

This episode was, for the most part, the Sy Feltz show.  Michael Stuhlbarg is an incredible actor and gives a great performance as he goes through multiple traumas in this episode.  Watching him try and hold it together while confronting Nikki, only to be complexity stunned with the actions of Yuri and Meemo is great.  Sy is an awesome character, one of my favorites of the season, and this is another stellar episode for him.


What Sucks:

I really don't like the character of Chief Moe Dammick.  Everything Goria and Winnie tell him about the connections between the Stussy's makes logical sense.  Up to this episode, I could buy Moe wanting to shut all this down, but come on.  I don't believe anyone would be able to ignore what Gloria and Winnie have discovered so far.  There are far too many coincidences.  It just feels like a cheap way to slow down their investigation and it doesn't feel realistic.

Moe is the cause of my other problem with this episode.  The investigation storyline really doesn't make any progress.  We only get a couple of scenes with Gloria and Winnie and it doesn't amount to much.  It's frustrating because this is probably the most exciting storyline and another episode of wheel-spinning isn't what we need right now.


Verdict:

Most of "The House of Special Purpose" is solid.  The sex tape storyline is hilarious, Michael Stuhlbarg is great, and this episode really does an excellent job of establishing Varga and Yuri as villains we want to see get taken down.  The investigation storyline is frustrating due to Moe Dammick, but it's still another solid episode of Fargo.

 8/10: Really Good 

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