Fargo: Season 1 Episode 7 Review "Who Shaves The Barber"

"Let's just say there's a lot of blood."
-Lester Nygaard



"Who Shaves The Barber" picks up with Officer Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) in the hospital after accidentally shooting Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman).  As she recovers, Molly tries to get answers from Mr. Wrench(Russell Harvard), who is also in the hospital after Molly shot him.  Wrench doesn't give up anything, but Molly and Gus start working on the case again and come to believe Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) is the one who sent Wrench and Numbers to Duluth.  Molly returns to Bemidji to find out Lester's brother Chazz (Joshua Close) has been arrested for the murders.

Lester plan worked perfectly.  His nephew was caught at school with a gun, which led back to Chazz's gun safe with the planted evidence.  Lester convincingly lies to the Chief of Police (Bob Odenkirk) before going back to work.  He then uses the leverage of life insurance to get Sam Hess' widow (Kate Walsh) to have sex with him.

Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) travels to Reno, Nevada to meet with his boss and find out who he needs to go after in Fargo, after the attempt on his life.  He manages to wipe out the entire Fargo mob by storming the building and single-handedly killing everyone inside.


What Works:

This episode is basically just picking up the pieces in the wake of the previous episode.  Not a whole lot happens, but Lester's storyline is fascinating.  He has pretty much got full Heisenberg, willing to burn his own brother to get away with this.  This is not the Lester we met in episode 1 and it's very interesting to watch him operate with full confidence.

We don't get a ton of Lorne Malvo either, but watching him take out the entire Fargo Mob was crazy, even though we only heard what was happening, in a cool sequence, where were are left outside the building as Malvo goes inside and wipes everyone out.  We really only see one death on screen, when a man is thrown out the window, but it's very cool and creative nonetheless.  Plus we get Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key as FBI agents who are clueless to the mass murder happening across the street from them.


What Sucks:

Gus and Molly are pretty much sidelined for the whole episode.  Not much happens with this story, and the interactions between Molly and Mr. Wrench don't amount to much.


Verdict:

This is still a really good episode of Fargo, but it's mostly just resolving the events of the previous episode, and the only story we get much momentum on is Malvo's.  It's really good, but certainly not the best episode of the show.

 8/10: Really Good 

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