TV Review: FARGO: Season 1, Episode 6: Buridan’s Ass [FX]

FX’s Fargo Buridan’s Ass TV Show Review. Fargo: Season 1, Episode 6: Buridan’s Ass is what we’ve been waiting for. After many brilliant slow burn episodes, Fargo returns to the pulse-pounding suspense and “holy crap” violence of the pilot. 

This series might as well be called Fargo or: The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Lester Nygaard because that’s what drives this narrative forward. The bumbling Lester, still stammering to hide the fact that he killed his wife, just can’t keep the heat off long enough to make a rational decision. It’d be infuriating to watch this murderer try to exonerate himself he weren’t so darned likeable. This is largely thanks to Martin Freeman, who is an absolute delight. He doesn’t seem to believe his character is really a killer, and this lets us grant him that leniency. He treats what he did to Pearl as a singular incident of extreme overaction, and he knows that deep down he probably wouldn’t do it again. He’s not a killer. Not like Lorne Malvo.

As Molly Solverson and Gus Grimly discuss the case over a series of coffees, Lorne is in town causing havoc and leaving the police force stumped. The subtle planning phase of Lorne’s blackmail has ended, and his reluctant and naive partner Don is finally realizing what that means. Meanwhile, as the storm of the century bares down, Mr. Wrench and Mr. Numbers are hot on the trail of Lorne after being given distinct orders to kill without asking questions first.

The episode peaks at what is easily the best filmed sequence of the series thus far, when Wrench and Numbers do catch up to Lorne just as the snowfall really hits hard. In whiteout conditions, gun-wielding figures appear and dissolve like shadowy apparitions. Determining one person from the next is impossible in a snap decision, making the entire segment a guessing game of who is going to appear next and what are they going to do. The culmination of the scene is shocking, and it’s going to be difficult to wait a whole week to see how things will progress.

Buridan’s Ass was a game-changing episode of Fargo, delivering tense action without sacrificing the continually unfolding subplots of the characters. You’ll be at the edge of your seat trying to figure out how these characters will react to these events.

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