Fargo has changed the status quo. A lot of the grey in terms of morality is darkening. The body count has risen considerably. The balance between good and evil is shifting, and evil is winning.
Lester has slid off the anti-hero slope. While he was mostly sympathetic previously, this week something has changed. At first, it seemed Lester might do the right thing and at least assist the police in finding Malvo. Instead, his actions place him firmly into the realm of being unsympathetic. The amount of crimes Lester has committed has skyrocketed this episode. What's worse, though, is that it's looking like he might get away with it. We can only hope that they catch him, or even that somehow what good is left in him resurfaces, but at present the world of Fargo is a dark one indeed.
Meanwhile, Malvo's kill count has had many more people, innocent or not so innocent, wrapped up in it. He set up a trap for the Duluth PD to effectively murder poor Don Chumph, who wasn't one of the better people in the show but, but at least he seemed somewhat dumb and aloof. He went down in what is possibly the show's most dark and horrifying sequence to date.
The next step in his biblical apocalypse on Stavros resulted in the death of Stavros' son and a friend. Stavros brings his subplot full circle, burying the money and scraper where he found it, but even that's not enough. Does Malvo even want the money? Perhaps not. Perhaps he just gains pleasure in doing increasingly horrible things to people. None of these characters deserved this, but he's driving them all in these increasingly dark directions.
Gus and Molly's plot is the slowest paced of the bunch. They keep finding leads that stop at a dead end, and it seems they're no closer than they were a few episodes ago. Eventually, they wind up close to Malvo, as do Mr. Numbers and Mr. Wrench. Numbers almost manages to take down Malvo, but Malvo gains the upper hand by sheer luck. The episode introduces a horrible blizzard, and it's this cover that allows Malvo to discover that Fargo is after him and kill Mr. Numbers.
But it gets worse. There's one more body that may be added to the pile. Gus attempts to take initiative and hunt down Malvo as Molly searches for help. Gus sees the vaguest impression of a body, and thinking it's Malvo, takes a shot. Wrong move. Molly's call stops. Gus moves over to the body, and finds Molly bleeding on the snow.
Fargo is a show that gets better with every single episode, and this particular episode has been a particularly bleak and hopeless one. Nobody is allowed to be happy here. The show is, first and foremost, absolutely brilliant. But it's also one that is hard to look away from, and it has some truly devastating cliffhangers. Once again, I'm left impatiently wanting-nay, needing to see what becomes of all of this. I know my patience will be rewarded.
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