Fargo: "Who Rules the Land of Denial?" Review

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Some Neck of the Woods.

By Matt Fowler

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Fargo doesn't pay things off, it's just that it doesn't do it in the way you'd expect. It doesn't do it traditionally. Rarely do things play out the way we predict or, maybe most importantly, the way we want. But we're willing to concede this stance.

So last week, when the bus crashed and it looked like Nikki's goose was cooked, I was totally open to it being her exit. In that respect, I was also ready for Mr. Wrench to just be a funny insert. An Easter egg/leftover from Season 1 who popped up just to remind us of the shared universe.

In my heart though, and buried in the back of my brain, was this voice whispering "Wouldn't it be cool if Nikki and Wrench teamed up and kicked ass and got away?" It was a whimsical wish but - dammit! - it came true. And so for about half of "Who Rules the Land of Denial?," Nikki and Wrench fended for themselves in the snowy woods while Yuri and DQ Qualls' killer cop hunted them with crossbows. Crossbows provided courtesy of some poor innocent bystanders who mistook Yuri's headdress for a real animal. In fact, this episode seemed to be filled with collateral damage as two drivers also got taken out, Fargo movie-style in fact as they were run off the road and executed by Meemo.

Likewise, Yuri's fondness for silence and the use of an axe this week also harkened back a little bit to Peter Stormare's character, Gaear Grimsrud, from the film. And if you were in the mood for more Coen Brothers watermarks, the ethereal bowling alley lent a little Lebowski to the mix. As did the idea of unknowingly saddling up next to a wise, other-worldly character.

Namely, Ray Wise's Paul - the old school traveller who took a shining to Gloria during her plane ride to L.A. and then serendipitously saw her again when she was being hit on by Officer Hunt. Well, it turns out there was nothing random about him. Nor was his story only a part of Gloria's trip out west. He's God. Or thereabouts. Or the Wandering Jew (if you go buy the "Paul Marrane" name). You know, if you were looking for Carrie Coon to star on second show where an immortal walks among us (I'll miss you, Leftovers!). But yeah, Paul is some sort of vengeful deity looking for mortal partners to help him deliver a message to the wicked. Something or someone stemming from Soviet Eastern Block mythology, in search of righteous revenge.

I'm not going to pretend like I can parse every element of this, but clearly Paul, and the person serving drinks, didn't care about blood-soaked patrons (especially ones missing an ear like Yuri). Paul didn't blink at Nikki's ragged, injured state as he offered up a cat named Ray and spoke of old souls entering new forms. Then he spit some hot Obadiah 1:4 at Nikki, asking her to pass it along to the evil-doers that she was liable to encounter. Paul isn't hands-on (though he did offer up his car), but he's also not exactly staying out of the story.

As the Nikki portion of this week's chapter ended, Paul did do something to Yuri. Something karmically appropriate that caused the thug to never return to Varga. Something having to do with Helga (the one Yuri said talked too much) and a Rabbi. And visions of Jews murdered by Cossacks. Which was tied to Yuri's past but also sort of formed a link in the thematic chain that began back at the top of the season when the East German officer was persecuting the innocent man simply because he needed a fall guy for a murder.

Anyhow, "Who Rules the Land of Denial?" was savage and surreal. It was probably the closest Fargo's come to Twin Peaks stylistically and metaphysically. And before Nikki and Wrench wound up in that curious cosmic weigh station, they fended for their lives out in the wilderness, making for one hell of a team. It was Qualls' killer (billed as the "Golem," if you're looking for more Jewish folklore) who got the worst of it when he got tag-teamed and decapitated with a freakin' chain!

Fargo's always been great at showcasing unique and unsettling suspense but this was an awesome and massively intense extended sequence. At one point I even wondered if it would take up the entire episode. There may be nothing more to Nikki and Wrench beyond this one night, or perhaps they've come to team up for the current revenge scheme meant to gaslight Emmit and drive him mad. Either way, it was a very satisfying "most dangerous game" pairing that brought back the nobility of Wrench in a cool way while also allowing Nikki to do what she does best: scrape and claw to survive - in order that she can rise again.

Then, after all that, Sy got poisoned and we got hit with a two-month(ish) time jump as he festered away in a coma thanks to Varga's "tea." Varga, having now taken to simply running all of the Stussy Lots business transactions and only needing Emmit alive for the sole purpose of having an official owner who can sign papers. He's now perfectly content murdering Sy (though it didn't quite take) and puppeting a lost-his-s*** Emmit through seclusion and sedation while Meemo dances around on the mansion's wood floors. Varga really is an upright parasite, absorbing his victims slowly and meticulously until they're just husks. It's really quite terrifying.

Odds and ends:

• This was truly the most surprising Fargo episode for me in a long while. Not really counting Gloria's solo episode, which was also a huge break from the norm for this series. I guess, this was the most shocking and genuinely mesmerizing episode that still remained within the landscape of the main story. And I think that's really saying something considering how well this show's trained all of us to expect funhouse mirror twists and turns that help create an atmosphere of horrid happenstance.
• This episode was also scary in a way that other Fargo episodes haven't been. The animal masks. The idea of masked killers stalking you through the woods. The notion that some type of mysterious other-worldly figure is waiting for villains to arrive on his doorstep so he can confront them with their sins. The moment when Varga closely fed Sy that tea, while also offering him up a giant potion of food (that Varga would probably love to eat and then purge). The subsequent coma and time jump. Emmit's haunted soul (along with the plot to haunt him). It was all pretty nightmarish.
• The sequence by the stump, where the killers were attacking Nikki and Wrench from the shadows was really well done. By that point, the chances that Nikki might survive were pretty good - but I was never so sure that my guard dropped. Again, this show zigs when you think it could/should zag so an outcome where she tried her best but didn't make it was also feasible.
• I'm glad that Gloria and Nikki were still harassing Emmit months later. Whatever scoldings they'd gotten from their bosses didn't work and it was wonderful.

The Verdict

"Who Rules the Land of Denial?" was, probably, the scariest Fargo episode to date, filled from front to finish with nightmarish imagery and horrifying concepts that, at times, pushed the edges of the cosmic envelop. Murders, maulings, poisonings and penance - this tremendous chapter saw Nikki prevail, Sy fall, and Emmit succumb to guilt.

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