As fist-pumping #GirlPower moments go, three women uniting against Jon Hamm's tyrannical sheriff in "Fargo" Episode 5 is delightfully watchable stuff. But don't let "Fargo" Season 4 star Jason Schwartzman's opening voiceover or the absence of Ole Munch and his 500-year-old ways fool you: This week's installment, titled "The Tiger," is as unnerving as any episode of Season 5 so far.
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Written by Noah Hawley and directed by Dana Gonzales, "Fargo" Episode 5 forgoes the magical realism of previous weeks in favor of a hospital convergence with slapstick elements and three exquisite people-talking-in-rooms sequences. Earlier this week, "Fargo" scored a Golden Globe nomination for Best Miniseries, with Juno Temple and Jon Hamm also getting nods in the acting categories. Both stars shine in this episode's more intimate character moments, like the shocking double-reveal that Dot was a child bride and Roy was, in some way, abusive. Let's dig in.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Fargo" Season 5, Episode 5, "The Tiger."
We learn that Dot was 17 when she married Roy and 15 (sounds illegal, right?) when they first got together. If we call Gator 20 years old (he could be even older), then Dot was closer in age to her stepson than to her husband. What's more, we still don't know exactly what happened to Roy's first wife (Gator's biological mother) — only that she "disappeared." Given that Roy isn't hunting her, it's fair to suspect that she died or was killed.
Read on for a rundown of every illuminating detail you might have missed in this week's "Fargo."
Lorraine Bests Roy Tillman
Michelle Faye/FX
Wayne (David Rysdahl) is in the hospital with "neurological complications," and Dot and Scotty (Sienna King) are living at the Lyon mansion. In order to gain power of attorney over her son's family, Lorraine (Jennifer Jason Leigh) orders Danish (Dave Foley) to commit Dot to a psychiatric hospital. She's captured and strapped to a gurney as a nature documentary-style voiceover says that tigers (that's what Ole Munch called Dot) are "most dangerous when cornered." Sure enough, Dot gets the better of her captor and a nurse, escaping the ward wearing scrubs.
Lorraine is at a business lunch with bank owner Vivian Dugger (Andrew Wheeler) and his associate. She threatens to tip off the SEC about Vivian's regulatory failures if he doesn't sell the bank to her. When he calls her "lady," she knocks off $10 million from her offer.
Back at the mansion, Lorraine finds Roy in her driveway. He tells her all about Dot's past life as Nadine, his wife-slash-property. She grimaces at their wedding photo, which shows a 17-year-old Dot. Lorraine offers to pay him off. When he refuses, she goes for the jugular. She's heard of him and his anti-government stance. He wants "freedom with no responsibility," but only babies get that deal, she says, adding: "After seven years, a missing person is presumed dead, so technically Dorothy is my son's property now."
Roy greets Scotty on his way out and overhears Lorraine and Danish discussing their bank deal with Vivian Dugger, whom Roy once caught soliciting prostitution. Sounds like Dugger owes him a favor. Roy orders his goons to kidnap Wayne from the hospital (he doesn't know Dot is there, too), making Gator (Joe Keery) stay in the car after failing every past mission.
Dot's Great Escape
Michelle Faye/FX
In the hospital, Dot spots Roy's men looking for Wayne, so she swaps his room tag with that of last week's belligerent patient. After a brief, heartbreaking hug, she leaves Wayne safely locked away in the bathroom. FBI Agents Joaquin (Nick Gomez) and Meyer (Jessica Phly) turn up to question the newly-committed Dot/Nadine about Roy, and Gator follows them inside. Dot watches with relief as her former stepson carts away the wrong man. Her ruse was successful. She escapes the hospital through a bathroom window before the agents learn she's a psych ward escapee.
With the news that Dot was committed to, then escaped, the hospital, Indira (Richa Moorjani) arrives at Lorraine's mansion to question her. But the tables turn when Lorraine reveals that she looked up Indira and knows all about the $200K debt she's swimming in. If debtors like Indira are animals in a zoo, says Lorraine, she's the "zookeeper, not some lemur or lemming." Or, I dunno, lion?
What if Lorraine Lyon, CEO of America's largest debt collection agency, is not the zookeeper outside the cage, but merely the apex predator within it? That would put her on par with Dot, the "tiger" who called herself a "mother lion" in Episode 1. Both women have had to fight off Roy Tillman to protect their own, and Lorraine's belief in her own security outside the "cage" feels like hubris at this point.
Indira to the Rescue
Michelle Faye/FX
Dot sneaks into Lorraine's backyard to see Scotty. When Scotty tells her she met "Sheriff Roy," Dot takes her to Indira's house for safety and the two women finally level with each other. Dot admits that her first husband—whom she doesn't name—tried to kidnap her twice this week. She was 17 when they were married and "15 when they took me in," she says, adding: "That's a whole other story. They never hate you when it's going their way, you know? It's when they're weak and just pretending to be strong, and they need something small to climb on to feel big."
Indira asks, "They?" Is Dot referring to all husbands, all men or the multiple people who took her in at 15? Is Roy part of some weird commune? Indira's no-good husband waltzes in and very obviously checks out Dot, whom Indira introduces as her friend Alice. They'll be watching her daughter Scotty for the next few days. The episode ends with the "Fargo" theme playing as Dot drives away from Indira's house, presumably on her way to North Dakota to eliminate the threat of Roy Tillman.
New episodes of "Fargo" premiere Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on FX and stream the following day on Hulu.
