FX’s Fargo
4×08: “The Nadir”
Directed by Sylvain White
Written by Noah Hawley, Enzo Mileti, & Scott Wilson

* For a recap & review of “Lay Away,” click here.
* For a recap & review of “East/West,” click here.
While Josto plans his wedding he’s also busy fucking Oraetta, playing BDSM games together. His sexual relationship with the nurse is strange—not the sex, just them together. They’re each weird in their own way. Josto tells Oraetta he’s getting married soon, which comes as a surprise to her. They talk about her past. She was in the hospital often; the doctor said it was a “failure to thrive.” What it sounds like, particularly with the “special juice” Oraetta mentions, is that her mother probably had Munchausen by proxy. Afterwards, Josto reveals he was molested by the Irishman he was traded to as a boy. But a bit of trouble pops up when Oraetta checks on Dr. Harvard, only to discover he’s made a full recovery. Oh, mercy. She freaks out, and more so when Josto confesses his love to her.

Surprise, surprise! When Josto gets back he sees his brother’s returned, too. He gets the shit kicked out of him by big bro Gaetano. Finally the brothers face off. It’s as one-sided as you’d expect. Gaetano knocks his little brother out cold in front of everybody, letting him come to on the floor like “Sleeping Beauty.” He says he’s proud of Josto for going so far as to kill a child to have him killed. Of course, that’s not really how things turned out. The misunderstanding works well for Josto, though. Big brother sees it as him having the power and little bro having the brains; a perfect combination. Until now Gaetano thought Josto was weak. Not anymore.

Not exactly what Loy had planned. What now?
He only says one word: Fargo.
Dibrell and Buel get talking after the latter shows up at the Smutney place unannounced. They sit for a drink. Buel’s still under the impression her boy Satchel was murdered. Dibrell tries to use some of her funeral director knowledge and charm to lessen the burden on Loy’s wife. The two women talk about Dibrell’s other children, as well. And they bond, even if Mrs. Cannon urged at the start there’d be no help coming from her. Dibrell talks of her own daughter Ethelrida, not wanting her mistakes to determine her daughter’s path in life.

There’s suspicion in the wake of Dr. Harvard’s troubles. They’ve already suspected murder, so the doc’s been taken out of state until he can recover and the situation gets settled. Obviously this puts Oraetta into a frantic rush. She goes straight home to begin packing her things, tossing everything she owns into suitcases and collecting all those eerie murder keepsakes she’s been collecting from her victims. It’s then that she’s able to put together the handwriting from the letter written to Harvard, realising the culprit was young Ethelrida from across the street. Not good for the kid.

Deafy shows up on the Cannon doorstep flashing his badge. He has a brief non-violent standoff with one of Loy’s men before heading inside. Loy’s surprised to see him but doesn’t act that way. Deafy talks about coming to Kansas City for a “simple job” originally, now he’s left “bamboozled at every turn.” He pontificates about criminals and morality, though Loy isn’t much impressed, nor intimidated. The chat gets tense, so Deafy pulls his gun before anyone else can pull theirs out. Eventually Loy gives up Swanee and Zelmare’s location: they’re headed for a train to Philly.
Now, Deafy’s gearing up to ride on the train station and capture his targets. He even allows Odis to come along after everything when the soldier levels with him on a human level about his OCD. They leave for Union Station, where Swanee and Zelmare believe they’re just about free from the men nipping at their heels. Deafy and the cops arrive—Odis is having last minute jitters—closing in on the women. But Zelmare has a keen eye, and she spots Deafy from across the station. Thus the ladies are determined to go down blazing, hauling out their guns to give the approaching cops a fight. Not without a good smooch first.
And so, they go out in a hail of bullets.

Odis gets himself in gear and runs inside where there’s body after body strewn everywhere across the floor. It’s like a war zone. Not great for a man’s who obviously got PTSD, before it was named as such, from his time in the war. But he makes it to where Deafy’s got Swanee and Zelmare at gunpoint after they ran out of bullets. Odis decides not to cuff the women like Deafy suggests. He instead shoots the Mormon cop, then he executes Swanee. Before he can put a bullet in Zelmare she pushes him out of the way and runs.

The Fadda family are attacked by men with guns. It’s a bunch of white guys, not Loy’s men. Gaetano goes beast mode and runs them off with duelling pistols, not before several of their men are gunned down. Luckily, Josto survives. That does nothing for the bullets that made it through the window, killing a couple women, one of whom is Jost and Gaetano’s mother.

“Come get it, dirty coppers.”

Another fantastic episode in Season 4. Some interesting twists; I didn’t expect Josto and Gaetano to come together the way they have, and the continuing lie being told about Satchel’s death also provides compelling bends in the narrative. Not to mention the violence is kicking into seriously high gear. And Oraetta, who knows what’ll happen there!