Fargo Review: Happy (Season 4 Episode 10)
Fargo Season 4 Episode 10, “Happy,” sets the stage for a final showdown between the Cannons and Faddas on Season 4’s penultimate episode.
There is certainly no shortage of excitement or big developments on “Happy,” including the deaths of two major characters. There are several expertly executed scenes, which has been a highlight of the entire season.
But also consistent with the rest of the season, the episode fails to find its center or to build a cohesive narrative for viewers to invest in.
The results are an episode of Fargo that is emblematic of everything that is great about this season and the frustrating ways it fails.
“Happy” has a lot of undeniably brilliant and very cool moments.
Right out of the gate there is the fantastic opening montage catching us up on the violence Josto and Gaetano have unleashed on the city and against the Cannons since the shoot-out that killed their mother and sister.
It quickly pulls viewers back into the conflict while efficiently letting us know where things currently stand in the Cannon-Fadda war. The use of newspaper headlines also helps us take a step back and remember that this war exists in a larger context and has consequences beyond the two families.
“Happy” makes the point a couple of times throughout the hour, both during Loy’s conversation with the episode’s namesake and when Ebal reminds Josto that New York wants the conflict wrapped up.
The other stand out scenes of the episode are Odis’s death, Oraetta’s midnight visit to Ethelrida’s room, and the final scene between Loy and Ethelrida.
The scenes with Odis and Oraetta in particular are stylistically excellent. The visual storytelling carries so much of the emotional weight of those scenes and builds truly gripping tension.
But the scenes that follow, both Odis’s murder and Oraetta’s encounter with the ghost, are perfect examples of one of the most frustrating things Fargo has done all season.
They build up these tense scenes only to undercut it with something anti-climactic that fails to meet the moment they are creating.
With Odis’ death, for example, we have this poignant death of a character who is finally able to let go and find some peace in his last moments immediately followed by the abrupt, random death of Gaetano who shoots himself when he trips on a rock.
Then with Oraetta, we have an intensely scary scene that starts with Oraetta as the menacing predator we met at the beginning of the season only to transition her to a state of sheer terror when she senses the ghost behind her.
The entire sequence raises the stakes to spellbinding otherworldly levels, only to immediately crash it all back down to earth when Oraetta comes home to the police waiting for her after an off-camera ID from a now recovered Dr. Harvard.
This back and forth between high-stakes build-up and low-stakes pay-offs is a consistent pattern this season, and thematically it might even be intentional.
They allow us to get caught up in this game of control that these characters think they have only to remind us that control and meaning are illusions because life is about chance and luck.
From an intellectual standpoint, that’s an interesting theme and one worthy of exploration but as a viewer who invests in these characters, it’s frustrating and unsatisfying.
The biggest issue with “Happy” however, is that it feels like a collection of brilliant loose threads without a coherent narrative to tie it together.
It’s impossible not to be engrossed during those standout moments. Those are the things that bring me back week after week. Yet when I step back and view the episode and season as a whole it’s too much style, and not enough substance.
There is still time for Fargo to pull many of these storylines together into something satisfying for its season finale.
The pieces are all there. Satchel’s possible return, the seething anger of Loy’s wife, Oraetta’s exposure, Ethelrida’s deal with Loy, and the revelation of Donatello’s ring.
All the components for a fantastic season finale are there but after a season of meandering and narrative dead ends it’s going to be a big lift to pull it all together in one hour.
Stray Thoughts
- Oraetta is the embodiment of the Wizard of Oz’s Miss Gulch during her confrontation with Ethelrida on the Smunty porch.
- The soundtrack for this episode is fantastic. I suggest everyone check out the Detroit Cobra’s cover of “Insane Asylum” as well as the original version by Koko Taylor and Willie Dixon which is used during the episode’s opening sequence.
- I appreciate the call back to Ola Belle Reed’s music on Fargo Season 4 Episode 7, “Lay Away,” when Odis thinks of his wife singing “High on a Mountain” right before he dies.
- I am starting to wonder if Loy’s wife might end up turning on him or playing an important part during the final confrontation between the Faddas and Cannons. There is so much righteous rage there waiting to be unleashed.
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Fargo airs Sundays at 10/9c on FX.
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Sarah Fields
Sarah is an obsessive geek who likes to get into the weeds and over think things. She is passionate about Sci-Fi and comics and is a giant classic film nerd. Sarah cares deeply about media representation and the power of telling diverse stories. When she's not writing or watching her favorite shows she spends her days working in the non-profit world trying to make life a little better for those that need some extra help.