Fargo Season 3 Episode 7 Review: The Law of Inevitability

This Fargo review contains spoilers.

Fargo Season 3 Episode 7

Ray’s shocking accidental death last week created a wave that rocked all of our central characters this week, but somehow “The Law of Inevitability” feels fairly light in content. My notes, usually a sprawling list of plot beats and standout lines, are only a few bullet points long. The fallout from Ray’s demise spelled fear, confusion, and trouble for almost everyone, but that leaves our characters plotting their next moves rather than keeping the action going. Most of this episode’s exciting moments, including that appearance from a Fargo Season 1 favorite, come in the last twenty minutes of the episode, designating this a “resetting the table” episode.

Things begin in earnest when Nikki is found by the police in her motel room. It’s hinted that Meemo tipped the authorities off to her location, choosing to use her as a scapegoat rather than a sacrificial lamb. Sherriff Dammik is the first to interview Nikki, calling the case exactly as Varga had hoped, because he’s a “simple man.” Shea Whigham, who’s shined in Cop Car, Skull: Kong Island, and Vice Principals, makes Dammik’s “mashed potatoes” speech one of the more memorable scenes from the episode. The smaller, reoccurring characters this season have really pulled things up when things have begun feeling slow.

Gloria is desperate to interview Nikki and confirm her and Winnie’s theories, but Dammik and the St. Cloud chief are having none of it. Gloria is forced to jump through bureaucratic hoops just to get the proper paperwork to talk to Nikki. When she finally gains access to Nikki’s cell, it’s only to stop an anonymous assassin (played by DJ Qualls) from sticking Nikki with a syringe full of unknown contents. The hitman escapes, but worse than that is the fact that no one trusts Nikki’s or Gloria’s word about what happened, and the security camera mysteriously went dark during the time of the attempted murder.  I’m curious to see just how this unknown assailant is connected to everything, though it’s likely that he’s just working for Varga.

Meanwhile, Emmit heads straight from killing his brother to a dinner with Sy and the Widow Goldfarp. At first bug-eyed and pale, Emmit becomes brash and rude to the Widow before she points out a bit of blood on his shirt. The false confidence quickly leaves Emmit and is replaced with freezing fear as soon as he spots Winnie in the restaurant, who’s arrived to take Emmit’s pulse about his brother’s murder. Right from the start, Emmit acts suspicious, jumping to Nikki’s motive before Winnie even reveals that Ray’s death was a murder. Thankfully Sy is able to rush Emmit away before he incriminated himself further, but the added stress of Ray’s death on top of all of their other circumstances causes the two men to bicker and then be reduced to tears. Stuhlbarg steals another scene here, making Sy’s lowest moment pathetically hilarious.

We get a little bit of a tense moment when Yuri finally heads to Eden Valley to retrieve Ennis Stussy’s case file from the police station. While at the station, Yuri comes face to face with the hapless Donny, who is easily convinced by Yuri to flee the premises without putting up a fight. Yuri pops up again later in the episode as Nikki is being transported to prison, and it’s here where things become truly intriguing. In the prison transport bus, we see that Nikki is sat next to none other than Season 1’s deaf hitman Mr. Wrench before the bus is ambushed and flips. Yuri, Meemo, and an unseen third party are the perpetrators, but I have to wonder exactly what they’re doing. It appears that their intentions are to finish off Nikki before she can spill any secrets, but Wrench’s involvement makes me question things. Could Varga’s men also be aiming to break Mr. Wrench out? Could that unseen third man be someone else from Season 1? Perhaps I’m overthinking a fun cameo, but Wrench is nowhere to be seen once the bus flips.

Though it wasn’t the most thrilling hour of the season, there were several engaging scenes powered by nothing more than solid performances. With only three episodes left, I wouldn’t expect the episodes moving forward to have such a mellow pace. Nikki will have to fight her way out of a tight situation and the walls are slowly but surely caving in on Emmit, but I guess that was inevitable.