309 - "Aporia"

A_Ron_Hubbard

Director: Keith Gordon
Writers: Noah Hawley and Bob DeLaurentis

Alkaid13

Where does Varga keep getting these goons? He must have some influence if he can just replace his dwindling supply of hitmen so easily. Also Nikki pulling the fake Grenade trick from the GR I see.

Alkaid13

Varga's wiping out all the Stussy's one lonely old man at a time. He just had a bad experience vomiting in one of those Stussy toilets one time and he could never get over it.

Alkaid13

Damn that's a nice wrap up job there by Varga, don't know how much you have to pay a guy to confess to four murders but it must be a lot.

Graham

I'm all for Carrie Coon getting therapeutic hugs on multiple planes of existence.

Alkaid13

Winnie gives healing hugs apparently, she's clearly the Holy Wayne of this universe. I think this was good episode for Carrie Coon to show off some of her acting chops.

Alkaid13

Real talk, what's the actual dollar amount you'd need to confess to four murders? I know Aron discussed how much he'd need to bed a rich oil Sheik but I feel like a gay for pay number is still lower than this one has to be.

Alkaid13

Honestly even if I couldn't remember a single physical detail about Varga to distinguish him from other suit wearing nondescript guys all I'd need is to see his fucking horrifying melted black licorice smile to ID him in a lineup. That's easily his most remarkable trait besides the accent.

aberry89

I feel like this charachter devolpment needed to happen way earlier in the season for Carrie Coon but I appreciated it all the same. 

Hatorian

Alkaid13 said:

Real talk, what's the actual dollar amount you'd need to confess to four murders? I know Aron discussed how much he'd need to bed a rich oil Sheik but I feel like a gay for pay number is still lower than this one has to be.

Sounds like the guy is a professional confessionist. The chief said something like he was in for 20 years and was only out for 6 months. I jmagine ifs a lifer who prefers the clink and gets paid for it. Sort of like the guy on breaking bad that took the fall for the real Heisenberg.

DaveyMac

Second week in a row where I loved Fargo. I loved the Varga/Swango "Bridge" showdown. 

And Winnie is amazing. What a great scene at the bar and her miracle hug to Gloria.  

I wasn't feeling this season, but man have I come around in the last couple of weeks.

GredalBee

So was my speculation on Varga confirmed and there's no larger corporation? I always thought that made more sense and these guys never struck me as international masterminds.  Not sure how I feel about Nikki and Wrench wrecking house, particularly after J&A leaned pretty heavy on bowling alley purgatory.  They did take the car so they could "come back" or whatever metaphorical/spiritual interpretation that implies, but I just assumed that was a clean ending for all three characters.

I'm glad the Gloria stuff is working for people, but I just don't care about her.  What little we've seen from her is gruff, condescending, and not entitled but that similar type of expectant law enforcement personality.  You can tell she's a character that's used to whipping out a badge and bullrushing through situations, which I inherently dislike.

Another idea I had, which is equally as farfetched as anything, is that maybe Hawley was hinting at some kind of spectrum disorder? Gloria not understanding very basic sayings kind of pricked my ears up to that.  And then you look at the uncomfortable way she interacts with most people and she's not really in tune with social gestures.  The hug, while sweet, had tinges of that like Gloria doesn't like or really understand physical affection.  To me, that's a more interesting angle than just a cold cop that's tired of everything.

emnofseattle

Hatorian said:

Alkaid13 said:

Real talk, what's the actual dollar amount you'd need to confess to four murders? I know Aron discussed how much he'd need to bed a rich oil Sheik but I feel like a gay for pay number is still lower than this one has to be.

Sounds like the guy is a professional confessionist. The chief said something like he was in for 20 years and was only out for 6 months. I jmagine ifs a lifer who prefers the clink and gets paid for it. Sort of like the guy on breaking bad that took the fall for the real Heisenberg.

yeah but what good is the money in prison? There's very limited ways you can spend it for your own Benefit

MrX

emnofseattle said:

Hatorian said:

Alkaid13 said:

Real talk, what's the actual dollar amount you'd need to confess to four murders? I know Aron discussed how much he'd need to bed a rich oil Sheik but I feel like a gay for pay number is still lower than this one has to be.

Sounds like the guy is a professional confessionist. The chief said something like he was in for 20 years and was only out for 6 months. I jmagine ifs a lifer who prefers the clink and gets paid for it. Sort of like the guy on breaking bad that took the fall for the real Heisenberg.

yeah but what good is the money in prison? There's very limited ways you can spend it for your own Benefit

Maybe it's for his family?

emnofseattle

MrX said:

emnofseattle said:

Hatorian said:

Alkaid13 said:

Real talk, what's the actual dollar amount you'd need to confess to four murders? I know Aron discussed how much he'd need to bed a rich oil Sheik but I feel like a gay for pay number is still lower than this one has to be.

Sounds like the guy is a professional confessionist. The chief said something like he was in for 20 years and was only out for 6 months. I jmagine ifs a lifer who prefers the clink and gets paid for it. Sort of like the guy on breaking bad that took the fall for the real Heisenberg.

yeah but what good is the money in prison? There's very limited ways you can spend it for your own Benefit

Maybe it's for his family?

MrX said:

emnofseattle said:

Hatorian said:

Alkaid13 said:

Real talk, what's the actual dollar amount you'd need to confess to four murders? I know Aron discussed how much he'd need to bed a rich oil Sheik but I feel like a gay for pay number is still lower than this one has to be.

Sounds like the guy is a professional confessionist. The chief said something like he was in for 20 years and was only out for 6 months. I jmagine ifs a lifer who prefers the clink and gets paid for it. Sort of like the guy on breaking bad that took the fall for the real Heisenberg.

yeah but what good is the money in prison? There's very limited ways you can spend it for your own Benefit

Maybe it's for his family?

Possibly, but that amount of money would have to laundered for the family to use it, unless his family are also savvy criminals.

emnofseattle

I think the episode reinforces just going to the FBI the first episode would've solved all Sy/Emmit problems.

Earlier Varga made the claim the IRS were so incompetent they couldn't crack his operation if they had his account numbers. But he seems pretty worried by Nikki having his files.

And has Meemo not told Varga about Wrench? Because after the prison bus and the truck hijacking someone in Vargas operation should've predicted that Nikki has help

ghm3

Another great episode, I loved the ending with the info dump to the IRS guy.

As for the fall guy, I don't see how a payoff makes much sense, it seems more likely he got a, "do this and we'll make your family want for nothing, don't and we'll kill you last" sort of deal.

Is Carrie Coon's character now suddenly vulnerable/discover-able by Varga now that technology acknowledges her existence?

And now for some pointless rambling:

"When it rains it pours" isn't really even a saying, at least not originally, it's a marketing slogan for Morton salt from like a century ago. It used to be that when the air was more humid (like when it rains) your table salt would clump together and you couldn't pour it. Morton added an anti-clumping agent to the salt so it would still freely pour even when it's humid, so that "when it rains it pours" and that's why they have the iconic logo of the girl in the yellow dress and umbrella:

And speaking of a century ago, it's always been a small pet peeve of mine seeing 100 year old grenades in TV and movies, even if it's fake like in this episode as long as it's supposed to be believed to be real. The 'pineapple' style Mk 2 as seen in this episode was made at the end of WW1, mass produced during WW2 and then the massive surplus was used through Korea and the partially in Vietnam, and after like two decades finally phased out by the end of the '60s. It's not that it's strictly impossible to be real or anything, but the M67 has been around for literally like 50 years now so even old black market surplus would almost certainly be the 'new' style. 

emnofseattle

ghm3 said:

Another great episode, I loved the ending with the info dump to the IRS guy.

As for the fall guy, I don't see how a payoff makes much sense, it seems more likely he got a, "do this and we'll make your family want for nothing, don't and we'll kill you last" sort of deal.

Is Carrie Coon's character now suddenly vulnerable/discover-able by Varga now that technology acknowledges her existence?

And now for some pointless rambling:

"When it rains it pours" isn't really even a saying, at least not originally, it's a marketing slogan for Morton salt from like a century ago. It used to be that when the air was more humid (like when it rains) your table salt would clump together and you couldn't pour it. Morton added an anti-clumping agent to the salt so it would still freely pour even when it's humid, so that "when it rains it pours" and that's why they have the iconic logo of the girl in the yellow dress and umbrella:

And speaking of a century ago, it's always been a small pet peeve of mine seeing 100 year old grenades in TV and movies, even if it's fake like in this episode as long as it's supposed to be believed to be real. The 'pineapple' style Mk 2 as seen in this episode was made at the end of WW1, mass produced during WW2 and then the massive surplus was used through Korea and the partially in Vietnam, and after like two decades finally phased out by the end of the '60s. It's not that it's strictly impossible to be real or anything, but the M67 has been around for literally like 50 years now so even old black market surplus would almost certainly be the 'new' style. 

I don't know about you but if someone shoots a hole in my window and Chucks a grenade in the hole I'm not going to be analyzing what type of grenade it is and if it might be live. Like at that point you have three seconds to haul ass.

How dangerous a WW2 grenade (of which there probably is a handful of those still floating around that we brought back from the war) is today is a largely academic discussion but that's not the discussion you have when it's chucked in your car. And I guarantee you if you called 911 and told the dispatcher you found a pineapple grenade in the park you'd see the full bomb squad respond. There is way too many factors in old explosives to know how stable or dangerous they are

ghm3

Well yeah of course, you're putting too much weight into my 'taken to be real' thing. I just said that because if it was actually supposed to be a real grenade it would've just been even weirder. I don't get why show creators so often choose to use such an old design in their show, it would be like if shows had people using Lugers for a bank robberies and no one ever thinking it was any more unusual than a Glock. If it were a non-functional replica at least that makes a bit more sense of why, they're just scrounging for something to look real, and obviously you wouldn't assume it's a replica just because it's an older gun, but it's still just weird either way.

Alkaid13

I imagine it's easier to obtain fake plastic WW2 era grenades than find a high quality fake of the more modern variety for essentially a 5 min scene.

Alkaid13

Also I don't know how many viewers would know the difference between different eras of grenade.

iMatty94

Was this episode only 34 mins?

toncica

iMatty94 said:

Was this episode only 34 mins?

No, you should look for something with "Proper" in the title. ;)

George

Pod coming late this week or is there something wrong on my end?

Dee

@George They changed it a couple of weeks ago so it's a day later.

tom_g

emnofseattle said:

I think the episode reinforces just going to the FBI the first episode would've solved all Sy/Emmit problems.

Earlier Varga made the claim the IRS were so incompetent they couldn't crack his operation if they had his account numbers. But he seems pretty worried by Nikki having his files.

And has Meemo not told Varga about Wrench? Because after the prison bus and the truck hijacking someone in Vargas operation should've predicted that Nikki has help

I agree - the FBI can solve problems.

Underwood

Keith Gordon has directed episodes of The Leftovers and Better Call Saul this year too... He's our one true savior of the Podcalypse.

Michelle

So, I thought those "Dr. Pimple Popper" vids on Facebook grossed me out - but they might be tied with close-ups of watching VM Varga eat rocky road ice cream.  *shudder* SO. disgusting.  Those false teeth that they created for David Thewlis are just so perfectly gross, and combined with the mouth movements and the sound... UGH.

hisdudeness915

@Michelle I thought it was more hilarious than disgusting this time. The rate at which he devoured that ice cream was impressive and only upstaged by the fact that it was while sitting in a bathroom stall. That scene had me legit laughing out loud

Dummy

 I never really considered Mary Elizabeth Winstead to be all that sexy until this episode. When she was walking out of the hotel after smacking down Varga....definitely rose in the sexiest actress category. 

michielterlouw

Great episode!

Minor gripe. I don't think the IRS guy should be able to see the envelope *before* swiveling the chair around. Unless he has x-ray eyes.