Pink Asparagus

Each character in Fargo’s third season holds a personal truth that is part of a constellation of truths that governs the show’s overall structure. Misinformation rules each character, rendering them unable to reconcile objective truth with the misinformation through which everything around them is filtered. So then the two traditional intertwined central plots, an international financial crime, and a feud between 2 brothers over a 3 decade old inheritance, become multitudinous just from each character’s unique perspective.

The show leans into on the theme of  misinformation. It has obvious plot holes and continuity errors that have frustrated many redditors – characters who claimed to have been in a place x years ago, but are far too old or too young. The words “this is a true story” flash on the screen at the start of every episode, with the word “true” usually being the first word to fade out.

The opening scene shows a terrified man in front of a police interrogator. The police officer tells the man that he has murdered his wife Helga, and the man insists that it is a case of mistaken identity – see, the man lived at the murdered woman’s address at a different time, and his wife is also named Helga. The police officer then tells him that this version of the truth doesn’t matter – it’s already been decided that the state’s version of the truth is correct.

“For you to be right, the state would have to be wrong.”

To the main antagonist “V. M Varga” – an “international man”, of no fixed name and no fixed address – information is just another tool to get what he wants. The way that information is framed and presented is more important to Varga than any “official” or “state sanctioned” version of reality – which, as a conspiracy theorist and doomsayer, Varga frequently objects to (we’ll see a flashback from Varga’s point of view showing the U.S government faking the moon landing).

Varga pitches an alarmist version of reality, in which the envious lower classes are scheming to rise up and take all of Emmit’s wealth. In reality, Varga wants to isolate Emmit from his friends and family and lure him into a state of greed and paranoia. As Emmit believes more of Varga’s version of reality, he comes to depend on Varga even more, as Varga is the only one able to provide him with wealth, and with security from the hordes of hungry, envious poor people that he now believes are coming for him.

Despite claiming to have vast fortunes in many offshore bank accounts, Varga lives a spartan lifestyle. He wears “second hand ties and cheap suits”, and sleeps on a cot in his truck. However, he claims that this is because he is “hiding his wealth” because the jealous underclass will inevitably rise up and kill the wealthy. 

Varga: There’s an accounting coming, Mr. Stussy, and you know I’m right. Mongrel hordes descending, and what are you doing to insulate yourself and your family? You think you’re rich. You’ve no idea what rich means. Rich is a fleet of private planes filled with decoys to mask your scent. It’s a bunker in Wyoming and another in Gstaad. So that’s action item one, the accumulation of wealth. And I mean wealth, not money.

Emmit: What’s action item number two?

Varga: To use that wealth to become invisible.

Similarly to Erol Morris’ “The Thin Blue Line”, the audience is not subjected to any “objective” form of truth from Fargo. The 2 main characters, brothers Ray and Emmitt Stussy (both played by Ewan McGregor) have been feuding for several decades. Most of the animosity comes from the side of the younger and less successful brother Ray – who claims he was tricked into taking his dad’s corvette as his inheritance, while Emitt took his father’s valuable stamp collection and used it to start his parking lot empire. 

Both characters give their side of the story to anyone who will listen – Emmit’s right hand man “Sy” agrees that Emmit that made his fortune through hard work, and that he has done all he can to support Ray, and agrees that Ray’s financial failures stem from himself. Ray’s ex-con girlfriend constantly assures Ray that his lack of financial fortune all stem from being “cheated” out of his proper inheritance, and that the only way to correct his course is to steal the final stamp from Emmit. Of course neither version is the full truth.

“A chicken is an egg’s way of making another egg. You see, it’s all a matter of perspective. The chicken sees it one way, the egg another.”

Police chief Dammick is a blind follower of Occam’s razor. He will chase after the simplest solution at any cost. He isn’t interested in hearing about criminal conspiracies, despite a criminal conspiracy happening under his nose. He’s learned from his long career with the police that the most obvious solution is always true. 

The villains are able to use his inflexibility to their own end – they murder 2 other characters named Stussy, causing the police to think there is a serial killer going around that murders people with that surname. Dammick lacks the tools to unravel the dense map of lies and red herrings in Fargo, as the villains constantly present a “simple” version of truth, which he will always accept. His oversimplifications of reality, and failure to adapt to the rapidly evolving  information economy make him an unwitting pawn for Varga’s misinformation campaign.

You mash potatoes and what do you get? Mashed potatoes.
“Only an intellectual could think of something so stupid”

Yuri Gurka is a Russian goon who believes that might makes right when it comes to the truth. Yuri coerces other characters into accepting his version of reality, using his imposing stature and threats of violence. The most obvious example is when he insists to a police officer that he is not in the library, and that the police officer’s eyes are deceiving him. He brandishes a whip menacingly and asks the officer to “think about what you are doing. A man alone in a room full of books, talking to himself”.

“You see, in Russia, there are two words for truth. Pravda (правда), is man’s truth. Istina (истина), is God’s truth. But there is also nepravda (неправда), untruth. And this is the weapon the leader uses; because he knows what they don’t. The truth is whatever he says it is.”

The closest objective source of information in Fargo comes from the detective, Gloria Burgle. Rather than try to convince other characters/the audience of her point of view, Gloria’s role is to unravel the fine details of the feud, the murders and the financial crimes that are taking place in Fargo. Gloria’s goal is truth itself, while every other character wants to use truth as a tool to achieve their secondary goals.

The one time we see Gloria impose her own view of truth on the audience/other characters is in the very last scene in the interrogation room with Varga. Varga insists that a man is going to walk into the room and free him in 5 minutes, while Gloria repeats that she is going to lock him up in Rykers, and then eat a Snickers bar at the state fair. The show ends with both characters anxiously looking at the clock, waiting to see which version ends up being reality.

Ben G is an arts critic, technologist and satirist who uses irony to analyze our rapidly changing relationship to technology and to each other.