It says at the beginning of every episode that it is based on a true story that happened in Minnesota in 2006, and that the names were changed but everything else is the same.
1-The crocodile’s dilemma
At night, we see a car hitting a deer or something and crashing and a man coming out naked out of the trunk, and running away. Later of course he’ll be found frozen to death. The driver of the car hit his head, so he goes to the hospital.
We see Lester, an insurance salesman not doing too good. His wife always complains because they have no money. His younger brother is ashamed of him and tells people that he’s dead: “you’re 40, when are you gonna get your act together?” and after Lester hits him his wife says “your own brother? you didn’t have to hit him, what is the matter with you?”.
Lester meets a bully on the street with his two kids who have learned all the bullying he was able to teach them. Lester still remembers how the guy used to bully him in high school and is afraid of him, and he breaks his own nose while trying to escape.
Lester meets the driver at the hospital, and the man Malvo wants to hear his story, and then he tells him that he’d have killed him, actually tells him that he’ll kill Sam for him if he wants to. Malvo goes to look at Sam where he works, he talks to the boys and then to him, in front of other people, and asks him if he’s Sam and Sam says “who wants to know?” and Malvo looks to his left, right, does a little creepy smile and says “me” :-p Them Malvo follows him to a nightclub and kills him.
Later on, Malvo calls the older son telling him that his father left everything to the younger son, so Micky tries to kill his brother but the police are there and stop him.
Lester tries to repair the washing machine himself but instead he kills it for good. His wife tells him “you’re not even half a man, I don’t know what got into me marrying you”, and he hits her with a hammer repeatedly, killing her! Afterwards he’s in shock and he calls Malvo for help, then he opens the door and there is the chief of police! They talk and the chief sees the blood on the floor and understands. Right on time comes Malvo, who shoots who shoots the cop dead, and goes away.
Lester hits his head on the wall on purpose, to impersonate a victim himself.
Molly finds him on the floor.
2-The rooster prince
Two men are sent from Fargo, North Dakota, to find out what happened to Sam Hess, who killed him and if it might be related to their business. Lester is out of the hospital, back home, safe for now. Unfortunately chief Vern died without the chance to make Molly officially the new chief like he wanted, so the old silly man Bill is in charge now. Molly and Bill go talk to Lester, but the men have known each other a long time and Bill is easily satisfied by the explanation. Molly can’t let it go and tries to talk to Lester again when they meet one night, but Lester runs away and tells her to ask her boss and stop harassing him. Lester then calls Bill, so now Molly is off the case.
3-A muddy road
We see a bit of who the frozen guy/naked guy in the trunk was: Malvo took him from his desk at a company of some sort, not caring about cameras recording him. Molly goes to investigate and watches the video. Malvo finds the blackmailer he was looking for, but doesn’t kill him, instead he takes over the blackmail, and kills Stavros dog.
Lester’s hand is getting worse. Gus goes to confess that he let Malvo go but luckily he meets Molly and talks to her and she understands, I think, what with seeing his daughter and learning that there’s no mom.
Lester takes up shooting with his brother.
4-Eating the blame
When Stavros came here with his wife and child, he found a case full of money in the snow.
Gus finds the dangerous man and arrests him, takes him to the station then calls Molly to tell her that he got Malvo. When Molly tells her chief, he goes to see him in her place.
Malvo now has the new identity of Frank the minister and puts up a good act, and the chief lets him go.
The two men kidnap Lester thinking that he killed Sam Hess, but Lester uses a taser on one and runs away, finds a cop and punches him in order to get arrested and driven into town. He’s put into a cell but then the two men stage a fight to get arrested as well and they end up in his same cell.
5-The six ungraspables
The two men hurt Lester so he tells them the name Malvo.
Molly tries again to talk to her chief about Lester and Malvo. She has all her facts straight but for the detail that she thinks Lester hired the guy.
Lester is taken to the hospital, delusional because his hand is badly infected. Molly learns from his doctor how bad it was and that there was something in the wound.
6-Buridan’s ass
Lester’s brother tells him that there’s something wrong with him, that he has to give the police someone if he wants to get out, then walks away. Lester puts bandages over his face to escape unrecognized, with coat and boots but no pants. He puts the hammer used to kill his wife in his brother’s weapons locker.
Malvo has the dumb blackmailer guy killed by the police.
The two hitmen try to shoot Malvo, but he kills one of them instead. Gus shoots Molly by mistake, panicking, not seeing a thing.
The King buries the money in the snow where he had found it years back, instead of paying the blackmail, then cries finding his son dead in a car accident due to dead fish falling from the sky.
Lester comes back to the hospital unnoticed.
7-Who shaves the barber?
The gun that Lester hid in his nephew’s schoolbag falls down while at school, so the cops go at his brother’s house and during a search they find the locker with the big weapons hidden there, and also the hammer and panties and pictures that Lester put in. The chief Bill now thinks that Lester’s wife was having an affair with his brother, and that Lester lied to protect him, and maybe also because he was afraid of him, and Lester confirms it all, that his brother killed his wife and also chief Vern, and he is arrested.
When Molly wakes up (yeayy, I got worried for a moment, there) Gus tells her that he’s the one who shot her, and she understands. She shot the second hitman, but Malvo got away. He’s not dead though, and Molly goes to see him. He’s the deaf one, so he writes.
Gus brings Molly some flowers, then she goes home with her dad.
Malvo goes to kill the two hitmen’s boss and all the people there, and then he goes away unnoticed by the police and the FBI.
Lester should tell Sam’s wife that Sam didn’t pay for the insurance and therefore the claim is denied, instead he implies that he could help solve the problem so she has sex with him.
8-The heap
Lester throws away everything that his wife had or used. Chief Bill is happy with the case closed, but Molly still says that Lester is involved; Bill yells at her and won’t listen to her.
Gina Hess comes to Lester’s office with her kids, all angry, but Lester hurts the kids with a stapler adn sends them away.
Malvo kills the cop guarding the deaf hitman, but not him; Molly and Gus talk and plan to go to a festival together, and then I read: “a year later” on screen...
Gus is now working as a mailman, good for him, like he wanted. He lives with Molly and his daughter, and Molly is pregnant. Molly still thinks about the case but nobody else is interested. Even the FBI dismiss her. Lester is now “salesman of the year” (2007) and is now married to his cute coworker. He feels on top of the world, but then he sees Malvo, slightly different look but definitely him.
9-A fox, a rabbit, and a cabbage
Malvo is now a dentist married to a beautiful girl, throwing parties, and is friend with a guy whose brother is in witness protection... we can all see the point here...
They go to Vegas together, and that’s where Lester sees him. Lester approaches him to say hi, but Malvo pretends to not knowing him and tells him to go away, but Lester won’t let it go, he’s all ‘you can’t do this to me’, and Malvo is all scary ‘you sure it’s what you want?’ or something like that. Malvo shoots the three people that were with him and says “it’s on you; I worked this guy for six months” ... Lester then hits him - not very hard - and runs away. He packs his bags and leaves the hotel in a hurry with his wife. Lester plans to go to Acapulco with her and maybe never come back; Molly is called from Las Vegas PD saying that Lester is a witness in a three-people-murder.
Lester changed house, but the Nygaard Insurance is easy to find, and Malvo is looking for him.
Molly questions him but his wife lies and says that she’s the one who wanted to leave early, homesick. Malvo goes to Joe’s diner and sees Molly’s wedding picture. He leaves from the front door, Molly enters from the back door, and the FBI agents from Fargo miss him too. Well, that’s good for me, I was worried for Joe there...
She shows them her board on the case, but then Chief Bill tells them his brother-theory. Still, the FBI agents compliment her and stay in town.
Lester needs to stop at the shop to get the passport to run away but is afraid Malvo might be waiting for him, so he sends in his wife with his red coat, and sure enough she gets shot in the head!!
10-Morton’s fork
After seeing Malvo walking away, Lester goes in to take his passport but then doesn’t; instead he puts the keys in her hand and goes to the diner. In Molly’s words: “the other one now?” and “someone killed the second Mrs Nygaard”. Of course Lester acts all shocked with the police. Molly wonders if this might be because he was a witness in those Vegas murders, to shut him up. When questioned, Lester pretends to not knowing the man, but Molly tells him that “he’s not gonna stop”, but he won’t say anything.
Gus doesn’t want her to go after Malvo, doesn’t want Greta to go to another funeral, he says.
Chief Bill says that he wants to quit - finally, he’s not cut for the job. He wants to recommend her to take over.
The FBI agents take Lester home and stand guard outside. Malvo kills them both, then goes after Lester, but is slowed down by a hunting trap and goes away, hurt, back to his cabin to take care of his leg; I knew Gus was there, and was worried for him, really hoped he’d kill him right away, not giving him any chance to do anything, and when Gus comes out telling him “I figured it out; your riddle, I figured it out” I was so worried I wanted to scream Shoot! and then Gus shot him three times: not dead yet, so twice more! Finally dead. Hooray! When Molly comes they hug, then she finds Malvo’s tapes! He had recorded every conversation, and she listens to Lester’s tape right away.
Two weeks later, Lester is in Montana, and the police are all looking for him. He tries to run away, running on thin ice, and when it breaks he falls down.
Gus is gonna have a citation for bravery and Greta teases him because he’s afraid of spiders :-p Molly is proud of him, and she’s gonna be chief! :-) Good.
Nice ending with a family scene, all three hugging on the couch, with Greta’s head on Molly’s shoulder :-)
Lester Nygaard-Martin Freeman
Malvo-Billy Bob Thornton
Molly-Allison Tolman
Gus-Colin Hanks
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