The magical realism of last week's "Fargo," which featured dream imagery and an inventive puppet show, gives way to old-school horror in this week's installment. Directed by TV veteran Sylvain White ("For All Mankind"), with a script from Noah Hawley and Thomas Bezucha ("Let Him Go"), Episode 8, titled "Blanket," is a wake-up call that will leave you crawling back beneath the covers — and maybe even longing for the show that once felt more like a fable than a nightmare. Read on for our "Fargo" Episode 8 recap, plus some predictions on where the show is headed in the final two episodes of the season.
The episode picks up right where we left off, with Dot in Roy's clutches. 2024 Golden Globe nominee Juno Temple delivers a gut-wrenching performance of strength and resolve sapped by primal fear. It's a delight to finally see her spar with Jon Hamm, who manages to make a Britney Spears song sound like a war cry.
A member of Team Lyon is killed, a chilling secret history is revealed and a switch to the bone-dry aesthetics of a North Dakota murder shed is a shocking departure from Dot's warm Minnesota suburb. We're in Sheriff Roy Tillman's territory now, and the show is masterful at making us feel just how spiritually hollow that wasteland is. Read on for a rundown of every detail you might have missed.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Fargo" Season 5, Episode 8, "Blanket."
Roy Holds Dot Captive at His Ranch
Danish Graves (Dave Foley) flips through a "Debtors of North Dakota" ledger in Lorraine's office, checking off the names of three men as Shinyribs' 2010 song "Poor People's Store" plays. At a court office, we realize Danish has forgiven the men's debts and is now petitioning to give them all the same legal name. Doubles and lookalikes abound in "Fargo." Think of the Kitchen brothers in Season 2, or Ewan McGregor's Season 3 twins.
At the hospital in North Dakota, Roy forces Dot to sign out as Nadine Tillman. She writes a "Help me" message to Kim, the woman behind the desk. But Roy threatens to send Kim's brother back to prison if she intervenes. Deputy Witt Farr (Lamorne Morris) happens in with a suspect and instantly recognizes Dot, asking if she's being taken against her will. Gator (Joe Keery), flanked by two more of Roy's deputies, arrives and outnumbers Witt. To avoid a bloodbath, Dot tells Witt that she's going with Roy willingly and whispers, "Tell Wayne I'll be there soon." Afterwards, Witt calls Indira (Richa Moorjani) with the news.
We cut to a shack on Roy's ranch. The windmill from Dot's Episode 7 vision sits just beyond, and the unsettling score tells us we're now in horror territory. Inside, Roy chains Dot's ankle to the floor as she challenges his "crazy" revenge quest, then pleads for her freedom. She must get back to her daughter and her "true love," Wayne. Roy counters: "I'll promise to let you go just as soon as you beg me to let you stay and mean it." In response, Dot swears that she's going to kill him. Shockingly, Roy's wife Karen (Rebecca Liddiard) enters with supplies for Dot's captivity. When Dot comments on Roy's revolving door of wives, Karen slaps her and urges Roy to meet her in the car.
Back in Minnesota, Indira comes home to find Lars (Lukas Gage) in bed with another woman. It's likely the "physical therapist" he's been seeing in the evenings. She kicks him out and gives him a much-deserved takedown in the process: "Good luck to ya. You can leave the toilet seat up on someone else's life from now on." She makes her victorious exit only to find that her car has been impounded.
Ole Munch Is Back with a Vengeance
Michelle Faye/FX
Roy arrives to the Sheriff's election debate, where Danish has orchestrated a wildly entertaining public humiliation in the form of three Roy lookalikes also named Roy Tillman and also running for Sheriff. The lookalikes begin parroting everything Roy says and he leaves the podium enraged, even punching the female moderator on his way out. Karen and his daughters look on in horror from the audience.
A sad-looking Gator enters Dot's shack. She tells him she found his mother Linda safe and sound, and that she can take him to her if he sets her free. Gator is shaken, then angry. He calls Dot a liar, and she tries to undermine his loyalty to Roy by telling him his father refused to give Gator his own name because he knew he'd be a "loser for life." Gator hopes Dot dies in that shack and never sees Scotty again. "No, you don't," Dot says.
What is going on between Dot and Gator? In Dot's puppet show, we saw that Gator was like a little brother to her. Don't doubt his lingering affection for Dot — or how helping her escape might be a form of redemption for him. After all, the fact that he couldn't save his mother is still a sore spot. On the flipside, feelings of abandonment could lead Gator to victim-blame both Dot and his long-lost mother.
Gator drives off and finds Witt at the ranch entrance demanding to see Dot. Gator shoots at Witt's police cruiser and warns him to get off the property. "I know you don't think they're coming — consequences. But they're almost here," Witt says as he drives away. Gator orders the armed guards at the gate to shoot Witt immediately if he returns. We then see Ole Munch (Sam Spruell) rise up from the backseat of Gator's car.
Prediction: Ole Munch will use Gator to get back at Roy. Gator killed Munch's adopted "mama" in last week's episode, so the 500-year-old sin-eater is thirsting for revenge. But, as Sam Spruell told Wide Open Country, Munch is an Old Testament-type figure who mirrors "consequences" (exactly the word Witt used) back to wrongdoers. Simply killing Gator feels a little too easy. We think Munch will find a way to use Roy's only son against him.
Karen Directs Roy's Fury Towards Dot
At a North Dakota gas station, Danish confirms with Lorraine's people that the election debate went swimmingly. Roy is a laughingstock who "couldn't get elected to lick the road clean." Witt pulls up and recognizes Danish from the hospital. He tells him Dot is being held at Roy's ranch, and that Danish had better save her before it's too late.
Why didn't Danish call Lorraine right away? Danish pointedly opens his phone, then decides against alerting Lorraine. He's obviously desperate for her approval, and probably wants to save the day all on his own. Besides, we have our suspicions about Lorraine and Danish. In Episode 1, he tried to join the Lyon family Christmas card. Last week, Lorraine tenderly straightened his tie...
In the car after the debate disaster, Karen offers some words of encouragement to Roy. Her father, the militia leader Oden Little (Michael Copeman), snaps at her: "Can't you see the man's upset?" In a bid to protect herself from Roy's wrath, Karen chalks up Roy's misfortune to Dot's arrival. "This woman comes back after all these years laughing at you, mocking your piety — the things that we believe," she says, calling Dot a curse: "She's the albatross. It's not me."
Roy Kills Danish Graves
In a remarkable, nearly-continuous shot that lasts about two full minutes, Roy stalks toward Dot's shack with mounting fury as a haunting cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic" plays. He enters the shack and we hear a struggle, then cut to Dot faking like she's passed out, possum-style, on the bed. "I remember this game," Roy says. She manages to choke him out with her chain, but he breaks free. In a deeply disturbing sequence, she dodges as he slams the chain down. Just then, the ranch foreman (the one the FBI Agents thought they could flip) enters to inform Roy that Danish Graves has arrived. Before Roy leaves, Dot tells him she'll get away "same as Linda." Roy says he'll bury Dot right next to her.
So Linda Tillman is dead, but Dot didn't know? Just as predicted, Roy murdered his first wife. This confirms that Dot's Camp Utopia dream sequence was, in fact, a dream. While some part of Dot must have had suspicions, she may have truly believed Linda got away. Maybe she even believed she was telling Gator the truth when she said she found Linda safe and sound.
We get a quick glimpse at Minnesota, where Indira accepts the job as Lorraine's head of security. Then it's back to North Dakota. Danish enters Roy's home office and offers to save his re-election campaign in exchange for Dot's release. Roy wastes no time in shooting him. "If you're so smart, then why are you so dead?" he says, delivering the kill shot. Dot watches from the shack as Roy's ranch hands bury Danish's body next to the windmill — where, in Dot's vision, Linda left her a Camp Utopia postcard. Even if she didn't consciously know it, Dot clocked that that windmill held Roy's secrets. It's likely where Linda Tillman is buried as well.
Prediction: Indira took the job with Lorraine in order to save Dot. Sure, the money's good. But Indira just learned that Roy kidnapped Dot. She'll be the one to mount Dot's rescue attempt, not Witt or Danish (RIP).
New episodes of "Fargo" premiere Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on FX and stream the following day on Hulu.
