Season 1 of Fargo begins with an emotional punch and sets in fiery motion the central themes of the first season: morality, justice, and the role of the individual in upholding these values in society. Without saying, Fargo’s first season is fantastic television.
Each character is placed on a spectrum of morality; with Lorne at one extreme and Molly on the other. Both operate within the ideal, possess less self-doubt than the other characters, and have a strong sense of justice which informs their worldview. Lorne devilishly toys with Oliver Platt’s Grocery Mogul character in response to him taking a seemingly abandoned and large sum of money countless years ago. Platt’s character is on his last straw, barely supporting a wife and child, when he finds a suitcase of money. He perceives it as a sign from God, a sense of divine justice for his hardship and utters to himself, “God is real”. The same phrase is repeated after bearing the worst of Lorne’s biblical sense of revenge and watching his store become infested by locusts. This act of sabotage was orchestrated by Lorne and represents his deranged and unwavering level of justice. In the same manner, Molly Solverson is completely engulfed by a sense of justice; this informs her relentless pursuit of Lester Nygaard whom she feels is evading his due punishment.
The other two characters in the show operate farther away from the polls but still remain distinctly on opposite halves of the spectrum of good and bad. Lester Nygaard and Gus Grimley are both less assured in their worldview and are more frantic in their relationship with morality and personal justice. Lester, at the onset, is a repressed individual who cringes at the thought of upsetting another person. He rather pathetically apologizes to a high school bully who details an intimate moment with Lester’s wife years ago. Lester is clearly aware of the feelings of others and his need to appease those around him eventually draws him to murder his wife, frame his brother by planting a gun on his young nephew, and then effectively murdering his second wife too. In developing a relationship with Malvo, Lester begins to gravitate closer to the hitman’s world, yet always remains strikingly different from him. Lorne contains no remorse for his actions and as mentioned, is assured in his path of destruction. This is displayed countless times throughout the show; in the blown cover elevator murders, and in the framing and subsequent killing of the athletic trainer. However, Lester’s dirty deed plagues him emotionally and physically and at times is unable to deal with the murder of his wife. By the end of the show, Lester is quite successful in his transformation in to sadistic, psychopath; the murder of his second wife is Malvo territory and effectively seals his fate.
On the other side of the spectrum, Gus also struggles to follow the lead and example of a close confidante. Gus, a police officer operates within the same world as Molly but the viewers learn quite quickly the difference between the two. Gus does not possess the same unwavering sense of justice. This is displayed in his initial dealing with Lorne where he lets a clearly suspicious, potential criminal off free. He does this as a form of self-preservation; and it is for this reason the audience will relate most intimately with Gus’ character. Letting a potential criminal go free is not ‘good’ practice, it is unjust and certainly unbecoming of a man with an institutional duty to uphold the values of a healthy society. Gus wants to protect his family, provide for them, and is less concerned with an idealized version of worldly justice. He sees the world as filled with bad people who do bad things and it is unfruitful to think anyone can fight to change the inherent evil within society. This sort of thinking is a main theme of the show and is evidenced further in a conversation between Gus and his neighbor who tells a story of a man whose sense of helping others drives him to donate body parts and eventually his ‘life’ by killing himself. The notion remains that at what point does one stop to ‘help’ the world and bring complete justice for those less privileged? For this man that point was death. Gus is a good man, believes in justice and fairness, but is not going to risk his life to fulfill these lofty ideals and change others. This is the relationship many of us ourselves have with these notions. Molly on the other hand readily and somewhat naively puts herself in harm’s way in pursuit of these same values.
Like Lester with Lorne, Gus draws very close to Molly’s example by the end of the show. In being the one who rids the world of Malvo, Gus delivers the most momentous act of justice in the show. Fargo’s main dilemma rests in the actions and behaviors of Gus and Lester. Within them lies the fiercest internal struggle, and the most intimate and nuanced relationship with justice and morality.
