By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Fargo capped off its fourth season by popping a cap in quite a few characters, as more than one criminal got their just desserts. (And we don’t mean an ipecac-laced pie.)
Sunday’s finale begins by flashing back through all the (many) people who have died this season — R.I.P., Rabbi Milligan; good riddance, Constant Calamita — and the ones who are still left alive aren’t much better off. Josto is drowning his sorrows in booze after his brother Gaetano’s accidental death, and Oraetta is behind bars after her poisoning scheme came to light. She gets bailed out by a mystery benefactor, though, and Ethelrida and her parents get their house back from Cannon’s gang while Josto takes bloody revenge on Doctor Harvard, ambushing him and gunning him down alongside another poor soul before setting fire to the car holding their dead bodies.
Loy is ready to call a truce with the Italians, and he hands over Donatello’s stolen ring to consigliere Ebal, telling him to “get your house in order” to end the war. It’s not over yet, though: A henchman wakes up a drunken Josto to tell him, “We got Cannon. It’s over. We won,” just as Leon sneaks up behind Loy and points a silenced pistol at his head. But he spoke too soon. Loy’s bodyguard Opal grabs Leon just in time, strangling him before he can shoot Loy, while Loy’s men track down Happy and his crew at a diner and gun them down. (We’re racking up quite a body count already, aren’t we?)
Josto sobers up long enough to find Ebal and his entire family ready to confront him… along with Oraetta. “You stand accused of crimes against the family,” Ebal informs him, charging Josto with betraying the family by conspiring with Oraetta to kill Donatello. (Remember when Josto told Oraetta to “take care of” his dad? Well, she took that literally.) Josto frantically pleads his case, but it’s no use; Ebal thinks he killed Gaetano, too, so he’d have full control of the Fadda crime family. Josto and Oraetta are hauled away by goons and driven out to a remote field with a makeshift grave waiting. Josto tries to talk his way out of it — everyone just laughs when he asks, “Hasn’t there been enough killing?” — but he ends up taking a bullet in the head. So does Oraetta… but at least she got her final request of watching Josto die first. A sicko to the very end, that one.
Loy and his family arrive home to find their front door ajar, and Loy pulls out a gun before going inside to investigate. He finds dolls of the family arranged neatly on the dining room table, Satchel’s red hat on the bannister… and Satchel himself asleep in his bed, with his loyal dog at his feet. Loy excitedly hugs him and erupts with laughter, and his wife weeps as she’s reunited with her son. So Loy is sitting pretty when he sits down with Ebal to cement their truce. But Ebal has some “adjustments” to make to their deal: He now wants half of the Cannons’ business, which enrages Loy. But Ebal reminds him that he’s just one guy in one city, while the Italians have cities and families behind them, backing them up. If Loy doesn’t like the new deal, Ebal says, they’ll just kill him and find someone who will play ball. A resigned Loy leaves without a word and tells Opal to go home: “War’s over.”
Loy gazes inside his house’s window from the front porch, looking at his happily reunited family, his eyes welling with tears — when he’s stabbed in the back by Zelmare Roulette! (“For Swanee,” she tells him.) Satchel sees her, and she motions for him to “shhhh” before she drops the bloody knife and walks away. The boy crouches beside his dying father and watches as Loy draws his last breath. (He spilled a bunch of oranges, too; that’s gotta be a Godfather reference, right?) Ethelrida wraps things up by reading aloud from her history report, as we flash back to all the crime families through the years: “Who writes the books? Who chooses what we remember, and what gets forgotten?” We see her in what looks like a flash-forward, as she packs her bags and moves out.
But wait! There’s more! Midway through the credits, a car barrels down a dusty country road, and in it sits… Mike Milligan, the hitman from Season 2! With a Kitchen brother behind the wheel, Mike practices loading his gun and aiming it, and looks outside wistfully as we see flashbacks of Satchel and his pup walking down that same road. Yep, this confirms our season-long suspicions: Satchel grew up to be Mike, and took the Milligan surname as a tribute to his late guardian. In the Fargo universe, it turns out, everything is connected.
Fargo fans, you betcha it’s your turn: Give the finale (and Season 4 as a whole) a grade in our polls, and share your thoughts in the comments.
It wasn’t my favorite season but it was ok. I don’t know. Just something unsatisfying about it. Also FX and all those commercials. There was more commercials than show. Ugh.
Yeah, I’m with you: just OK. And Ben Whishaw was wasted.
Which is why I have typically watached this show on HULU without commericals the next day…. That works best… Saves the trouble of FF on DVR…
Omg, u are so right. They had one commercial break that was 5 minutes long.
So much better than Season 3 in my opinion. This season was great but S1 and S2 were perfection.
That little nugget at the end has me more intrigued that ever now to see the evolution of Mike Milligan. I’m sure the death of Loy and what happened to the family afterward would make an interesting story. On the other hand, Zellmare as the last one standing? Meh 😕
To me, Zellmare was more complicated that “Last One Standing…”
Past it being simple payback, it felt like it was a callback to the “Criminal…”/”Outlaw…” conversation that Zellmare and Swanee had earlier in the season.
For me, the most obvious ending would have been for Satchel to grab a gun and shoot Zellmare for his first kill. it would have made the transition to Mike Milligan just a bit smoother.
Fargo is just the way it is now with black and white.
It was an excellent history lesson.
To claim victory some has to die.
Chris Rock was great bit overall, season 4 was the weakest of the 4 seasons to date.
Season 3 was the weakest by far. It felt like a lazy copy of seasons 1 & 2. Season 4 was great because it didn’t copy & rely on tropes from previous seasons. Overall, it was a satisfying story.
Stellar acting but otherwise below average plot and senseless killing every week.
I didn’t remember who Mike Milligan was since season 2 was so long ago. That’s the problem with these shows. There’s such a long wait between seasons you forget what happened. And this is not my favorite show so I’m not that involved. Oh well.
Yeah, Season 2 was 5 years ago. I recognized Bokeem Woodbine in character immediately once they put him on the screen at the end, but Mike Milligan was nowhere in my thoughts as I watched the season play out.
I think the final moments of season 4 made the season worthwhile to watch. I had trouble keeping track of all the characters. There were just too many killings of people I didn’t care about because they all looked the same! However, I woke up thinking about the show this morning, so on some level it must have been good. “We’re on the ride now and we can’t get off until the rollercoaster stops”.
I want an entire show with Ethelrida Pearl Smutney. Always one character that stand out. It was her. A very holistic story of America.
Great season and actors
I thought the “poor soul” gunned down with Doctor Harvard was Josto’s almost father-in-law.
It was. Guess it’s not against the law to kill and incinerate an alderman either.
That’s what I thought but the author of this recap I guess didn’t catch that.
I loved this season! Way BETTER than sorry ass S3. That final scene in the credits was the best! Seeing Bokeem Woodbine’s Mike Milligan and that connection that he’s the grown up Satchel……Oh Sh*t moment right there. Ethelrida was the stand out character this entire seasob, I like her. Overall it’s an A for me!
I thought this was the worst season of Fargo. I hope they get back on track and fix it for next year.
I loved this season! Not quite as good as season one, but came close. Every episode had so many good scenes.
This season just didn’t suck me in like the previous 3. It had some remarkable ideas and personalities such as the Nurse of Chaos in Nurse Maeflower, and the PTSD Detective who was an obvious and literal ticking time bomb(can’t remember his name). I may have to watch it again like season 3; that took me a 2nd watch to appreciate its brilliance. I thought the last 2 episodes were where things finally picked up. I loved the season 2 connection reveal at the end.
I like how everything was tied up, including what I thought for several weeks that Satchel would end being connected to Season 2. However, it was very frustrating how many commercials, and the length of them, that occurred. They really wrecked the continuity of the finale.
Fargo, season 4 was an inconvenient timeline of truth! Loved the cast of good and bad, and sociopathy on center stage! I see love, loyalty and brokenness! Chris rocked it! Elmira Crushed it! Jessie Bucked the asylum! And the whole dam scene was wonderfully decanted into reciprocity! I can see all that!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽🎈✅💯🦋❤️👌
Season one was my favorite.
So much promise but in the end it couldn’t overcome the curious casting and surprisingly inconsistent writing.
It wavered between drama and, whether intentional, ridiculous farce. And I don’t think it was intentional…
Better than season 3, but nowhere near as good as the first two. And probably the least satisfying closing episodes of them all.
Chris Rock was great! I was familiar with him as a comedian and I enjoyed his stand up routines. His switch to a dramatic actor seemed very natural and his potrrayl of Loy was flawless
I didn’t really watch, but it was conspicuous how little buzz there was about this season.
Wasn’t the other guy Josto shot alongside Dr. Harvard his father-in-law?
This was probably at par with season three, which was also just about okay, but in ways, this season was just too lazy and convenient, and so heavily indulgent. The basics of good storytelling were not a priority. There was little to no change and evolution in the characters, weak conflict and poor resolution. It was all just one big pissing contest that ends with everyone dying; and no one really growing in any significant way (even while they were still alive). It was entertaining in parts, but just about.
i found it hard to follow. and any scenes were dimly lit, making it hard to identify the characters sometimes. the kooky nurse was the best part. this season lacked the tongue in cheek humor of the previous seasons.
Thank u for the Easter egg,
Mike is Loy son thank was perfect Fargo, let’s get busy on next Fargo with Mike.
THe only bummer was the episode with the Rabbi and Satchel. Otherwise a another great season and hope this wonderful series conti nues on.