Lay Away
Episode 7 of Fargo Season 4 begins with Oraetta baking another deliciously deadly treat – this time for Dr Harvard. As he takes a bite, the man immediately writhes in pain and struggles to breathe. This gives Oraetta time to check Harvard’s office and find the note addressed from “a concerned citizen.” Snatching the note up, she looks over the pained doctor as a slick red filter bleeds into the camera (the angel of death anyone?) Composing herself, she screams unconvincingly and gets help for Harvard while she slips away. Tensions between Loy and Josto’s crews continue, with the latter guessing correctly that Rabbi is the one who killed their man. On the back of this, he orders Constant to hunt the man down while leaving Antoon for the birds. Tellingly, he also orders Constant to kill Satchell too. Constant shows up at Dibrell’s house. Despite asking probing questions about children, he thinks twice about continuing when she prods him with a shotgun to the chest. Still, it doesn’t stop his pursuit of Satchel, sifting through the boy’s book back home. There, he finds a newspaper clipping inside, something that could hint toward where the boy has gone with Rabbi. Defy realizes that Odis has been playing both sides and warns him, using a coin metaphor that strikes home. This immediately sees Odis head home and start packing his things up. However, he’s cornered by Loy’s men outside who tell him to join them. Josto and Ebal try to come to an amicable agreement with Loy, including trade routes and Gaetano being taken back to Italy to try and sweeten the deal. Josto however interjects with Ebal’s plan and stirs the pot. He tells Loy that Gaetano killed Doc and Constant has killed his son. It’s a ploy that’s clearly designed to turn his enemy against Gaetano and save him a big headache. Overcome with grief, Loy deliberates for a second before screaming at the Italians to “get out!” That night, an enraged and grieving Loy prepares to do the unthinkable but at the last second, changes his mind and lets Zero walk freely back to his room. Given the night to compose himself, Loy drives up and stops by a billboard in the morning depicting a family sitting around eating dinner; another harsh reminder about what’s happened to his family. Odis meanwhile is taken to a school locker room where he finds himself face to face with Swanee and Zelmare. They do enough to rile him up as Loy arrives not long after. He tells Odis to cover his ears before giving the girls train tickets up to Philadelphia, telling them to leave. It’s not their fight and if they do return, Dibrell will get hurt. As they slip away, Loy speaks to Odis and deliberates over what to do with Gaetano. Loy however, is wise to Josto’s game and decides to try and convince Gaetano to work with them to turn the tide of this fight. As Gaetano rides off a free man, and Omie is sent to kill Constant, Opal stands grimly alongside Loy and hopes that his boss knows what he’s doing.
The Episode Review
As the episodes begin to shorten and the tension grows, the real wildcard here continues to be Oreatta whose storyline runs completely parallel to what’s going on with the two gangs. That’s before even mentioning the stark imagery with the angel of death that’s been running throughout the series with her. In fact this imagery is something that solidifies the style over substance theme that runs throughout this episode. There’s some gorgeous split shots where the screen is divided up which almost feels 24-esque in its depiction. The war between the gangs is starting to get really interesting though and the ending leaves the door wide open for where this one may go next.
