(Spoiler Alerts)
Last Week's episode of Fargo: "Into the Fire," put the bow into the tie, which connects it to seasons one and two. While no Solverson's have appeared yet, nor any Fargo, syndicate hit men, we are starting to see the themes, variations and parallels, which have been Hawley hallmarks of previous two seasons. We have steady, unassuming cop, Gloria, trying to solve a crime and a dismissive, new boss pushing her to "move along cause there's nothing to see here." We have identity switches, mistakes and not one but two evil entities: a female tigress, named, Nikki, who is transforming a likable, looser named, Ray Stussy, into her evil twin and an insidious, evil virus, named V. M. Vargas infecting the life of Emmitt Stussy, Ray's calculating twin brother. I normally do not comment on this show: there is no need too. No one complained at all about seasons' one or two; however, so many reviewers have questioned this season's slow pace and bemoaned that Gloria is flat compared to Solverson clan: Molly, her dad and Grand- Paw, Hank.
Gloria, like Molly, is a smart cop from a small town, who is underestimated, unappreciated and unassuming she is pushed aside by others. Glory sticks to her guns when others are telling her to pack it in. However, Glory is quieter and more contemplative than Molly. Which, at first, may make her seem flat; however, over the first four episodes, we learn Gloria is reserved. She mostly listens and watches others rather than interject herself into situations. We also learn early on Gloria is also dealing with a divorce; her husband has left her for another man. So, a less observant viewer could easily see a flat-line whenever Gloria is on camera.
Yet, make no mistake, Gloria has a heartbeat. She loves her son and even feels duty bound to her step-father, Ennis Stussy, after her mom dies. Even though Ennis barks at her at times, she and her son have dinner with him on a regular basis. She tells her son in some many words: hey, he was married to my mom, ya know. We see this duty turned into to dogged determination once she finds Ennis murdered. Gloria returns Ennis' house because her son forgot the birthday present, "Grand-Dad," made him. From that moment on, Gloria moves calmly but assuredly into Sheriff mode after she finds Ennis dead in the, kitchen tied to a chair, suffocated: his nose and mouth sealed with super glue and his house ransacked by an assailant looking for something.
Gloria will only feel released from this duty once she finds his killer. This could get complicated because Gloria's Eden Valley police department is being absorbed into the County, and she will have a new boss. Hearkening back to season one, Gloria's new boss blows into town,takes one look at her tiny department, chides her shoddy policing because she has not embraced computers and still uses file cabinets. He takes one look and dismisses her as a lousy cop. He promises to return, however, with a new organizational plan, which includes forcing Gloria to embrace technology as his, new authority. Here, when begin to we see the brilliance of Hawley's character creation and plot line come together. In the first two seasons, the Solverson Clan is mocked by big city or county police officers because, their small-town values can't solve modern problems. Now, Gloria now finds herself in the same boat. Even though she has been Eden Valley's Sheriff for a while with no complaints, she is pushed aside. She is invisible. In fact, Noah Hawley, takes his theme of small town people and values as invisible to the "real evil" and "progress" to a new level when he takes Gloria from figurative invisibility and changes it into literally invisibility: from the first episode, we learn sensor, technology ignores Gloria or fails to sense her presence.
Gloria can't walk through automatic doors, use a cell phone, without it dropping or even get soap from a sensor dispenser or dry her hands under a motion, activated hand dryer. Maybe, Gloria relies on her own senses, instincts and old-fashioned detective work because it has always worked in the past, so why fix something Gloria doesn't see as broke. Remember, last year, Ed told Peggy she was always trying to fix things and sometimes there is nothing broken. I'll talk about Peg Blomquist in a few moments. Then again, it might just be that technology has been no friend to her! Hawley hammers this point once more as Gloria's job as Sheriff disappears with the county take over of her office and she is caught in the undertow of "Modernization." However, Gloria cannot worry about her disappearing job, or identity. She has a murder to solve. Someone has killed her step-dad and she intends to find the murderer. Perhaps the slow space of the show so far is mirroring Gloria's steady, methodical policing and her personality.
In addition, Hawley reintroduces a new "Wolf" or "Cat/ Tigress" in season three: Nikki Swango. Billy Bob Thornton's narration of the musical "Peter and Wolf" composition from "Into the Fire" makes this connection for us. As in season one, a "Wolf", Thornton's character, Malvo, transforms a loser named Lester, into a stone-cold killer and his evil twin. Nikki the "Tigress" is transforming a loser, Ray, into a stone-cold killer and her evil twin. In addition, Hawley's Nikki is an evil version of Peggy Blomquist, played brilliantly by Kristen Dunst last season. Peg Blomquist stumbles into crime on her journey of self-actualization, but our Nikki is already a stone-cold criminal and is trying to self- actualize through a "Mind-Bridge" connection with her evil twin, Ray Stussy.