Fargo season 5 episode 3 recap: Roy puts his plan in motion

Jon Hamm in Fargo
Jon Hamm in Fargo (Image credit: Frank W Ockenfels III/FX)

Things pick up immediately after the end of Fargo season 5 episode 2, "Trials and Tribulations." Gator (Joe Kerry) calls his father for help at the Gas N Go to assess the situation. Roy (Jon Hamm) tells Gator to put the dead deputy behind the wheel of the truck and send it into a ditch. But he knows that Ole Munch is going to keep coming until he gets what he thinks he's owed. Roy tells Gator to sleep with his gun cocked and to expect another attack from Munch.

Roy drives back to his ranch. Inside, Roy's current wife Karen (Rebecca Liddiard) is sitting with Odin Little (Michael Copeman), a militia leader that is involved in weapons deals with Roy that sees the sheriff distributing police-issued weapons to the militia.

After saying goodnight to his daughters, Jessica (Brooke Sauve) and Maude (Quinn Sauve), Roy walks through the house and looks at the many photos on the walls, including a photo of his wedding day with Dot (Juno Temple). Later that night, Roy lays in bed smoking and staring at the ceiling. Karen comes in, but he barely notices her. He sees a vision in the ceiling of Dot. 

Preparing

The scene fades to the Lyon home in Scandia. When the street is deserted, Dot leaves the house with a ladder. She goes around the neighborhood taking down the existing street signs and replacing them with new ones. 

In the morning she sits at the breakfast table writing out a shopping list while talking to Wayne (David Rysdahl). They're going to Gun World in the afternoon to get a shotgun, among other things. Dot tells Wayne that now the Halloween plan is for Wayne to be a zombie and Dot and Scotty will be zombie hunters. 

At Gun World, Wayne and Dot are helped by a clerk (Brendan Fletcher). Dot seems a little too familiar with the guns on display and Wayne is clearly wondering why his wife seems so comfortable handling huge weapons. 

Dot picks out a shotgun, an automatic rifle, a pistol and ammunition for all the guns. She's dismayed when the clerk tells her that she can pick up the guns next week after the mandatory waiting period. So she gets some pepper spray and bullet proof vests to take home while they wait.

Ole Munch, man of mystery 

The scene shifts again to snowy Bismarck, N.D. An old woman (Clare Coulter) returns home from shopping and hears a noise in a bedroom above the kitchen. When she goes up to check she sees Ole Munch (Sam Spruell) sitting in a rocking chair. 

We get a flashback to the country of Wales in the year 1522. A peasant who looks like Ole Munch is brought into an isolated country house to symbolically consume the sins of the dead lord in payment for a debt and so that the lord can enter heaven. After the ritual, where the man eats food that symbolizes the sins, he leaves the house. 

Back in the bedroom, Munch tells the woman he lives there now. Without a word she goes back downstairs.

Later in the episode Munch is shown lying on the bed in the room listening to a police radio with maps, photos, a knife and other papers on the bed. On the radio he hears Roy tell Gator to meet him at Hammurabi Pawn Shop.

Investigative work

Lamorne Morris in Fargo

Lamorne Morris in Fargo (Image credit: Michelle Faye/FX)

Deputy Farr (Lamorne Morris) goes to the North Dakota State Patrol building to look through the evidence from the Gas N Go, but Gator is already there. Farr sees Gator take something out of the evidence box and confronts him. Gator mouths off and uses some racial epithets, threatens Farr and leaves. 

Farr asks the officer at the front desk if Gator left his card, which he did. Farr takes it. While doing more research on his laptop at a café, Farr gets an email from Olmstead with Dot's mugshot. Farr knows now that Dot was the woman at the Gas N Go. 

Meanwhile, Officer Olmstead (Richa Moorjani) and Captain Muscavage (Paul McGillion) interview Lorraine Lyon (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Danish Graves (David Foley) is with her. Olmstead and Muscavage list all the evidence showing Dot was kidnapped that night. Lorraine tells them since Dot said it didn't happen, they want the whole thing dropped. After Olmstead and Muscavage leave, Lorraine tells Danish to get private security for Wayne's house and have a private investigator look into Dot's past.

The plan

At the pawn shop, Roy tells Gator to get Dot, or Nadine as he knows her, that night, Halloween night, as it's the perfect time to grab her because there will be a lot of people out in costume and no one will really notice them. Gator gets his team together and they head to Scandia in an unmarked van.

There's a montage of scenes. Roy Tillman, waiting at home. Gator and his team in the van. Dot, getting Wayne and Scotty ready to Trick-or-Treat. Dot and Scotty, as zombie hunters, are wearing helmets and military clothing with bullet proof vests. They're carrying some of the nail-studded bats and other weapons they made earlier. Ole Munch is in a hut doing some kind of ritual.

When Gator gets to Scandia, he can't find Dot's house because she changed all the street signs. But as Dot, Scotty and Wayne are walking up to their front door Dot notices the van down the street. The van backs up slowly until it's in front of the house. Dot goes inside, but she knows what's coming. Is she ready for it?

New episodes of Fargo season 5 premiere Tuesdays on FX and then are available to stream the next day on Hulu.

Sonya Iryna

Sonya has been writing professionally for more than a decade and has degrees in New Media and Philosophy. Her work has appeared in a diverse array of sites including ReGen, The Washington Post, Culturess, Undead Walking and Final Girl. As a lifelong nerd she loves sci-fi, fantasy and horror TV and movies, as well as cultural documentaries. She is particularly interested in representation of marginalized groups in nerd culture and writes reviews and analysis with an intersectional POV. Some of her favorite shows include Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Sandman.