Fargo – Season 5 Episode 6 “The Tender Trap” Recap & Review

The Tender Trap

Episode 6 of Fargo Season 5 begins at a strip club, where the stripping is done not by some bombshell on the pole but by a hairy, old man who runs a failing bank. Roy confronts Vivian outside the club in front of his colleagues. The latter owes some old debt that compels him to follow Roy’s order: cancel the deal with Lorraine. Indira gets a threatening message from the debt collection services. She is behind on payments and the debt keeps mounting with each passing day. His man-child Lars has no inkling of the mess they’re in and how little he helps his hard-working wife.

Due to his delusional outlook, Lars fails to see the point. Instead, he confronts Indira, who pulls the plug on him by opening the garage door while he is still in his boxers in front of a school bus. Lars feels humiliated but more importantly, he is disappointed. He expects “more” from Indira, as a “wife” should do. Lars has a problem with the lack of attention he gets from her. To be honest, it is shocking how little self-awareness he has. His accusations are completely unfounded.

Indira dusts off the embarrassment and goes to work. At the Roy ranch, Gator and the others torture Seymour, the patient they took instead of Wayne. Karen cuts Roy’s hair as he sees an ad for Wayne’s dealership on the TV. She mistakenly cuts a piece of his ear and Roy smacks her across the face. The sheriff knows he has got the wrong guy and goes to the barn. He shoots him in the middle of the head, surprising everyone. Gator is embarrassed when he learns he got the wrong guy, quickly blaming it on Bowman.

Roy decides to “lift the curse” by paying the debt they owe “the boogeyman.” A meeting with Ole is set where Roy promptly pays him with interest. Gator and Ole, however, have a showdown and their duel is certainly not over. They have a strange exchange where each threatens the other with dire consequences. It is also revealed that Gator has put a tracker on Ole’s car. 

Indira puts one and one together when the nurse tells him about the missing Seymour and Indira sees Wayne’s nameslip. She also meets Wayne, who remains out of his senses, and the FBI officers who want to implicate Roy by using Dorothy as a witness to his crimes. Indira urges them to book Roy for domestic abuse with the evidence at hand that proves it. She also mentions the kidnapping and murder attempts. But the officers point out that pinning all of it on Roy would be difficult.

Danish informs Lorraine that Vivian and his representatives aren’t answering calls. The deal is likely off but Lorraine isn’t one to back down. She immediately understands the message that Roy has sent her and sends Danish to the strip club to personally tell Vivian the deal is off. Lorraine also indicates that Danish “gas up his Porsche” to “steal an election,” which hints at further conflict between Roy and Lorraine.

In a difficult moment, we also see Lorraine struggling with Wayne. Her motherly instincts are overwhelmed as she fails to “be there” for her son who clearly needs her help. Indira takes the bold step of taking Scotty back to Lorraine’s house. The daughter is delighted to be reunited with her father. Indira, however, wants to have an honest chat with Lorraine. It is a proper chat that she has wanted to have with Lorraine all along.

Indira gives her Dorothy’s files to look at. She makes a comparison between Lorraine and Dorothy; how they are the same people, struggling with the same issues. Lorraine seems genuinely intrigued by Indira’s words. She is so impressed that she offers the police officer a cushy job to head her security team. Indira was not expecting that and asks for a day to make a decision. Hopefully, she will take it, solve her debt problem, and leave Lars for good. 

The might of Lorraine’s power and her ruthlessness are on display when Danish visits Vivian at the club. Lorraine explains that she has pulled her offer. Instead, Mesa Prudential will get $100 million, the SEC has been sent to Vivian’s offices to seize all his assets, and his son has been expelled from college because his tuition came late.

Lorraine is shocked when she looks at the files Indira left. It has numerous complaints and photos of Dorothy beaten black and blue by Roy and the others. Perhaps there is some heart in the woman after all…

The Episode Review

Dana Gonzalez, you beauty. Episode 6 could not have a better direction – filled with purpose and meaning – on the season’s female-centric themes. Lorraine, Indira, and Dorothy’s arcs dominate proceedings, while the overarching story also makes stellar progress. The episode’s dying moments might fetch Dorothy a valuable ally, even though she never asked for it. It is the sort of ideal outcome we were all hoping for.

Indira’s emergence in the storytelling is commendable. She has grown to become an important character in the show and not just some one-dimensional police sidekick.

Fargo’s traditions have been kept intact, albeit with some minor tweaks. Roy and Lorraine’s showdown ominously threatens to define the test of the story. The FBI agents will also be keen to have a say in the matter. 

There are so many moving parts that we missed Dorothy entirely in the episode. No Juno Temple, no problem for Fargo, it seems.