After watching Fargo Season 3 when it first aired (2017), I remarked that Fargo was “the most Christian show on TV.” If the Christian themes in Seasons 1 and 2 weren’t obvious enough, they are undeniable in Season 3. This doesn’t mean it’s a family-friendly show, mind you (viewer discretion is advised). Nor does it mean it is perfectly orthodox. But as we’ll see, this season displays an overtly biblical worldview.
Warning: Spoilers ahead
Set in Minnesota, during Christmas of 2010, Fargo Season 3 follows the feud between identical-twin-brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy. The brothers are contrasted in almost every respect; ironic for identical twins. Emmit is the older twin, a rich businessman. Ray is the younger twin, a poor parole officer. Emmit owns a luxurious home, Ray rents a dingy apartment. Emmit is clean-shaven and well-dressed, Ray is scruffy and unkempt. Emmit is happily married with children, Ray is romantic with one of his parolees.
The feud centers around the inheritance left to them by their deceased father. Ray claims that Emmit tricked Ray out of an expensive stamp collection. Emmit disputes this, maintaining that Ray preferred to have their father’s Corvette. Readers of the Bible will immediately notice a Jacob and Esau theme in this premise. Jacob and Esau were twin brothers who became enemies over the inheritance given by their father Isaac. Similarities and references to Jacob and Esau will continue throughout the season.
The most notable recurrence is the theme of mistaken identity. Episode 1 begins with an interrogation scene set in East Berlin in 1988. A man is mistaken for someone else and falsely accused of murder. This scene foreshadows the many mistaken identities (and interrogations) that will occur in the show. Just as Isaac mistook Jacob for Esau, so the characters of Season 3 are frequently misidentified.
Consider the plot that puts everything into motion: Ray and his parolee girlfriend, Nikki Swango, conspire to steal the last remaining stamp from his brother’s house. Another parolee, Maurice, is blackmailed to do the deed. Maurice, however, goes to the wrong house, in the wrong town, owned by the wrong man. Emmit Stussy lives in Eden Prairie (“Eden” being another biblical reference), but Maurice goes to a house in Eden Valley owned by Ennis Stussy. Ennis is an elderly man with no relation to the brothers. The stamp cannot be found, of course, and Maurice kills Ennis by gluing shut his nose and mouth. This development greatly complicates Ray and Nikki’s plan, as they did not intend to harm a stranger, let alone get him killed. They kill Maurice – framing it as an accident – and hope to never be traced to Ennis’s death.
Unfortunately for them, Ennis’s stepdaughter is Gloria Burgle, the Eden Valley police chief. Gloria is our heroine, and she begins investigating her stepfather’s death. She will later team up with sidekick Winnie Lopez, a policewoman from a neighboring town.
Gloria is a recently-divorced single mother with her son Nathan. Interestingly, Gloria’s ex-husband now lives with his gay lover, but this isn’t portrayed as a good thing. Rather than being a pro-LGBT plot, Nathan doesn’t enjoy staying with dad and dad’s boyfriend; he prefers to stay with mom. Spending Christmas with them was “kinda weird,” Nathan says. In one scene, the still-living Ennis comments about the gay partnership: “It’s not legal, is it? I know what it says in the Bible.” This clues us in that Gloria comes from a Christian upbringing. (This might explain why a gospel song plays when we first encounter her.) Her faith will become more evident as the show progresses.
Gloria has an unexplained affect on modern technology: cell phones, automatic doors, and touchless soap dispensers, faucets, and hand dryers do not work for her. Instead of using email at work, she uses fax machines. A Google search of her name gives no results. To technology, it’s as if she doesn’t exist. On one hand, this works as a metaphor for Gloria’s old-fashionedness (religion and all). On the other hand, it pertains to her loneliness in the aftermath of her divorce, the murder of her stepfather, and the news of a demotion at work. Near the end of the season, Gloria confesses that she feels “like a robot, unreal.” The show is therefore concerned with how Gloria will become real again. Or said differently: What will give her resurrection life?
Gloria’s feelings of inadequacy were earlier symbolized by animations of an alien robot. The cartoon clips are adaptations from a novel written by Ennis. Gloria finds out that he was a science fiction author in the 1970s by the name of Thaddeus Mobley. This motif connects to the UFO sightings of Season 2 (set in the ’70s), and confirms my theory of the UFOs. The sci-fi elements represent an older age of history, when mysterious things were accepted and celebrated. Religious belief would be included in that, as evidenced in Season 2. It is fitting that Ennis and Gloria are associated with the sci-fi motif, due to their religious faith. As in Season 2, this sets a contrast between the heroes of Fargo and the villains of Fargo. The heroes are Christians, the villains are nihilists.
Enter V.M. Varga. Varga is the arch-villain of Season 3 who uses Emmit’s business for a money laundering scheme. Varga is very much like Lorne Malvo of Season 1. He gets away with his crimes (including murder) with little effort, he speaks in philosophical riddles, and he knows the Bible. When he finds out about Emmit’s feud with Ray, he says…
“It’s all very Old Testament, really, this feud between you and Raymond. Do you know there are 25 chapters in the book of Genesis that refer to the feuds of brothers? Cain and Abel, most famously, but Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. Not to forget the sons of Isaac.”
The “sons of Isaac” are Jacob and Esau. This quote lets us know that the writers of Season 3 are intentionally using biblical themes. Varga is a new Malvo – a new serpent, a new dragon, a new Satan. He’s also a glutton. In various scenes we see Varga stuffing himself with food (even in restroom stalls). This insatiable appetite is a characteristic of Satan, the lion who walks about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Furthermore, Varga’s crooked teeth are noticeably decaying, and he’s always using breath spray. Psalm 5:9 tells us that the throat of the bloodthirsty and deceitful man is an “open tomb.” Varga tries to mask the stench of death.
Eventually, all of these characters and plotlines begin to converge. Due to various circumstances, Nikki Swango finds herself at a bowling alley, talking to a god-like character known as Paul Murrane. He tells Nikki that the bowling alley is the place where people go to be judged – a clear allusion to God’s throne room. We’re to believe that Nikki has died and gone to heaven, but Paul gives Nikki a second chance on earth. He charges her to fight evildoers, giving this message to the wicked: “Though thou exalt thyself like the eagle, though thou make thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.” That quote is from Obadiah, a book of the Bible that pertains to – you guessed it – Jacob and Esau. Obadiah chronicles the conflict between Judah (Jacob’s descendants) and the Edomites (Esau’s descendants).
Will Nikki change her criminal ways and become a heroine? Sadly, no. She dies in sin after being unable to properly finish the Obadiah quote. Gloria and Winnie will be the only heroines in this season. Nikki is the “anti-Gloria.” She exalted herself and was subsequently brought down. She ends with no glory. Gloria – humble and meek – will be exalted.
Which brings us to the most overtly Christian scene in the show. In Episode 9, Gloria and Winnie are sitting together at a bar discussing the details of their cases. Gloria is despairing over apparent failure. “The good guys lost,” she says. Winnie responds, “For the present, but Jesus wins in the end.” “I’ll drink to that,” says Gloria. Here we have an unequivocal declaration of Jesus’s ultimate victory over evil. This leaves no room to doubt the Christian faith of Gloria and Winnie.
In the same scene, Winnie gives Gloria a long hug, a much needed human connection. It’s this embrace that gives Gloria resurrection life. From that point forward, technology works for her. She has been made whole; she is “real.” The bond between Gloria and Winnie is significant. Emmit and Ray have a dysfunctional brotherhood; Gloria and Winnie are united in Christian sisterhood. What gave Gloria life wasn’t a new romance or her career, but a sisterly friendship in Christ.
Finally, the season ends just as it began – with an interrogation scene. It’s now 2015 and Gloria has been promoted to the Department of Homeland Security. She intercepts Varga and takes him into custody. Gloria tells Varga that three agents are on their way to take him to jail. Varga insists that he’ll walk free. The show ends without showing you who is right. This has led viewers to debate whether Varga went to jail or not. Many have concluded that it is “ambiguous” and “unknown,” but this is entirely wrong. We know precisely who wins in the end because Winnie already told us. Jesus wins, which means Satan does not. Gloria is correct and Varga goes to jail.
This conclusion is further proven by the Peter and the Wolf parallels introduced in Episode 4. Gloria is Peter, Varga is the wolf. This indicates that Fargo‘s ending parallels Peter and the Wolf‘s ending. Peter and the Wolf ends with three hunters (“three agents”) taking the wolf to the zoo (“jail”). What happens next is certain: Varga gets locked away with all the other animals.
Fargo Season 3’s message is the message of the Bible: The wicked may succeed in the present, but in the end, the victory belongs to Jesus and his people.
Author’s note: An earlier version of this review incorrectly stated that music from Peter and the Wolf plays at the end of the finale. That portion has been redacted for accuracy.
