Fargo Season 5 Director Unpacks the Finale’s Biggest Moments
“If Bisquick can’t heal you, nothing will.”
The night after the Emmys might be a weird time to drop the best TV finale in recent memory, but that’s exactly what happened. Fargo Season 5 just came to a roaring conclusion on Tuesday night, resolving the show’s many interweaving plotlines with plenty of time left for a profound (if slightly confusing) epilogue that delivers an optimistic message.
“I think it’s funny how the season kicks off with a definition of Minnesota nice, and, in the end, it was it was about decency winning out and that kindness,” director Thomas Bezucha tells Inverse.
Inverse spoke to Bezucha, who helped write the entire season and directed its final two episodes, to unpack the ending of Fargo Season 5 and what might happen next for its main characters.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Fargo Season 5 Episode 10.
Fargo Season 5 Ending, Explained
Dot reunites with her family.
Before we get into all that, let’s recap the first half of the episode, which resolves the main conflict between Dot (Juno Temple) and her murderous ex-husband, Roy (Jon Hamm).
After escaping with some help from the mysterious Munch (Sam Spruell) in Episode 9, Dot plans her attacks against Roy (aka “America’s sheriff”). She manages to catch him off-guard and shoots him in the stomach with a shotgun, but before she can finish the job, the authorities show up and an all-out battle begins between the army and Roy’s militia supporters. In the chaos, Roy escapes into an underground tunnel when he encounters and murders Witt Farr (a police officer played by Lamorne Morris). He then emerges above ground and is promptly arrested by the FBI.
Finally, Dot reunites with her family and even gets a hug from her cold-as-ice stepmother, Lorraine (Jennifer Jason Leigh). The finale then jumps into the near future so we can see what happens next...
What Happens to Sheriff Roy Tillman?
Jon Hamm’s messianic sheriff finally gets what’s coming to him.
In the penultimate scene of Fargo Season 5, Lorraine visits Roy in prison, only to discover that the former sheriff has adapted easily to his new home.
“He feels like he’s the king of Monkey Mountain now that the natural order plays out in prison,” director Thomas Bezucha says.
But Lorraine has a trick up her sleeve. She’s used her wealth to donate large sums of money to a select group of prisoners with the understanding that in return they’ll make Roy’s life a living hell.
“Lorraine is happy to pay for people to torture him,” Bezucha says. “Lorraine is determined to make Roy’s prison sentence worse than death.”
Lorraine visits Roy in prison to deliver more bad news.
Munch Vs. Dot
In the show’s final scene, Munch (who may or may not be an immortal Welsh legend called the Sin Eater) shows up at Dot’s home looking for revenge, which leads to a surprisingly sweet ending for Fargo Season 5.
At the start of the season, Roy hired Munch to kidnap Dot. Things went south, and now, Munch feels like he’s owed something from Dot. So he visits her family and acts as menacing as possible, but his threats are quickly undercut by their Minnesota hospitality, which includes handing Munch an orange soda and asking him to help cook biscuits for dinner.
Sam Spruell as the enigmatic (and maybe supernatural) Munch.
As the episode ends, a confused but still menacing Munch takes a bite out of the Bisquick biscuits he just cooked. Suddenly, his always-stern face lights up in a smile. The end. Roll credits.
“What I love about the final confrontation between Dot and Munch is that she’s like the mouse that removes the thorn from the paw of the lion,” Bezucha says. “It’s through her grace that she heals him and diffuses the situation.”
Well, her grace and a good biscuit.
“If Bisquick can’t heal you, nothing will,” the director adds.
Taking a wider view of the scene, it’s easy to see how those final moments fit into Fargo Season 5’s broader themes of debt, both financial and personal. Munch believes he’s still owed a debt, but Dot is quick to explain that getting revenge on her for foiling her own kidnapping is about as logical as getting revenge on the ground for stubbing your toe.
“The whole season is about debt and what people owe,” Bezucha says. ‘That’s the thing for Munch. It’s why he comes back. The scales need to be balanced, and they’re not. The gift that Dot finally gives him is she takes the scale away.”
Then again, maybe the most important lesson that Fargo Season 5 has to share really is just the importance of a good carbohydrate. Bezucha points to an earlier scene in which Munch delivers a chilling monologue about history and kings while sitting in a bathtub.
“The seeds of the finale were in that: when the woman he is staying with says, ‘I don’t understand, what do you want?’ and he says ‘pancakes.’ He just needs breakfast.”
