| The Heap | |
| Season 1, Episode 8 | |
 | |
|---|---|
| Episode Information | |
| Air Date: |
June 3, 2014 |
| Written by: | |
| Directed by: | |
| Episode Chronology | |
| Previous Episode: | |
| Next Episode: | |
| Crew • Gallery • Transcript | |
The Heap is the eighth episode of Season 1 of Fargo. The episode premiered on June 3, 2014.
Description[]
Molly faces pressure to close the case, while Lester starts to feel like a new man.
Plot[]
Lester Nygaard cleans his house and installs a new washing machine that runs smoother and quieter than his old one. His sister-in-law Kitty Nygaard visits him and updates him on her husband and son: Chazz Nygaard is about to go to trial, and Gordo Nygaard is in a juvenile detention center, pending probation. She expresses minimal upset at Chazz being gone (although she is more upset that he cheated on her with Pearl Nygaard and not that he is accused of killing her) and gives Lester Chazz's old hunting gear, telling him he deserves only good things. Lester gathers all of Pearl's things after Kitty leaves and throws them in the trash.
Molly Solverson prepares an evidence board to show to Bill Oswalt, but before she can show him it, he apologizes to her for his misconceptions of the Nygaard case, despite still having it wrong. Despite having most of her information right, Bill insists the case is closed and that Chazz murdered Vern Thurman and Pearl, telling her to let it go. The Sam Hess case is still open, but is being looked into by a reportedly incompetent officer.
At work, Lester is flirted with by his coworker Linda Park until he is interrupted by Gina Hess, who storms in furious that Lester manipulated her for sex despite her never being able to get an insurance payout. When she demands a two million payment and orders her sons to beat Lester up, he confidently dispatches them with a stapler. The Hesses leave, and Linda is in awe of Lester's display of dominance. Bill Budge and Webb Pepper are demoted to working in the Fargo FBI office's file room after not doing anything to stop Lorne Malvo's massacre of the Fargo Crime Syndicate. Determined to get their jobs back, Pepper puts a picture of Malvo leaving the scene captured on an ATM camera up on the wall.
Malvo himself breaks into Wes Wrench's Duluth hospital room after killing the officer guarding him and taunts Wrench, telling him he was the one that killed Grady Numbers and the Syndicate. He tells Wrench that he and Numbers were the people who have come the closest to killing him and gives him the key to his handcuffs, telling Wrench to come find him and try again if he still feels angry at him. Molly has a party thrown for her at her father's diner for "solving" the case. Ida Thurman notes that Molly has been receiving a lot of flowers, and she does not answer who they are from when asked. Ida thanks her for "catching" Chazz, and Molly chooses not to tell her they caught the wrong person. She leaves, her evidence board in the trunk of her car, and passes by Lester's workplace on the way home. The two lock eyes, and he waves at her but she does not wave back.
Gus Grimly calls Molly while on patrol. He talks about his day so far and tells her his hearing is the next day. She encourages him to tell the truth, minus the part where he shot an officer. He invites her to go to an upcoming logging festival with her and Greta Grimly, to which she accepts.
One year later, Gus, now a postman, and a pregnant Molly are married and Greta has accepted her as a mother. He brings dinner home to the family and Molly reminds him that they are going to Ida's on Saturday for the anniversary of Thurman's death. Staring at the massive poster board detailing the multiple murders of 2006, she calls the FBI to ask about the Fargo Crime Syndicate massacre's case, but is told the case is still closed. Working late, Molly crosses paths with Bill and his Sudanese foster son Tahir El Kachief. Tahir tells her of how, after the massacre of his village, he was sent to America but had his luggage stolen at the airport. With Bill's information gone, Tahir ended up being forced to steal food from one of Stavros Milos' supermarkets for three months until Bill happened upon him by chance. Bill explains that the moral is that sometimes, things just work out. Molly returns home to find her husband half asleep. She gets into bed with him and muses aloud that they are doing good and have everything they need.
In Las Vegas, Lester wins the 2007 Insurance Salesman of the Year Award. He vaguely references the events of 2006 in his acceptance speech and thanks Linda, now his wife. After a celebratory dinner, Lester notices a group of women eyeing him and chooses not to go back to the room with Linda, instead sticking around for a drink at the bar. He grins at the women, and then sees something that makes him revert to the twitchy man he once was: Lorne Malvo, now with white hair, out to dinner with a group of friends.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Billy Bob Thornton as Lorne Malvo
- Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson
- Colin Hanks as Gus Grimly
- Martin Freeman as Lester Nygaard
Recurring cast[]
- Bob Odenkirk as Bill Oswalt
- Keith Carradine as Lou Solverson
- Joey King as Greta Grimly
- Kate Walsh as Gina Hess
- Russell Harvard as Wes Wrench
- Tom Musgrave as Bo Munk
- Stephen Root as Burt Canton
- Helena Mattson as Jemma Stalone
- Julie Ann Emery as Ida Thurman
- Rachel Blanchard as Kitty Nygaard
- Susan Park as Linda Park
- Gary Valentine as Knudsen
- Keegan-Michael Key as Bill Budge
- Jordan Peele as Webb Pepper
Co-starring[]
- Marty Antonini as Delivery Man
- Liam Green as Moe Hess
- Atticus Dean Mitchell as Mickey Hess
- Leslie Maynes as FBI Secretary
- James D. Hopkin as SAC David Even
- Christopher Rosamond as Agent Buchwald
- Dan Redican as Buck Young
- Richard Sherry as Stun Meadows
- Jade Davis as Single Woman
- Carrie Colak as Bartender
- Jennifer Copping as Louise Weezu Canton
- Dayle Krall as Magician's Assistant
- Barkhad Abdirahman as Tahir El Kachief
Deaths[]
- Unnamed Duluth police officer
Trivia[]
- First appearance of Burt Canton.
- First appearance of Louise Canton.
- First appearance of Jemma Stalone.
- The title refers to the sorites paradox, also known as "paradox of the heap". A typical formulation of this paradox involves a heap of sand, from which grains are individually removed. Under the assumption that removing a single grain does not turn a heap into a non-heap, the paradox is to consider what happens when the process is repeated enough times: is a single remaining grain still a heap? (Or are even no grains at all a heap?) If not, when did it change from a heap to a non-heap? This paradox is referenced by Bill Budge when questioning if the file room is still a file room if you keep removing files from it.
| Season 1 episodes | ||
|---|---|---|
|
01. "The Crocodile's Dilemma" |
06. "Buridan's Ass" | |