| The Paradox of Intermediate Transactions | |
| Season 5, Episode 3 | |
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|---|---|
| Episode Information | |
| Air Date: |
November 28, 2023 |
| Written by: | |
| Directed by: |
Donald Murphy |
| Episode Chronology | |
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| Crew • Gallery • Transcript | |
The Paradox of Intermediate Transactions is the third episode of Season 5, and the forty-fourth episode overall. It is set to air on November 28, 2023.
Synopsis[]
Dot and Wayne protect their home. Roy neutralizes an obstacle. Witt suspects foul play. Gator makes a move.
Plot[]
Roy Tillman arrives on the scene of Nugent's murder to find his body in the back of Gator Tillman's truck. He asks if Gator pulled the gas station's security footage, but he points out that the state police took the system due to the recent shooting there. Roy asks where Gator found Ole Munch, but he says he found him through the deceased Donald Ireland. Roy orders him to find information on Munch and promises that Munch will be coming back for them. He orders Gator to stage Nugent's death as a car accident. Gator insists he could take Munch in a fair fight, but Roy firmly disagrees and leaves.
Roy returns home to his father-in-law Odin Little's men guarding his house and him inside with Roy's wife Karen. Odin reminds Roy that he needs a new delivery of weapons for his private militia, which he promises is coming soon. He gazes at a wall of family photos, which include several different wedding pictures, including Karen and Dot Lyon. He then sits pensive, watching his twin daughters play in the bathtub. As he smokes marijuana in bed, Karen tries to seduce him by suggesting roleplaying scenarios, but he completely ignores her, staring at the ceiling. As she climbs into bed to lay on his chest, he silently pushes her off. She apologises and hurriedly moves away to leave him alone. He continues staring at the ceiling, where he sees Dot having dinner with her family and murmurs "I see you."
In the dead of night, Dot switches the street signs in her neighborhood around. The next morning, she makes a shopping list of both groceries and things to buy from the gun store as Wayne Lyon asserts that their new alarm system is getting installed soon. She tells him that, for Halloween, she and Scotty Lyon will go as zombie hunters and he will go as a zombie.
In Bismarck, North Dakota, an old woman named Irma takes her several six packs of beer back to her house. She hears something upstairs while watching TV and goes up to find Munch in a rocking chair, who tells her "I live here now."
In Wales, 1522, a man who resembles Munch is brought before a crowd of people in a house (one of which also resembles Munch) where a wealthy man lies dead. A priest has him consume a meal laying on the dead man's chest that represents his sins, which he does so ravenously. He tell the man that "for thy peace, I pawn my own soul" and is forced to drink from a cup held before the man's lips. The priest says "it is done, and cannot be undone," and the man is given the two coins over the dead man's eyes as payment. He leaves the house and looks back, and in the present, Munch repeats "I live here now." Irma goes back downstairs and considers calling the police, but instead goes back to watching TV.
Wayne and Dot go to a gun store, where she is familiar but he is clearly out of his element. She buys several guns despite Wayne's worries about the price, but Dot is alarmed to learn that there will be a mandatory week-long waiting period for a background check. She insists that their home is currently unsafe to the clerk and instead goes to buy pepper spray.
Gator sits in his room, listening to loud rock music and repeating to no one that "I'm a winner." Witt Farr returns to work early on his crutches to look at the possessions collected from Ireland, but finds Gator already there, taking something out of Ireland's box. When he asks what he took, Gator tells him the story of how he was put on crutches in high school by a man who resembled Witt, and that he will hurt him like he did the man if he interferes. When Witt again asks what he took, Gator makes an insulting joke about his mother and exits, leaving Witt to find that Gator switched whatever was in the box for a jerky wrapper. He asks the desk clerk if Gator left his card and is given it, and while he eats, he researches the Tillmans and finds that Gator has been indicted for stealing evidence before and that Roy is struggling in the upcoming county sheriff election. He gets an email from Indira Olmstead, who has sent him Dot's mugshot.
Indira and Scandia police captain Muscavage interview Lorraine Lyon with Danish Graves present, where Indira lays out the timeline of events regarding Dot's kidnapping. Lorraine insists on handling the matter internally and ignores Muscavage's concerns that Munch could come back for Dot, asserting that she can protect her son. Indira wonders how that will play out when Witt identifies Dot, but Graves insists that the state police will have to go through him to question any of the Lyons. As Indira and Muscavage move to leave, Lorraine asks why she needs the police "beyond a tool to keep a certain element in line" and describes them as "gatekeepers" that keep "the rabble from getting in." She tells Indira to remember that "inside these walls, you have no function." She orders Graves to get security details assigned to her and Wayne's house, and describes Dot as a "wolf in sheep's clothing." Graves asserts that he has a former CIA agent looking for dirt on her.
Munch lays in bed, surrounded by newspaper articles tracking Roy, and listens to a police radio, where he overhears Roy ordering Gator to meet with him.
Roy asks Gator what they are doing about "Nadine" (Dot's real name) and orders him to get her that night, as it as Halloween and the busy neighborhood will provide good cover. He muses about the thematic appropriateness of taking her on Halloween, as Dot was "dead, now she's back." Gator and three of his people drive to Scandia, where he warns them that Dot is the biggest threat of the family.
As the Lyons prepare for Halloween and Dot arms their house as they leave, Roy sits in the pews of the small church near his house. Munch reads from the Bible before tearing a page out and eating it. He tells Irma (who he addresses as "mama") that he is going out. Roy calls Dot's house, singing "Nadine (Is It You?)" when she picks up, prompting her to hang up after a moment of shock. Munch, murmuring in Latin, strips almost naked, kills a goat, and covers himself in mud and its blood while kneeling over a fire in a small hut. He cuts his forearm and as scenes from the past is shown in flashes, he begins to shout erratically, suddenly appearing on Roy's porch and killing his guard.
Confused by Dot's switched road signs, Gator drives around the neighborhood until he spots the Lyons out on the street. Dot notices the van reversing towards her house as she arrives home and locks eyes with a masked Gator, who approaches the front door with his people. Munch enters Roy's house, leaving muddy footprints behind him.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Juno Temple as Dorothy "Dot" Lyon
- Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lorraine Lyon
- David Rysdahl as Wayne Lyon
- Joe Keery as Gator Tillman
- Lamorne Morris as Witt Farr
- Richa Moorjani as Indira Olmstead
- Sam Spruell as Ole Munch
- Sienna King as Scotty Lyon
- Dave Foley as Danish Graves
- Jon Hamm as Roy Tillman
Recurring Cast[]
- Rebecca Liddiard as Karen Tillman
- Brendan Fletcher as Gun World Clerk
- Clare Coulter as Irma
- Sally Bishop as Brandy
- Erik Ermantrout as Pace
- Stephen Joffe as Lemley
Co-Starring[]
- Paul McGillion as Muscavage
- Scott Pocha as Alvie Nugent
- Nathan Crockett as Pete Auch
- Michael Copeman as Oden Little
- Brooke Sauvé as Jessica Tillman
- Quinn Sauvé as Maude Tillman
- Emily Palmer as Scotty Performance Double
- Stuart Bentley as Uncle
- William Klasky as Wealthy Patriarch
- Glen Gaston as Priest
- Martin Kvapil as Mourner #1
- Stephanie Chabeniuk as Mourner #2
- Simon Daykin as Trick or Treat Parent (uncredited)
Deaths[]
- Welsh man
- Roy Tillman's henchman
Trivia[]
To be added.
| Season 5 episodes | ||
|---|---|---|
|
01. "The Tragedy of the Commons" | ||