| The Tragedy of the Commons | |
| Season 5, Episode 1 | |
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| Episode Information | |
| Air Date: |
November 21, 2023 |
| Written by: | |
| Directed by: |
Noah Hawley |
| Episode Chronology | |
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| Crew • Gallery • Transcript | |
The Tragedy of the Commons is the first episode of Season 5, and the forty-second episode overall. It aired on November 21, 2023.
Synopsis[]
A series of unexpected events lands Dot in hot water and she is plunged back into a life she thought she left behind.
Plot[]
The definition of the term "Minnesota Nice" is shown; "an aggressively pleasant demeanor, often forced, in which a person is chipper and self-effacing, no matter how bad things get."
In 2019, Scandia, Minnesota, housewife Dorothy "Dot" Lyon tases two men—one of them a police officer—while trying to get her young daughter Scotty out of a riot at a school board meeting. She is arrested and put in the back of deputy Indira Olmstead's squad car, where she worries about Scotty seeing her being detained. Indira expresses disappointment at the riot's occurrence and Dot agrees, justifying the tasing by claiming she was just trying to get Scotty out safely and to not "come at a mama lion when she's got her cub." Indira thinks on this, then responds "you know what they call a herd of lions? A pride."
Dot is processed at the police station (where she worries about her fingerprints being stored in the system) and eventually bailed out by her husband Wayne. They drive off to his wealthy mother Lorraine's for a Christmas card picture. On the way, Wayne assures Dot that Scotty was not too upset after her arrest and that Lorraine's attorney Danish Graves will clear up any charges. Dot is irritated that he told Lorraine about the incident, but he insists that they needed her connections to get Dot cleared.
At Lorraine's, she expresses distaste at Scotty wearing a suit for the photo and she, her husband Wink, and Wayne and his family take the picture while posing with rifles, which Lorraine claims is "about strength, a projection of our values as a family." They later have dinner with the state attorney general, who is working to get Dot's charges dropped and rambles about the country being "under siege." Lorraine asks Dot why she was at the meeting and wonders why she doesn't just donate when Dot mentions being on the school board. Back at home, Dot reads to Scotty before bed and turns down Wayne's offer of sex. As she drifts off to sleep, she has visions of a man having dinner with his family, riding a horse, and in a church, as well as three men in Halloween masks—one of them a sheriff's deputy—emerging from the darkness, and another man walking into it. She suddenly opens her eyes.
The next morning, she makes pancakes for Scotty and Wayne takes her to school, as he believes Dot should steer clear of the building for a few days following the riot. As Dot knits and watches TV, she notices hooded man Ole Munch walk up on her porch and peer in through the window. He opens the unlocked door to find her gone, though follows a trail of yarn she was knitting to the stairs as his partner Donald Ireland enters through the front door. They follow the yarn to her bedroom, and when Ireland checks the bathroom, Dot bursts out and lights his mask on fire with a spray can and a lighter. She wards Munch off with the flames and flees, but trips and falls down the stairs. When Munch, who takes his hood off to reveal the man walking into the darkness from her vision, checks to see if she is alive, she cuts his ear with an ice skate. He and a badly disfigured Ireland corner her.
Wayne and Scotty return home and the former notices the door ajar and Munch's blood on the floor. He calls the police and Indira arrives, who observes Munch's blood and Ireland's burnt mask. Wayne goes to Lorraine at her lucrative debt collection agency, who reluctantly agrees to pay any potential ransom. She orders Danish to keep the incident quiet. Indira returns home to find several overdue bills. She tells her slacker husband Lars about her day, who is more interested in practicing golf on his simulator and has already paid a fee to play in a regional championship despite their debts. She posits him getting a job or going back to school, but he insists on sticking to his dream.
Ireland bemoans his injured eye as he and Munch drive Dot through Revere, North Dakota. They pass by a gas station, where a state police car takes notice of them and pulls them over. Ireland admits that he stole the truck they are driving from a random man's driveway, and as Munch pulls over, Dot ignores his warnings to stay put and sprints out of the car. She runs straight past concerned deputy Witt Farr as Munch opens fire on the vehicle, killing Farr's fellow officer. He flees to the gas station as he calls for backup and stands guard outside as Dot hurries in, but he is shot in the leg by Munch, hiding in the darkness, and barricades himself inside.
He advises the clerk to hide after being pointed towards the first aid kit, cutting the binding on Dot's wrists. As he treats his leg, she pours gasoline by the front door and hears Ireland, haven broken in through the back window, groaning in a bathroom stall. Witt asks the clerk if he has a weapon, but he says all he has is an airhorn. Munch breaks the glass door as Ireland emerges from the stall, prompting Dot to scatter ice on the floor and hit him with a bag, killing him when he falls and cracks his head on the toilet bowl. Munch enters after he and Witt trade fire, killing the clerk when he blows the airhorn at him. Dot sneaks up on him, hits him with a shovel, and aims his gun at him, but is distracted by Witt's request for help. She helps bandage his leg and checks on Munch before he can learn anything about her. She finds him gone and vanishes as Witt's backup arrives.
Wayne puts Scotty to bed and later wakes to find Dot making pancakes for Scotty in the kitchen. He asks what happened to her, and she claims she went for a drive to calm down after the arrest. He points out the holes in her story, and she responds that, despite her calm exterior, "even I got a breaking point." She asks a mystified Wayne to set the table for breakfast.
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[]
- Lukas Gage as Lars Olmstead
- Kudjo Fikapui as Jerome
- James Madge as Mick Thigpen
- Jan Bos as Wink Lyon
- Devon Bostick as Donald Ireland
- Rebecca Liddiard as Karen Tillman
- Conrad Coates as Bowman
- Sally Bishop
- Erik Ermantrout as Pace
- Stephen Joffe as Lemley
Co-Starring[]
- Matthew Mylrea as "Iron" Mike Ox
- Tre Davies as Clerk
- Brent Gill as Photographer
- Erica Ho as Servant
- Dusty Bews as Mr. Abernathy
- Gordon Rix as Administrator
- Darryl Stogre as Booking Cop
- Brooke Sauvé as Jessica Tillman
- Quinn Sauvé as Maude Tillman
- Emily Palmer as Scotty Performance Double
- Andrea K. Wong as Parent
- Katelyn Wong as Crying Student #1
- Claire Wong as Crying Student #2
- Simon Daykin as Town Hall Meeting Attendee (uncredited)
- Richard Koy as Bud (uncredited)
Deaths[]
- North Dakota state trooper "Iron" Mike Ox
- Donald Ireland
- Gas station clerk
Trivia[]
- The fictional World War II film starring Ronald Reagan called Operation Eagle's Nest, which was previously watched by Peggy Blumquist in episode eight of season two, Loplop, can be heard playing on the TV that was left on as Wayne Lyon enters his house later in the day after Dot's kidnapping; it can continue being heard in the next scene when Indira arrives and investigates.
| Season 5 episodes | ||
|---|---|---|
|
01. "The Tragedy of the Commons" | ||