| Who Rules the Land of Denial? | |
| Season 3, Episode 8 | |
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|---|---|
| Episode Information | |
| Air Date: |
June 7, 2017 |
| Viewers: |
1.14 million |
| Written by: |
Noah Hawley |
| Directed by: |
Mike Barker |
| Episode Chronology | |
| Previous Episode: | |
| Next Episode: | |
| Crew • Gallery • Transcript | |
Who Rules the Land of Denial? is the eighth episode of Season 3, and the twenty-eighth episode overall. It premiered June 7, 2017.
Description[]
Nikki struggles to survive, Emmit gets spooked and Sy joins Varga for tea.
Plot[]
Yuri Gurka, Golem, and Meemo build a large rail and drive it out to a desolate forest road. As the prison bus holding Nikki Swango drives towards them, Yuri walks out into the road and sends the bus over the rail, landing it on its side. As they cut through the bars of the bus, Wes Wrench, shackled to Nikki, wakes up and shakes her awake, unhooking their chain and fighting off a knife-wielding Golem. The two escape the bus, and Wrench drags Nikki into the woods. As Yuri and Golem run after them, Meemo notices a couple driving by the scene of the accident, and pursues and overturns their car, killing them both.
Nikki quickly realizes Wrench is deaf, and they soon learn to communicate through drawings in the snow and basic sign language. Yuri kills a hunting father and son and takes their crossbow. Exhausted, Nikki tells Ray Stussy in her mind that she is too weak to continue, but Ray rebuffs her. As she and Wrench rest, she thinks about her last words to him. Wrench and Nikki walk a full day, lost, until they arrive in a clearing with an ax embedded in a stump. As Wrench strikes their handcuff chain with the ax, Yuri and Golem attack, shooting both Wrench and Nikki with a crossbow bolt and stabbing Wrench in the back. Nikki and Wrench trip Golem with their chain and try to strangle him with it, but pull so hard they cut through his neck and decapitate him. Wrench throws his ax into the trees, which cuts off Yuri's ear and drives him off. Wrench breaks the chain with his bare hands and removes the bolt from Nikki's leg, and they wander off.
Wrench and Nikki stumble upon a bowling alley, where Nikki meets Paul Murrane. He shows her a kitten that he has named Ray, and describes gilgul, a Jewish belief that an old soul can inhabit a young body. He tells her that Rabbi Nachman of Breslov claimed the victims of the Jewish massacre of Uman, perpetrated by Cossacks, were all lost souls. He claims the bowling alley is a place that everyone ends up at to be judged eventually, and gives her a message to deliver to "the wicked," claiming she will understand when the time comes. Nikki and Wrench leave in a car given to them by Murrane, after saying goodbye to the kitten. As they leave, Yuri arrives, bleeding profusely from the wound of his severed ear. Murrane claims he has a message from Rabbi Nachman for him, and shows him a vision: a black and white image of thousands of people, including Helga Albracht and Jakob Ungerleider.
As Gloria Burgle spends Christmas with son Nathan, ex-husband Ron and his husband Dale, before being called to the scene of the bus crash. She asks if Nikki was found, but is told she has not been. Sy Feltz goes to see Emmit Stussy in his home, but finds that Meemo and V.M. Varga have taken occupancy. Varga convinces Sy to have some tea, which he has poisoned. Sy sees Emmit at his window and waves, but Emmit does not reciprocate. The poison kicks in when Sy vomits on the floor of Stussy Lots' office and is rushed to the hospital.
Three months later, Sy is in a coma, and Winnie Lopez and Gloria are still looking into Emmit. As he leaves the hospital, he finds that his car has been stolen and replaced with Ray's Corvette. Sitting down in his office, Stussy Lots having expanded rapidly, he sees that every picture in his office has been replaced with the stamp. Emmit calls Varga, claiming Ray is still alive and that he and Nikki are conspiring against him. Meemo takes Emmit home and he drinks himself unconscious, waking to find a mustache reminiscent of Ray's glued to his face.
Varga meets with Emmit, who is refusing to sign the papers that will make them more money. Unhinged, Emmit mutters about Ray and their father, as Varga tells him he is a hero and tells him of Hiroo Onada, a Japanese general who refused to surrender until thirty years after the end of World War II. Varga drugs Emmit, and he signs the papers before Meemo puts him to sleep.
Gloria, now a deputy, signs her divorce papers. Emmit stumbles into the police station, stating he wants to confess.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Ewan McGregor as Emmit Stussy / Ray Stussy (vision; voice)
- Carrie Coon as Gloria Burgle
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Nikki Swango
- Goran Bogdan as Yuri Gurka
- David Thewlis as V.M. Varga
Guest Starring[]
- Michael Stuhlbarg as Sy Feltz
- Russell Harvard as Wes Wrench
- Ray Wise as Paul Murrane
- Mark Forward as Donny Mashman
- Olivia Sandoval as Winnie Lopez
- DJ Qualls as Golem
Co-Starring[]
- Andy Yu as Meemo
- Zina Lee as Madeline
- Graham Verchere as Nathan Burgle
- Joel Labelle as Dale
- Kealey Storrs as Father (Hunter)
- Jake Bunyan as Son (Hunter)
- Andrew Airlie as U.S. Marshal Red Vonnegut
- Bobby Izat as U.S. Marshal
- Michael Shepherd as Bartender
- Jennifer Boudreau as Helga
Deaths[]
- Two unnamed hunters
- Unnamed couple
- Golem
- Yuri Gurka
Trivia[]
- Nikki's interaction with Paul is reminiscent of the ending scene to Joel and Ethan Coen's 1998 movie The Big Lebowski. Throughout the film, the supposedly supernatural stranger who narrates the film, has a friendly talk with the protagonist, the Dude, at a bowling alley. Both the scene in the film and the scene in the episode are shot similarly.
| Season 3 episodes | ||
|---|---|---|
|
01. "The Law of Vacant Places" |
06. "The Lord of No Mercy" | |