A pitch-perfect scene caps off an uneven season.
Theres the kneejerk, which at first flags a set of episodes as different before mutating into disappointing.
But then, some brave content creator on a deadline fires up a take.
Credit: Chris Large/FX
What if, they begin.
No, creative success is never obvious or popular, not in Take Town.
While I maintain that this the weakest season by many measures, the story of Gloria Burgle, V.M.
Who is Gloria if she isnt the chief, and if her work is ignored entirely?
How do we know that there wasnt a Stussy serial killer?
And why do we fight for justice?
I mean,what is justice?!
The major problem is that none of these questions mattered much until the last third of the season.
But it was missing the heft of season 2s motel massacre.
By the time of the showdown between Nikki and Varga, weve onlyreallybeen caring about her for four episodes.
(Also, I love his black Im on a mission fringe jacket.
Its the style choice of the year.)
Emmit and Nikkis meeting was very well done.
Something about Mary Elizabeth Winstead explaining that Ray is a kitten now just plain worked.
It was funny and bizarre and a little heartbreaking.
Did it ultimately pay off in a satisfying way?
My question: How much of the conflict between Nikki and Emmit could Wrench have understood?
She had essentially no way of communicating with him.
Maybe the boiled-down version of what was happening was the most convincing one.
Also, Sy at the dinner table made me very, very sad.
Surprisingly, it was one of season 3s shakiest elements that allowed the finale to be something truly great.
She isnt going to explain what happened to Ennis Stussy not yet.
These two sitting across from each other in an airport detention center is a play I would absolutely watch.
Their conversation was intelligently written and perfectly performed.
The debate they have in that room is the same one theyve been having through their actions all year.
Does someone with a sharpened sense of justice have a chance against an evil that has hacked the system?
Gloria, trust me, he says.
This speaks to his ability to change the terms of the truth.
Nothing that has passed is truly verifiable, and he can dictate what society deems to the be truth.
And yet, she persists.
Because she has to.
That is the existential conundrum that Lou Solverson ran headfirst into last year.
Gloria has found meaning and purpose in the people she loves and a sense of right and wrong.
Because of this, the future will never be certain.
Because of this, someone like Gloria will always face someone like Varga.
Because of this, we will never know who is going to walk through that door.
So what did it all add up to?
An ending worthy of the rest of the series transcendent of it in some ways thats for sure.
Its a sequence that makes it impossible to write off this wobbly season.
Its also a great distillation of whatFargothe series has meant.
These people with the funny accents arent caricatures or jokes.
