At the hospital, Grimly agonizes over accidentally shooting Molly and destroying her spleen, but the injury is not fatal. The unloaded gun Lester placed in Gordo's backpack is discovered at his school. The Nygaard home is searched by police and the incriminating evidence that Lester planted in Chazz's gun safe is found. Later, Lester tells Chief Oswalt a new story in which he claims Chazz killed Pearl during a heated lovers' quarrel. Lester also claims he was present when Chazz killed Chief Thurman, thus explaining his hand injury. He says he covered for his hot-headed brother because he feared retaliation. Lester is released from jail while Chazz is incarcerated. Molly talks to Mr. Wrench, who is hospitalized under guard, and informs him that his partner, Mr. Numbers, is dead. Wrench, who is deaf, declines to provide any information.
Meanwhile, Lorne Malvo infiltrates the Fargo, North Dakota offices of the crime syndicate that sent Numbers and Wrench, and armed with the UMP-45 submachine gun that was used in his murder attempt, Malvo massacres the gang and its boss.
Lester seduces the money-hungry Mrs. Hess with promises of "greasing the palms" of the insurance agents responsible for her late husband's policy. Lester fails to mention that Hess had stopped paying the premiums and the policy was canceled. Molly is discharged from the hospital and returns to Bemidji. She is dismayed to hear that Chazz Nygaard has been arrested and that Lester has been "cleared."
Tropes:
- Afraid of Blood: The cheery floor repairman that Lester calls hangs up the phone immediately when he's informed that Lester's floor has leftover bloodstains from a crime scene.
- Awful Wedded Life: Mr. Rundle.Malvo: So I noticed you got a pin on your map of every state but Georgia. What the hell do you got against Georgia?Rundle: My first wife. She was Korean. She used to spit at me when we had sex.
- Axes at School: Gordo is arrested when the gun that Lester planted in his backpack is discovered.
- Cleavage Window: Gina once again displays this when Lester stops by.
- Conspicuous Gloves: Malvo wears them at Rundle's office which tips the latter off that something serious is going on.
- Contrived Clumsiness: The way the gun is discovered at school.
- Debut Queue: Pepper and Budge, two characters essential to the season's finale, make their debut here in the seventh episode.
- Destination Defenestration: Mr. Jergen is thrown out of the fourth-story window, which finally garners the attention of Agents Pepper and Budge.
- The Dog Bites Back: Not only does Lester extremely convincingly throw his brother under the bus and blame him for his own crimes, but he finally gets posthumous revenge on his old high school bully by fucking his wife.
- Establishing Character Moment: Pepper and Budge's introduction has them bickering over something that doesn't matter, distracting them from Malvo entering the Fargo headquarters and shooting up the whole building.
- Face Death with Dignity: Rundle asks Malvo if he wants to kill him standing up or sitting down.
- Failed a Spot Check: After days on a stakeout with nothing happening, Pepper and Budge are so bored and distracted that they fail to see Malvo walk next to their car while carrying a barely concealed submachine gun. Malvo then proceeds to decimate the building across the street and the two of them do not realize that anything is going on till a dead body falls out a window.
- Funny Background Event: While Pepper and Budge talk in their car, Malvo can be seen walking toward them. This clues the audience in on knowing that something's about to go down.
- Heartbroken Badass: Mr. Wrench cries to himself once Molly informs him that Numbers was killed in the shootout.
- Heroic BSoD: The episode ends with Molly beginning to suffer an anxiety attack just outside the police station.
- I Can Explain: Lester's brother says the line when seeing the Orgy of Evidence at his house.
- Killed Offscreen: Or rather, the deaths of the Fargo syndicate members happen entirely onscreen, just concealed behind the exterior of the building.
- Lady Drunk: While her sons are out of the house, Gina just tries to drink enough so that she feels numb by the time they return.
- Mythology Gag: Played for drama when the speech Molly gives Wrench about how he'll spend the rest of his life in prison mirrors the one Marge gives Grimsrud at the end of the movie.
- Noodle Incident: Gordo has apparently done some weird shit on the school bus to the point where the driver warns him "no funny business today."
- One-Man Army: Malvo single-handedly brings the Fargo crime syndicate crumbling to nothing in just over a minute.
- Orgy of Evidence: Lester plants ample evidence at his brother's house: the murder weapon, his wife's panties, and a photo of her.
- Revenge by Proxy: In the first episode we learned that Hess slept with Lester's wife. In this episode, Lester takes revenge by sleeping with Hess' wife/widow.
- Police Are Useless: Probably most prominent in this very episode, which is saying something. It's bad enough when Bill completely buys Lester's BS story about Chazz’s affair with Pearl. Then, Pepper and Budge miss Malvo entering the Fargo headquarters with a barely concealed machine gun and murdering every person inside.
- Previously on…: Serving as a falling action episode to the climactic "Buridan's Ass," it opens with another one of these.
- Sex for Services: While she'd tried seducing him before and failed due to the presence of her sons, Lester willingly comes back this time with the intention of sleeping with Gina, convincing her that he's skilled enough to get her the insurance money faster.
- Shell-Shock Silence: When Lester's brother is confronted with the evidence at his house, all sounds go mute.
- Sound-Only Death: Until the Destination Defenestration.
- String Theory: In her hospital room, Molly has drawn a diagram connecting all the variables of her case on the window with a sharpie.
- Uncertain Doom: It is never revealed whether Malvo killed Rundle or merely wounded him, as he threatened to do either in response to the information Rundle gave him.
- The fact that Malvo goes straight for the Fargo headquarters implied that Rundle was cooperative and hence is still alive.
- Useless Spleen: Turns out Gus shot Molly in the spleen, which is why it was non-fatal. It's been removed by the beginning of the episode.
