History Recap / FargoS03E08WhoRulesTheLandOfDenial

* ImplausibleCorneredEscape: Nikki [[ChainedHeat is chained up]] to Mr. Wrench while both try to hide in the forest from two killers sent after them. One scene has them hiding under a tree stump upon which the camera pans over to the pursuers approaching. When the camera pans back to the tree stump, our two fugitives have inexplicably vanished.

After the prison bus crashes, Yuri, Meemo, and Golem attempt to get to Nikki. However, with the help of Mr. Wrench, Nikki escapes, and the two, shackled together, run into the woods. After a long pursuit, they are discovered, attacked, and wounded by Yuri and Golem, but manage to kill Golem by decapitating him with their chain. Mr. Wrench senses Yuri nearby and wounds him with an axe. After breaking their chain, Nikki and Mr. Wrench happen upon a bowling alley where Nikki meets Paul Marrane (Ray Wise). Marrane encourages her to fight the evil in the world. He tells her a car is available, and she and Mr. Wrench flee in it. Yuri reaches the same bowling alley, and Marrane confronts him with the sins of his past.

* DareToBeBadass: Paul Marrane's philosophical conversation with Nikki turns into this, when he urges her to overcome life's suffering nature and "deliver a message to the wicked."

* GlassCannon: When Yuri has Nikki and Mr. Wrench pinned down at the tree stumps with a crossbow, Golem runs at them from different angles from cover and slashing at them as he passes. When they manage to trip him with their chain, he is easily overpowered.

* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Yuri walks into the bowling alley with a recently chopped off ear and nonchalantly asks for napkins. And vodka.

** The scene where Meemo chases after an innocent couple who witnesses the bus scene is a direct shout out to [[Film/{{Fargo}} the original movie]].

* UncertainDoom: The last we see of Yuri, he's been confronted with his crimes by Paul Marrane who has an almost supernatural knowledge of who he is and what he's done. Yuri seems frightened, and Emmit says after the Time Skip that he disappeared. Whatever Paul did to him probably wasn't good.

* WorstAid: Mr Wrench removing the arrow from Nikki's leg.

* {{Gaslighting}}: Emmit believes Ray and Nikky are doing this to him.

** Nikki sitting at the bar in the bowling alley and someone speaking to her about philosophy is very reminiscent of the final scene of TheBigLebowski

* EldritchLocation: The bowling alley. Not only is it located in the middle of nowhere, but Nikki had a strange encounter there with a man who hinted to be some kind of supernatural being. [[spoiler:After Yuri enters the bowling alley and meets the same man, he is never seen nor heard from again.]]
-->'''Paul:''' "Have you been to this place before?"
-->'''Nikki:''' "The bowling alley?"
-->'''Paul:''' ''[beat]''"Is ''that'' what you see?"

* RealityEnsues: Walking around the woods wearing a wolf's head and pelt as a hat is an excellent way to get yourself shot by hunters.

* {{Gaslighting}}: It's implied that Varga does this to Emmit.

'''Season 3, Episode 08:'''
!!Who Rules the Land of Denial?:
!!!Written by Noah Hawley & Monica Beletsky

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Mr. Wrench flings his wood axe into the shadows and manages to clip Yuri, taking him out of the fight.
* TimePassageBeard: The beard Sy sports after the MatchCut in the hospital bed clues us in on the TimeSkip that occured.

* ShoutOut: The scene where Meemo chases after an innocent couple who witnesses the bus scene is a direct shout out to [[Film/{{Fargo}} the original movie]].

Picking up just before where [[Recap/FargoS03E07TheLawOfInevitability the previous episode]] left off, Yuri, Meemo, and Golem set up a large iron pole in the middle of the road to flip the prison bus that Nikki’s on. Yuri walks out onto the road to cause it to swerve, and it flips onto its side in the other lane. Mr. Wrench stirs form the backseat and sees the men trying to make their way to the back of the bus. Nikki stirs as well, and the two yank their handcuffs from the bus seat so that Wrench can fight off Golem in hand-to-hand combat. He knocks him out, Nikki opens the emergency exit, and they make their escape into the trees.

The goons exit the bus just as an innocent couple drive by and survey the scene. Meemo jumps into a car to chase after them, while Yuri and Golem pursue Nikki and Wrench through the woods. By morning, the escapees have found an open field and try to communicate by writing in the snow. Yuri and Golem watch from the distance before Yuri’s wolf head is shot by a pair of hunters. Yuri promptly kills them and takes their crossbow.

While Nikki and Wrench travel, Nikki is haunted by her last conversation with Ray until they find a tree stump with an axe sticking out. They attempt to use the axe to break their chains, but begin being pelted by arrows from the surrounding wilderness. Golem tries running out from the trees and stabbing the two while they’re disoriented, but Wrench trips him. While he’s down, another arrows passes by Wrench’s head, prompting him to fling the axe into the trees in the direction it came from. They pin Golem to the tree stump and break their chains by decapitating him. Since the arrows seemed to have stopped, they traverse back into the woods as a camera pan reveals Wrench’s axe stuck in a tree above a decapitated ear.

The two eventually come across a bowling alley, where they sit down to rest. Nikki orders two whiskeys at the bar, where Paul Marrane begins striking up a conversation. He asks if he can show her something and pulls a kitten that he calls Ray out of a box.

-->'''Paul:''' Are you familiar with Gilgul? It’s Hebrew. It’s a word that describes how an old soul attaches itself to a new body.

Nikki begins cradling the kitten while Paul talks about the lost souls killed by the Cossacks back in 1768. He tells her that they all end up at the bowling alley eventually to be weighed and judged, and points out that he believes Mr. Wrench to be on a "better path" now. To end their exchange, Paul offers Nikki and Wrench a green Volkswagen beetle in the parking lot in exchange for delivering a message "to the wicked."

-->'''Paul:''' Tell them " 'Though thou exalt thyself like the eagle, though thou make thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down,' sayeth the Lord."

She starts to leave with Ray, but he informs her she can’t take the cat with her. She and Wrench drive off in the green beetle just as Yuri enters the parking lot, covered in his own blood. He sits at the bar and asks for napkins and vodka. Paul, seated next to him, tells him that he has a message and looks beyond the bar. Yuri looks as well, coming face to face with Helga and the aforementioned thousands of lost souls from the Ukraine back in 1768.

Meanwhile, Nathan unwraps his presents on Christmas morning as Gloria, Roy, and his boyfriend watch. Gloria gets a call and drives out to have a look at the prison bus wreck, passing the flipped car of a slaughtered couple on the way. The investigating Marshals inform her that there are no women on the bus and send her on her way.

Sy stops by Emmit’s house to be greeted by Meemo and Varga, the latter the two telling him that Emmit is resting upstairs and isn’t to be disturbed. He sits Sy down to tell him that he’s five million dollars richer and offers him some tea. Sy has a cup and is promptly ushered out the door. On the way back to his car, he sees Emmit watching him from the window. He waves, but Emmit just closes the curtain and walks away.

A little while later, Sy dizzily makes his way back into the office. At the front desk, he throws up, passes out, and is rushed to the hospital. Despite a speedy operation, he falls into an indefinite coma. Three months pass, and Emmit is seen visiting his friend on March 15, 2011. Leaving the hospital, he’s harassed with questions by Gloria and Winnie all the way up to the top floor of the parking garage. Instead of finding his own car, however, he sees Ray’s old corvette parked in his spot. Upon returning to his office, he finds that all his framed pictures have been replaced with the stamp that killed Ray.

-->'''Emmit:''' Madeline!
-->'''Madeline:''' Geez, we’ve got the intercom.
-->'''Emmit:''' ''What the shit is this!?''

He starts freaking out and contacts Varga, telling him that he believes Ray is alive and psychologically torturing him. Varga tries calming him down and tells him that he needs to sign some papers. Emmit falls asleep in his house that night, only to awake with a mustache. He’s spooked, and a confused Meemo gets a hold of Varga, who shows up and once again reiterates that Emmit needs to sign the business papers so that they can keep making money. He gives him some sedatives to calm him down, which Emmit pretends to take, but waits until he’s been left alone in his room to sneak out.

At the police station, where Gloria and Donnie have been relocated to a supply closet as an office, Gloria hesitates to sign her divorce papers with Roy. She starts heading home, but has a change of heart and gives in. As she signs, Emmit walks in.

-->'''Emmit:''' My name's Emmit Stussy. I wanna confess.

** Nikki sitting at the bar in the bowling alley and someone speaking to her about philosophy is very reminiscent of the final scene of [[Film/TheBigLebowski]]

As Nikki and Mr. Wrench fight for their lives in the forest while being pursued by Yuri they come across a misterious bowling alley, where they encounter Paul Marrane, the traveling salesman who befriended Gloria during her trip to LA.

After a misterious conversation with them he provides them the means to return to civilization. Yuri on the other hand, isn't as lucky. He is confronted by the spirit of the girlfriend he murdered in East Berlin and a host of the spirits of the Jewish men, women and children his Cossack ancestors massacred centuries ago.

While all of this is going on, Varga poisons Sy, leaving him in a coma for months.

After a TimeSkip, we find that Gloria has been demoted to deputy, but she and Winnie continue to hound Emmit. Eventually an unknown party begins playing on Emmit's guilty conscience about his brother's death and Sy's coma, leading him to seek out Gloria to confess.

* UnexpectedCharacter: Of all the characters one could have expected Nikki and Mr. Wrench to run into, seemly one-off Paul Marrane wasn't on anyone's list.

* UnexpectedCharacter: Of all the characters one could have expected Nikki and Mr. Wrench to run into, seememly one-off Paul Marrane wasn't on anyone's list.