Review: Fargo, “The Tender Trap” | Year 5, Episode 6
A Dot-less episode puts the focus on Deputy Indira Olmstead, Lorraine Lyon, and the true meaning of being a “girlboss"
In interviews about this new season of Fargo—including one last month in The Hollywood Reporter—Noah Hawley has talked about his inspirations for this run. He said he went back to the original Coen brothers movie and imagined a version of that story built around Jean Lundegaard, Jerry’s wife. This led him to recall a classic feminist essay—“I Want a Wife,” by Judy Brady—that ran in New York magazine’s 1971 preview of Ms. magazine. He’s also said he wanted to make something simpler, zippier, and easier to enjoy than Fargo’s complicated, dour Season Four.
All of those ideas are front and center in this week’s episode “The Tender Trap”—mostly for the better, though not always.
Let’s start with “I Want a Wife,” which gets referenced directly in one of three big scenes this week in which Deputy Indira Olmstead is frustrated by someone’s appalling lack of respect. In the first case, she’s on the receiving end of a clearly well-rehearsed lecture from her husband Lars, who has p…