Fargo S1E3 - "A Muddy Road" Recap

Deputy Molly Solverson is on the case of the frozen dead man and tracks him back to his office where she watches grainy surveillance footage of Malvo dragging him out of the building by his tie. The man's name is Phil McCormick and we see that he had plead to Malvo about paying some money back but ended up in the boot of Malvo's car. Meanwhile, Malvo is shown to be hijacking the blackmail scheme against Stavros, forcibly recruiting the trainer Don Chumph to work for him.

Gus Grimly runs the plates he had jotted down when pulling Malvo over and finds that the car belonged to Lester Nygaard, which proves suspicious given his recent wife's murder. Lester is show to still be struggling with the guilt of his actions and the fact that they resulted in the murder of the police chief. He later has to visit Hess' widow to deal with the life insurance claim and then she begins serving his whiskey and climbing on top of him. Her sons are shown to be rough housing outside and the men from Fargo are also spying on him, causing Lester to sink down and hide.

Malvo kills King, Stavros' dog and when Stavros finds his bloody body in the snow, there is a new blackmail note near it. Malvo had also snuck in to put some Adderall in his prescription.

Lester's hand wound isn't doing so well. He is visited at work by the Fargo men who enquire about his visit to Sam Hess' widow. They're quite certain that he's not as innocent as he claims to be but their questioning is interrupted by Molly who comes in claiming to want information about buying insurance. She clumsily drops some of her files and Lester spots a photograph of the footage showing Malvo's face.

Stavros tells Malvo about the new ransom demand and his dead dog, demanding that Malvo find the culprit. Malvo uses this opportunity to ask to move in until he can find them. Malvo also asks him if he is Greek orthodox because of some stain-glass windows in his office and Stavros is cryptic in answering the question.

Molly tries to show her new evidence to Chief Bill Oswalt but he still won't listen to her. She is visited by Gus Grimly who tells her about his letting a driver go in Lester's car and recognises Malvo's face from her surveillance photo. He tells her how Malvo had threatened him (somewhat). She is thrilled to learn that Lester's car is in the shop, thinking that it will help his investigation.

Lester asks his brother which of his guns makes the biggest hole, no doubt looking to defend himself against another visit from the Fargo men. He and Lester head outside with a large machine gun and have a bit of fun shooting it into the night. Malvo's voice is heard telling the story of Moses while Stavros steps into the shower and beings screaming when the water turns to blood.

Fargo airs on Tuesdays on FX at 10PM.