History Recap / FargoS01E10MortonsFork

Immediately following Linda's murder, Lester goes into the office and makes it look as if she stopped by alone. Lester then walks to Lou's Coffee Shop and orders dinner for two, pretending to wait for her to return from the office. He sneaks outside to a pay phone and, disguising his voice, reports gunshots to police, then goes back in. After Linda's body is discovered, Nygaard is questioned at the police station and later released.

In town, Malvo visits a car dealership ostensibly to test drive a car, telling the salesman it looks like an "undercover vehicle". Oswalt informs Solverson that he is resigning and wants her to take over as Chief. Agents Pepper and Budge drive Nygaard home, unaware that Malvo is following them. Nygaard refuses to allow them in the house, so Pepper and Budge remain on watch outside. When a car pulls into the driveway, Pepper and Budge, suspicious, pull out their guns and approach. Inside is the car salesman with his hands duct-taped to the wheel. Malvo ambushes Pepper and Budge, killing them. While Nygaard pretends to frantically call 911, Malvo breaks in and enters the upstairs bedroom. He steps on a bear trap that Nygaard hid under a pile of clothing. Nygaard charges out, shooting at Malvo but misses. Malvo returns fire, also missing, then escapes to his hideout to treat his badly broken leg. Grimly surprises Malvo and fatally shoots him.

Later, Grimly shows Solverson a briefcase containing Malvo's tape recordings, including Nygaard's phone call where he confesses to killing Pearl. Two weeks later, police track Nygaard to Glacier National Park in Montana and pursue him on snowmobiles. Nygaard crashes before running onto thin ice, then falls through. Solverson receives a call at home regarding police divers searching the water. Grimly tells her that he is receiving a citation for bravery, saying she deserves the credit. She assures him it is his moment.

--->'''Lester:''' Uh, Bill?
--->'''Bill:''' Answer the question.

-->'''Lester:''' You know, I'm not sure what you've had against me since day one. But I'm not the person you think I am, this, this kind of monster.
-->'''Molly:''' There was a fella once. Running for a train. And he's carrying a pair of gloves, this man. And he loses a glove on the platform. But he doesn't notice. And then, later on, he's on the train sitting by the window, and he realizes that he's just got this one glove left. But the train's already started pulling out of the station. So what does he do? He opens the window and drops the other glove onto the platform. Now whoever finds the first glove can just have the pair.
-->'''Lester:''' So, what are you telling me?
-->'''Molly:''' ... goodbye, Mr. Nygaard.

* RunForTheBorder: Lester tries to snowmobile his way across the Montana border into Canada after being implicated in Linda's murder only to get caught by the border patrol and drown after trying to flee by running across a frozen lake.

In town, Malvo visits a car dealership ostensibly to test drive a car, telling the salesman it looks like an "undercover vehicle". Oswalt informs Solverson that he is resigning and wants her to take over as Chief. Agents Pepper and Budge drive Nygaard home, unaware that Malvo is following them. Nygaard refuses to allow them in the house, so Pepper and Budge remain on watch outside. When a car pulls into the driveway, Pepper and Budge, suspicious, pull out their guns and approach. Inside is the car salesman with his hands duct taped to the wheel. Malvo ambushes Pepper and Budge, killing them. While Nygaard pretends to frantically call 911, Malvo breaks in and enters the upstairs bedroom. He steps on a bear trap that Nygaard hid under a pile of clothing. Nygaard charges out, shooting at Malvo but misses. Malvo returns fire, also missing, then escapes to his hideout to treat his badly broken leg. Grimly surprises Malvo and fatally shoots him.

** Also, Lester himself has reached the end in his trek into darkness, as the evil, selfish man being interviewed in this episode only vaguely resembles the one we saw back towards the beginning of the season who mourned the death of his own victim.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: By the back-end of his Character Development, Lester's fallen so far into darkness that he no longer thinks of anyone but himself. When Molly tries to tell him a story about being basically decent without any benefit to yourself, he just doesn't get it.

-->'''Molly:''' There was a fella once. Running for a train. And he's carrying a pair of gloves, this man. And he loses a glove on the platform. But he doesn't notice. And then later on, he's on the train sitting by the window, and he realises that he's just got this one glove left. But the train's already started pulling out of the station. So what does he do? He opens the window and he drops the other glove on to the platform. Now whoever finds the first glove can just have the pair.

* PayEvilUntoEvil: Gus kills an unarmed Malvo execution style and even gets awarded for this act.

* RunForTheBorder: Lester tries to snowmobile his way across the Montana border into Canada after being implicated for Linda's murder only to get caught by the border patrol and drowns after trying to flee through running across a frozen lake.

* "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: While helplessly wounded he is met with a determined Gus pointing a gun at him. Lorne spitefully growls at him "good for you".

* "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: While helplessly wounded and met with a determined Gus pointing a gun at him. Lorne spitefully growls at him "good for you".

'''Season 1, Episode 10:'''
!!Morton's Fork:

The episode opens up showing the aftermath of a snowmobile crash. From the snowmobile, a trail of footprints are seen in the snow leading to a hole in the frozen lake.

Back in the parking lot outside Lester Nygaard's workplace, Lester watches as Lorne Malvo exits the building after having killed his second wife Linda. Once Lorne leaves the scene, Lester goes into the office in order to get the money from the safe. Before leaving, he covers up the crime scene in order to make it look like he was never there.

Lester enters Lou's diner, telling Lou that Linda went to his office and should arrive soon. Lester indicates that he is going to the bathroom but instead leaves the diner through the back door. Outside, Lester enters a phone booth and makes an anonymous call to Bemidji's police station to reporting shots being fired at an intersection near Lester's office, before sneaking back through into the diner. Speaking with Lester, Lou recalls his conversation with "a fella" (Malvo) who was looking for Lester. As police cars rush past the diner, Lester realizes that he had left the airplane tickets to Acapulco in the jacket he gave to Linda before she went into the office.

At home, Molly Solverson receives word that another of Lester's wives has been murdered. Molly goes to the crime scene where she meets Lester. Lester tries but fails to retrieve the tickets from the jacket. The police bring Lester back to the station, where he refuses to answer any questions. Lester is allowed to return home the next morning, but must be accompanied by FBI agents Pepper and Budge.

Malvo goes to a used car lot and chats up one of the salesmen (the same young husband that Lester failed to sell life insurance to a year earlier) about one car that resembles an undercover police car, convincing him to allow the two to go for a test drive. Malvo later sees Lester being taken home by the FBI agents, and follows in his own car. During his trip home, Lester is asked about and solves the riddle of the fox, the rabbit and the cabbage. Once they return Lester home, the two FBI agents remain outside. Apparently forced by Malvo, the salesman drives his car up to Lester's house, attracting the attention of the agents; Malvo takes advantage of their distraction to murder both of them.

Malvo enters Lester's house, and each stalks but fails to kill the other. Malvo strikes Lester in the face with Lester's award, bloodying his face and mirroring the injury inflicted on Lester by Sam Hess a year earlier. Though Lester's gun jams, Malvo's foot is caught in a bear trap left by Lester, and he escapes severely injured. Malvo retreats to his cabin to treat his injury, not knowing that Grimly has already found it. Grimly tells Malvo that he has solved his riddle posed a year earlier, and kills Malvo. When the police arrive, they find Malvo's trove of audio tapes, including the one containing Lester's confession for the murder of his first wife. Two weeks later, Lester, now the subject of a manhunt after his murder of Pearl has been revealed, is shown on a snowmobile in Glacier National Park. Lester is recognized by law enforcement officers and tries to escape, only to crash his snowmobile. Desperate, he continues on foot, only to crash through thin ice, presumably meeting his end, and revealing that the scene shown at the beginning of the episode depicted Lester's fate.

At home, Molly receives the news of Lester. Gus tells her that he's receiving a citation for bravery, but he feels that she deserves it. Molly reassures her husband that this is his moment.

* PayEvilUntoEvil: Gus gets an award for killing an unarmed Malvo execution style.

Lester waits for Malvo to walk away before going inside his shop, removing something from his safe, and placing the car keys in Linda’s hands. He walks to Lou’s Diner just down the road and tells Lou that Linda will be joining him briefly. Excusing himself to the bathroom, he exits and uses the phone booth to report shots fired, then makes his way back to the table to repeat that Linda will be joining him any second. Lou informs him that a man came in early inquiring about him, but left when he couldn’t get an address. Lester then remembers that he left his tickets to Acapulco in the jacket he gave to Linda, but before he can go back to get them, a brigade of police cars passes by outside.

At Gus and Molly’s house, Molly gets a call that Lester’s second wife has been murdered and heads out to look at the scene. At the shop, Molly observes that the body is draped in Lester’s coat, but before further observations can be made, Lester enters and starts acting flustered at the sight of his dead wife. Lester asks Molly and Bill if he can say goodbye before they escort him outside, and Bill obliges. He attempts lifting the tickets from out of the coat, but Molly stops him when he starts leaning to touch the body, and he’s escorted out.

At a cabin somewhere, Malvo listens in to his police scanner and attends to his guns. Pepper and Budge wait in the Bemidji Police Department, and Molly and Bill fill them in on the details of Linda’s murder. Lou barges in and tells Molly about how a mysterious man came into his diner earlier asking about Lester. She asks him to phone Gus and tell him that she’ll be out all night, but Lou opts to get his gun and guard their porch instead.

As Lou leaves the station, Malvo breaks into a car outside and takes an FBI booklet out of the glovebox. Inside, Pepper and Budge begin questioning Lester about Lorne Malvo. Lester dodges their questioning and demands he either be locked up or let go to deal with arrangements concerning his wife.

The next morning, Gus walks outside to find Lou sitting on his front porch. Lou tells him that Malvo could very well be back, and Gus leaves to help. Molly, meanwhile, is briefing the station on what to look out for when Gus calls and convinces her not to go out looking for Malvo with everyone else.

-->'''Molly:''' Yeah, I won’t leave the building 'till they call and tell me he’s surrounded.
-->'''Gus:''' No. Until he’s dead.

Just then, a wolf appears on the road and Gus stops the car. He watches as it walks off, then realizes that Malvo’s alleged red BMW is parked at a cabin right there on the side of the road. He parks a little ways down and walks over to investigate, witnessing the man himself leave the cabin, get into the car, and drive away. Then, he makes his way inside.

Molly goes into Bill’s office and tells him that the FBI men are accompanying Lester to his house in an attempt to draw Malvo out. Bill informs her that he’s hanging up his badge after the whole thing is resolved and recommends that Molly take things over once she has her baby. Malvo, meanwhile, calls into the station posing as the FBI director and learns the identities of the two officers stationed at Lester’s house. He then calls the FBI posing as Budge and tells them to cancel backup. Heading into a used car dealership, Malvo convinces a naive salesman to take him for a test drive in an FBI-esque car.

Molly informs Lester that Pepper and Budge will be driving him home. They leave the station, and Malvo follows at an indiscrete distance behind. While in the car, Pepper once again brings up the riddle of the fox, rabbit, and cabbage, which Lester solves with ease. They drop him off and inform him that they’ll be sitting in their car outside for a bit to keep watch. Lester goes into the basement to dig through Chazz’s old hunting supplies and plan his next move.

Out on the front porch, Lou tells Greta about the time back in 1979 when he guarded his own porch with a shotgun. She’s inspired to go back inside and grab her own gun so that she can shoot the eye off of anyone that comes and Lou can finish them off. Back at the station, Molly decides to head over to Lester’s, where Pepper and Budge continue to sit in wait. They watch a car roll forward and figure that it could be their backup. Approaching the vehicle, they find an innocent man with his hands taped to the wheel inside. This gives Malvo enough time to walk out from the woods and shoot them both dead from behind.

In his bedroom, Lester throws the clothes from his suitcase about all over the floor. Walking downstairs, he realizes that Pepper and Budge have been disposed of and runs back up to his bedroom. Malvo quietly breaks in and hears Lester speaking frantically into the phone from the bedroom bathroom. Stepping on top of the clothes, he triggers a bear trap and doubles over in pain. Lester bursts out of the door and shoots at him, but forgets to reload and ends up retreating back into the bathroom. Malvo shoots at the door, still stuck to the spot where the trap went off. Lester waits for a little bit before going back out and finding that Malvo has left the premises.

Malvo returns to his cabin with a horribly broken leg. He sits on the couch to try and tend to his wound, but spies a wolf outside the window. While he stares, Gus reveals himself and informs Malvo that he figured out his riddle from their previous encounter. Shooting him three timed in the chest, Gus believes him to be dead very briefly before Malvo coughs up some blood, leading to two more shots fired, this time through his head.

Molly arrives at the cabin, where the police have already made it on the scene. She’s led inside by Gus and observes Malvo’s dead body before diverting her attention to his briefcase, which is contains a variety of tapes with different names on them. Listening to Lester’s tape, she finally hears the alleged phone call Lester made to Malvo’s hotel on the night of the murders almost a year ago.

Two weeks later at Glacier National Park, Montana, Lester rides a snowmobile towards the border before finding a police blockade set up for him. He diverts his path overtop the frozen lake and crashes his ride in the snow. The police in pursuit begin yelling for him to stop, but he continues on foot over the cracking ice and eventually falls in, freezing on the spot.

Molly, who receives a call about the incident not long after it happens, returns to the couch with her husband and daughter to continue watching TV.

* TookALevelInBadass: Yes, Lester actually manages to take down Malvo by setting a bear trap under some piles of frozen clothes and luring him towards the bathroom by [[DefensiveFeintTrap acting like a helpless victim]]. It's actually quite ingenious.

* AssholeVictim: Both Lester and Malvo thoroughly deserve their comeuppance.

->''"We’re a small-time forest. We’re not equipped for, ya know, urban warfare. Most of these guys can’t shoot a can off a fence."''
-->--'''Bill Oswalt'''
----

* DidntSeeThatComing: Malvo is thoroughly caught off-gaurd by Lester's bear trap and Gus waiting in his cabin to finish him off.
* DiesWideOpen: Malvo dies after taking ''five shots'' from Gus. His lifeless body is left staring at him with blood dripping out of his mouth, making the whole thing all the more creepy.

* TookALevelInBadass: Yes, Lester actually manages to take down Malvo by setting a bear trap under some piles of frozen clothes and luring him towards the bathroom by acting like a helpless victim. It's actually quite ingenious.