Television: Fargo, "The Six Ungraspables"

We last left Lester in a jail cell with Mr. Numbers and Mr. Wrench. Under duress (in the form of a dirty sock shoved in his mouth) he gives them Lorne Malvo's name.

Oh, but before that we get the back story about Les's gun and his hand . . . How he'd gone to buy socks and ended up with the shotgun, and how it was birdshot from when Malvo shot the sheriff that lodged itself in Les's hand. So just as Molly puts the pieces together, or so she thinks, Les is sent back to the hospital due to his hand wound becoming infected.

Molly is getting bolder, but not necessarily better at her job. Trying to question a man (and asking leading questions besides) while he's ill and not competent to answer—never mind him needing his rights read and probably a lawyer present—and then searching his house without a warrant (though I guess she could make a case for having cause) . . .

Meanwhile, Malvo closes in on sealing the blackmail deal. That plot is really far less interesting than anything else going on, despite having Billy Bob Thornton's amazing acting going for it.

Grimly, though slower than Molly, continues to work things from his end. He's visited by a neighbor across the way as they share a late-night warm milk habit. The neighbor tells Grimly a parable about a rich man wanting to save the world. When giving all his money away doesn't do it, he kills himself to donate his organs. This doesn't save the world, either, but does that mean it wasn't worth it? A nice enough story—and clearly the answer here is that the world is not one; the world is made up of many individual worlds and lives, and if you save even one, you've saved a world if not the world—but I'm not sure it got Grimly anywhere. And then Malvo threatens the neighbor at the end of the episode, so . . . If you don't save a life, if you end it instead . . . That is the end of a world, too, isn't it? And possibly the end of many other worlds connected to that one. We're not a whole, we're a chain.

Philosophy lesson over. What else happened? Um . . . The sheriff's widow had her baby, a girl named Bernadette. There was probably some other stuff I've already since forgotten. It's still a solid show, but I find my attention slacking now and then. The intensity level has gone down somewhat, and I find myself eager to get to the big finale and see where the chips ultimately settle.