‘Fargo’ Creator & Star Explain Ole Munch’s Sin Eater Twist
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Fargo Year 5, Episode 3, “The Paradox of Intermediate Transactions.”]
Fargo has never shied away from the strange, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the anthology’s fifth installment would lean into something unusual. In this case, that oddity comes in the form of Sam Spruell‘s Ole Munch who is revealed to be a centuries-old sin eater in the third episode, “The Paradox of Intermediate Transactions.”
Defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “a person formerly hired to assume the sins of a dead person by eating food placed near the corpse,” viewers are shown this ritual in a flashback featuring Munch, who in hindsight is aptly named. Settling into the home of a Bismarck, North Dakota woman, he declares, “I live here now,” before the scene shifts to “500 years earlier” in Wales, Kingdom of England in 1522.
There, Munch is paid to devour a meal over a corpse, assuming their sins. It all circles back to series creator Noah Hawley‘s recurring theme of debt in Year 5. “What I wanted to explore with the Munch character really was this idea of debt and sin eating and this idea of what the rich make the poor do. And part of what the rich do to the poor is they make them feel like it’s their fault they’re poor, and that if these poor people have to borrow money from us, it makes them less than.” Hawley tells TV Insider. “And then we impose this morality on them that they can’t pay it back.”
(Credit: FX)
As viewers who tuned into Episode 2 will recall, Ole Munch is out to collect a debt from Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm), who hired him to kidnap his runaway bride, Nadine, now going by the name Dot (Juno Temple). He’s proven that he isn’t afraid to kill in order to send the right message, and as Episode 3 reaches its final moments, Munch conducts some kind of sacrificial ceremony, covering himself in animal blood and mud before entering Roy’s home where his wife and sleeping daughters reside.
While viewers will have to wait until Episode 4 to find out what kind of mischief Munch has up his sleeve, Hawley is enjoying the ride. As the showrunner puts it, Roy and Gator, “They armed him and they sent him out into the world, and now he’s coming back on them and we don’t know. He has this kind of very Old Testament sense of a code, and I think it really enriches the story to have this person who can’t talk your way out of it. He’s not interested in your point of view.”
Hawley says Munch has no use for Roy’s explanation for why his behavior in wanting to find Dot is “moral.” As Hawley reminds us, Munch says, “If you send him in to do a job and you don’t give him all the information, how can the job be done?”
(Credit: FX)
For Spruell, it’s all about getting to the truth of who Ole Munch is, and as the actor points out, while some characters are straightforward, “This guy is not straightforward and it took me a while to understand.” When Spruell started “understanding the depth of his intention,” the actor says, “I got it. And I think the root of him really lay in the sin-eating scene back in Wales.”
“He’s been trapped in sin for a long time,” Spruell continues. “He represents someone who’s trapped in sin and all the connotations that go with that in reference to an underclass that exists in modern America. Trapped in the sins of the rich as well, which is also another interesting dimension.”
As viewers will recall, Dot’s mother-in-law Lorraine (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is known as the Debt Queen of the Midwest, collecting on the debts of the poor. In this instance, Munch is a “moral debt collector,” Spruell notes. “I think each [installment of Fargo] has a kind of truth sayer and he is that. He really lets people know he is the check and balance to their actions and their crimes.”
In this case, it’s Roy’s actions that have caused a stir. “If you agree to do something, then it has a kind of counterweight that must be adhered to,” Spruell says. “So with Roy, if you ask me to do this, then you should pay me. And if we’ve agreed to do that, then you have to stick to it. It is quite simple, but you can’t have your cake and eat it. There is the check and balance.”
As for Munch’s new home and housemate, Spruell notes it’s more about creature comforts than a bigger mystery to unfold. “Very early on he was banished from his own existence. He’s looking for a home and someone to look after him. He’s had to look after himself the whole time. There is no kindness or compassion shown towards this man. I think he moves in with that woman who’s equally damaged, who’s equally abused in the hope that maybe there’s instinctually a hope that maybe they can look after each other… that she can maybe be his mama,” Spruell adds with a laugh.
If fans are interested in knowing, Munch’s reference to the old woman as “mama” was improvised, according to Hawley.
At the end of the day, Spruell says Munch “just wants a tiny bit of an inch of luxury, A moment of kindness and comfort that his life has not been afforded ever for the last 500 years.” Will he get it? Stay tuned.
Fargo, Year 5, Tuesdays, 10/9c, FX
