‘Fargo’: Who Was Behind ‘The Tiger’ Narration?
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Fargo Year 5, Episode 5, “The Tiger.”]
Fargo‘s latest installment, “The Tiger,” dips back into the anthology’s storytelling through narration with a rather familiar voice.
Waking up in mother-in-law Lorraine Lyon’s (Jennifer Jason Leigh) home, Dot (Juno Temple) is greeted by some uniformed men and lawyer Danish Graves (Dave Foley), who intend to commit her as a psychiatric patient at the local hospital. A narrator chronicles the unfolding events as if the scene were from a nature documentary, categorizing Dot as a Tiger who is both defensive and protective of her young.
But who is the individual steering viewers along on this Minnesota safari? It’s none other than Jason Schwartzman, who appeared as Josto Fadda, the son of a mob boss in Fargo Year 4. And he isn’t the first alum to return to the anthology as a narrator, with Billy Bob Thornton previously returning for Year 3’s “The Narrow Escape Problem.” Thornton memorably played hitman Lorne Malvo in Fargo‘s first season outing.
Jason Schwartzman in Fargo Year 4 (Credit: Matthias Clamer/FX)
In this scenario, Schwartzman relays Dot’s experience as she uses her self-defense skills to escape her latest captors, managing to slip away from the hospital, but not without some interference on her part, mostly to protect her still-hospitalized husband, Wayne (David Rysdahl). She also runs poor Danish ragged as he deals with Dot’s brutality firsthand and is then sent to find out what’s happened after she escapes.
“He has affection for everyone in the family or what passes for affection in him,” Dave Foley tells TV Insider about his character. “And so he likes Dot more than Lorraine likes Dot, but I think he’s probably one of the first to realize just how potentially dangerous and resourceful she might be. I think he knows it before Lorraine does.”
(Credit: Michelle Faye/FX)
Returning to Lorraine’s estate, Dot takes her daughter Scotty (Sienna King) to Indira Olmstead’s (Richa Moorjani) home after learning her abusive first husband Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm) stopped by Lorraine’s estate. Knowing that his persistence won’t be squashed, Dot takes off on the road for a destination yet to be determined.
At the end of the episode, it’s clear that the show’s “Tiger” or rather “Lyon” motif is no coincidence between Dot, Lorraine, and even Indira’s actions, making the narration a fitting format.
“Yeah, it was definitely deliberate,” series creator Noah Hawley says of the symbolism. “I mean, for me, Fargo is always female… These three very strong women represent very different points of view on the world… they have to defend themselves and figure out how to move through the world.”
See how they continue to move through the world of Fargo as Year 5 continues on FX, and let us know what you thought of that narrator reveal in the comment section below.
Fargo, Year 5, Tuesdays, 10/9c, FX (Next day on Hulu)
