With the long-delayed and much-anticipated fourth season of Fargo kicking off, now is the perfect time to get caught up on the darkly comedic crime series. Based on the acclaimed film by Joel and Ethan Coen, the series tells a new story each season of the collision between ordinary people and cold-blooded killers.
The series’ examination of good and evil is one of its most fascinating aspects. There are terrific villains who are easy to hate as well as plenty of innocent people unwittingly put in danger. This combination of characters means there are some heartbreaking deaths for characters who didn’t deserve it and those deaths that left the audience cheering.
10 Didn’t Deserve: Nikki Swango
In Season 3 of the show, Mary Elizabeth Winstead delivers a standout performance as Nikki Swango. Nikki is an ex-convict who meets and falls for her parole officer Ray Stussy and plans to marry him. In order to do so, she and Ray concoct a plan to steal a rare stamp from Ray’s crooked brother, Emmit.
At first, it’s unknown if Nikki is conning Ray, but it eventually becomes clear she really loves him. She wants him to get what he is owed by Emmit and when the two of them are sucked into Emmit’s own dangerous world, she is killed trying to avenge her fiancé.
9 Did Deserve: Yuri Gurka
What makes the villains in Fargo so effective is that they are often relentless predators with no compassion whatsoever. Such is the case for Yuri Gurka, who works as a henchman for the criminal V.M. Varga.
Yuri likes to toy with his victims, bragging about all the horrible things he has done in the past. He even killed his girlfriend and framed another man for it. After murdering countless innocent people, Yuri is injured by Nikki. He is then confronted with a vision of his atrocities before apparently bleeding to death.
8 Didn’t Deserve: Ennis Stussy
So much of the death in the show comes from the random and unfair cases of people being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For Ennis Stussy, he had the bad luck of being born with the wrong name.
When a clueless ex-convict is hired to steal Emmit Stussy’s rare stamp, he makes a mess of the instructions and goes to Ennis Stussy’s house instead. The thief ties Ennis up and glues his mouth shut, causing him to suffocate and die.
7 Did Deserve: Emmit Stussy
Another type of character often featured in the show are the people who see themselves as the victim despite causing a lot of the chaos and bloodshed through their actions. Emmit Stussy certainly fits that category.
As a young man, he tricked his brother Ray into giving him the rare stamp collection their father left Ray. Emmit used the stamps to build his successful business but refuses to help Ray out at all. His dealing with criminals gets a lot of people killed and while he says he accepts the consequences, he is happy to escape them whenever an opportunity arises. In the end, he is executed by Mr. Wrench to avenge Nikki’s death.
6 Didn’t Deserve: Constance Heck
The ’70s-set Season 2 of Fargo includes the character of Constance Heck. She is a hairdresser who is passionate about the idea of women realizing their own paths in life and tries to inspire her friend and crush Peggy Blumquist to come to a convention on the subject with her.
However, when Peggy finds herself hunted by some dangerous people, Constance is used as a pawn to try to trap her. When the trap fails, Constance is murdered by Hanzee for no apparent reason.
5 Did Deserve: Dodd Gerhardt
The Gerhardts are a large crime family featured prominently in Season 2. Their war with a rival gang leaves a lot of people dead, but most of it is due to the hotheaded brother of the family, Dodd Gerhardt.
Dodd fancies himself a tough guy and his violence outweighs his intelligence. He would rather have a violent war that kills countless people than compromise with his rivals. He is also abusive to his own family members so it’s not too surprising that his right-hand man Hanzee finally shoots him in the head.
4 Didn’t Deserve: Linda Park
Linda Park is the epitome of an innocent character who is used as a pawn by the evil people around her. She is first introduced as a friendly and kind assistant working for the same insurance company as Lester Nygaard.
Sometime after the death of Lester’s wife, whom he killed, Linda marries him, thinking he is a sweet man. She is a trusting and supportive spouse who doesn’t realize the kind of man Lester is. When Lester is being stalked by a killer, he sends Linda into his office disguised as himself where she is murdered.
3 Did Deserve: Lorne Malvo
Lorne Malvo is the villain at the center of Season 1 and he sets the stage for the kind of unsettling killers who will be featured in the series. He is a hired thug for a criminal syndicate who goes rogue.
Lorne kills indiscriminately and without remorse. He seems to take pleasure in victimizing people and causing mayhem wherever he goes. His reign of terror is finally put to an end when Gus Grimly guns him down, proving that he is human after all.
2 Didn’t Deserve: Ed Blumquist
Ed Blumquist is the ordinary man who finds himself in way over his head. He is a butcher who plans to open up his own shop so he and his wife Peggy can start a family. However, when Peggy accidentally hits a gangster with her car, they are pulled into a dangerous situation.
Ed made plenty of mistakes in his journey, but everything he did was for the sake of helping out his wife and protecting their future. He is a good man who puts his life on the line for Peggy multiple times and even dies just as he realizes they are not meant to be together.
1 Did Deserve: Lester Nygaard
When Lester is introduced in Season 1, he is a put-upon guy who is insulted and disrespected at every turn. It is hard not to see sorry for him, but when he murders his wife in frustration, all that sympathy disappears.
Following that brutal act, Lester’s true selfish ambitions show themselves. He resolves to do anything to avoid going to jail, which includes sacrificing his new wife, his brother, and any other innocent person who gets in his way. His guilt is finally discovered and as he runs from the police, he falls through the ice and dies.
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