It’s a bit frustrating that the headline combined with the picture for this (otherwise great) write-up implies a huge spoiler for the episode.

I’m tentatively excited for the new Pinegrove album, provided more/worse information about the lead singer doesn’t surface...

It definitely seems like a joke, but nothing in the lyrics has any satirical flavor - it’s just the self-evidently embarrassing nature of the performance that gives it the appearance of parody. Baked Alaska’s whole shtick revolves around the fusion of his public humiliation fetish with his Nazism, with the former…

Sure, he may be a nazi, but he’s also very gifted songwriter:

Boone is also a gigantic shithead based on the way he treats his ex’s boyfriend. I’m really not sure what the show expects us to think of Boone/his relationship with Gretchen.

Season 2 seemed like a first draft. It had interesting elements, but it wasn't very cohesive and the dialogue was ridiculously stiff. A few months after the second season aired, an HBO exec said they rushed the production of the show, which wasn't surprising.

This isn't the guy who did the Fargo reviews

I don't think that is quite the theme. Fargo is definitely a show about chaos, but the focus is on the tension between the forms of order that humanity has attempted to impose on the world, particularly through social constructions like the notions of justice and fairness, and the randomness and violence that served…

Good explanation. Now I just need someone to explain how this all fits in with the useless machine Gloria finds in LA that extends a hand to turn itself off when someone turns it on.

Very good catch with the link between the interrogation room sequence and the Schrodinger theme, I didn't draw that connection until now!

I'm inclined to think Varga isn't bluffing in that final sequence because it doesn't grant him any edge or leverage to lie about the existence of someone who's going to come and bail him out. Throughout the season when he spews bullshit or just generally dissembles he does it to persuade or distract, but neither of…

I think he just didn't want everyone getting mad at him in the comments. Although he did make me want to read White Noise again.

"There's a violence to knowing the world's not what you thought."

I'm almost certain we're meant to understand that he's dead. It would be a cheap trick for the show to walk this back at the beginning of next season, and I can't think of any cases where Vince Gilligan/Peter Gould have pulled their punches in such a big way in earlier seasons of this show or Breaking Bad. Plus, we…

It's both - the same underlying sense of self-righteousness and regard for the law caused Chuck to alienate himself from his firm and from his brother. Losing the firm made Chuck give up on his recovery, since he could no longer return to the world in which everyone looked up to him. And losing Jimmy doomed him, since…

I definitely caught a whiff of workaholism when she seemed so perked up by the prospect of still getting everything done even with a busted arm and face (well, that and the part where she worked so hard she fell asleep at the wheel and crashed her car). But ultimately she decided to take a step back from the work, so…

I don't think so, Wrench doesn't even hit the windshield of the truck when he's firing on it; it looks like he's aiming at the engine compartment. If anyone in the truck got shot, it's not shown on camera.

Oh yeah, you're right. I guess the rules of Ray Wise haven't been firmly established.

I guess she could be, but I don't see how that revelation could have much significance to the plot at this point, so I think it's unlikely.

Well, an encounter with a divine being in the body of Ray Wise may also have affected his behaviour.