WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.275 --> 00:00:02.775
(piano music)

2
00:00:04.630 --> 00:00:05.750
- Spit out that gum.

3
00:00:05.750 --> 00:00:08.523
We're gonna do a show now for the people.

4
00:00:08.523 --> 00:00:09.356
You!

5
00:00:09.356 --> 00:00:10.542
- My breath's bad, though.

6
00:00:10.542 --> 00:00:11.769
I don't want you to smell my bad breath.

7
00:00:11.769 --> 00:00:12.641
- I'm used to that.

8
00:00:12.641 --> 00:00:14.647
- Okay, all right.

9
00:00:14.647 --> 00:00:16.245
- Hey, it's time for "Polite Fight."

10
00:00:16.245 --> 00:00:18.649
I am John Teti, editor-in-chief
of the A.V. Club

11
00:00:18.649 --> 00:00:19.928
here with Gus Spelman,

12
00:00:19.928 --> 00:00:23.295
video producer and film
analyst extraordinaire.

13
00:00:23.295 --> 00:00:25.540
I love the mugs we have.

14
00:00:25.540 --> 00:00:27.040
- Yeah, they were out of
the regular ones this week.

15
00:00:27.040 --> 00:00:28.331
- These are so appropriate for "Fargo."

16
00:00:28.331 --> 00:00:29.190
- Yeah, these are great.

17
00:00:29.190 --> 00:00:30.839
I'm sure that somebody in an hour

18
00:00:30.839 --> 00:00:31.907
is going to walk in and be like,

19
00:00:31.907 --> 00:00:34.821
"Where's my special mug?"

20
00:00:34.821 --> 00:00:38.194
- Let's start out by talking about Peggy.

21
00:00:38.194 --> 00:00:39.242
Can we talk about Peggy?

22
00:00:39.242 --> 00:00:40.664
We like to talk about
Peggy on "Polite Fight."

23
00:00:40.664 --> 00:00:43.856
There's two shots that I wanted
to talk about with you, Gus.

24
00:00:43.856 --> 00:00:48.143
One is when Peggy is driving
her car away from the garage,

25
00:00:48.143 --> 00:00:49.510
or so we think,

26
00:00:49.510 --> 00:00:51.843
and she's filled with green.

27
00:00:52.702 --> 00:00:56.869
The blue-green of the car is
reflecting on her so powerfully

28
00:00:58.333 --> 00:01:00.967
that it looks like
there's no blood in her.

29
00:01:00.967 --> 00:01:02.215
She almost looks like a corpse.

30
00:01:02.215 --> 00:01:04.928
Then she makes this decision
to actually sell the car

31
00:01:04.928 --> 00:01:06.255
and go along with Ed

32
00:01:06.255 --> 00:01:09.223
and we have this shot of her on the bus.

33
00:01:09.223 --> 00:01:12.254
What I noticed is that now
there are splashes of red

34
00:01:12.254 --> 00:01:15.183
and the red glove is more in
the shot in this second one.

35
00:01:15.183 --> 00:01:18.358
This is sort of the life returning to her.

36
00:01:18.358 --> 00:01:19.966
She's been rejuvenated.

37
00:01:19.966 --> 00:01:21.324
- There's sun on her face and--

38
00:01:21.324 --> 00:01:22.157
- There's sun on her face.

39
00:01:22.157 --> 00:01:24.388
- She looks happy.

40
00:01:24.388 --> 00:01:26.026
- But more meaningfully, I think,

41
00:01:26.026 --> 00:01:28.673
is the different way in
which these shots are

42
00:01:28.673 --> 00:01:29.614
framed and set up.

43
00:01:29.614 --> 00:01:31.524
You noticed this, so talk about that.

44
00:01:31.524 --> 00:01:35.049
- Just the way that at
the end of the bus shot,

45
00:01:35.049 --> 00:01:38.698
the bus turns and you can see
the world turning with her.

46
00:01:38.698 --> 00:01:42.206
It almost feels like she's
turned onto a new path now

47
00:01:42.206 --> 00:01:45.149
from her "get out, get to California."

48
00:01:45.149 --> 00:01:46.949
But you know, you juxtapose
that with a shot of her

49
00:01:46.949 --> 00:01:49.095
in the car which is very straight on.

50
00:01:49.095 --> 00:01:51.406
There's not a lot of movement in it

51
00:01:51.406 --> 00:01:53.902
except for her coming into frame.

52
00:01:53.902 --> 00:01:57.103
It just feels like it's
very locked down and static.

53
00:01:57.103 --> 00:01:58.994
You have all of these elements that are

54
00:01:58.994 --> 00:02:02.725
sort of closing her in: the
mirror and the steering wheel.

55
00:02:02.725 --> 00:02:03.558
- Really?

56
00:02:03.558 --> 00:02:06.018
This is funny because I had
sort of a reverse interpretation

57
00:02:06.018 --> 00:02:06.851
of it.

58
00:02:06.851 --> 00:02:08.441
See, for me, in the first shot,

59
00:02:08.441 --> 00:02:10.929
Peggy is providing the impetus.

60
00:02:10.929 --> 00:02:14.440
She is moving the car toward
you, she is sort of ...

61
00:02:14.440 --> 00:02:17.370
And to me this fits
how she's, in her mind,

62
00:02:17.370 --> 00:02:19.362
directing her own destiny here.

63
00:02:19.362 --> 00:02:23.953
Whereas on the bus, she's
literally along for the ride.

64
00:02:23.953 --> 00:02:27.837
To me, it evokes how she
has decided to go along

65
00:02:27.837 --> 00:02:29.388
with Ed's narrative.

66
00:02:29.388 --> 00:02:30.221
Ed's "We're going to buy the shop

67
00:02:30.221 --> 00:02:31.711
and have the kids" narrative.

68
00:02:31.711 --> 00:02:32.640
- Yeah.

69
00:02:32.640 --> 00:02:35.631
- So the camera sticks on her
and the world moves around her

70
00:02:35.631 --> 00:02:38.597
but she's just going
where the bus takes her.

71
00:02:38.597 --> 00:02:41.117
- So what do you think is the
reason for the switch here?

72
00:02:41.117 --> 00:02:43.183
Because I think in any other episode,

73
00:02:43.183 --> 00:02:45.976
you would have seen Peggy
in control of her narrative,

74
00:02:45.976 --> 00:02:47.206
you would have thought that she would

75
00:02:47.206 --> 00:02:48.448
have been excited about that.

76
00:02:48.448 --> 00:02:49.281
- Right.

77
00:02:49.281 --> 00:02:51.770
- And this kind of mirrors
the scene that we talked

78
00:02:51.770 --> 00:02:54.034
about last week where it
sort of pushes in on her

79
00:02:54.034 --> 00:02:56.793
after Constance has given her that big

80
00:02:56.793 --> 00:02:58.434
sort of pep talk

81
00:02:58.434 --> 00:02:59.936
and there she seems a little happier.

82
00:02:59.936 --> 00:03:01.954
So it's like, what's the switch here?

83
00:03:01.954 --> 00:03:03.715
I have to say I think
that my idea about her

84
00:03:03.715 --> 00:03:05.410
maybe having a secret motive ...

85
00:03:05.410 --> 00:03:07.267
I think what plays out
in this episode shows

86
00:03:07.267 --> 00:03:09.506
that that's probably not the case

87
00:03:09.506 --> 00:03:11.488
and that she probably is, as you've said,

88
00:03:11.488 --> 00:03:14.640
just sort of always
looking for something other

89
00:03:14.640 --> 00:03:16.097
than what is happening.

90
00:03:16.097 --> 00:03:17.442
- But I think that there's ...

91
00:03:17.442 --> 00:03:19.441
Don't you feel like we're
missing some key insight

92
00:03:19.441 --> 00:03:20.852
about her character?

93
00:03:20.852 --> 00:03:23.370
- There does seem like there's
something yet to be revealed,

94
00:03:23.370 --> 00:03:26.226
I just can't imagine what it is.

95
00:03:26.226 --> 00:03:29.106
- Yeah, but I agree with you,
I don't think it's a secret.

96
00:03:29.106 --> 00:03:33.187
I mean, I agree with This
Week You, not Last Week You.

97
00:03:33.187 --> 00:03:37.163
But I do think there's some motivation

98
00:03:37.163 --> 00:03:38.986
just on the periphery of her character

99
00:03:38.986 --> 00:03:42.873
that is going to become
evident in the coming weeks.

100
00:03:42.873 --> 00:03:44.946
But I couldn't be more vague saying that

101
00:03:44.946 --> 00:03:47.170
because I just really am grasping here.

102
00:03:47.170 --> 00:03:49.491
- Okay, so, I'm curious
whether you noticed this.

103
00:03:49.491 --> 00:03:51.123
This is something I didn't notice.

104
00:03:51.123 --> 00:03:52.465
Maybe you'll say, "Of course I saw this.

105
00:03:52.465 --> 00:03:53.538
You're an idiot, Gus."

106
00:03:53.538 --> 00:03:54.991
- This is from the comments then?

107
00:03:54.991 --> 00:03:57.991
- Yeah, a commenter, Shelwood, said,

108
00:03:58.868 --> 00:04:01.219
"Molly actually did not draw a UFO.

109
00:04:01.219 --> 00:04:04.888
Molly drew the sun and
it only looks like a UFO

110
00:04:04.888 --> 00:04:07.096
because of the coffee stain

111
00:04:07.096 --> 00:04:09.263
that is from Betsy's mug."

112
00:04:12.098 --> 00:04:15.244
- I love that they noticed
how the UFO was formed,

113
00:04:15.244 --> 00:04:18.327
but I still am not getting
a ton out of it, you know?

114
00:04:18.327 --> 00:04:19.160
- Right.

115
00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:20.162
I'm not sure it means
something, I just thought ...

116
00:04:20.162 --> 00:04:22.889
Let's talk about something
else in this scene,

117
00:04:22.889 --> 00:04:24.451
which is Ted Danson's performance.

118
00:04:24.451 --> 00:04:25.284
- Oh, my God!

119
00:04:25.284 --> 00:04:26.648
- This is the best scene
in the episode to me.

120
00:04:26.648 --> 00:04:27.839
- Yeah.

121
00:04:27.839 --> 00:04:29.886
- Let's just turn the
sound off and watch it.

122
00:04:29.886 --> 00:04:30.719
It's so good.

123
00:04:30.719 --> 00:04:34.647
- So we're rooting for nausea, then, huh?

124
00:04:34.647 --> 00:04:35.564
Well, okay.

125
00:04:36.471 --> 00:04:37.304
Um.

126
00:04:41.358 --> 00:04:43.507
I'm just all left thumbs
when it comes to this stuff.

127
00:04:43.507 --> 00:04:44.340
- You're doing great,

128
00:04:44.340 --> 00:04:47.538
dad.
- No, I don't know about that.

129
00:04:47.538 --> 00:04:50.201
Your mom were here, she'd
know just what to say.

130
00:04:50.201 --> 00:04:52.618
Me ... I can fix the toaster.

131
00:04:53.935 --> 00:04:55.324
- [John] One of the things I
love about this performance

132
00:04:55.324 --> 00:04:58.235
is that Betsy is really
standing up straight

133
00:04:58.235 --> 00:05:01.757
at this kitchen island and
she seems pretty composed.

134
00:05:01.757 --> 00:05:05.845
As the scene progresses,
Hank leans forward

135
00:05:05.845 --> 00:05:08.097
and he looks like the sick one, you know?

136
00:05:08.097 --> 00:05:10.278
You can see it weighing him down.

137
00:05:10.278 --> 00:05:11.940
- [Gus] And like, wanting to embrace her

138
00:05:11.940 --> 00:05:13.848
and not being able to as well, you know?

139
00:05:13.848 --> 00:05:14.781
- Yeah, sure.

140
00:05:14.781 --> 00:05:15.889
- Trying to be close to her.

141
00:05:15.889 --> 00:05:18.183
And I just love the detail
that really sets him off is,

142
00:05:18.183 --> 00:05:20.273
"Oh, we're rooting for nausea."

143
00:05:20.273 --> 00:05:21.810
It's like such a hard thing for ...

144
00:05:21.810 --> 00:05:22.643
- Yes.

145
00:05:22.643 --> 00:05:23.476
- It's just so real.

146
00:05:23.476 --> 00:05:26.709
- Because that for him,
it just encapsulates how

147
00:05:26.709 --> 00:05:29.148
everything's been turned
upside down and he's just like,

148
00:05:29.148 --> 00:05:31.132
"Okay, we want you to be sick?

149
00:05:31.132 --> 00:05:33.891
Great, well whatever you need"

150
00:05:33.891 --> 00:05:37.112
and he's just exhausted by
it all of a sudden there.

151
00:05:37.112 --> 00:05:40.026
- Let's see, other comments.

152
00:05:40.026 --> 00:05:42.106
This is just an interesting speculation,

153
00:05:42.106 --> 00:05:43.189
Saul Good_man

154
00:05:44.231 --> 00:05:47.256
speculated and said other people
have made this speculation,

155
00:05:47.256 --> 00:05:49.641
so maybe you don't get
any credit Saul Good_man.

156
00:05:49.641 --> 00:05:53.154
- Well, but he, I assume
it's he because it's Saul,

157
00:05:53.154 --> 00:05:57.030
but he was nice enough to
give the masses credit, right?

158
00:05:57.030 --> 00:05:57.879
That's so cute.

159
00:05:57.879 --> 00:06:00.055
- But saying that Bear might be the boss.

160
00:06:00.055 --> 00:06:02.504
The Fargo boss that we
see from season one.

161
00:06:02.504 --> 00:06:04.056
We see him in just one scene

162
00:06:04.056 --> 00:06:07.360
before Lorne Malvo goes over
there and murders them all.

163
00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:08.193
- Wow.

164
00:06:08.193 --> 00:06:09.026
I have to go back and look.

165
00:06:09.026 --> 00:06:10.657
I only have a vague recollection of that.

166
00:06:10.657 --> 00:06:13.264
- But I remember him being sort of portly

167
00:06:13.264 --> 00:06:15.249
and I remember him eating a piece of fish

168
00:06:15.249 --> 00:06:18.482
and that's about as much as I remember.

169
00:06:18.482 --> 00:06:19.578
- Oh, wow.

170
00:06:19.578 --> 00:06:20.786
Okay, I love that.

171
00:06:20.786 --> 00:06:22.986
Okay, that was "Gift of the Magi,"

172
00:06:22.986 --> 00:06:23.819
"Polite Fight."

173
00:06:23.819 --> 00:06:25.263
An especially polite one this week.

174
00:06:25.263 --> 00:06:26.361
I don't think we disagreed
on too much, did we?

175
00:06:26.361 --> 00:06:27.194
- Yeah not too much.

176
00:06:27.194 --> 00:06:28.027
- That's okay.

177
00:06:28.027 --> 00:06:28.860
Sometimes there's more polite than fight.

178
00:06:28.860 --> 00:06:29.716
That happens.

179
00:06:29.716 --> 00:06:31.083
What's important is "Fargo."

180
00:06:31.083 --> 00:06:32.243
Thanks for watching.

181
00:06:32.243 --> 00:06:34.241
For Gus Spelman, I'm John Teti.

182
00:06:34.241 --> 00:06:35.712
Let's wave by to the folks.

183
00:06:35.712 --> 00:06:36.629
Bye!
- Bye!

184
00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:40.100
(piano music)