But for it to happen so late in the game means that events that should’ve had more weight—should’ve been sadder and funnier—only gain that weight in retrospect.

Not for me, the bowling alley got too "UFO/this can't make sense in reality" for me. I still hope they find a way to bring it all back to truth, which I think is a theme of this season, but that bowling alley detour will need a lot of future excuses to not be artsy-fartsy UFO implausibility.

Just want to give praise to the reviewer. You do a damn good job of just reviewing what is seen week to week. I trust that this will build to something that makes this all worth it, but if we just stop and review this episode in isolation from the future it was a bit of a mess like you said. I just think/hope it's…

Wow, thanks.

I think subconsciously he doubted his superiority and the more he trying to prove it the bigger that doubt grew in him, he didn't really show it on the surface until his final moments but a need to be recognized as superior comes from insecurity. It can be deep subconscious insecurity, but if you truly without doubt…

I'm glad that the truth won out there, Emmit sincerely trusting Varga over Sy for long was something I wasn't on board for.

Honestly this season isn't about smarts so much as it is about those who accept an evil reality vs those who fight against it. Sy at least knows how the world should be.

Proof you can't trust that: Ewan McGregor is listed as main cast and they killed off Ray last week. :P

I loved how "Sy unshackled" was basically the same person but willing to pay more money and be a bit more rude.

I'm of the same mind about him, the one important point I reference is that they established all this as coming from his war background. He hates "things happen for a reason" because it means the shitty things that happened in the war that he saw "happened for a reason" so his mental well being depends on random…

Poor Shea Wigham has to play "insufferable" a lot.

Hello person from a month ago, this is why I wait until a season is over to marathon all episodes. I would go insane otherwise.

Does everybody who remembers him have a better memory than me or have a lot of you rewatched season 1 more recently? The best I could get is "the way they are framing this guy makes me think he's somebody important, oh hey it's that actor… was he in this show before?" but you guys know his name and musical cues.

No, I disagree, He's the personification of the villain theme of "the evil of complacency". Think about how much power Varga has got just by suggesting his way into power, and having people like Emmit never really push back out of fear. Think of how even the good guy cop acquiesce's to the wolf's reality to preserve…

Just a shout out to attention to detail. You see on Sy's phone an episode or two back (at dinner) that it was Dec 22, so they seem to have days planed out for all the narrative events, it's not just willy-nilly christmas this week.

I think you are way off on this. He's very important to the story because he represents the "antagonist theme" of the season. Specifically, he represents the "nothing has meaning" interpretations of reality. "Truth is just another story" which I feel like this show has been building up to thwart.

Disagree, personification of a theme of apathy towards truth? Perhaps. Horribly written character? No. He's got this war history that just has him jaded as fuck. He doesn't want things to happen for a reason because then all the people he fought with and watch die "died for a reason". There is some real motives behind…

A better question is "has he ever played a character without considerable existential dread?"

I think they gave us enough Alexander Daddario

Yes. That or one about Michael Shannon's continued adventures as an android.