I had no problem with anything in this episode. Not the narration, not Hanzee’s motivation, and not the UFO. To my mind, this is about as flawless an example of episodic TV as I’ve ever seen (along with Better Call Saul).
I didn’t even realize it was Martin Freeman as the narrator! What a great touch. The narration just served to make this a sort of self-contained episode, which is something this season has done very well. You’ll notice that Fargo brings in the same director for pairs of episodes. These final two episodes are directed by Adam Arkin. The previous two were directed by Keith Gordon. Although it’s still episodic, with a strong through-line and consistent tone, I like how much these directors are able to give their episodes unique character. As the penultimate episode, the narration was a solid device for setting up this sort of Shakespearean showdown, with characters dying left and right.
And what I also like about the narration being taken from a history book is that it acknowledges an alternate reality where this sprawling horrific crime clash resulted in multiple massacres. Of course, no such thing happened, and if it had, it would have been well known. This fictional history book if Fargo’s way of saying, “Yeah, we know this thing has gotten huge and hugely implausible given the reality you live in, so here’s us showing you a different reality, an alternate history.”
I similarly like the acknowledged ambiguity about Hazee’s motives. It didn’t oversell it. It didn’t handwave it away. Very nicely balanced by playing to the very thing the audience should be wondering: Why is Hanzee doing all this? We don’t know for sure, but along with the book the narrator is reading from, we can speculate. A lesser show would have either glossed over it or nailed down and punctuated a specific moment.
As for the UFO, I am 100% down with what they did, and I would be okay with that being the last we see of it. It’s as if God came down (summoned by the “devotion” of Ted Danson’s character, with his UFO shrine?), accidentally caused all this mayhem with a precipitating event (inadvertently mesmerizing Kiernan Culkin while he stood in the middle of the road so that Peg hit him), and then decided to see how it would play out. It/He sees the culmination of the events, which highlight human greed, folly, resentment, violence. It literally shines a light on the various players, once again getting a Gearhardt killed by distracting him, and allowing Peggy to get the jump on Hanzee and escape. Having intervened a second time, hasn’t It/He taken a step to set things straight, to restore balance? It/He then departs, leaving a core group to resolve their choices in relative peace.
The people who are left – Hanzee, and Peg and Ed Blumquist – have made certain choices during these events that they will have to be accountable for. Everyone else’s path was pretty much set. But Hanzee, Peg, and Ed are the players who altered the course of what should have been criminals at war with each other, working within the usual structure of criminals at war with each other. These events should have simply been Kansas City taking over the weakened Gearhardt family. Kingdoms doing what kingdoms do to each other. But He/It screwed that up, and now He/It returned for a second appearance to give Hanzee, Peg, and Ed a chance to resolve this in some way other than being three more casualties in a senseless shootout.
Lou Solverson and Mike Milligan just seem to be leftovers representing the opposite spectrums of law and crime, each of them smarter, more insightful, and more competent than their peers.
At least, that’s my initial take on it…
And there’s a reason “deus ex machina” is a phrase. It’s an established narrative device and it’s not always a weakness. In the mythology/theology often established by the Coens, there is a God and He does punish the unjust. That’s the theme of many of their scripts, most eloquently expressed in A Serious Man. I seems to me the UFO is series creator Noah Hawley’s expression of that theology.
-Tom