MovieChat Forums > Fargo (2014) Discussion > Season 3 episode titles

Season 3 episode titles

posted 7 years ago by Popcorn Kernel (2368)
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The titles of these episodes are really interesting so I googled them out of curiosity. Many of them have to do with strategy for playing bridge.

1. "The Law of Vacant Places"
In the card game bridge, the law or principle of vacant places is a simple method for estimating the probable location of any particular card in the four hands. ... The probability that a particular card lies in a particular hand is one-quarter, or 13/52, the proportion of vacant places in that hand.

2. "The Principle of Restricted Choice"
In contract bridge, the principle of restricted choice states that play of a particular card decreases the probability its player holds any equivalent card. ... The principle helps other players infer the locations of unobserved equivalent cards such as that spade ace after observing the king.

3. "The Law of Non-Contradiction"
This is a mathematical law. It states that contradictory statements cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time, e.g. the two propositions "A is B" and "A is not B" are mutually exclusive.

4. "The Narrow Escape Problem"
The narrow escape problem is a ubiquitous problem in biology, biophysics and cellular biology.
The formulation is the following: a Brownian particle (ion, molecule, or protein) is confined to a bounded domain (a compartment or a cell) by a reflecting boundary, except for a small window through which it can escape. The narrow escape problem is that of calculating the mean escape time. This time diverges as the window shrinks, thus rendering the calculation a singular perturbation problem.

5. "The House of Special Purpose"
This seems to be taken from a book by John Boyne, about the murder of Tsar Nicolas and his family in 1918. That ties in with Juri's little speech about the blood soaked ground of Siberia and how it compares to Minnesota.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

6. "The Lord of No Mercy"
This is from Dungeons and Dragons. Mephistopheles, also known as the Lord of No Mercy and the Cold Lord, is the lord of Cania, the eighth of the Nine Hells

7. "The Law of Inevitability"
This seems to come from 'The Laws of the Improbability Principle'. subtitled: Extremely improbably events are commonplace.
The law of inevitability says that one of the complete set of all possible outcomes of a random event must occur. So, to see this law in action, we need need to be able to list all the possible outcomes, at least in principle: the set of all possible lottery tickets that might come up, the set of all birthdays in a year, and so on.

8. "Who Rules the Land of Denial?"
I cannot seem to find any google results for this other than the Fargo episode of this name.

9. "Aporia"
This is Greek for 'impasse' and refers to a logical contradiction that allows you to go no further.
an irresolvable internal contradiction or logical disjunction in a text, argument, or theory.
"the celebrated aporia whereby a Cretan declares all Cretans to be liars"

10."Somebody to Love"
This is more self explanatory. It's a song by Jefferson Airplane, but in the context of all these other philosophy and logic related titles, it is what some philosophers say is the purpose of life. All life is meaningless except if you find someone to love. Like the little robot who lived through eons and generations and just kept saying 'I can help'. Loving others or helping others creates meaning in a chaotic random meaningless universe.

[–] dt123 (688) 7 years ago

Thanks for investigating!! I love this list.

[–] Sentient Meat (1509) 7 years ago

Good stuff... thanks!

I wonder if the answer to number 8 is Moses... because he was a leader who was denied entrance to the promised land.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

It could be- also a pun on 'the land of denial' = the land of the Nile

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

8. "Who Rules the Land of Denial?"

So far this is my favorite episode, and it had the most mysterious title that I couldn't decipher on Google.
So after watching it several times, I think I'm ready to take a stab at it.

First, the theme of DENIAL. All season long, we've had so much philosophy, all of it pretty nihilistic. Life is random accidents, it's all chaos swirling around you, coincidences and innocent mistakes will determine all outcomes. it's pretty bleak and would definitely lead one to doubt or deny that there is any director to this tragic comedy of our lives. There was really no place for any god-type energy in this random uncertain indifferent universe.

But episode 8, we have the most supernatural/spiritual scene of the season. Whether it's real or a hallucination, Nikki is saved and comforted at the time she needs it most. She gets comfort and closure about Ray's death. Moments before in the woods, she had been replaying her last conversation with Ray, so she was truly grieving. She gets practical help to escape. She is randomly chained to the deaf axe-throwing champion of the upper midwest, to her great benefit! (I mean can we talk about that throw, in the woods in the dark in the mist, and it cleanly sliced Juri's ear off! Bowling alley Jesus had to be guiding that throw.) The bowling alley was like a place of sanctuary where she faced her purpose. She was saved and set on a mission.
And all that ancient Hebrew philosophy, it has a very different flavor than the nihilist philosophy in previous episodes. The story about the guy who said bury me here with the lost souls so that I may bind them to me and lead them to safety.
So basically all season it has been "the land of denial"- that is the whole world!
Another embodiment of this theme is the dickwad Sheriff who won't believe Gloria and can't understand any complicated crime plot, he just wants to make everything simple and obvious.
to be cont.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

continued..
That sheriff is the incarnation of denial- no matter how much evidence is piled in front of him, he cannot see and will not believe. he closes his eyes and ears to truth.

Juri also had to face his accusers, the ghosts of Russian jews slaughtered by Juri's cossack bloodline. I feel like that was such a powerful scene, the opposite of denial. It was affirmation.

But Gloria and Nikki are not in denial- they have their own missions. They aren't just floating lost in chaos, they have anchors and something that guides them.

I still wonder, ok where was bowling alley jesus when all the bleak chaos was happening? Why couldn't he save Ennis? Why couldn't he save that russian village? Why didn't he save the guy thrown off the parking garage roof? Why does god let so much evil happen in the world, if he has the power to stop it? he picked an odd time to step in and help somebody. So that's an argument on the side of denial. I'm an atheist personally, but i felt like episode 8 was very spiritual.

SO: cut to the chase:
Who will rule?
Who will prevail?
The warrior women who are believers, or the wolves?
Episode 9 and 10 will answer that question.
I have a feeling it might not be a nice clean "good are rewarded and evil are punished" type ending. Because the god of this universe is a perverse mofo.

[–] orangeflava (1725) 7 years ago

why am i not this smart? thanks!