The fourth season of Fargo recently came to an end, closing another chapter on this violent and captivating anthology series. With each season of the show exploring a new crime story, viewers have seen many characters on both sides of the law as well as characters who range from pure evil to downright heroic.
The show has a real knack for balancing the very worst of humanity with the very best. There are villains we are terrified and disgusted by. There are heroes we are inspired by. And there are plenty of people somewhere in the middle. Looking back at the various main characters of the series, some are easy to love while others are even easier to hate.
Lester Nygaard
When the audience is first introduced to Lester Nygaard, it is easy to feel sorry for him. He is disrespected by just about everyone he meets, including his own wife and brother. But when he snaps and brutally murders his wife, all sympathy vanishes.
From that moment, Lester sinks deeper and deeper into vileness and brings a lot of innocent people down with him. He frames his brother for the murder, sets his new wife up to be killed, and shows no remorse for all his wrongdoing.
Lorne Malvo
Season 1 of the series introduces one of the most unsettling television villains in a long time. Lorne Malvo is a hitman working for a crime syndicate. While he is good at his job, he is more interested in fulfilling his own deranged desires.
Malvo takes pleasure in causing violent mischief wherever he goes and for seemingly no reason. He is also willing to kill anyone he comes across without giving it a second thought. He is more like a predatory animal than a human being.
V.M. Varga
What is fascinating about a villain like V.M. Varga is that he is not someone who likes to get his own hands dirty. The audience doesn't see him carry a weapon at all in the entire third season. Yet he has plenty of blood on his hands nevertheless.
Varga hides behind his middle-management persona and insists he is not the one pulling the strings. Yet he still orders the death of countless innocent people who simply get in his way of making money. He is cold-blooded, cowardly, and has some pretty vulgar habits to make him even less appealing.
Emmit Stussy
Another character from the third season, Emmit Stussy is also not a violent man. However, he is someone who lets violence be done on his behalf. His deceitful ways started when he was young and he tricked his brother into giving up his valuable stamp collection.
As an adult, Emmit doesn't become any more honorable. His crooked dealings get him involved with Varga and his goons, but he soon becomes seduced by Varga's promises of wealth. He covers up the death of his brother and turns on his best friend out of nothing but pure greed.
Josto Fadda
The fourth season of the show is packed with characters, but Josto Fadda is certainly one of the main figures. He is the son of a mafia boss who looks to take over after his father's sudden death.
Josto is a weak and clueless man. You get the sense that everyone laughs at him behind his back. He might be too pathetic to dislike if it weren't for the fact that he tries to act like a big man and puts on a very unconvincing tough guy act.
Loy Cannon
Loy Cannon is clearly the main character of the fourth season and he is a good example of a character that walks the line between likable and unlikable. Despite dealing with constant racism and injustice, he looks to build something for his family through organized crime.
However, Loy's ambition also makes him cruel. He pushes around those he perceives as lesser than himself and makes judgments that put his family at risk. He is also responsible for killing a lot of people, some who deserved it and others who did not.
Peggy Blumquist
Season 2's Peggy Blumquist is a complex character. She wants something that is both reasonable and understandable, but the path she takes to achieve it is a destructive one.
Feeling confined in a housewife role, Peggy becomes obsessed with the idea of "self-actualization." But after maiming a member of a dangerous crime family in a car accident, she finds herself in the midst of a gang war. Her absentminded ways cause a lot of problems but it's hard not to admire her survival spirit even when she is a bit unhinged.
Lou Solverson
We meet first meet Lou Solverson in the first season of the show where he is an older man running a coffee shop. Season 2 gives us a glimpse at his younger days when he was an honest and brave police officer following a bloody trail of the gang war.
When on the job, Lou is stoic and clever, seeing things other cops are too hard-headed to notice. He also stands up to the bad guys, no matter how scary they may be. At home, he is even more impressive as he is a caring husband and father.
Gloria Burgle
Almost every season of the show has a hero cop at the center of a lot of violent and evil people. In Season 3, that hero is Gloria Burgle. Gloria is another level-headed hero who cares about justice more than anything besides her son.
She is someone who has faced a lot of struggles in her life but carries the burden well. When a character like Varga tries to talk circles around her the way he does with everyone else, Gloria's grounded persona stops him in his tracks. She is someone who sees a lot of bad things yet remains an optimist.
Molly Solverson
Once again, Molly is the hero cop who gives the audience someone to cheer for in the usually grim story. She is not the action hero you see in Hollywood movies, but rather someone who uses their intelligence, determination, and courage.
Like the other heroes of the series, family is also a big part of Molly's life. She puts it ahead of everything else, but still manages to find the time to take down some bad guys. She embodies what this show sees as a hero — someone who is adorably nice yet steadfast in seeing justice done.