Summary
- “Linda” focuses on Dot’s backstory and introduces Tillman’s other missing wife, Linda, at Camp Utopia.
- Dot needs Linda’s help to bring down Tillman, but Linda is reluctant to join her.
- Dot is knocked down in a massive collision and wakes up in the hospital, only to find Tillman waiting for her.
This article contains references to domestic abuse and sexual violence.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Fargo season 5 (up to episode 7).
Fargo season 5, episode 7 finally introduces Sheriff Tillman’s other missing wife, fills in the rest of Dot’s backstory, and delivers a handful of other exciting reveals. “Linda” was directed by Sylvain White from a script by series creator Noah Hawley and April Shih, who previously worked on other FX shows like You’re the Worst and Dave. The episode is named after Tillman’s other missing wife, Linda, who is visited by Dot in an attempt to recruit her help in bringing Tillman to justice. Meanwhile, Gator goes after Ole Munch at his new place of residence (and runs afoul of his elderly landlady).
After Dot was absent from last week’s episode, it’s everyone else’s turn to take a backseat while she returns to the spotlight in episode 7. Wayne, Lorraine, and Deputy Olmstead are mostly absent from this episode after featuring prominently in episode 6. Instead, “Linda” focuses on where Dot went after leaving Olmstead’s house in the middle of the night at the end of episode 5 – and, of course, on Linda herself. From a murderous case of mistaken identity at Ole Munch’s house to a puppet show detailing the missing parts of Dot’s origin story, Fargo season 5’s latest episode is full of big reveals.
8 Ole Munch Kills His Landlady’s Son
Ole Munch Knows His Way Around An Axe
At the beginning of episode 7, the elderly lady that Ole Munch is now living with is visited by her obnoxious son, who demands that she give him some money. She doesn’t have anything to give him, so he tries to shake down Ole Munch for some rent money instead. Ole Munch gives him a roll of bills from the bag of money that Sheriff Tillman gave him, but he doesn’t intend to let the son keep it. As the son is leaving, Ole Munch comes out of the house with an axe and swings it into him. This hammers home just how ruthless and vengeful Ole Munch is.
7 Sheriff Tillman’s Other Missing Wife, Linda, Is Revealed
Known To Her Commune As “St. Linda”
After Dot was absent from episode 6, she’s seen driving across the country to confront Tillman at the beginning of episode 7. Along the way, she stops off at Camp Utopia, a refuge for survivors of abusive relationships, run by Tillman’s other missing wife, Linda, who the residents call “St. Linda.” These residents all act out their stories with puppets, which gives Dot flashes of the abuse she suffered at Tillman’s hands. At Camp Utopia, everyone is called Linda. They have to earn new letters to change it – Dot is shown around by a woman known as “Lindo.” As it turns out, Dot has a complicated history with St. Linda.
6 Dot Needs Linda’s Help To Bring Down Roy
But Linda Is Reluctant To Join Her
Dot goes to Camp Utopia because she needs St. Linda’s help to bring Sheriff Tillman to justice; she can’t do it alone. It’s implied that Linda is Gator’s biological mother. When Dot is trying to convince Linda to return to Tillman’s community with her, she tells her that she’s seen Gator and believes he wants to be good (but this may have just been a manipulation tactic, because Gator has shown very little goodness throughout the season). Linda is reluctant to go with Dot – at least, not until they hold a tribunal to work out their differences from the past.
5 Gator Kills Ole Munch’s Landlady (& Thinks He’s Killed Ole Munch Himself)
That Tracking Device Has Paid Off
Gator uses the tracking device that he planted on Ole Munch’s car in last week’s episode to find the elderly woman’s house where Ole Munch has been staying. Gator aims his rifle at a silhouette on a rocking chair in the window and shoots the silhouette in the head, so he believes he’s killed Ole Munch. But the silhouette belongs to the landlady’s son’s corpse, which Ole Munch has slumped in the chair, which he rocked back and forth with a rope tied to it to trick his would-be killer. Before he leaves, Gator pushes the landlady onto the curb, cracking her skull open, so she’s dead, too.
4 Dot Fills In The Rest Of Her Backstory In A Puppet Show
Dot’s Origins Have Been Fully Fleshed Out
As is the protocol at Camp Utopia, Dot fills in her backstory with a puppet show. Dot, back when she was known as Nadine, met Linda at a grocery store when she was 15 years old. Linda saved Nadine from being caught shoplifting and brought her home to her husband Roy and her young son Gator. Linda suggested Roy should educate Nadine and he eventually forced himself on her. Dot feels Linda pushed her into an abusive man’s arms to save herself. When Linda went to visit her sister, Dot became “the woman of the house” until she came back, and that’s when her relationship with Roy began.
3 Linda Agrees To Join Dot
Tillman’s Wives Are Teaming Up To Take Him Down
After Dot shares her story via a puppet show and the other residents of Camp Utopia embrace her, Linda finally agrees to join Dot in her quest to bring Sheriff Tillman to justice. Dot spent years resenting Linda for manipulating her into a relationship with Roy and effectively turning her life upside down, but she’s able to finally overcome that resentment by telling the truth and making peace with Linda. Now, Tillman’s two missing wives are teaming up to take him down. When they get to the commune, they might even be able to convince Tillman’s current wife, Karen, to join them.
2 Dot Is Knocked Down In A Massive Collision
A Huge Truck Crash Has Hospitalized Dot
The first trailer for Fargo season 5 teased a massive crash scene in which a truck would smash into a row of parked cars. That crash finally takes place in episode 7, and it turns out it’s not just spectacle; it has major ramifications for the lead protagonist. On her way to Tillman’s cult-like commune, Dot stops off at a diner for a bite to eat. As she comes out of the diner, the truck seen in the trailer smashes into the parking lot and sends a bunch of cars in its path flying. One of those cars slams into Dot, which knocks her unconscious.
1 Roy Finally Catches Up To Dot
He Infiltrates The Hospital Posing As Wayne
After being knocked down in the truck crash, Dot wakes up in a hospital bed. A nurse comes in and tells her that her husband is there to see her. She asks if it’s Wayne and the nurse says it is, but the man who enters the room isn’t Wayne; it’s Tillman. After spending seven episodes searching for her, Tillman is finally face-to-face with Dot. At first, she’s speechless. She was planning to confront him, but not like this. The episode leaves audiences on that cliffhanger, saving the tense, climactic standoff between the two characters for the next installment of Fargo.
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