All the Chigurhs

The series "Fargo" is titularly based on the Coen brothers' movie from 1996, but it actually uses motifs from all their movies (so if you know them by the heart, you're in for a treat). One of those movies was "No Country For Old Men," which gave us Anton Chigurh, a ruthless and cold-blooded killer with his own agenda and a twisted code that he follows to the level of ridiculousness. Sometimes compared to Terminator, he got into annals of movie villains. He's also one of my favourite characters.

When a colleague first told me about and then recommended the show, I thought it was based on the movie alone, so you can only imagine what it was for me when I realised that one of the characters is clearly based on Anton Chigurh. And so, when the second season was announced, despite not being planned at first, I wondered if there is going to be another character like that. And there was!

And so this thread text is dedicated to all those characters (because there were more).

The original character from the book

Now, before we dig into the shows, let's take a step back and look at the original, and I don't mean the movie but the book by Cormac McCarthy. His rendition was less ominous than Javier Bardem's potrayal and more like a hyperfocused nerd; e.g., there is a passage where he walks around a town and asks everyone where Llewelyn Moss is. The character has been sometimes compared to Judge Holden from "Blood Meridian," as both felt like impersonation of some sort of ancient evil. This plays role later.

(Let me interject with possibly irrelevant piece of trivia: "No Country For Old Men" started as a screenplay back in the 1980s, but was deemed too weird and unshootable, so it went into a drawer. Fast forward 20 years later, Cormac McCarthy unearthed it and redacted into a book, and now it's not only popular but also a good material for a movie. I am pretty sure there is a moral to it, like don't give up your ideas.)

And now, without any further ado, let's dive into "Fargo" the show.

Season 1: Lorne Malvo

Season 1 gave us Lorne Malvo, a very similar killer on a surface, with his own agenda and own set of rules, which I would, however, not call a code; more like a playbook. He's nihilistic and a prankster, and it is theorised that he's just a vessel for Satan [sic!]. And he has a weird haircut.

I am still touched by his quote:

"Your problem is you have spent your whole life thinking there are rules. There aren’t. We used to be gorillas. All we had is what we could take and defend."

Season 2

After abandoning just simply borrowing of characters and entire subplots from the Coen brothers' movies, season 2 shifted towards something more mature. Now there are more subtle references to the movies, with certain camera angles or some quotes, and I remember being very positively surprised, because it would drag a bit if they did yet another season of the same.

This also brought a change where The Chigurh of the season becomes two separate characters.

Hantzee Dent

The first and more obvious character is Ohantzee "Hantzee" Dent, a Native American who works for a crime family from Fargo, and is treated by them as one of them, which makes him ultra-loyal. Which reminds me of Amos Burton from "The Expanse." Just like Anton Chigurh, he's cold-blooded and a scarily competent tracker.

After the demise of the crime family, Hantzee becomes the boss himself and is later killed by Lorne Malvo in season 1. Nice connection, although some considered it a bit of a stretch. But this gives us Chigurh-on-Chigurh encounter (largely off-screen, though, due to how it was shot).

Mike Mulligan

The second character is Mike Milligan, an envoy of Kansas City crime family. His chigurhness is a bit lighter and more in the way he dresses and various quotes that make him sound philosophical. And of course, following other characters. At the end of the season, additionally, he ends up as a corporate employee, which is something that resembles what happened to Anton Chigurh in the book (after surviving the car crash, he actually returns the money and expresses hope for more cooperation).

Season 3

Season 3 also doesn't have a straight Chigurh like it was with Lorne Malvo. There are two characters that seem to be inspired by Anton.

V. M. Varga

The more important character is obviously V. M. Varga, the main villain of the season, or should I rather say the heavy. I am putting him here, but it's a long-shot and mainly due to his ominousness and doing whatever he wants. If anything, he seems more like a further iteration of Lorne Malvo (not directly but like a character iteration), which is an interesting twist/development in the show overall. But in the end, he's too much of a big picture guy to be considered a proper Chigurh.

Yuri Gurka

A much better match, however, is actually Yuri Gurka, one of V. M. Varga's henchmen. Somewhat resembling Javier Bardem, although with a better haircut, he looks like (the book's) Anton Chirgurh who took up on a job in the end. He goes to places and does violence, as paid for. There is no philosophy kink to this character, which was annexed by his boss in this season.

Season 4: Oretta Mayflower

That's how we get to season 4, which, in my opinion, doesn't have a character based on Anton Chigurh. Not that there's something wrong with it; season 4 is much different from others in many aspects, being more about two crime families feud than Regular Joe getting in a way, or a law enforcer with principles. I suppose Oretta Mayflower could be considered a runner-up, being ruthless and playing by her own book, but your mileage may vary.

Season 5: Ole Munch / Oola Moonk

In season 5, we have Ole Munch, who is probably the most Chigurh of them all (after Anton himself, of course). In the beginning, he reminded me more of Gaear Grimsrud from the movie, but soon this begun to change. A weird internal code that he follows, acting like a ghost, and then turning out to be a 500-year old sin-eater. He also has a weird haircut and dresses like someone clumsily trying to blend in (which was the concept behind Chigur's clothes in the movie). And the finale is a revision from "No Country."

Extra points for Ole Munch dressing like the Log Lady from "Twin Peaks," BTW. That's why we need people like Noah Hawley to make shows for us.

Conclusion

The supernatural aspect of Lorne Malvo (implicit) and Ole Munch (explicit) puts their characters somewhere in line with Judge Holden from "Blood Meridian" but also other characters from Cormac McCarthy's prose: I'm thinking here about the trio from "Outer Dark" that always had something unearthly about them.

In general, the show brought a lot of elements from Cormac McCarthy's world-building style onto the small screen, and I respect Noah Hawley for it a lot.

And now I'm waiting for season 6. Till then. 🥂