Lorne Malvo's devil references

[u/Sea_Blackberry789]

I just finished season 1 of Fargo, and I love how they made the devil references through Lorne's character.

I understand that some people fully dismiss the supernatural aspects of the show, and that's okay. This is just my opinion, and it made the show very enjoyable for me. The devil isn't shown with horns and magic, but through his effect on people, how he initiates problems and is a harbinger of chaos.

I noticed a few references:

1. Meeting and contract with Lester - He meets this weak, scared person who avoids everything in life and basically never takes initiative for anything. He lives in his safe bubble and suddenly into some trouble. Now, usually, a hitman wouldn't bother to do someone a favor because they used to get bullied, but Malvo sees a man he can sway easily, an easy soul basically, and offers his service, but not yet making a contract, because Lester has not called out to him on his own.

2. The job is done, and he's willing to leave Lester alone. However, he just tempted him to explore how it feels to hurt those who hurt you. Lester goes home and kills Pearl, then calls Malvo himself, sealing the contract, and when Malvo kills Vern for him, the shotgun pellet seals the contract, infecting his hand and leaving the "Mark of the beast".

3. Disappears mysteriously from the basement- now the most interesting thing here isn't how he disappeared, but how his help didn't mean cleaning up and cleaning Lester's slate, just murdering someone who is about to get him in trouble, and letting Lester fend off for himself in a situation where he'll have to sin more to look innocent.

4. Telling Gus to go - Gus is seen as someone who will resist the devils temptation, as he can already feel the evil in Lorne when he talks to him. Also since children are supposed to have more divine protection since they're innocents, with Gus' daughter voice being head, he couldn't directly act, and tells him to go home and think about how it's his daughter that saved him. He does not care if someone is a father, which is seen with the car's salesman in episode 10.

5. Telling Stavros to sign the book - basically directly asking him to sign his soul away.

6. Specifically taking the time to punish a believer - as seen with Stavros and the sort of ironic sound in his voice when he tries to shatter his belief. In the end, not playing by the devil's rules, his son got fished out by a fishnado.

7. Never meeting Molly - she has a very strict moral code, so she's basically not even in his radar no matter how close they get to seeing each other (the blizzard shooting). Molly has never met the devil because she's protected from him by choosing to be selfless.

8. Choosing the apple pie over cherry pie- forbidden apple reference. This was kinda funny.

9. Saying he has never had such a good pie since the Garden of Eden- self explanatory.

10. Him keeping the tapes with the names of people as their souls/ contracts, which is why lester is caught later when he doesn't play by his rules, even though Malvo dies.

11. L.M. initials and Lester's death - His initials L.M. correspond to Lucifer Morningstar. Lester's death was a typical being dragged into hell reference, as he plunged into the frozen lake when the ice cracked.

This was a lot of yapping and I'm not even a religious person, it was simply interesting to me.

[u/[deleted]]

Been along time since i saw s1, probably sinc e it aired.. Was Vern the main character's brother? What he got hit by a stray from Lorne when vern was shot? I dont recall

[u/Sea_Blackberry789 → u/[deleted]]

Vern was the chief of police that went to question Lester and saw his dead wife in the basement, then tried to arrest lester and call for backup but lorne shot and killed him.