Yeah, I considered that during the episode. Of course it was pretty much put to rest with the discussion about how much time he'd invested in the setup to find Stephen Root's brother.

First of all, there's no way Lester even got married to Linda for love. He used her to show Molly that he had moved on with his life. What I don't get is what Lester will do now.

He didn't know if Malvo would be there for sure. He definitely did not have any plans to go to Acapulco with his wife since he bought a One-Way ticket, 1 Passenger, for himself and printed it out twice, making Linda think they had both tickets and were ready to go together.

What if Malvo had not been there? Would he have killer her instead? Since he planned on going to Acapulco alone. Now that she's dead in his office and wearing his coat, what is he going to do? He can't leave her there because why would she go there alone in his coat? He either has to get rid of her body or go inside and call the police and say they were attacked. That still doesn't explain trying to leave for Acapulco when Molly said to stay in town.

You pay attention. I totally missed that. He better have his passport.

Lester's a cold fucker.

Is it plausible that Lester could have a successful insurance business in only 1 year? Sure he probably had insurance money from his dead wife to help start it, but it seems much too quick to already have a successful enough business that would get him Salesperson of the Year - especially in the small town he's in.

Davis from Corner Gas was the dental patient at the beginning. Haven't seen him around since the show ended.

Great episode, great cameos.

It would be a big fuck up if Lester "wins" at the end.

I can easily see Lester being the last man standing, after a mighty bloodbath, and that includes Molly, Gus, Lou, and Chief Bill.

No way that happens. That would be the most nihilistic ending in TV history. Even Game of Thrones wouldn't pull that shit. Well, maybe they would....

But it would be pretty true to the Coen Bros (I know they're just EPs, but the show has felt pretty true to their storytelling style).

Sure...and Killer Joe was a KFC cook in his spare time.

Okay, I'll concede that maybe Malvo did have DDS training. After all, Sir Laurence did seem to have some dental skills when interrogating Dustin.

If they really wanted to go nihilistic, Malvo would be the only one left standing. Or Malvo & Lester...with Malvo telling Lester "those are on you" and then walking out...leaving Lester to hold the bag. Of course, Lorne would also have to bump off the FBI guys to be thorough.

I see the ending as Lester surviving, and him becoming the next "Malvo." I figured Malvo does this because he was like Lester at one point, and someone changed his life, the way Malvo did for Lester. Maybe that's why he likes the recordings so much. They are a reminder of a weaker time in his life.

The passports were in the safe. That's what Linda was going in to get (along with some cash) when she got popped by Malvo.

Lester has been gradually turning into the next Malvo throughout this whole season. That's been his character arc. Maybe he'll come back next season with an alter ego.

Another Coen Brothers movie reference... Stephen Root's character calls Malvo "friendo".

I don't think Malvo thought that was Lester. If he truly wanted to ambush him, he wouldn't have left the lamp on. It was yet another "let's see what happens" scenario.

And I agree with the posters who have posited that Malvo is a dentist-turned-hitman, rather than a hitman moonlighting as a dentist.

I'm pretty sure he looked at his victim and saw it wasn't Lester then calmly went outside and looked across the street where his car was (and saw he was inside) then lit up and left. Basically, you're move, Lester.

Malvo is the devil. He's born with dentistry skills.

That is how I took it.

I think this is an excellent point. I thought about that as I was watching. Molly has mentioned talking with him about the case. And if he had said, "Hey, guess who stopped by and is in the parking lot pulling away?" she would have charged out there and almost certainly been killed. I also thought Malvo considered he might know who he was, and that is precisely why he started talking about the picture/family.

Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. Maybe the whole thing was Lester's way of smoking out Malvo and getting rid of the excess baggage.

I will be very surprised if Molly's father isn't involved significantly in the outcome.

If he knew who Malvo was and didn't want Molly too closely involved, and he knows that Malvo is looking for Lester, is there someone else in the Bemidji PD that he could have talked to? Maybe the first shot of the next episode could be another angle of the shooting, then cut to a cop who knew to stake out Lester's insurance shop.

I saw a theory that Malvo IS the devil in truth, and it is why he can kill without any emotion whatsoever, screw with other people mercilessly, yet leave alone, even go out of his way not to hurt the innocents like Molly or Gus. Three times he was in a situation where it would seem Malvo would act against Gus and yet he decided not to. I doubt that they will go supernatural at the end, but there was the comment about the cherry pie "Best I have had since the Garden of Eden".

The three people in that elevator might disagree about Malvo going out of his way not to hurt innocents.

It wouldn't shock me if the pull a Tyler Durden on us.

That wouldn't work at all, since it's been well-established (and verified by numerous third parties) that these are two different guys.

Well, yeah but that's the exposition we were given and we know he bought the one ticket for himself so he probably would want his passport to get out of Dodge.

I love how Malvo made Lester who he is now but he couldn't just walk away and let Malvo be because of who he is now.