On the May 20 episode of “Fargo,” we see the step-by-step process by which Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) breaks out of his hospital room, switching spots with his nearly comatose roommate in order to be safely wheeled past the security guard. Then we see how Lester’s absence (he goes off to plant murder evidence in his brother’s house) goes undiscovered thanks to the somewhat flighty – but humorously so — nurse.
Plot Hole Exhibit A: ‘Fargo’
In the episode’s final shot, Lester is back in his hospital bed, mission accomplished, and he gives an end-of-“Psycho”-type smile to viewers. But we aren’t shown 1) how he sneaks past the police officer guarding his room, or 2) how the hospital staff deals with their discovery that the near-comatose patient was in Lester’s bed.
Judging by the reveal in Tuesday’s episode that Lester’s plan worked to a tee (his brother is arrested and locked up in the county jail), I guess we can assume that 1) the police officer, in an incredible dereliction of duty, is absent from his post when Lester returns (which would be an incredible convenience for Lester), and 2) the nurse assumes that the near-comatose patient wandered over to Lester’s bed, and was so incredibly flustered that she didn’t notice Lester’s absence from the room!
It’s also possible that, on his return trip, Lester puts more gauze over his face and walks zombie-like past the guard, who somehow doesn’t question any of it. Which I suppose is possible if he thought Lester was in the room already. But then that raises the question of what the guard would think when the comatose guy really was wheeled back there later in the day. Bottom line: There’s no plausible string of events that leads to Lester returning to his bed, unsuspected.
The unanswered question of how Lester snuck back in to his hospital room bothered the heck out of me, and my only hope is that Molly (the show’s token smart cop) eventually questions the officer on guard duty and the nurse and they realize Lester snuck out.
Another oddity from the May 20 episode – the deadly rain of fish on the highway – was explained on Tuesday as being the result of a freak tornado. It certainly bugs me that the writers think tornadoes happen in the Minnesota winter, and that a theoretical winter tornado could pick up fish out of frozen lakes. But I guess any explanation is a victory in a time when plot holes are all over the place.
Exhibit B: ‘Hannibal’
“Hannibal” – a deliciously stylized show, but generally one with an internal logic to it — also pulled an unearned twist out of the bag to end its second season on Friday. Hannibal’s therapist, Bedelia (Gillian Anderson), is shown happily fleeing on a plane with the title character.
Earlier in the season, she had told Will that she believes his claims that Hannibal is a cannibal. Granted, that can be explained as Bedelia lying to Will. What’s harder to explain is the scene where Bedelia quits as Hannibal’s therapist, appearing nervous as he walks across the room toward her. With only the two of them in the room, there’s no one to stage such a scene for.
We know the real-world explanation for this: Anderson stars in “The Fall” and “Crisis,” so “Hannibal’s” writers work around her schedule. Presumably, they think they can back-fill the plot next season, when they’ll also decide who among the main cast – if anyone – survived Hannibal’s season-finale bloodbath.
Exhibit C: The ‘X-Men’ films
Likewise, we know why the “X-Men” films are full of plot holes: The seven films were not planned out in advance. Rather, the writers of each film chose a good story or character arc over established continuity when they came in conflict. As such, we have Sabretooth failing to show much reaction to Wolverine in “X-Men” even though they are brothers, as seen in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”
And we have two versions of Emma Frost and Moira MacTaggart. And a bizarre arc for how Beast’s mutation works. And conflicting stories of Cerebro’s creation. And Xavier somehow has “first classes” in both the 1960s and the 1990s. And there’s a lack of connection between Xavier and Mystique in “X-Men,” despite their intimate history in the prequels.
And Xavier dies in “X-Men 3: The Last Stand” and then comes back to life for the subsequent films in a new, identical body without much explanation. And the list goes on. The fact that “X-Men: Days of Future Past” does a timeline reset via time travel kinda-sorta helps with some issues, but not all of them.
Exhibit D: ’24: Live Another Day’
“24: Live Another Day” doesn’t have massive plot holes, but it has a lot of little things that make no logical sense. The U.S. military detains the poor schmo of a drone pilot whose station was hacked by terrorists, leading to the deaths of several U.S. and UK soldiers in Afghanistan. He tells his superior officers that his station was hacked.
But rather than investigating his claims, the military higher-ups 1) treat the drone pilot as if he’s guilty of murder based on a tiff with one of the victims, and 2) don’t check out his flight key, which will tell them exactly what happened. Instead, Jack has to steal the flight key and have Chloe decode it. Once the key strokes are on her screen, she sees the hack immediately.
Now, I’m no fan of the U.S. drone program or interventionism in Afghanistan, but I don’t think for a moment that members of the military are as stupid as they are portrayed on “24.” It also bothers me that President (Commander-in-Chief) Heller is surprised when he finds out that the drone program is killing innocent people. We’re supposed to believe that his aide, Mark Boudreau, kept this information from him.
So apparently Heller never surfs the web or reads a newspaper? And why does he think people are protesting at the embassy? This was an opportunity for “24’s” writers to surmise what happens behind closed doors when Obama (and Bush before him) weighs the pros and cons of the drone program. Instead, “24’s” writers opt to portray a president who is less informed about current events than the average American voter.
Verdict: Viewers deserve better
Look, it’s not easy to make good movies or TV, but I’m not talking about funny little quirks like a stormtrooper hitting his head on a doorway in “Star Wars” or the Michaelangelo actor’s human hand being visible when he skateboards through the sewers in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”
I’m talking about lazy script writing on par with the T-rex massacring a boatload of people then politely returning to his cage in “The Lost World.” Or Call magically appearing on the other side of a flooded area that we had been told could only be crossed via swimming in “Alien Resurrection.” Or the final scene of Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes.”
Today’s film and TV viewers are reasonably intelligent, and when you cut corners – if you deliver a “shocking twist” without setting it up with prior scenes, or when something happens that can’t happen based on the rules of logic or the story’s internal reality – it rubs us the wrong way.
Likewise, we appreciate thought-out, detailed stories that hold up to at least a cursory examination. And you might find that – rather than being a time-waster – if you address plot holes in the writers’ room, it’ll lead to a better understanding of the story you’re trying to tell, and a better film or TV show overall.