Fargo season 5 episode 5, "The Tiger," opens with Lorraine (Jennifer Jason Leigh) stewing about Dot while a narrator (Jason Schwartzman) talks about female tigers in the style of a nature documentary. The narration is a constant thread throughout the episode tying everything together.
Meanwhile, Dot (Juno Temple), lies in a large bed in Lorraine's mansion as she and Scotty (Sienna King) are staying there temporarily. She hears Lorraine talking to Danish (David Foley) about how she can get custody of Scotty if both Dot and Wayne (David Rysdahl) are incapacitated. Danish comes up to Dot's room, with two large men in scrubs. He plans to have her committed. Dot fights hard, but in the end, she's admitted to the psych wing of the hospital where Wayne is.
At the psych ward, Dot attacks an orderly and puts him in restraints. When a nurse comes to sedate Dot she uses the syringe on the nurse and then puts on her scrubs. Stealthily, she attempts to make her escape.
When Dot goes by the nurse's station, her disguise isn't good enough to fool the nurses. She runs down the stairs to a different floor and finds a woman in a wheelchair. Dot starts wheeling the woman around to blend in with the other nurses on the floor as security is searching for her.
Lorraine vs Roy
While Dot's trying to escape, Lorraine meets with businessmen Vivian Duggar (Andrew Wheeler) and Rupert Cousins (David Snider) at a restaurant. Lorraine is looking to expand her debt collection empire and wants to buy Duggar's bank, which is in financial distress. They are not thrilled to be dealing with Lorraine directly instead of Danish, but Lorraine lets them know she's the one who holds the power and the purse strings.
Lorraine then arrives home to find Sheriff Roy (Jon Hamm) waiting in her driveway. He tells Lorraine he wants to talk about Dot, who is his wife. Lorraine isn't someone who is going to be intimidated by Roy. At first, she offers him money to leave and never come back. When he refuses, she asks for the details of their marriage. Roy shows her their wedding photo. Lorraine tells Roy he will have to take the hit because her son loves Dot. Roy counters by saying the Bible says a wife is property of her husband, so Dot is his property.
Danish interrupts the meeting to ask Lorraine how things with Duggar went. It turns out Roy Tillman arrested Duggar once but let him go after they made an "arrangement." Lorraine ends the meeting, telling Tillman she will make a donation to his reelection campaign if he signs some papers, if not, they have nothing more to discuss. Lorraine also tells him that after seven years a missing person is presumed dead, so Dot is technically Wayne's property now.
As Danish escorts Roy out he crosses paths with Scotty. Roy asks Scotty to tell Dot he said hello. While Roy is making his way out Olmstead (Richa Moorjani) pulls up to the Lyon mansion, informing Danish that Dot escaped.
Plan B
Roy immediately calls Gator (Joe Keery), who is waiting with a team at the hospital, and tells him it's time for Plan B, abducting Wayne. But Roy isn't trusting this plan to Gator. Bowman (Conrad Coates), Roy's very capable henchman, is in charge.
Dot, still wheeling around the old woman, sees Bowman and the others coming through the main doors. She overhears Bowman ask about Wayne at the reception desk. Dot evades security and Bowman's team and goes to Wayne's floor. There she switches the name tag on Wayne's door with that of the man across the hall, Jordan Seymore. Dot goes into Wayne's room and convinces him to hide in the bathroom and be quiet.
After she hides Wayne, Dot tries to escape down the hall when she runs right into Agents Joaquin (Nick Gomez) and Meyer (Jessica Pohly), who immediately recognize her. They came to the hospital to question her. As she's trying to tell them she doesn't want to talk, Gator walks past the three of them, staring right at Dot.
He joins Bowman and the others. as they take Seymore, thinking he's Wayne. Dot gives Joaquin and Meyer the slip by telling them she has to use the bathroom, then escapes through the bathroom window.
Dot makes her move
At the Lyon mansion, Lorraine and Olmstead face off when Olmstead wants to know why Lorraine wanted Dot committed, but Lorraine wants to know if Olmstead is going to look for Dot. Scotty, outside playing hockey, sees Dot beckoning to her from the bushes out of sight of the security detail. Scotty asks Dot who Roy is. Dot takes Scotty and runs.
When Olmstead arrives home, she finds Dot there with Scotty. Dot didn't know where else to go where they would be safe. She asks Olmstead if she can leave Scotty there for a couple of days so she can take care of something. Olmstead wants to know why, wanting the whole story from Dot before she agrees to help. So, Dot tells her the whole truth.
Dot tells Olmstead she was 15 when Roy's family took her in and 17 when she married Roy. She hints at some horrific abuse. Olmstead agrees to keep Scotty and Dot leaves, to the strains of the classic Fargo theme music.
Fargo season 5 airs new episodes on Tuesdays on FX. They are available to stream on-demand on Hulu in the US the next day. The season streams on Prime Video in the UK, with new episodes each Wednesday.
