And then suddenly she is the star and, oh wait, there is a female lead to the show. But you haven’t judged her as the lead. You haven’t judged her or compared her to Frances. You just go, “Oh I like her, she’s funny and she’s going to be this great, funny presence in the show.” So my hope for that was when Molly became the lead, you were seeing Molly, you weren’t seeing Marge anymore.

In short, Fargo just pulled off the best kind of adaptation -- the unfaithful kind. Hawley said, “I was tasked with adapting the movie without any of the elements of the movie in it.” This is the creative force behind some of T.V.’s most compelling dramas like Jason Katims’ Friday Night Lights (inspired by the movie that was based on the book), and Parenthood (inspired by the Ron Howard film), or, more pertinently, Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal (based on the Thomas Harris novels that have already been turned into four films). Hawley said of Fuller’s work on Hannibal, “I think he’s done an amazing job with that show. I love how he flipped the table so it was Will Graham in the box and Hannibal going to see him. I thought that was genius.”

While there is certainly virtue in a very faithful adaptation like the upcoming film version of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, there’s something much more intriguing about a T.V. show or film that dances with the source text, rather than apes it. An unfaithful adaptation can echo and resonate with the source material, while still allowing viewers the privilege of being surprised by, say, deaths. Of which Fargo has had many.

Hawley’s so-called ”trick” has paid off in spades. If you’ve been watching the show from the start, you’ve already fallen for the characters in their own right and as much as the scene in tonight’s episode of Gus (Colin Hanks) and a very pregnant Molly in their PJs may recall Norm (John Carroll Lynch) and Marge in the movie, it’s too late now for those comparisons to distract from your attachment to these characters and your enjoyment of this story. And because the show gleefully bumped off several named characters a few episodes ago, the stakes couldn’t be higher heading into the final two. Hawley said: