Lester Nygaard

Lester Nygaard
Fargo character
First appearance	"The Crocodile's Dilemma"
Last appearance	"Morton's Fork"
Created by	Noah Hawley
Portrayed by	Martin Freeman
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Life Insurance Salesman
Family	Chaz Nygaard (brother) Kitty Nygaard (sister in law) Gordo Nygaard (nephew)
Spouse(s)	Pearl Nygaard (1988-2006) Linda Park (2006-2007)

Lester Nygaard is a fictional character in the first season of the FX television series Fargo and is portrayed by Martin Freeman, who received overwhelmingly positive reviews for his performance,^[1] and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award,^[2] a Golden Globe Award,^[3] and a Critics' Choice Television Award for his performance.^[4]

Character overview

Lester Nygaard was born in 1966 and has a younger brother, Chaz Nyggard. He attended high school with Sam Hess, Bill Oswalt, and his future wife, Pearl, the former of which bullied him constantly throughout high school. Lester and Pearl got married in 1988 when he was 22.

In January 2006, Lester Nygaard runs into Sam Hess, a former high school bully who intimidates Nygaard, causing him to accidentally break his nose. At the hospital, Nygaard meets Lorne Malvo, and they start up a conversation, Nygaard tells Malvo about his interaction with Hess, and Malvo casually suggests murdering him, an idea that Nygaard neither approves nor rejects. Later that night, Malvo kills Hess, later telling Nygaard that he never said "no" to the then-potential murder. Shortly after, Nygaard gets into a verbal fight with his wife Pearl and kills her. In a state of shock, Nygaard calls Malvo to ask for assistance. Before Malvo gets there, police officer Vern Thurman stops by after getting an anonymous tip from someone who overheard Malvo and Nygaard discussing Hess. Thurman sees Pearl's blood and starts to arrest Nygaard, but Malvo sneaks into Nygaard's house and kills Thurman. Malvo disappears and Nygaard knocks himself out to make it seem like a home invasion. After the police arrive, they suspect Nygaard is innocent and let him go. But Deputy Molly Solverson, starts to suspect that Nygaard is the killer of Hess, Pearl, and Thurman, mostly due to the tip that he was talking about Hess with Malvo. But the newly appointed chief, Bill Oswalt, who happens to be a childhood friend of Nygaard, believes it was a drifter who killed the three and that Nygaard is incapable of such awful things. Despite Oswalt's doubts, him and Solverson interview him and he claims not to remember anything. Nevertheless, Solverson continues to investigate Nygaard in his personal life over the matter and is removed from the case as a result.

Lester returns to work and calls on Gina Hess, Sam's widow, about his life insurance policy. She unexpectedly starts flirting with him in an attempt to get more money, unaware that Mr. Numbers and Mr. Wrench, two hitman sent from Fargo to kill Hess' killer, are watching from outside. Convinced he killed Hess, they later visit Lester's office and threaten him, but leave when Solverson unexpectedly arrives. Solverson claims that she is interested in a life insurance policy and "accidentally" shows Lester the abduction photo containing Malvo's face. Lester's reaction convinces her that he recognizes Malvo. She tells Oslwalt about this, but is made more upset by her visiting him. Later, Numbers and Wrench attempt to kidnap Nygaard, but escapes. When they chase him down, he punches a police officer in order to be taken into safety. In order to get arrested so they can see Nygaard again, Wrench and Numbers stage a bar fight, and are put into Nygaard's cell. In the cell, they get Nygaard to give them Malvo's name.

When released from jail, he is sent to the hospital after his hand has become severely infected after being hit by one of the shot gun pellets that Malvo fired at Chief Thurman. Nygaard had been concealing the wound, knowing it proves he was in the room when Thurman was killed. On the way to the hospital, Solverson rides in the ambulance and tries to get more information from Lester, though he is slightly out of it. She presents her evidence to Oswalt, who is starting to question Nygaard's innocence. Nygaard manages to sneak out of the hospital, stealing a car, and takes the murder weapon, multiple photos of his wife, and a pair of her panties from his house. He takes all of this and hides everything in his brother Chazz's gun cabinet, and places one of his brother's guns in his nephew's backpack, to ensure the police will search Chazz's house. As he leaves the house, his nephew, Gordo sees him, but does not react. Nygaard then later returns undetected to his hospital room. When the gun is discovered at his nephew's school, police immediately search Chazz's house and arrest him after finding the evidence that Nygaard hid. Lester then tells Chief Oswalt a new story in which he claims Chazz killed Pearl while they were having sex. Lester also claims he was present when Chazz killed Thurman, explaining his hand injury. He says he covered for Chazz because he feared retaliation. Lester is released from jail while Chazz is incarcerated. Lester seduces the money hungry Mrs. Hess with promises of "greasing the palms" of the insurance agents responsible for her late husband's policy. Lester fails to mention that Hess had stopped paying the premiums and the policy was cancelled. Solverson is discharged from the hospital and returns to Bemidji. She is dismayed to hear that Chazz Nygaard has been arrested and that Lester has been cleared of all charges. Later, Gina angrily storms into Lester's office, demanding payment from her husband's insurance policy and accusing Lester of having duped her and taken advantage of her. Lester initially pretends he will make some calls on her behalf, but when her two sons try to bully Lester, he hits them with a stapler, which in turn intimidates all three of them, and they back off. Additionally, Lester tells Gina that her late husband having stopped paying the policy indicates she won't get paid. Despite the bad news, Lester's alpha male behavior impresses Linda.

One year later in Las Vegas, Lester, who has married his co-worker Linda, receives an award for Insurance Salesman of the Year. While at the hotel bar, Lester spots Malvo, who now sports grey hair and a goatee and is living under an alias, Dr. Michaelson. Nygaard goes up to him and taps him on the shoulder, but Malvo pretends not to recognize him, despite Lester's attempts to explain what happened in Minnesota last year. As Malvo and his group leave, he quietly tells Nygaard, "Walk away." But due to Nygaard's newfound confidence, when they get onto the elevator, Nygaard stops the elevator door at the last second and enters. He demands that Malvo recognize him, saying the "new Lester" will not let things slide as easily. Malvo tells him to stop talking, and he stares Lester down and asks if this is what he wants. Nygaard is confused and Malvo repeats the question, asking "Yes or no?". Nygaard says yes, and Malvo shoots Burt, Louise, and Jemma in the head. He tells Nygaard that's on him. As they continue to ride the elevator, Malvo explains that he had been working Burt for six months in order to get to his brother, who apparently has a $100,000 bounty which has now gone to waste. The elevator arrives at a service floor and Malvo asks Nygaard to help move the bodies to the dumpster. Instead, Nygaard hits Malvo with his award and runs away. Malvo, smiling, watches Lester run away and says that he'll see him soon. He later goes back to his hotel room, and suddenly packs and leaves with his wife.

When they get home, Nygaard promises Linda that they are going on a vacation to Mexico. Lester tells Linda to go inside and pack for their trip, saying to himself that they will probably never come back. As she goes upstairs, Lester checks everywhere to be sure Malvo isn't waiting for him. He goes into the basement and pulls out Chaz's old hunting gear from a pile of boxes. In it is a bear trap, as well as a pistol with magazines, which he puts in his back pocket. But as they are about to leave, Solverson stops by to ask about the murders in Vegas. Solverson was made aware of the murders due to the Nevada State Police department asking her to interview the witness who called the murders in: Lester Nygaard.

Officer Solverson talks with Nygaard and Linda about the events of the murder. Lester makes up a story, saying he never met anyone on his way back to the hotel room. Solverson asks why they tried to board a plane at the last minute, Linda backs up Nygaard's story by saying they left because she was homesick. Solverson finishes up and leaves, but before she does she tells them the Vegas PD will be sending over some security footage, so they shouldn't leave town for a while. Linda is about to bring up their trip, but Nygaard assures her that they will stay put. Later that night, Nygaard purchases two online plane tickets out of Minneapolis. He tells Linda they're leaving soon. She reminds him they need to stay in town, Nygaard lies and says he talked with Officer Solverson and they are free to go. Before leaving town, Lesters says they need to stop by the office to pick up some cash and their passports from the safe. In the parking lot, Nygaard notices a light on that he didn't turn on. Suspicious, he sends Linda into the office wearing his coat to get what they came for. Malvo appears inside the office and shoots Linda in the back of her head, thinking her to be Lester. Realizing his mistake, Malvo exits the building and scans the parking lot for Nygaard. Seeing no one, he lights a cigarette and walks away as Nygaard nervously watches from a distance. Once Malvo leaves the area, Lester goes into the insurance shop in order to get the money from the safe. Before leaving, he covers up the crime scene in order to make it look like he was never there. Nygaard then goes to Lou's Coffee Shop, and tells the owner that Linda will be right over because she has to get something from the store. He then excuses himself to the bathroom, but actually goes out the back door to make an anonymous phone call to the police, saying that he heard gunshots. Following the call, he sneaks back into the coffee shop.

Officer Solverson receives word that another of Lester's wives has been murdered. She goes to the crime scene where she meets Nygaard. Nygaard tries but fails to retrieve the tickets from the jacket that Linda is wearing. The police bring Lester back to the station where he refuses to answer any questions. The next morning, Lester is allowed to return home, but must be accompanied by FBI agents Pepper and Budge. Malvo later sees Lester being taken home by the FBI agents, and follows in his own car. Once they've returned Lester home, the two FBI agents remain outside, and Malvo sneaks up behind both of them and murders them. Malvo enters Lester's house, and each stalks but fails to kill the other. Malvo strikes Lester in the face with Lester's award, bloodying his face and mirroring the injury inflicted on Lester by Sam Hess a year earlier. Though Lester's gun jams, Malvo's foot is caught in a bear trap left by Lester, and escapes severely injured. Malvo retreats to his nearby cabin to treat his injury, and is killed by Officer Gus Grimly, who saw Malvo outside of it earlier that day. When the police arrive, they find Malvo's trove of audio tapes, including the one containing Lester's confession for the murder of his first wife.

Two weeks later, Lester is shown on a snowmobile in Glacier National Park in Montana. Being sought now that his role in his wife's death has been established, Lester is recognized by law enforcement officers also on snowmobiles. Lester tries to escape only to crash his snowmobile. Desperate, he escapes on foot, only to crash through thin ice, and presumably dies.

Reception

For his performance in the first season, Freeman received widespread critical acclaim for his performance,^[1] with many critics comparing it to William H. Macy's Academy Award nominated performance in the original 1996 film.^[5][6]

Robert Bianco of USA Today praised the dynamic of Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton, writing that their "brilliantly written and played dynamic gives the warped relationship between Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in True Detective a run for its money."^[7]

Production

Freeman was initially hesitant to accept the role, because he was not interested in doing more television and didn't want to leave London to film another project due to him just getting off filming The Hobbit, a project that caused him to be away from his family for a long period of time. But was very impressed by the idea that it would only be ten episodes, stating "The reason I’ve never gone for pilot season even as a younger actor, and wouldn’t entertain that sort of thing now, is the idea of signing a piece of paper that binds me for six or seven years. So [Fargo] was already interesting. I read the script and that was enough for me. A very good script that only lasts 10 episodes was like, ‘Great! That’s right up my street'."^[8]

Freeman purposely avoided watching the original film to avoid comparisons to William H. Macy's performance

Freeman kept his Minnesota accent at all times during filming, due to the fear that he would lose it.^[9]

Due to the obvious similarities of the characters of Lester and Jerry Lundegaard of the original film, Freeman has stated that he purposely decided not to watch the original film to prevent his role to seem like an imitation of William H. Macy's portrayal of Lundegaard. Freeman was quoted as saying "[Macy's] a brilliant actor and the world doesn’t need another actor doing a Bill Macy impression and I don’t need to be doing that and he doesn’t need it and all of that. So, I purely treated it as my performance of a different character, albeit with some comparison. There are some parallels, but I was too busy concentrating on what I was doing with 'Lester' really. At the risk of protesting too much, I know I’m not playing that."^[10]

Trivia

Martin Freeman voices the narrator of the penultimate episode of the second season. For the voiceover, Freeman uses his British accent.^[11]

References