Why Mike Yanagita Matters in 'Fargo'

The movie Fargo is one of the most perfect pieces of filmmaking ever made. It's one of those movies that just feels so lyrical and real.

You're steeped in this place on earth and trying to understand all the intricacies while also peeling back the layers and rooting for different aspects of the story.

But there's one part of the movie that everyone talks about afterward -- Mike Yanagita. Why is he in the movie? And what's the point of his scenes?

The older I get, the more certain I am that I understand Mike Yanagita, and today, I want to go over the point of his with all of you.

In searching for my own understanding of this scene, I came across this excellent video essay from I Got Touched at the Cinema, which breaks down this famously weird detour.

I thought it was great, so I'm going to use it to illustrate my points here.

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The Mike Yanagita Scene

For those who need a reminder on the movie, Marge is a police officer who is in the middle of a triple-homicide investigation. She drives to Minneapolis and meets up with an old high school classmate, Mike Yanagita, who saw her name in the papers and reached out.

They go out for drinks, and it's really weird. Mike flirts with the pregnant Marge, then goes kind of nuts and cries and overshares that his wife—another old classmate, Linda—died of leukemia, and he's just so lonely.

This scene has nothing to do with the plot; it just happens in the middle of the movie to leave us guessing at what it all means.

The Straightforward Answer to the Scene

The most common take on this scene is that it’s a simple plot device to engage Marge and show her a darker world. Later, Marge has a call with another friend, who informs her that Mike was lying. He was never married to Linda; in fact, he has psychiatric problems and has been pestering her.

Once she realizes that people lie, Marge gets out of her own head. She was fooled by Mike's "Minnesota nice" facade, and therefore, she knows she could also be getting fooled by Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy). This new suspicion sends her back to the car dealership to re-interview Jerry, which ultimately cracks the case.

I love this reading of the scene, and it's the most obvious one. But there are so many deeper ties within the themes of the movie that Mike and his specific lie reveals.

The Deep Themes of Mike Yanagita

The reason I added the video to the post is that it maintains what I also do, that Mike's core lie taps into what Fargo is trying to say about humanity.

It Makes Marge Human

According to the video, Frances McDormand asked the Coens for a scene where Marge wasn't just "tough cop" or "supportive wife". She wanted a moment that was just for Marge. This scene is that moment. The video speculates that Marge, deep in her third trimester and perhaps not feeling "seen" or "sexy, drives to Minneapolis partially for the ego boost of being "adored and pined after" by an old admirer. It's a subtly vain, very human motive that gives her character incredible depth.

It's the Thematic Core

I believe this is why the movie is in there. This entire feature has a deeper pursuit of someone who just understands and loves you. These characters in the great white north are all so lonely. And the Mike Yanagita scene shows that every character in the film is isolated in their own way:

• Jerry is so desperate and in debt that he isolates himself from his family, ending up totally alone.
• Carl (Steve Buscemi) is so desperate for "human connection" that he hires an escort to go to a José Feliciano concert.
• Gaear (Peter Stormare) is the ultimate void—an "emotionless sociopath" completely detached from humanity.
• Mike Yanagita is the saddest of them all. He's a man so crushingly lonely that he invents an entire tragedy just to feel a connection with someone, even for a moment.

Putting It All Together

In the film's final moments, Marge can't comprehend the "why" of the case. She can't understand how all this violence could happen "for a little bit of money".

But Marge takes these big life questions and sinks into bed next to her loving husband, a man who knows her and cherishes her, and a man she knows and respects and loves.

Marge is not lonely, even if her ego steered her to Mike, she didn't act on his flirtation or feed into it because at her core, she is fulfilled with love. And in the absence of that, the loneliness can drive you crazy.

Crazy enough to commit all these crimes.

Summing It All Up

In the end, the Mike Yanagita scene is the perfect example of the Coen Brothers' screenwriting. It takes a seemingly pointless detour and uses it to reveal character, amplify theme, and drive the plot forward—all at the same time.

It takes a little effort to think about it, and that's because you're not spoon-fed anything. You just have to lean in and absorb it.

Let me know what you think in the comments.