Fargo: Killing of Witt Farr in Year 5 was ‘necessary,’ says creator

Fargo Viewers mourned a heartbreaking death in the fifth year and the creator Noah Hawley fully supports the “necessary” decision.

Deputy Witt Farr (Lamorne Morris) was replaced by Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm) during the fifth season of the FX show.

“I feel like when I tell stories that I say are true, the good guy doesn't always win and the bad guy doesn't always get punished,” Hawley said in an interview with TV Insider published Wednesday, August 21.

Witt had become an important ally of Dot Lyon (Juno Temple) after he felt indebted to her when she saved his life in a gas station shootout. However, when Dot is confronted by her former tormentor Roy, she unsuccessfully tries to kill him and he escapes. Witt pursues the fleeing Roy but is stabbed.

“It felt like when we reached this endgame where there was literally a siege where there was going to be a shootout, and the idea that the law enforcement officers were going to get away unharmed was not realistic,” Hawley continued. “I guess the choice could have been either of our two FBI agents, but the audience wasn't that interested in them. And Witt is the guy, when you talk about Death, who felt like he owed his life to him because Dot had saved him in that first hour, and he would do anything to get back at her.”

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Witt's death kept the plot grounded and gave viewers a sense of “real danger.”

“I always talk about Fargo as a tragedy with a happy ending, but the tragedy has to be real. And the moment Dot shoots Roy but doesn't kill him, the audience knows that if you don't kill the guy, something terrible is going to happen,” Hawley said. “And so from that point on, it's played as a tragedy. I didn't go for suspense. I went for that feeling of fear, like, 'OK, he's out there, he's dangerous, and here's Witt after him.'”

That's not to say Hawley couldn't have come up with another scenario that would have given Witt his heroic moment.

“Probably when Witt turned around and saw Roy standing there with a knife, he should have just put a few bullets in him and called it self-defense, but he believed in justice, law and punishment,” Hawley said. “And the problem is Roy doesn't believe in any of those rules. And if you try to follow the rules and you go up against someone who doesn't, there's a real risk you could get killed. So it was a tough decision, but in the end it felt necessary.”

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Morris admitted that it “broke my heart” to see his character die on screen, even though he had spent so much time planning her death.

“It’s different to read it than to shoot it, and even to shoot when you see it,” Morris said Weekly entertainment in January about Witt's death. “When you see it, you feel for the characters, and I definitely felt for my character… I hope people cry a lot. I really want them to cry a lot.”

Season five saw another all-star cast and fans are eagerly awaiting an update on whether the series will get a sixth season. Hawley agrees: “I definitely think there should be another one,” but it could be a long time coming. FX Chairman John Landgrave told diversity The broadcaster “hopes” that Hawley can write “at least” two seasons of his new sci-fi prequel series Alien: Earthwhich concluded production on the first season in July, “before moving on to a possible sixth season of Fargo.”