Lorne Malvo

Shot by Gus Grimly

> "*Your problem is you spent your whole life thinking there are rules. There aren't. We used to be gorillas. All we had is what we could take and defend. The truth is, you're more of a man today than you were yesterday.*"
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> "*How do you figure?*"
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> *"It's a red tide, Lester, this life of ours. The shit they make us eat day after day, the boss, the wife, et cetera, wearing us down. If you don't stand up to it, let 'em know you're still an ape deep down where it counts, you're just gonna get washed away.*"
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> -**Lorne Malvo** and **Lester Nygaard**, 2006
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**Lorne Malvo** was a relentless and unempathetic contract killer based out of Reno, Nevada.

In January of 2006, Malvo worked several jobs in Minnesota, inspiring Lester Nygaard to murder his wife,  and worked on behalf (and secretly against) supermarket owner Stavros Milos.

While working a job in Las Vegas, Nevada, Malvo would have another chance encounter with Nygaard, prompting him to track and attack Nygaard back in his home of Bemidji,  eventually leading to his death at the hands of Gus Grimly.

## Personality and traits:

Lorne Malvo (probably an alias) is a sociopathic freelance hitman, hired enforcer, spree killer, stalker, and impulse murderer, among other unpleasant jobs and hobbies. He kills often, but seems to feel rather ambivalent to the actual act of murder, usually commiting the act with a blank expression. His sadistic glee comes from the thrill of the hunt, and even moreso, manipulating other people into brutal deviant acts like killing. He keeps a brief case full of cassette tapes of recorded phone conversations with people he coerced into murder which he derives great pleasure from listening to. He views himself as above human concepts like good and evil and prefers to see his behavior as animalistic, either killing or being killed. He is often identified symbolically with canines, especially wolves. He believes all people are animals as well and believes he is "helping" people find their true selves. Malvo sometimes shows a skewed sense of honor, killing Sam Hess not just to screw with Lester, but because he seems to have a true disgust for entitled wealthy people like Hess. Similarly, he views Mr. Wrench almost with admiration after the former attempted to take his life, releasing Wrench from custody for being a worthy adversary. He displays a willingness to hurt or even kill children threatening Gus's daughter and the family of Gus's neighbor. Adding to his repugnancy he makes racial slurs to Gus's Jewish neighbor as well. He share many traits with another villain in the Coen brothers universe, Anton Chigurh, but unlike Anton, Lorne has an active sense of humor about his line of work. Lorne occasionally does or says things like, seeming to magically disappearing from Lester's basement, or telling Lou that he was alive in the garden of Eden, that imply he is a demonic, supernatural being although it is ambiguous and left to the viewer to decide.

## Appendices

### Appearances

#### Season 1

* The Crocodile's Dilemma
* The Rooster Prince
* A Muddy Road
* Eating the Blame
* The Six Ungraspables
* Buridan's Ass
* Who Shaves the Barber?
* The Heap
* A Fox, a Rabbit, and a Cabbage
* Morton's Fork

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Crocodile's Dilemma
2. ↑ A Muddy Road
3. ↑ A Fox, a Rabbit, and a Cabbage
4. ↑ Morton's Fork