Mike Milligan's Promotion

Mike gets a new job

[@KevinOrrell]

I loved this scene. It’s like Mike’s soul got whacked

[@Baci302]

Yeah, and by the word “golf”. Haha

[@benconnor3206]

I like to think season 5 will pick up with him ‘quitting’

[@kyleshiflet9952]

@@benconnor3206 that would be awesome

[@Seltro1]

@@benconnor3206 For season 5 I'd love to see him back and teamed up with Mr Wrench.

[@richlee509]

Golf is only played by nobs

[@caffeinatedbuffalosauce883]

He literally took out a whole crime syndicate and they give him a office job

[@chrislove5651]

Hanzee took out the Gerhardts, not Mike. Although Mike took the credit for it.

[@ReservoirPunk]

@@chrislove5651 Well, yeah, but in the eyes of his employer, Mike took them out.

[@TheAuraOfItAll]

And halfway through the scene they still tell him "we're expecting great things from you."

[@erixlast6020]

Shity ofice

[@DiegoMartinez-ur7gi]

I mean kanas was going into money laundering and more white collar crime and they got a man who they think is capable. granted Mike was expecting to be the next joe bulo

[@madcat4301]

I felt so sorry for Mike. He thought he was going to be a warrior and instead he's an office drone.

[@jbrewerman2]

Madcat: He was "Vince Mackey-ed" (to those knowing the series finale of "The Shield").

[@ThePartisan13]

I mean it's the future, that's what he wanted.

[@raymondflores6410]

Not bad, considering that pretty much everyone else died or went to prison.

[@yamabushi170]

@@jbrewerman2 "Vic" ;). But yeah, absolutely one of the best cop dramas ever

[@mcmarkmarkson7115]

@WungusBill A ladder that leads to hell

[@yggdrasil2]

Some people kind of misunderstand this scene, because it is technically a pretty neat promotion. Mike was just so caught up in the theatrics of mob life that he didn't realize how the crime syndicate is slowly turning into a corporate syndicate.

[@AntLeonardi01]

No, they for sure want you to think he’s being fucked over. Highlighted by both telling him to aspire to be the guy in the mailroom solving a post it note problem and the hilariously small size of the office room.

[@yggdrasil2]

@@AntLeonardi01 That might be true too, but still add to the message. Of course the corporation would want to hide away vestiges of its violent past.

[@androlibre9661]

You're right, this is what being moved to management looks like. You don't get to run and gun in the streets anymore and now you're at the bottom of a whole new ladder. And its also the changing of the guard. The old way giving ground to the new way, the corporate way.

[@chej9]

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy. -Franz Kafka

[@АлександрАлександрович-т8ж6й]

Obviously Kafka didn't know much about revolutions.

[@ProjectEkerTest33]

@@АлександрАлександрович-т8ж6й Seems like he was pretty on point to me

[@raoulhery]

great quote

[@chrislove5651]

Worst part is, he can't just quit because he will probably be killed if he does lol

[@plantiron]

Lmfaooo

[@aw6686]

1 way in the game 1 way out

[@ddave7026]

They tried that before with the undertaker.. doesnt work out when he decides to strike first

[@CJusticeHappen21]

_See the tiny office._ *Me:* This is almost like hell. *Character:* "You play golf?" *Me:* This is exactly like hell.

[@JonathanRodriguez-hm7jp]

Just like his father did all that dirty work for basically nothing. Tragic story

[@justinsantiago8277]

not really hanzee did all the dirty work, Mike just took credit.

[@JonathanRodriguez-hm7jp]

@@justinsantiago8277 hanzee did the dirty work for the gerharts. Mike worked for Kansas City remember?

[@ИванКаракчеевПиктчюерс]

@WungusBill but before that, he let one of the Kitchen brothers kill Ricky G, Gerhardt's last living underling.

[@crowkid5553]

At least Mike didn't get killed by malvo (hanzee was disguised as Moses)

[@ezeqeel8352]

@@crowkid5553 Well, if you find dying naturally due aging after wasting your whole life and potential in some office corner being better option for a true gangster to go then I guess so, Mike Milligan certainly does not. Oh and Hanzee wasn't "disguised", he BECAME Moses Tripoli.

[@142doddy]

What a great way for a likable villain to get his comeuppance

[@raymeester7883]

I don't even know how he is a villain considering almost every other character is a homicidal maniac.

[@ShownMicheks]

he is not a villain at all. Too soft. Too much philosophic bullshit from him

[@supermegaguy666]

@Audrion Irks Malvo is a villain

[@SteelBallRun1890]

@@audrionirks8881 For him to be an anti-hero, he has to be working in the path of good. The usual definition of an anti-hero is a main character who lacks the heroic qualities. Malvo is a villain. Mike is a villain. Nothing Mike did in the story was for the betterment of anything or is in the goal of "good". He was doing bad deeds to climb up the criminal ladder. Yes, the Gerdharts were the main villains, but Mike is also a villain. Hanzee has more qualities to qualify as an anti-hero, but even he ended up in a route to villainy.

[@robinmohamedally7587]

@@ShownMicheks You can be hard and not retarded. Sounds like you're retarded.

[@brettpatterson404]

If I’m not back I’m either dead or in Jail.

[@DiegoMartinez-ur7gi]

In a way he got the job his father wanted I believe but just not what mike wanted or imagined.

[@jonbaxter2254]

He got everything he wanted. Just happened to be in the wrong decade.

[@jcc6913]

Well at least he gets to be an 80s yuppie

[@CottonFist]

true.

[@Artanis667]

"See, we can't leave because we're the future, and they're the past. The past can no more become the future than the future can become the past." - Milligan Talk about eating your own words in ways unexpected

[@achilleskormentzas1972]

Yep. A lot of commentors missed the social commentary at play here. Great scene.

[@parthin]

My Dad was a hot-shot programmer who got promoted into just this. This ending is hilarious and so fitting.

[@abeedhal6519]

Better off doing your own thing when this happens to you.

[@picklerix6162]

One of my coworkers got promoted from hot shot programmer to management drone. He stuck with it for five years but finally left to start writing firmware again. I assume that he’s still making great money.

[@mariak7846]

it’s even more sad to see his life ending up like this when you watched what he has come through in his childhood in season 4

[@jaydrich8115]

He was Chris rocks son I season 4 ? The boy in the trade off

[@icomment5359]

@@jaydrich8115 yes he's satchel. he took his name from rabbi milligan instead of cannon or fada.

[@insert-name101]

it's shown in the last scene of the final episode. Him roaming about those lands with just a gun in his hand. That got him reminiscing about his childhood right before the big shootout. Honestly, the best character in the series. Alongside lou, mr wrench & Nikki. God, i love Fargo

[@Anime_Lover_PHX_SAC_ABQ]

Yeah, but him having this new type of lifestyle would guarantee his actual survival. Guaranteed that all of his fellow brothers who stayed on as enforcers, dealers, bodyguards, hitmen, et cetera would have ALL lived a lot shorter life than he would.

[@qualeonard5057]

he went from sticking heads into typewriters, to having his head stuck in a typewriter. At least he believes in correspondence.

[@heathen838]

Mike's out of his element

[@user-ur9wy1lt8z]

Yeah the 70s were going to be over. Those words like broke him apart.

[@charmicarmicat2981]

I honestly thought this was the most depressing part of the entire season

[@Weshopwizard]

A mega come down.

[@dnajournal4321]

He deserves it. I wanted the Gerhardt family to win. And Milligan wins through sheer luck.

[@vicentehamel]

Despite ending up alive and well, i would argue he had the worst ending out of any of the Fargo villains

[@mckenzie.latham91]

it is actually quite poetic Mike tells Lou that they are the future and the Geardtharts are the past but now we see that mike is actually the past as well, as his type of gangster is done the new regime is moving from a monarchy system to a corporate committee based one

[@Blotto105]

“A curse on ye and all your children.” - Old Man Milligan

[@DiegoMartinez-ur7gi]

I think it was lifted when rabbi died

[@hanniballanda794]

The Office prequel.

[@junlee3515]

Stanlys true origin

[@big-boy9716]

So all of the employees are working for a crime syndicate😳

[@hanniballanda794]

@@big-boy9716 yes.

[@photosfotos5020]

Lmao , I literally laughed out loud when I heard the office theme. hahaha

[@timbuckthe2nd642]

Same lmfao

[@LeJamesJames]

The way he looks around goes so well with the music 😂

[@michaelross499]

So this is what Stanley did before he joined the paper company haha

[@blimy01maynard30]

Baldy asks Mike if Mike wants to stay a grunt and Mike says no. Then they walk into a tiny office where Mike will be a middle management grunt doing paperwork and making phone calls to accounting. The definition of an office grunt.

[@ThatGuy-sc5rx]

Kind of fitting and ironic while being just like the corporate world. Working under the authority of people less competent than you, relegating a brilliant employee to mundane bs beneath their capability, making you conform to petty corporate code and social expectations. He thought he was 'sovereign' and a king but realized in that moment hes just a peasant too. I think this is *almost* a worst fate than death for a person like this whos so ambitious and used to living by their own wits, initiative and purpose. A tiger stuck in a cage.

[@mckenzie.latham91]

it is also actually quite poetic Mike tells Lou that they are the future and the Geardtharts are the past but now we see that mike is actually the past as well, as his type of gangster is done the new regime is moving from a monarchy system to a corporate committee based one

[@brianvaira486]

A fate worse than death

[@chrislove5651]

Exactly. Mike probably would have preferred to go down fighting in a hail of bullets. Instead he becomes a neutered desk jockey.

[@youngstickz5152]

He had the best ending out of all the other characters frfr

[@StudioMod]

The best part is he's got the IBM typewriter in front of him. They're not just for women anymore, you know.

[@afriend1743]

The Wire did the same thing with Marlo Stansfield. Someone that wanted kingship on the streets locked into a middling, bureaucratic existence.

[@annoyedok321]

"Someday this war is going to end, " Robert Duvall's line in Apocalypse Now was a foreshadow of this. There are men out there who can't handle peace.

[@RunEnabled]

This reminds me of the Taliban. Now that you've conquered... time to work.

[@joshbates9015]

This man rough rambled like a true-blue cowboy and took out an entire crime family; and he was rewarded with a broom closet of an office and a 401k. Man, talk about hollow victories... Oddly enough, it reminds me of an article that I read in the last couple of years about some members of the Taliban. Apparently, a lot of them have started to report feelings of depression ever since the US withdrew from the country. For over 20 years, they fought and struggled together against, in their minds, an oppressive invading force; and now that they actually won and had to start doing the hard work of running a country, many of them are stuck in 9-5 office jobs, dealing with daily commutes, traffic jams, and not having enough time in the day to visit with old friends. For a lot of them, it seems that the social alienation and overwhelming sense of meaninglessness in our modern administrative society is more soul-crushing than the darkest days of hiding out in caves and struggling against a colonial power ever were.

[@lkgrave4959]

The rumor is that to this day, Mike still sits in that office, putting out quarterly projections and revenue statements.

[@nothingisoriginal400]

It''s 2023 and this scene still hurts me too the core of my soul!!!!!!! 😩

[@sctmcg]

But props to folks like you and I in 2023 still going back to rewatch shows of this quality

[@nothingisoriginal400]

You’re a classy scholar good sir!@@sctmcg

[@rs72098]

The top of the ladder isn't always better than the bottom...

[@rs72098]

He was about to give another one of his deep poetic speeches and just got interrupted, like it no longer means anything in the new corporate world he's now entering.

[@j.patrickboyce5513]

Mike deserves a spin-off.

[@Sigfofosauer]

The song in the end! Love it.

[@anonymoususer450]

(Potential future spoiler made after watching 5 episodes of season 4) Not bad for the son of a former crime boss who vanished and came back with a new identity

[@sherylsmallwood-valdivia5375]

*ALSO SPOILER* And he got to live. Unlike his Dad.

[@jasminehill6312]

Exactly!

[@jake51479]

This is hilarious. Good job.

[@HRush-lu6fj]

"The Office" music is a nice touch

[@davidblau1062]

milligan is the main character

[@trippytigertony5520]

Just like Zelmare said. Even if it wasnt directed towards Satchel. It still rings true. Just because you're a "bad guy" doesnt mean you're an outlaw. Just means you still play the game, just differently.

[@Jray181818]

Satchel Cannon

[@ronburgundy244]

His story ends how it began: in a room he doesn't want to be in.

[@garrettously3605]

@Man Please His dad's last name IS Cannon...not sure wtf you're talking about. His caretaker's (aka the Rabbi) last name was Milligan...

[@supermegaguy666]

In the end, it seems like everyone in the show gets their comeuppance. One way or another

[@Baci302]

There’s got to be a Mike Milligan sequel, right? That better be season 5.

[@jameswarren6047]

Well you could say more of a prequel since it’s about his childhood

[@androlibre9661]

@WungusBill I thought he died in Season One WHen Malvo killed everybody in the offices....but admittedly I need to watch Season 1 2 and 3 all over again to catch all the tie ins

[@princesssprinklesthecat4192]

Season 4 the rabbi is named.milligsn

[@chrispile3878]

@@princesssprinklesthecat4192 - Yes, and the kid grew up to be Mike. We know.

[@theMcWOPPER]

Naw prequal only. When need to see where Mike met the kitchen brothers

[@adequatebus8280]

I've been him in that tiny room, waiting for a faceless HR drone to get around to bringing some forms. I needed the money and lasted 9-months in that soul-crushing tiny room. -C

[@ericscottstevens]

Does anyone else get the feeling Mike's job is with Narwhal? Or at least the earliest beginnings in "shipping and receiving"

[@yggdrasil2]

That'd be awesome! Although I'm 95% sure Narwhal doesn't actually exist.

[@raymondflores6410]

The IBM typewriter that got this whole party started.

[@thomasbrown3356]

Detective Mackey suffers the exact same fate in the final scene on The Shield. The worst punishment for a man of action- desk duty! Lol.

[@abdallaha92]

While it feels like Mike is being punished by being given an office job, this is actually a major promotion. Mike will now be able to make suggestions, and decisions on what to sell, where to expand etc. He went from a piece on the chess board, to an advisor of the chess player

[@robertisrotten]

Interesting theory but look at the office he's in. That's his reward for eradicating a major crime syndicate

[@abdallaha92]

@@robertisrotten Its' a small one for sure. But by having an office at all, he can move up to a bigger office. It would be nice to see what happens to Milligan.

[@deedunn1989]

I don’t think that’s the point they were trying to make. Mike throughout the show has been a warrior. He doesn’t look at a promotion as a normal person would. He has been conditioned to kill and that’s all he wants to do. The promotion was an insult to him. That’s like taking Judge Holden from Blood Meridian and promoting him to a general. Sure he would be a promotion to human standards, but some people just love the art of war. They love to be in the middle of the action as a king and a pawn. Mike is one of those people

[@antoinerobillard3785]

I think that is exactly why this is so cruel for Mike, its great for him but thats not what he wanted. Mike wanted to be a badass Al Capone crime boss but as it turns out, that dosent exist anymore, its just not profitable enough. and the worst part? he could probably have gotten a regular mediocre office job by just applying for any other company and not have to sacrifice so much to get at the exact same place

[@donnovicki9771]

He did get a window.😆

[@rs72098]

Did you notice he really didn't want to sit with his back facing a window?

[@murrayjones694]

Presumably because of the people who were gunned down from through the window earlier in the series.

[@al5913]

The greatest scene in television history 😅😅😅😅😅

[@MrClean3381]

... of course it is

[@mappingshaman5280]

For some reason I find the idea of the mafia having a HR department hilarious. Like we're running an organised crime racket, but we need some guys to take complaints and send out pay checks

[@mappingshaman5280]

Mike milligan suffered the same fate as robert baratheon. He conquered the enemy, lost his romantic interest in the process, and then some old man told him he has to sit in some chair and manage paperwork instead of doing what he likes: fighting.

[@UberMenschNowFilms]

"MY WIFE!" "Haha! Borat!"

[@ryanbesco8067]

The thing about being a soldier is that it is about 10% killing and 90% mental. Just like everything else in life.

[@tommyx3090]

I think you guys took this the wrong way. Scene is supposed to show how the mob is fading away. Like in the Sopranos when an announcer of a tour bus in Little Italy says "this neighborhood has now been reduced to one block of stores and restaurants"

[@kris242]

I honestly moreso heard the Seinfeld bass-riff in my head when I first saw this scene 🤣

[@cnote2458]

This is like Mike had sold his soul to the devil. He made the deal and got everything he was promised. But getting what he was promised wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to be a warrior and he ended up a office Stooge.

[@shuanthehippy]

So he’s the Creed of Fargo. Gotcha

[@LoveNPeace369]

This is how our beloved Stanley was born

[@ifedhimspaghetti]

Watching this again, I wonder if the analogy is to going through school with all its colour and strife, "winning", and finding the reward to be... this. Mike did exactly what he was told. He wore his authority with pride, but he was fundamentally overestimating his value and achievement. His imagined new name for 'king' is something like 'the most intelligent', but he has failed to realise both that he does not exist in such a system, and also that, even if he did live in such a system, the simplistic path he's taken does not give him credit. With no character other than the one he has derived from his organisation, he is punished, unlike Solverson who has found meaning outside of his job, his situation, and the roads life is trying to push him along.

[@SteelBallRun1890]

From Mike Milligan to Michael Scott.

[@fairfight9857]

Lmao The Office theme 😂

[@MichaelSunny]

Thats funny how he did all of that and then just got a desk job.

[@TomekKowal83]

0:28 This is the beginning how Mike Millgan became to Stanley Hudson.

[@woyame1]

It's like Foghorn Leghorn once said, "There must a been some way I coulda lost!"

[@dirklerxstpratt2112]

Is the Kitchen brother working in the mailroom?

[@wowzers1237____]

Are you kidding me with The Office theme?

[@atagamedev]

ahah didnt expect the office to enter

[@Paul1958R]

The irony of the _typewriter._

[@terencem8795]

Hey, it's Lumberg from Office Space.

[@kfloyd6310]

I love thst character

[@jackmclean4120]

I should rewatch Season 2.

[@user-ur9wy1lt8z]

The 70s were always coming, to the 70s are over. "Get a real tie and an haircut"

[@clintleffingwell8129]

Thus the death of another great individual contributor via promotion to management...

[@BlackSabotage100]

I'm willing to bet that Creed works in the same building.

[@zjschmucker]

What a scene and an ending. I wish you hadn't ruined it with The Office theme. Does anyone have this unedited?

[@picklerix6162]

B-b-but they gave him a window office with a fancy typewriter. Nowadays, you get a tiny cubicle and a buggy Dell laptop with a slow, undersized hard drive.

[@michaelodonoghue7464]

He got an Office with a Window - translation - No future Promotion on the Horizon

[@vortexusa124]

Such a perfect edit

[@jackashmore]

Bro the office theme song kicked in at the perfect moment...true art

[@toothpastaduck3613]

Same typewritter

[@CatNerfer3000]

Guess those new type writers came in

[@tomsaywer3902]

That's why Gotti brought back that street shit these guys were getting to fukn corporate

[@doggoland23]

After all that struggle, this is what he gets...

[@awake1251]

Is that the same man who is behind the projector?

[@NikitaAktav]

A soldier being promoted into an accountant, seriously?

[@allornothing432]

“The way of the future” 😁

[@blacklight4720]

Won but lost.

[@free-btc]

He can't leave, cause its the future, "the future can be the past, the past can not be the future"

[@ohaimark9449]

I thought Mike Milligan was the careworker from Tracy Beaker....

[@baxatakbaxatak2014]

Anyone getting vibes of the Shield series finale?

[@ClarenceJBoddicker1987]

Why would you put an operator like that in a cubicle?

[@impersonal6650]

The Office main theme lmao

[@Spectahman2.0]

Theory: What if Mike's the father of Jordan Peele's season 1 character, that's why he hated the filing job because he kept complaining about his office job to his son.

[@deeeznuuuts2798]

So this is Stanley's past huh

[@woodwyrm]

anyone know the song at the end?

[@leoperidot482]

Mike's office looks about the size of a prison cell.

[@Joao-pe8ur]

Darryl gets promoted from the warehouse.

[@firstkaransingh]

This scene shows how blue collar crime became corporatised into white collar crime.

[@donnovicki9771]

The bar is set pretty high since the last guy saved them over 1 million. Could ya get a smaller office though ?

[@edjacobs8876]

Kind of like the Shield's final scene

[@Kromsmitesyou]

This doesnt make sense. The guys a criminal and a killer. Why would they they he could or would want to do this job?