Fargo, Season 2, Episode 1, “Waiting for Dutch”

This season of Fargo will explore the year ’79 from a variety of new perspectives.  An entirely new cast of characters will fumble through crime and law enforcement in the frozen tundra.  I’m looking forward to interesting performances by Bob Odenkirk and Kristen Dunst.

The episode opens in black and white filming the fictional “Massacre at Sioux Falls” staring Ronald Reagan.  The director speaks to a natively dressed man asking him how he feels about being at the actual battlefield a hundred years after “Custer’s Last Stand.”  The man shrugs, stating he’s from New Jersey. (And probably Italian, as many “natives” were who starred in Westerns.) Reagan, or “Dutch” is holding up the filming while he gets more arrows placed.  One of the “dead” soldiers asks the director for a blanket.  The mood of bleak is one of bleak awkwardness.

President Jimmy Carter appears on television speaking about “crisis.”  The traditional Fargo introduction plays, “This is a true story, names have been changed.”  Scenes from the late seventies appear as news clips of Jonestown massacre, the gas and Middle East crisis.  The chaos of the late seventies is evident, mirroring some of today’s continuing conflicts.

Dodd Gearhardt and his silent partner wait for his younger brother Rye. Dodd chastises Rye for being an hour late and not completing his collections for the family crime syndicate.  Rye complains he isn’t given important tasks, and a Dodd point out he has failed at the most simple tasks.  Dodd warns him to have the money collected by the next day.

The Gearhardt family has assembled at the family home.  The mother, Floyd complains they are “light” on money, and worries about a rival criminal game.  The patriarch Otto begins to speak agitatedly then appears to have a stroke midsentence.  His wife and sons are mortified.

Rye enters a business and threatens the owner with a gun.  The salesman is quick to show him “the future” an IBM electric typewriter, which will garner huge sales.  He asks Rye to forgive his debts and eludes needing Rye to “help take care of a judge” to unfreeze accounts so they can all start making money again.

Rye begins to follow the female judge from the courthouse, to an empty country road and finally to a “Waffle House” diner in Luverne, Minnesota.  Rye looks anxious as he enters the diner and tries to shrug off the attentions of the waitress.  After a few moments he gathers his courage to speak to the judge.  As he sits down in her booth, she says, “NO!” before Rye can explain his purpose.

Rye tells her, “You’re going to change your mind on a case.”  The judge proceeds to tell Rye about the trials of Job.  Rye looks lost. “You’re a little dim aren’t ya? If the devil couldn’t change Job’s mind, no way your changing mine!”

The judge removes a can of bug spray from her purse and threatens Rye with it if he fails to go away.  She proceeds to spray him in the face and Rye takes out his gun and shoots her.  The cook comes out of the kitchen wielding a cast iron skillet.  Rye shoots him. The waitress stands dumb-founded and Rye shoots her too, her coffee carafe shatters as she falls.  The judge approaches Rye with a knife and stabs him in the back, Rye shoots her again and she falls dead on the table.

Rye, distracted by the knife, reaches to pull it out of his back.  He takes another moment to empty the cash register.  He sees the waitress has left the diner.  He follows the blood trail outside where she staggers through the snow. He shoots her multiple times.  As Rye stands up, he sees a strange other worldly light emanating from the nearby woods.  As he staggers towards the light, he is hit by a passing car, which continues to drive with him riding on the windshield!  The fast and violent sequence has left three possible four people dead.

A domestic scene reveals Lou, (Patrick Wilson) reading a story to his young daughter.  Their story is interrupted by a phone call, reporting the deaths at the Waffle House.  As Lou readies to leave, he asks his wife about her appointment that day.  She says stoically that it went okay.

Lou is greeted at the scene by a trucker who called in the deaths.  He admits to covering the waitress’s body with his coat because it seemed “only right.” Lou surveys the outside, then indoor scene.  Hank (Ted Danson) enters the diner looks around.  He says, “This is a deal!” and is able to identify the cook as a high school football star.  Hank doesn’t recognize the judge whose Mercedes sits in the parking lot with North Dakota plates.  Lou speaks of his wife’s cooking and invites Hank (his father-in-law) to dinner Sunday.

The men go outside and see the skid marks on the road, but aren’t sure whether they are connected with the crime scene inside.  Hank sees a white patent leather shoe in the tree.  The men haggle whether the scene is “local or state.”  Hank is local and agrees to take point on the case. Lou leaves.

Back in town, the butcher closes up shop for the day.  He gives Ed  (Jesse Plemons) some extra pork chops to take home.  The butcher and his daughter say together, “Okay, then!” in lieu of goodbyes.

At the local watering hole, BINGO is being called as Karl (Nick Offerman) pontificates conspiracy theories.  Karl references the “Ike doctrine” and the creation of the “military industrial complex.”  A campaign poster for Reagan is seen in the background.  Lou joins Karl and his friend and tells them of the murders at the Waffle Hut and that it looks like a robbery gone wrong. “That’s what they want you to believe!” quips Karl. (I love his character already!)

Lou mentions Betsy had her first chemotherapy today.  Karl states if John McCain could survive five years as a POW, Betsy will be fine. (Huh?) Unfortunately, we know that young Allison Solverson ultimately grows up without a mother, so it’s a hard road ahead for the little family.

Ed comes home from the butcher shop where his nervous wife Peggy (Kristen Dunst) has made delicious Hamburger Helper and tater tot casserole.  Ed takes her hand and they pray over the humble meal and talk about their dream of having a family and his plans to take over the ownership of the butcher shop.

At Lou’s house, Betsy theorizes there may have been an accomplice who drove the shooter away from the crime scene.  Her father Hank has filled her in on the details of the crime.  Betsy shows Lou what his daughter made for him in school, an ashtray.  Too bad he doesn’t smoke.

Peggy chatters on at dinner about doing a life improvement seminar.  Ed thinks their lives would be improved if they had more intimacy.  Suddenly, Ed hears a “Thud!”  Peggy tries to distract Ed with some romantic attention he’s been craving.

“Thud!” Ed goes to the garage to try to locate the cause of noise and sees the windshield has been bloodied and broken. Peggy states she hit a deer but Ed realizes there is something still living in the garage.  Rye appears out of the shadows and the men briefly scuffle before Ed stabs him dead.

Ed acted so swiftly he’s completely baffled by what happened.  He asks Peggy why she didn’t call the police or take the man to the hospital. “You came home and made Hamburger Helper?”  Peggy cries she didn’t know what to do, “It was a hit and run!”  She claims she was careful no one saw her drive home with a body sticking out of her windshield!

Peggy begs Ed to not alert the authorities or all their hopes and dreams will be forfeit.  She mentions the possibility of running away to California, but her husband clearly doesn’t want to uproot their life.  Ed hesitates, and then agrees, “We clean it up.”

At the Solverson’s, Lou looks outside at the falling snow.  At the Gearhardt’s, Floyd holds her dying husband Otto.  Peggy and Ed place the body of Rye Gearhardt in the deep freeze.

In a dim conference room, Joe Bulo (Brad Garrett) gives a presentation to a group of men about the Gearhardt criminal family which started with Otto’s father Dieter and has been passed to his sons, Bear, Dodd and Rye.  The man explains how Otto had a stroke yesterday and the time is ripe for a criminal takeover.  A man in the shadows voices his approval to absorb the Gearhardt operation or to “liquidate” it.

On that ominous note, the episode ends with the set up of stupid mistakes, which will likely have disastrous consequences in the season to come. I can’t wait for next week’s casserole.