Fargo Season 2 Episode 7, Did you do this? No you did!

After last week’s bloodbath, it was unclear which characters remain to finish the war.  Both sides are weakened and the Blumquist’s are missing.  Both law enforcement and the gangsters have to face the violent forces that seem deeper than the Minnesota ice.  After tonight’s extra long episode, only three more remain in this season. Fargo will be returning next year for Season 3.

A shovel enters the dirt.  In an office, a man speaks to his clients about “managing up.”  Behind him, window washers appear on a lift and open fire into the office, killing the man and his two clients.  A spoon digs into the sugar bowl.  Gale Kitchener steps behind a man in a diner and ends his life with a garrote. (The man was a Gearhardt affiliate.) Floyd stands above two open graves.  Another Gearhardt friend is drowned in a toilet.  Mike stirs his coffee and the cream swirls.  The headstones are revealed to belong to Otto and Rye.  Without Rye’s body, the family buries his charred belt buckle.

Bear introduces his mother to a friend who’s come from Buffalo to assist the family. Simone wants to stay as the discussion turns to a review of the “news.”  The news is grim, five of their allies have been killed, South Dakota now supports Kansas City and Dodd and Hanzee remain missing.  Simone makes a disparaging remark about her father, stating he’s “Just a man, not like some shark in a movie where they’re going to need a bigger boat!” Floyd slaps Simone in the face for her insolence.  Floyd likens her daughter to Dodd, the worst insult.  Simone, angered, spits back, “This family deserves the ground!”  Bear laments there are not enough Gearhardt’s left.

Lou and Ben Smiht drive up to this scene of family discord.  They’d like to take Floyd to the station for questioning.  Lou informs Bear Charlie has been transferred to the state penitentiary where he will remain until his trial.  Lou asks about Dodd’s whereabouts.  Bear retorts, “He found Jesus!” When the men are gone, Ricky from New York tells Bear someone phoned saying they know Dodd’s location.

Floyd sits alone in the interview room.  Outside, Lou, Hank, Ben and other officer talk about the Kansas City/Gearhardt war.  They mention Peggy is missing. Hank and the other officer go inside to interview Floyd.  Hank muses, “I had some differences with your eldest boy yesterday!” Floyd smiles, “And how did that go for you?” Hank recounts being hit in the head by Hanzee.  Floyd vents her anger at Kansas City, calling them animals for gunning down Otto in his own kitchen while children slept upstairs.  Hank asks how much more are they willing to lose in this war. Her husband and son and her grandson Charlie is in prison.  Floyd looks at the men and says, “Neither one of you are mothers. It used to be only two children in ten survived.”  Hank says he still remembers the man he shot in Vichy, France during the war.  Floyd speaks out about the “Butcher” and Hank protests he’s known Ed since he was in short pants and doesn’t believe he could be caught up in violence.  Floyd seems fatalistic, “I don’t know how it starts or ends, but my boys won’t stop.”  Hank implores her to help them stop the killing by catching the Kansas City gangsters.  Floyd looks at the men directly, “You want me to snitch?”

Simone drives listening to the radio playing “I just dropped in” by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, a song allegedly about the dangers of LSD. (Coen Brothers movie fans will also recognize the song from The Big Lewbowski’s dream sequence.)  Simone stops at Mike’s hotel.  Inside, Mike answers the phone.  He’s being called to task about their losses, an ultimatum is given, and he has two days until the boss dispatches the “Undertaker.”  Simone enters and is grabbed by Kitchener.  Simone is upset with her boyfriend for nearly murdering her and her grandmother the previous night. “Why didn’t you kill my dad?"  Mike remains enigmatic, quoting Robespierre.  This only upsets Simone further, “You could have killed me!”  She screams, and there is a knock at the door.  Mike and Gale have their guns drawn.  Fortunately, for her it’s Lou and Ben.  Lou instructs Ben to walk Simone out to their car.  Ben seems confused, Lou adds, “I’m not saying don’t come back!”

Ben and Simone ride the dark mirrored elevator down.  Ben asks if her father knows where she is, cavorting with the enemy.  She begins to flirt with Ben and he responds predictably.  Just when Ben thinks he might get some love in the elevator, Simone knees him in the groin and takes off declaring, “I may be going to the noose, but I’m done lying down for men!”

Outside, Simone nears her car to see Bear and Ricky parked next to her.  Simone makes up a lame story about going there to score some weed.  Bear commands her to come with him, offering Ricky will drive her car home.  Together in the truck, Bear helps Simone into her seat belt menacingly.

Lou confronts Mike back in the hotel room.  Mike waxes philosophical about Manifest Destiny. (A idea from the 19^th century Americans used to justify their western expansion in order to spread their “superior” institutions and government.) Lou tries another philosophy; “I have two pairs of shoes, one for summer and one for winter.”  Lou thinks man is guilty of wanting to conquer too much, thinking he can tame it.  Mike launches into another story about a man who steals from his job, the point being, sometimes the answer is so obvious we miss it.  Mike ends by saying his kind represent the future.  Lou adds, he may not say hello next time before he shoots.

Betsy comes home to see strange shoes in the doorway.  She gets the shotgun out of the coat closet and goes to look around. Instead of an intruder, Betsy finds Sonny and Karl in her kitchen.  Karl says Lou asked them to look after her and Molly.  Betsy asks, “Does it look like I need looking after?”  Karl tries to explain Lou is simply worried about her during these violent times.  Karl offers, “We can fight or eat.” Karl declares he is the king of breakfast.

On a lonely stretch of highway, Bear and Simone travel.  Simone continues to be nervous, asking about how her grandmother at the police station and babbles on again about buying weed.  Bear growls, “Why don’t you ask about Charlie?”  Simone, desperate for peace, says they go to visit Charlie.  She mentions Dodd and Bear corrects her, “Dad, not Dodd.” Simone replies, “What’s he to you?”  Bear veers off the main road and stops the truck. “Come!”  Bear commands, until he forcibly removes her from the truck. Uh-oh.

Simone states the obvious, “You’re scaring me!”  Bear replies her dad took his son. He says he knows she’s sleeping with the enemy.  He tells her in France after the war people shaved the heads of women who slept with the Germans, and worse!  They walk deeper into the forest.  Time passes.  Simone offers, “I can help, they trust me. They’re kicking our ass!”  Bear notes, the mounting casualties are Simone’s fault including Otto’s death.  Simone, growing desperate cries, “I’m the victim here!”  Bear removes his gun and tells her to kneel down.  Simone begs, “Please, we’re family!”  Bear says coldly, “Not anymore.”  Simone tries one last time,  “Banish me!”  Bear says mournfully, “It’s already done.”  The shoot isn’t heard, but its clear Simone is dead.

Danny Boy plays.  Bear returns to his truck, he punches it multiple times in frustration.  A montage shows flashbacks of Dodd and Rye, Charlie alone in his cell and Hanzee readying his gun, all while Floyd waits alone in the police station.  Bear returns to the Gearhardt house, Ricky reports a man keeps calling saying he knows Dodd’s location.  Bear is upset; “There is no Dodd anymore! We got all the crazy we can handle!”  Ricky states, “That’s cold, don’t you think.”

Noreen has joined the Solverson household.  Betsy fields a call form Lou, she chides him for sending Karl to look after her.  Lou asks if Karl is drinking, she asks if beer counts.  Lou urges his wife to rest but she asks how can she rest when things are so bad.  Lou passes on a message from Hank, “If John McCain could survive being in thumb screws for five years, she surely can beat this cancer.” The good news is it seems that Floyd will “flip.”

In the interview room, Floyd makes it clear she is only cooperating with the authorities as a last resort and she alone is responsible for her choice.  Floyd is only cooperating for immunity for her children’s crimes from this point further. (She adds including murder or what’s the point?)  Hank urges her to tell them what they know about the Kansas City operation.  She tells them they smuggle drugs through a trucking business in the tires and store the drugs in a local auto body shop and nail salon. (Is this true, or is she getting revenge on Sonny’s Auto Shop for helping the Blumquist’s and perhaps she knows where Peggy works too?)

Mike waits in the hotel room.  The phone rings, “The Undertaker’s coming, you’re done!”

The remaining Gearhardt clan waits for Floyd to come out of the station.  Floyd immediately tasks Bear with finding Dodd and Hanzee.  Lou and Hank watch the proceedings and wonder if they have done the right thing, picking a side in a war between criminals.  Hank has news Hanzee may have shot two state troopers in Sioux Falls, one man is dead, the other seriously injured.  Hank assumes Hanzee was looking for Peggy and Ed. Ben chimes in that the Gearhardt’s were promised a “free pass” for the information on Kansas City.  Lou and Hank look at Ben in disgust, the dead trooper on their minds. Lou offers, “You’re a shit cop Ben.” Ben is defensive, “I’m up for a promotion soon!” That figures.

At the Solverson’s, Betsy and Karl have a discussion. She urges him not to drink at breakfast.  Karl marvels at her marriage to Lou.  She explains Lou was supposed to marry her sister, but her sister couldn’t wait until he returned from Vietnam, so he married “plain old Betsy.” She confides she knows she’s receiving the sugar pills and wants Karl to promise to look out for Lou and her daughter when she’s dead. “I don’t mind him remarrying, just make sure it’s not Rhonda Knutson!” Karl offers the John McCain example again. Betsy shoots it down, “John McCain was a fighter pilot. I’m a housewife from Minnesota.” She urges Karl to stop drinking, “It will kill ya!” The two embrace.

Later. Betsy returns to an empty house.  She calls for the cat, and looks at the photographers of her family.  She briefly allows herself to weep.  But as she enters the living area she finds papers taped everywhere depicting Rune like symbols.  Has Karl done this, is he trying to communicate with the elusive aliens?  Confusing.

Bear and his mother return to the family estate. Floyd asks Bear to tell Simone to come see her so she can apologize for slapping her.  Bear replies that Simone may have left somewhere.  Ricky comes outside, reporting Hanzee is on the phone and he knows Dodd’s location, Floyd runs inside the house to take the call.

“O Death, spare me..” The music from Mike’s room implores.  Gale informs Mike the Undertaker is on his way up to the room.  The Undertaker is a tall older gentlemen flanked by two Asian bodyguards.  Mike readies himself.   The Undertaker arrives saying, “Who is this eggplant I’ve heard about who still shits the bed?”   These are the old man’s last words.  Mike produces a derringer from his sleeve and fires two shots to his head.  Kitchener quickly slits the bodyguards throats before they have time to react.  Mike calmly orders Kitchener to “Bag them and tell the boss, the Gearhardt’s got them.”

The phone rings in the hotel room, Mike answers.  A man says, “Today is your lucky day, I have Dodd Gearhardt in my trunk! Do you want him?”  The caller is identified as Ed Blumquist, calling from a payphone.  The episode closes with Ed confidently walking back to his car. A brief shot of Hanzee appears looking out at the same parking lot where Ed has just completed his call.

The title of the episode denotes a conflict of blame.  Who is to blame for the current war?  Rye definitely touched off the crisis with his careless murders at the Waffle Hut.  Otto’s stroke and the Kansas City threat further spread conflict and chaos.  Or is conflict and chaos inherent in the organized crime world and as long as there is greed there will be blood.

Other questions linger about our story.  Did Ed go back to his home and found Peggy with the badly wounded Dodd?  They decided to put him in the trunk and get out of town.  Are they also calling the Gearhardt’s?  Is this a ruse to get Mike and the Gearhardt’s competing over Dodd?  The Gearhardt’s clearly want the Blumquist’s dead, so that would be a very dangerous game to try to pit these two tigers against each other and come away without getting scratches.  Maybe the Blumquist’s simply want to get paid so they can start over in California.

The previews showed a confident Ed bragging on the phone about how he’s killed people.  Has Peggy helped him realize his potential and “break bad.”  Maybe it’s a gangster life for them after all.  Mike has lived to quote another day.  What will Floyd do when she finds out Bear killed Simone?  Is it justified because Simone betrayed the family?  Floyd seems to be losing what little control she had.  Bear is confident he will be the one to lead the Gearhardt’s now.  No wonder he doesn’t care if his brother is alive or dead.

This episode had fantastic cinematography and tension.  I will hate to say goodbye to these characters and stories in a few short weeks. 

AHS Hotel, episode 7, Flicker

This has been one of the more cohesive seasons of American Horror Story.  The themes are varied but unified under a central character, The Countess.  Tonight, we probe deeper into her backstory while in the present, John struggles with his sanity and new characters emerge from the dark corners of the Cortez.

The episode opens with workers wielding sledgehammers in the effort to remodel the Hotel.  Drake and his son survey the work and discuss their future plans.  Drake tells Lachlan he’s considering marrying the Countess.  Lachlan is puzzled, “I thought you liked men?”  Drake shrugs and tells his son adult relationships can be complicated.  The construction crew has found an anomaly with an entire wall reinforced with an inch of steel. Drake asks them to tear it down.  When the workers break through one man complains it seems horrible, like death.  A shadow passes down the hallway. The men find rat carcasses.  Decomposing vampires rush to the men and bite at their necks, killing them.  The couple is dressed in twenties attire and their eyes are pale like zombies.  They complain the men taste not much better then the rats they’ve been surviving on. (Too much McDonald’s in the men’s diet?)

John is under bright lights answering questions posed by a psychiatrist in a mental hospital. Alex speaks with him after the exam, explaining she could help him be admitted to a much nicer facility.  But John wants to stay, he sees the bleak setting as deserves. In another interview, John tells the doctor about problems with work and the stress he was under trying to solve the “Ten Commandment” murders.  John explains his “rock bottom” moment was when he got into a physical altercation with his only ally, Detective Hahn.  At that moment, John realized he needed help.

Iris reports to the Countess that Drake is busy attending to his grooming needs. (Um, I’ll spare repeating the details!)  Iris shows the Countess the bodies of construction workers and she seems genuinely perplexed.  She wonders if Alex might have killed the men but dismisses the idea. “Whoever did this was starving.” The Countess theorizes.  Iris is concerned, “I’ve never seen you scared before!” Despite Iris and Donavon’s plan to seek revenge on the Countess, it’s obvious Iris still can’t help respecting her boss’s ruthless savvy in dealing with both the living and the dead.

The real estate agent who brokered the Hotel sale is staying the night.  She boasts about her less then honest deals with a friend on the phone.  She answers the door, which she assumes is room service.  She is attacked by the twenties era vampires.

Flashback to Los Angles, 1925.  Actresses are gossiping on the set of a silent movie starring Rudolph Valentino.  Valentino takes notice of one actress, a young Countess and slips her a note with his address.  She arrives at his opulent mansion and Valentino kisses her hello.  They begin to share a romantic dinner; he is impressed she can understand his Italian.  The Countess shares she is the child of immigrants from Sicily and moved to L.A. to follow her dreams of being an actress.  Valentino says he sees greater things for her then simply acting.  The Countess compares acting to “being immortal” and states movies will become the great American art form.  Valentino puts on a record and they begin to dance a passionate tango only to be interrupted by a woman descending the grand stairway.  Valentino introduces her to his wife Natasha.  The Countess is hurt and confused, “I don’t understand!” Natasha says enigmatically, “The gods have appetites!”  The three of them dance a three-person tango, which leads to a three-person horizontal mambo!

(These events maybe loosely based on Valentino’s real complicated love life.  His first wife was a lesbian and he was married to a Natasha with whom he had a very public divorce. As one of film’s first stars, Valentino seemed to have also suffered from the first wave of paparazzi’s.)

Several months later, the Countess and an actress friend go to the grand opening of the Hotel Cortez.  Her friend has noticed she doesn’t go out as often and the Countess coyly reports she’s seeing somebody. (Or somebodies, including Natasha.) Despite Prohibition, the champagne flows.  The news arrives that Valentino is dead. The Countess is mad with grief and rushes to jump out a window.  March comes up behind her and prevents her from jumping and dries her tears.  He is smitten, he looks at her deeply and confesses, and “I may never let you go!”

At the Hollywood mausoleum, several actresses go to see Valentino’s final resting place. (I’ve been there, its still a tourist attraction.)  The women speak of the “Lady in Black” who has been said to have visited the grave daily for months leaving one red rose.  The women theorize about the mystery women, wondering if she is human or something else.  They see her approaching and flee in fear.  It is the Countess in a long black lace veil.  Natasha appears and delivers the shocking news that Valentino is not dead.  Valentino himself comes out of the shadows to greet her.  He tells her his stunt double died but he himself has been reborn.

The Countess explains to her former lovers how she met and married Patrick March. She says she was drawn to his darkness.  One night the Countess surprised him while he was dismembering a man in the zinc bathtub.  Instead of being horrified, she offered March some advice, kill rich people and rob from them.  Valentino listens to her story with pity, “You’ve suffered.”

Valentino offers a story of his own.  While he was doing the publicity tour for “Son of the Sheik” he met a mysterious man on the train who seemed to follow him across the country.  Valentino thought he saw the man do “unspeakable things” like feed on humans.  Finally, the man introduced himself as the famous German director F.W. Murnau.  Murnau explains while he was shooting the movie Nosferatu, he traveled deep into Eastern Europe and discovered a secret group of people.  “They were infected by an ancient virus which gave them eternal youth and vitality.”  The director saw the coming of “talkies” as the death of his career and the movies.  Murnau decided to join the vampires; he was ready to “die forever into immortality.”  He offers to give “the dark gift” and make Valentino a vampire. (The real F.W. Murnau died in a car accident in Santa Barbara in 1931, at age forty-two. He is considered the best director of the silent film era.)  Valentino brought the “gift” to Natasha and now he offers it to the Countess.  She accepts the offer from her lovers.  March observes the scene from afar but senses his wife’s betrayal.

At the mental facility, a guard is flirting with a nurse about a dangerous patient, the lead suspect in the “Ten Commandment” murders.  John waits nearby.  Once the guard is alone, John hits him to gain access to the locked ward.  Checking the list of patients, John recognizes the name of his friend Hahn and assumes they are holding the suspect under this alias.  Inside the room is a young blonde girl dressed in black, “I’m Wren.”

John observes the stark room.  The girl hasn’t eaten her dinner.  She says, “I’m not hungry for that!”  John tries to question her about the murders and what she witnessed.  Wren reports she has been present at each crime scene and she killed the security guard at the church. (Which would explain why one man was ceremoniously displayed and the security guard simply had his throat cut.)  John tells Wren it’s not her fault.  He sees his daughter Scarlett in Wren and they do resemble each other physically and emotionally.

Wren speaks about her mortal life.  It was the late eighties and she was terrified of her father who would tell her, “I can’t wait for you to grow up!”  One day he went drinking at the Hotel Cortez and left the girl in the hot car.  Dying of heat exhaustion, Wren was almost happy she’d soon be dead, forever safe from her creepy father.  But, the Countess appears and shatters the car’s window and took her in. She becomes one of the undead children.  John pleads with Wren to help him find the murderer.  Wren bargains, she’ll tell John if he can get her out of the hospital.  John hesitates, and then agrees. John is insatiable in his quest to find the serial killer, believing it will restore his life and sanity.

Back at the Hotel, Valentino and Natasha are finally recognizable as the hungry vampires.  They bemoan their ruined appearance brought on by decades of starvation.  Natasha blames the Countess and Mr. March for their imprisonment. Valentino begs for her forgiveness.  The pair spies a group of three Aussies checking into a nearby room. (Looking like extras from the Vegas show “Thunder From Down Under”) The hungry vampires salivate, “Who are we to deny a gift from the gods?”

Mr. March waits anxiously for his monthly dinner with the Countess.  Ms. Evers scurries around complaining about his wife’s tardiness, obviously jealous of not being the recipient of March’s affections.  The Countess finally appears in another stunning gown of black sequins. (Lady Gaga must have had a field day selecting costumes for her character or perhaps they are from her own closet!)  The Countess informs March she plans to marry Will Drake.  March is hurt and appalled.  The Countess replies they’ve always been honest with each other and he knows she never loved him.  However, March had hoped, “I could make you love me, but I couldn’t compete with a god.” (Valentino)

Flashback to the twenties, March decided to seal Natasha and Valentino away on his mysterious floor.  The couple realizes they’re trapped and scream at the brick walls, which entomb them.  March smiles on the other side of the wall.  The Countess is horrified; she never knew what had become of her lovers.  March smiles, “That’s what was back there!”  Maybe she had heard the noises and screams from the trapped couple.  March tells her they are gone now.  The revitalized couple walks triumphantly out the hotel lobby.  Nothing like Aussie stripper blood, better then Botox!

John and Wren have managed to escape.  They walk down the darkened street and Wren says she wants to go home, back to the Hotel Cortez.  Wren asks if John will kill the Ten Commandment murderer.  John assures her he will.  Wren smiles, “I knew I liked you!”  With his assurance, Wren runs out into the street and is killed by a bus!  The final credits roll.

Next week there is no new episode due to the holiday.  Even with more cohesion, the series still has more craters then the moon.  Where is the army of vampire children who Max made on Halloween?  How can vampires be immortal but still die so easily, just not due to disease? How is John going to find the serial killer without Wren’s help?  How did John magically escape through layers of locked doors at the psych hospital or is he hallucinating again?  Where are Sally and her addiction monster? Why must we wait to see Matt Bomer for weeks on end, not fair!  If Valentino was the Countess’s lover, was the creature baby the product of their union?  I think Valentino would freak out if he saw that thing!  So many questions, which may never be answered, but Hotel is still a delightfully frightening ride.

Fargo Season 2, Episode 6, Rhinoceros

This episode was non-stop action as war rages between the Gearhardt’s and Kansas City, rippling out onto the streets of Luverne and dragging in the innocent along with the not so innocent characters into the web of chaos.

The episode opens at the Blumquist house with Ed being taken in for questioning regarding the fire and violence at Sam’s Butcher shop.  Peggy stays behind. When Lou arrives at the station he is greeted by his wife and daughter who’ve heard about the fire and were worried about Lou.  He asks his wife to take Noreen home. Noreen attempts to speak to Ed, stating she “Told him what you said.” Lou advises Noreen not to speak to Ed. Charlie waits alone in a cell with a wound to his forehead.  He is led out for his phone call, and he calls his father Bear.  The officer warns Charlie to keep his conversation to five minutes.

At the Gearhardt compound, Bear speaks to his father on the porch.  Bear recounts the story of when he heard about his older brother’s death in the Korean War.  Otto was away on business in Chicago.  Bear wonders how Elron would have coped with the current crisis since he was the heir apparent being the eldest.  Bear recalls how strong his brother was, going sleeveless in the wintertime and always working on his muscles.  Simone comes out to tell Bear Charlie is on the phone for him.  Dodd arrives home and walks up the front porch.  He looks at his daughter in disdain.  He says to her, “Do you know what a whore’s life is like?”

 

Bear bursts out of the house and lunges at Dodd screaming, “You sent MY son!”  Dodd explains it was Charlie’s idea to kill the butcher and he sees promise in the boy, a spark like their grandfather. (The German Great War vet who immigrated to the U.S. with nothing to build an empire.)  The men start beating each other until Floyd rushes outside and screams, “No more bullshit! You’ll split this family apart!”  She tasks Dodd with killing the “Butcher” and instructs Bear to retrieve Charlie then flee to Canada with him.

Inside, Simone shoos the housekeeper away to make a private call.  She predictably calls Mike and warns him the family is mobilizing to Luverene.  She asks Mike to kill her father for her. Mike asks if she’d like him to pass on a “last message” to her father.  Simone decides, “Kiss my grits!” (Classy!)  Mike begins to recite Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Jabberwocky”.” (Its nonsense words seem strangely appropriate for the bizarre situation.)

Hank remains with Peggy at the Blumquist house.  She offers to re-heat the mornings coffee for him, which he politely declines.  Hank goes to sit down, but Peggy won’t let him move her piles of magazines.  She explains the magazines help keep her in touch with beauty and travel and life beyond Minnesota.  She asks if she can leave in the morning so she can drive to Sioux Falls to attend her seminar.  Hank tries to explain she has much more important things to worry about currently.  He reports five people are dead, and even more in Fargo and there was an attempt on her husband’s life.  Peggy continues with the fiction that she and Ed are “bystanders” in all these events.  She babbles on about the importance of her working on herself and her “self-actualization.” Hank sighs, “You’re a little touched aren’t you?” (That’s the polite way of saying completely off her knob!)  Hank tries to explain again to the child-like woman how much danger they are in.  Peggy continues on saying, “Life is a journey!” and expresses her longing to leave for California.  Hank explains the crime lab will be over in the morning to process her car.  She protests, but since she sold it to Sonny, it’s out of her control.  Hank warns they can find amazing things with new forensic technology.  He tries to be direct with Peggy one last time and asks, “What happened the night you hit Rye Gearhardt?”

Lou places Ed in an interview room.  Ed tries to lie, “I’m the victim here!”  Ed says he was just trying to do what anyone would do to protect his family.  Lou is angry, “You started a war in Fargo!”  Ed explains how he can’t stop thinking about the story Noreen told him about Sisyphus.  Ed identifies as Sisyphus, constantly pushing the boulder up the hill.  Ed asserts he’s going to take care of what’s his.  Lou is exasperated by Ed’s blindness. “They want you dead!”  Ed decides he is through talking and asks for a lawyer.  Lou and Hank would agree both Blumquists are a “little touched.”

At the Veteran’s Hall, Karl pontificates to Sonny about Watergate.  He is summoned to the phone from the police station regarding Ed’s request for representation.  Karl brags he’s the best lawyer in town.  Sonny reminds him he’s the only lawyer in town. Despite being intoxicated, Karl is eager to meet his new client and asks Sonny to drive him to the police station immediately.

Peggy waits with Hank in her kitchen.  The Gearhardt clan is seen driving their vehicles towards her and the police station.  Hank asks the obvious question, “Why didn’t you call the police or take Rye to the hospital after you hit him.” Peggy has her usual non-sensical answer. “It was like decisions you make in a dream.”  She goes on to complain about how they live in Ed’s childhood home, which she hates and considers a museum to the past.  The cars arrive in the Blumquist driveway.  Hank tells Peggy to hide and not come out for any reason, no matter what she hears.

Hank confronts Dodd and his armed men.  Hank reports Ed is at the “fortress” of the police station.  Dodd tests his cattle prod menacingly.  Hanzee disappears to the back of the house.  Hank stands firm, blocking the men’s entry until Hanzee comes out the front door behind him and hits him forcefully with the butt of his rifle.  Hank falls down unconscious.

Dodd and his men separate to search the small house.  Finally, Dodd and his men enter the basement littered with ten-foot stacks of magazines.  One calls, “Here, kitty, kitty...” as they navigate the narrow pathways through the clutter.  Dodd hears a noise on the stairs and shoots before realizing he has hit his own man.  He continues to the back of the basement, leaving the cattle prod on a shelf to look in the corner.  Suddenly, Peggy appears, delivering repeated shocks from the prod to Dodd’s chest.  He drops to the floor; it’s unclear whether he is just unconscious or dead as smoke rises from his chest.

In the Gearhardt kitchen, Floyd feeds her invalid husband while Simone looks on.  Floyd rises to confront her granddaughter, “Are you with us? I mean the whole family.”  Simone casually affirms she is loyal.  Floyd continues to explain, “We all got a role to play.”  She sees Simone as capable of being a leader in these changing times. Outside dogs begin to bark.  Their warning comes to late; Mike and his men shoot multiple rounds into the kitchen.  Simone and Floyd dive to the floor.  A bowl of fruit that reads “Home Sweet Home” shatters to the floor.

Karl and Sonny arrive at the police station.  He instructs Sonny to wait, assuring him he’ll return, “Before the beer gets warm!”  Karl strides in, giving a speech invocating his heroic defense of justice.  Lou asks him to only stay thirty minutes, which launches Karl into another speech about freedom.  Once Karl and Ed are alone, Karl gives his new client instructions on how to silently indicate whether he is guilty or not guilty.  Ed is confused.  Karl promises to defend Ed “Until YOUR last breath!” Then realizing how that alludes to Ed receiving the death penalty, revises his statement, “I mean I’ll defend you until MY last breath!” Karl exits the interview room telling Lou he’s going to wake the judge to get this case dismissed.  As Karl goes to leave the station, Bear and his armed entourage block his path.  Karl quickly returns inside and places a bench to barricade the front door.  He says to Lou, “There is a lynching party outside! I may have soiled myself!”

Lou instructs his personnel to call to another town for back up and lock the doors. Lou goes outside to confront Bear. Bear states his demands, “We are here for my boy!” Lou tells him Charlie is under arrest for attempted murder.  Bear asks if the “Butcher” is also inside.  Lou reports they have back up on the way and he is capable of holding off Bear and his men all night. (An obvious lie.) Bear gives Lou five minutes to turn over Charlie.

Lou returns inside and asks for Karl’s help to deal with Bear. He suggests he state he’s Charlie’s lawyer to gain Bear’s trust. Lou returns to fetch Ed from the interview room and informs him he’s being released “for simplicity’s sake” and there is a lynch mob outside.

From the station, Denise radios Hank.  She tells him about the army outside and how they’ve called for backup that’s at least forty-five minutes away.  She advises him come back immediately to help Lou.  Hank agrees, “He can’t be killed without me, I’d never hear the end of it at dinner!” Hank speeds off, concussion be damned, in his cruiser towards the station.

Karl comes out again to address Bear. Meanwhile, Lou leads Ed out a back second story window. Ed awkwardly jumps down to follow Lou into the forest.  Hanzee tracks the pair. In front, Karl takes out a cigarette and tells Bear he’s making things much worse for Charlie.  Karl asserts since Charlie is only seventeen, and its his first offense, he probably would be out of prison in five years.  If Bear takes him, he’ll be a wanted fugitive his whole life.  Karl says if Bear leaves now, “None of this will fall on Charlie.”  Bear wants Ed.  Karl explains if Bear were to kill Ed, the charges against Charlie would multiple.  After a moment to consider, Bear leaves the station.

Lou and Ed move through the forest.  Ed wants to go back to his home to check on Peggy.  Lou advises him that is not a good idea.  A cruiser’s lights shine into the woods. The men come out to greet Hank.  As Lou and Hank trade their stories about the night, Ed makes a run down the empty road presumably to go back to his house. Hank asks Lou to drive him as he’s seeing double.  Hanzee emerges silently from the woods, hot on Ed’s trail.

The episode draws to a close with a seventies version of the song, “Man of Constant Sorrow.” (The theme song from “O’ Brother Where Art Thou?” Ed seems to be a good candidate for the man of constant sorrow, but others could fit.)  Karl tells Sonny about the common link of men who’ve fought together in wartime.  He laments there is no civilian equivalent to this experience.

Again the episode explores the theme of how combat experience never leaves the men who’ve experienced it.  From Elron, who died in Korea to Hank and Lou who fought their generation’s wars, each man has had to deal with the scars of combat and survival.  Hanzee is another man who seems to have never left the battlefield as he continues to stalk Dodd’s enemies like he did the Viet Cong in the dark tunnels.  The men consult these memories as the war rages between Kansas City and the Gerhardt’s.  The women see combat differently.  Simone uses her body to manipulate Mike and Floyd uses her position as matriarch to control her sons.  Betsy fights her battle against her body while trying to keep strong for Lou and Molly. Peggy wraps herself in her muddled dreams of “self fulfillment” yet can be surprisingly deadly when backed into a corner.  Its unclear, which characters didn’t survive tonight’s episode.  The previews indicate Otto maybe dead but so may Dodd, Floyd and Simone.  What is the point of this war?  Where will all the senseless violence lead?  Perhaps the nonsense rhymes of the Jabberwocky poem can point to clues.

  The Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll 1871

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

 All mimsy were the borogoves,

  And the mome raths outgrabe.

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

  The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

 Long time the manxome foe he sought --

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

 And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

 The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

 And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?

  Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

  O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'

  He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

 All mimsy were the borogoves,

  And the mome raths outgrabe.