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.
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