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.