Fargo, Season 2 episode 2, Before the Law

Last week was the promising start of Fargo, this year set in 1979.  There is a crisis of leadership as the Gearhardt family patriarch is felled with a stroke.  Meanwhile, Rye Gearhardt has caused a murderous mystery at a diner in Minnesota before falling victim of a clumsy attack by Ed Blomquist.  Peggy has implored Ed to cover up the murder and it’s clear they are already in over their heads.

The episode opens with a montage, which includes Hank Larsen and Ed and Peggy Blomquist, all looking pensive.  A car of gangsters drives to the Gearhardt compound to pay a visit.  Inside the house, the youngest grandson Charlie reads “get well” cards for Otto to Floyd.  Floyd is busy counting money and taking charge of the business.  She instructs her grandson to get Dodd from the barn for a family meeting.

In the barn, Dodd is telling the story of his father’s history as a WW1 German soldier.  Unfortunately, the story falls on deaf ears, literally, since Hanzee (Zahn McClanon) has sliced them off.  Hanzee notices the tortured man is dead, so their business is finished.  A German Shepard goes to the bucket to eat the man’s severed ears!

As the men exit the barn, the Gearhardt’s pass two men in bowler hats; Dodd tosses a cigarette in the men’s direction.  Joe Bulo and his partner exit the front door as Dodd enters.  

Once inside, he asks his mom, “Who are the goons?”  Floyd responds they are from Kansas City and they want to buy out the “family business.” Dodd protests his daughter’s presence when they are discussing business. Floyd insists she stays, “Girls grow up to women who change men’s diapers.”  She goes on to say they offered to buy their business but let them run it and report to them.  Dodd feels slighted he wasn’t consulted as the oldest son.  Floyd replies Otto’s time running the business is over.  She feels she should succeed her husband and Bear, Rye’s girlfriend and Charlie agree.  Dodd feels he should be in charge, “I’m oldest, I’m boss, end of story.”

Floyd asks to speak to Dodd alone.  Floyd reiterates Otto’s humble beginnings as a penniless war veteran who made an empire in a new country from a shoeshine box.  She notes the next weeks will be critical and to let her run things for the time being.  She promises him, “Your time will come.”  In the meantime, she tasks Dodd with finding Rye.

In the car, Joe considers the Gerhardt’s.  “Germans don’t persuade easy.”  They contemplate dealing with the youngest and most malleable member of the clan, the already deceased Rye.  Their bosses don’t care how the deal is made, with diplomacy or war.  Joe Bulo offers, “The first Gearhardt to switch sides gets a shiny red apple!”

At the sheriff’s office, a deputy explains on the phone how the Waffle Hut murders are a “local matter.” Hank sits at his desk, looking at the single white patent leather shoe longing to know its owner.

Hank goes to Betsy and son-in-law’s house for breakfast.  Betsy is still reeling from her chemo treatment so her father settles for coffee.  Molly wants to hear a story but her grandfather is more interested to learn one of the victims in the case was a North Dakota judge from Lou.  The lawmen ponder if that’s a coincidence or was the judge the target of the attack?

Dramatic music plays as the camera focuses on the dark broken windshield of the Blomquist’s car.  A clear handprint in blood can be seen on the side of the meat freezer that holds Rye’s body.  Outside the garage, Ed looks forlorn as he looks at the dead man’s driver’s license and wallet.  Peggy appears, sporting a black eye on the right side from last evening’s activities.  Peggy urges him to go to work, but he argues he should clean up.  Peggy, donning large sunglasses, decides to go to work to “keep up appearances.”  

Dodd sits alone at his family’s kitchen table.  He looks sad.  He enters a hallway and asks the Hanzee, “Are you with me?”  Dodd explains he needs to find Rye and get his younger brother to support his ascension to the leadership of the family business.  He is dismayed that Bear has thrown his support behind his mother.  He asks  Hanzee to find his Rye right away.

Downtown, the bus drops of Peggy near the butcher shop.  She explains to the owner, Ed had some, “bad clams” and will not be in to work that day.  The butcher remarks one should never trust something that came from the sea.  His bored daughter remarks, “Didn’t we come from the sea?”  Next, the salon is a buzz with rumors about the murders. A female patron remarks, “First Watergate, now murders at the Waffle Hut, what’s this world coming to?” (Both these remarks keep the strange humor going in an otherwise bleak story!)

Peggy’s boss Constance confronts her for being late and suggests she might be hung over.  She urges Peggy to sign up to go to the “self awareness” seminar the next weekend. Peggy demurs, stating, “We can’t go right now because Ed is saving up to buy the butcher shop.”  Constance chides her for not standing up for her desires, stating, “Don’t be a prisoner of ‘we’.”  She also asks Peggy if she knows anything about a missing case of toilet paper. (Huh?)

At the office, Lou speaks on the phone asking for assistance on the murder case since it now concerns a judge and “interstate” issues.  It’s unclear whom he is calling.

The goons approach the typewriter store.  The owner is on the phone speaking to someone to which he owes money.  Mike Milligan (Bokeen Woodvine) asks if he has money problems, and the man denies it.  He also tells the men the store is closed. Mike smiles, “That’s okay, we aren’t really customers!”  He asks the owner about Rye Gearhardt.  The man says he’s meet him a few times and asks, “Do you need a character reference?”  Mike rolls the owners tie into the typewriter and proceeds to dictate a note he wrote to G.E. regarding a badly made coffee maker he purchased at Sears.  At the end of the exercise, the man is near choking.  He confesses he asked Rye to speak to the judge but denies knowing what happened to her.  Satisfied, (for now) the trio leaves the typewriter store.

Ed is still busy in the garage as he listens to Burl Ives sing, “One Hour Ahead of the Posse.” He uses bleach on the garage floor overcome with emotion.  Next he looks at Rye’s body in the deep freeze.  It’s unclear what he has decided to do with Rye’s body but he is a butcher so my guess is some dismemberment!  Later, he stands in front of the fireplace in “tighty whities” and tube socks.  He burns some clothes, than removes his underwear to burn as well.  A large belt buckle is seen smoldering in the flames.

There is a view of a blue trestle bridge in the snow that cuts to Betsy receiving her chemotherapy at a clinic.  Afterwards, Betsy and Molly accompany Lou with plans to go to lunch together.  Lou stops at the Waffle Hut crime scene first.  Betsy seeks to distract her young daughter by building a snowman.  Lou enters the dark diner and focuses on the table where the judge’s body lay.  He notes the bloodied can of bug spray.

Outside, Molly finds a Mylar balloon near a tree, which reads, “Get Well Soon!”  (Was this in Rye’s car, for his father?)  She asks her mom if she can keep it but Betsy says no.  Betsy spots something in the nearby snow, a revolver.  She calls out to Lou.  Molly asks what’s going on and her father replies, “Mommy is doing daddy’s job!”  On the road nearby, the gangsters pass the family in a dark sedan.

On the blue bridge, Hank intercepts the gangster car by blocking his cruiser perpendicular.  He speaks to Mike who is seated behind the driver seat.  Mike mentions his "friends up front don't like to talk to strangers." Hank replies, "Well they are going to talk to me!" Mike attempts some small talk, something about Rock County and the Flintstones.  Hank, losing patience, commands all the men to get out of the car.  Slowly, the men hand over their ids.  Mike explains they are from Kansas City heard there were good waffles to be had in these parts and were surprised to find the diner closed and a scene of a crime! Mike assures Hank, “They are just passing through the state to points south.” The Kitchen brothers in bowler hats remain mute.  Hank asks for their shoe sizes, Mike is intrigued and answers he’s a size ten.  The brothers raise their middle fingers, which Mike cheerfully intereperts their meaning for Hank as size eleven.  Hank asks them to move on out of state promptly or else he'll put out a bulletin for their car.

Mike pontificates as he gets back into the car, “Isn’t it great given how the world is today, that two men could talk calmly and rationally while all around us, men are losing their minds!”  He adds, “Have a nice day!” as a nervous Hank walks slowly away from the motely crew.

It’s dark on the main street as Ed stops his red Ford near the butcher shop. (I don’t have a good feeling about this!) He watches Peggy and her boss Constance leave the beauty salon; the older woman has offered his wife a ride home. (Since the couple’s car is in disrepair.)  When the street is empty, Ed drives in front of the butcher shop and parks. In the back, under a tarp, is the frozen body of Rye, which Ed drags inside the front door.

Constance asks to use the bathroom once they reach the Blomquist residence.  She is unable to find a towel and looks under the bathroom sink to find the toilet paper Peggy stole from the salon.  On the radio, “Going to Kansas City” plays. (There is a great use of music so far in the series, offering the audience some extra clues about the story. It reminds this viewer of Breaking Bad in this element.) Peggy calls out timidly for Ed.  Constance surprises her in the garage, surprised to see their badly damaged car.  Peggy makes up a lie about Ed crashing it the previous night when he was drunk. Constance looks at her knowingly and asks, “You’re a bad girl, aren’t you? I can usually tell right away.  Maybe you like breaking the rules.  I’m not even mad about the toilet paper or the lies.”  Constance touches Peggy’s collar in a seemly sexual way. Peggy asks her to leave and she complies.  It’s clear Constance notices something curious about Peggy and her husband.

Lou waits in the dark on the front steps of the Waffle Hut.  Hank arrives.  Lou admits Betsy found the gun and he is wondering what else he missed in surveying the crime scene.  Hank relates the story of the gangster car stop but laments it yielded “nothing actionable.” Lou has a strange feeling about what he observed, stating, “The cook fell funny, that’s why I’m still here.”

The men allude to the phenomena of déjà vu or convergence.  Lou remembers back to 1974 when he was in the Navy in Vietnam, a young soldier who liked to smoke cigars like his grandfather.  The soldier was at the front of the boat, lite a “shit stick” and was shoot thorough the cigar.  Lou recounts the look on his face, reminding him of the cook, as one of complete bafflement.  Hank, a World War II vet shared another story about a German captain who hung himself in a bunker in 1945.  He recalled that imagine at a suicide scene in 1962 where a man had hung himself in the bathroom with an electric cord. Not men to dwell on emotions, Hank dismiss these experiences as “war stories.” However, he notes after 1945, there were no murders in the area for six years and today, there are so many. Hank offers a theory, “Did you boys bring that war home with you?”

In the butcher shop, Rye’s corpse lies in pieces on the counter.  The Native American is seen driving in the darkness.  Dodd waits at the kitchen table.  Floyd holds the dying patriarch Otto in bed.  Ed is grinding Rye into sirloin!  Lou drives down the main street and sees the light on in the back of the butcher shop!

Lou exits his cruiser and begins to knock at the butcher shop’s front door.  In the back room, Ed grabs an arm and amputates the fingers with a cleaver when he becomes aware of the knocking.  Fingers scatter on the tiled floor.  Ed removes his apron and goes to let Lou in.  They make small talk about the incident at the Waffle Hut.  Ed asks if the killer is still at large, Lou affirms he is. Lou asks for some bacon for his daughter’s breakfast.  As Ed retrieves it, glancing nervously at the back room where he left the door ajar.  Lou insists on paying and drops a coin near Rye’s severed finger! Ed scrambles to reach it before the Lou sees it; the phone rings and distracts both men.  It’s Peggy calling imploring Ed to “Hurry up!” She says she’ll wait up for him and make him breakfast. Lou leaves, suspecting nothing.

Alone, Ed picks up the fallen finger.  There is a voice-over of a man explaining how man in the nineteenth century couldn’t have imagined they were being watched from afar by aliens. This is from the infamous War of the World’s 1939 radio- broadcast.  This ties in with Rye’s vision of U.F.O.’s before Peggy hit him.  On this strange note, the episode ends.

Things are becoming increasingly violent and strange.  Ed and Peggy are going to need to work together if they are going to get away with killing and disposing of Rye. They are in big trouble if the Gearhardt’s find out.  Lou and Hank are surprisingly accurate with their observations regarding the Waffle Hut incident.  It appears the Gearhardt clan is entering both a war with the Kansas City folks and themselves.  It’s unclear who will be left standing when the dust 

American Horror Story, Hotel, Episode 2, Chutes and Ladders

After an amazing premiere, Hotel continues with a second super sized episode.  The Hotel truly is a living demon propelling ghosts, vampires and mortals alike into its orbit.  A quick note about last week’s opener; I understand now the “creature” in the mattress is a metaphor for addiction. Upon repeat viewing of the vicious rape scene it can be noted after the man begs Sally for release, the camera pans out and he is not bloodied as we saw during the attack.  Real or imagined, the creature is formidable and terrifying!

The episode opens with Sally smoking by the window, than turning to sew up the mattress with hipster addict inside.  He opens his eyes and says, “You lied, I’m not free!”  Sally growls, “It’s your own fault, thinking you could cheat death!”  She kisses him tearfully, and sews him up into the mattress.

Down in the ballroom, Aggie, the remaining Swedish tourist is screaming.  She remains in the lighted cage with the emo children biting her wrists to drink her blood.  Sally comes down to the reception to complain to Iris about the noise. Iris arrives at the ballroom to investigate.  Holden says, “She tastes gross!” Iris looks at the woman, “That’s because she’s dead! Stop!”

Liz Taylor wheels Aggie’s corpse down the hall to the laundry chute.  The maid takes the sheets off her.  The body is dropped down the chute where other bodies in varying degrees of decay litter the floor.

Iris cares for the children who are hooked up to dialysis machines and watching cartoons in the white room.  The cleansed blood is emptied into a crystal decanter and presented to the Countess.  She fills her glass and says to Donavon, “You’re torturing that woman. (Iris)” Donavon is agitated and replies, “I became a junkie to escape her, now I never can!”  The Countess wants to go out to an art show to hunt, but Donavon suggests binge watching “House of Cards”.  The Countess cradles Donavon’s face menacingly, then leaves the room.  Dressed in a long pink gown, the Countess appears in a garden of columns and old-fashioned street lamps.  She’s looking for prey alone.

On a house call, Alex draws a boy’s blood. The mother is anxious and has been searching the Internet to try to diagnose her son.  Alex explains the boy has the measles and chastises the woman stating, “You can’t protect them from everything, but if you can, DO!”  Obviously, Alex is thinking about her own son she couldn’t save.

John is sleeping when he is awoken at 2:24am with the clock radio playing “Body and Soul.”  There is a knock at the door, the maid asking if he wants “turn down service.”   John declines, and captures a glimpse of the creature in the mirror.  He was dreaming, he wakes up and searches the suite.  In the bathroom, he pulls back the curtain to see a couple fornicating; they appear to be decaying bodies!  He wakes up again on the bed, to see Holden.  He runs after his son down the stairs to the lobby but Holden eludes him.

John arrives at the bar where Sally asks him, “Looking for something?”  She coaxes him over and states the hotel is a bat-shit crazy place, especially between two and three in the morning.  She brags to John that she wrote a song with Patti Smith.  She describes her heroine use as a “ladder you want to climb, higher and higher.” Pegging John as a recovering alcoholic, she asks him to describe his last alcoholic bender.

John describes a homicide case he was called to investigate.  It appeared the man poisoned his family, than shot himself.  The uniformed officer asks, “What happens to a man who murders his own kids?”  John notices the power was out in the house and an emergency generator was hooked up.  He deduces the man left the generator running and the family died of carbon monoxide poisoning.  When the man came home and saw his family dead, he killed himself.

After the case, John admits he was drunk for two days, than took his family to the boardwalk to make amends.  That was the day his son Holden went missing.  Sally listens to his story reverently.

The following day, John is at work.  The hotel case in which the couple was speared and mutilated is discussed.  The murderer hacked into their phones to send texts that would appear to be from the other person. (Just like John’s text from Alex last week.)  A package arrives, shipped to John from the Hotel Cortez.  Panicked, John shouts for the bomb squad to check the package. It isn’t a bomb, but a bloodied Oscar statute.

Hotel Cortez is under the new ownership, and Drake has arranged a fashion show and party.  Naomi Campbell makes a cameo as a fashion editor who seems smitten by John.  John meets Drake as he picks up his daughter Scarlett in the lobby.  Scarlett wants to stay and watch the show, John reluctantly agrees. Drake suggests Scarlett and his son Laclan can entertain each other.  Sally is not allowed to attend the show and protests angrily.

Bryan Ferry’s song “Don’t Stop the Dance” sets the mood for the fashion show. The Countess arrives impeccably dressed in a white ball gown and feathered hat.  Backstage, model Tristan Duffy (Finn Wittrock) snorts crushed pills and is summoned to the catwalk.  He makes quite an entrance, kissing an unwilling spectator and fighting with her boyfriend.  In the mayhem, the children leave the show.  The Countess watches him hungrily, causing Donavon to question her.  She coos, “He’s full of rage, I can smell it, like copper.”

Drake is furious with Duffy for causing a scene in his fashion show. Duffy announces, he’s done with modeling and uses a knife to slash his left cheek. Upstairs, Laclan shows Scarlett a white tiled room, which holds the children in small glass coffins.  He tells her, nothing wakes them up.  She sees Holden and knocks on the glass.  Holden opens his pale blue eyes.  Yikes!

Back in her bedroom at home, Scarlett watches a video of her missing brother at the beach.  Can she remember his face now?

Duffy rummages through the Countess’s suite, looking for drugs.  Donavan catches him and attempts to strangle his rival.  The Countess stops Donavan, Duffy gasps and runs down the hallway to the elevator.

Once on the elevator, Duffy gets stuck on the seventh floor.  With effort, he is able to open the door to another hallway.  On a radio, FDR delivers his famous speech, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself!”  Duffy notices a room service tray outside a room.  He takes a bit of an untouched half a sandwich only to realize it’s teeming with maggots!  It seems he has entered a time loop of some kind.

A record plays, “You Make Me Feel So Young.”  Duffy enters another room, searching for drugs.  A man (Peter Evans) with a thin mustache and an old-fashioned in a suit interrupts his quest.  He says, “Bolivian marching powder?  Too tame for my tastes.”  Duffy asserts his love for cocaine.  The man sizes him up, “You’re just like me, I had it all once. I’ll show you what you’ve been dreaming of!”

The man calls for the maid who brings in a bond and gagged woman. (A prostitute she caught at the bar.)  Duffy is unimpressed, “Bondage bores me!” 

“Me too!” the man replies as he removes a small revolver and hands it to Duffy instructing him to shoot her.  Duffy refuses and the man removes his ascot to reveal a bloody neck wound.  The man shoots the woman in the head and Duffy runs off.  The Countess intercepts him in the elevator…

Scarlett rides the city bus alone, looking at an old family photograph that includes her brother.  She enters the now empty lobby then back to the white tiled room to find the coffins empty.  Scarlett walks down a dark hallway until she finds the “game room.” Holden looks up at her and asks, “What took you so long, Scarlett?”  She shows him the photo; he says she looks different now.  Scarlett replies, “I grew up, why haven’t you?”

She talks excitedly about taking him home to reunite with their parents. Holden looks blank, “I am home but you can visit anytime you want.”  She attempts to take Holden’s picture, but he moves suddenly.  Scarlett runs out of the room.  In the hall, Sally grabs her arm.  Sally grinds her teeth bloody until she spits them out on the floor.  Scarlett screams and Sally smiles, “Kids are the best!”

Scarlett walks down an empty street and sees multiple police cars in her driveway.  Her parents have been frantically searching for her for the last five hours. She tells them about finding Holden in the Hotel.  John firmly states her brother is dead.  She claims she has a picture of him.  Alex is furious at John for “putting through all this again!” (It’s clear she blames him for losing Holden.)  Alex quickly claims she’s just really tired.  John looks at the picture his daughter took which shows a blurred image next to her.

Duffy admires himself in the Countess’s mirror.  His scar is gone; she has turned him into a vampire like herself.   She gives him the lowdown on his new status, he’ll be immortal but can be killed, he doesn’t have fangs but rather he’ll cut his victims to feed and avoid the sunlight. She instructs him never to feed on the dead or diseased.  Duffy asks if he can kill Kylie Jenner since she dissed him at Coachella! (Ha, I’d welcome a Jenner cameo as comic relief!)  The Countess cautions him not to get caught killing people and don’t fall in love.  They proceed to have some sexy time!

Duffy reveals in his new form and as the Countess how old she is. (Rude dude!) The Countess reveals she was born in 1904.  Duffy is impressed she has lived through world wars and the Clinton administration!  He asks what was her favorite time in the last century.  The Countess recounts the glory days of the Disco Era, riding a white horse into Studio 54 surrounded by sex and decadence. “We were all vampires then.”  She adds wistfully.  Suddenly, Donavon enters the room and is horrified to see she has turned Duffy. “He won’t last a week!” Donovan declares.

The Countess asks to speak to Donovan alone.  She reminds him when she turned him he was just another addict dying on a dirty hotel floor.  She adds, “This doesn’t have to end badly.” (Cue song, Bad Romance!)  Donavon tells the Countess he loves her.  She replies she loves him too, but it’s the heartbreaks, which make you.  She asks him to pack and leave.  Donavon is hurt, he recounts how she told him “making him was a spiritual moment” for her.  The Countess says, “Making Tristan was one of the most erotic moments of my life.” Ouch!  Please tell me Donavon is not off the show yet!

John confronts Iris at the reception desk, charging her with kidnapping Scarlett and worse.  Iris is amused as she is handcuffed.  She offers to tell John the history of the Hotel Cortez if he’ll have a drink with her at the bar.  They settle at the bar, attended by Liz Taylor for a drink and a story.

Iris says the hotel was built in 1925 by Patrick March (Peter Evans) who put all his evil into it.  He was a self-made millionaire from the East Coast who went west where he could fit more easily into privileged society.  The plan for the hotel was to have an “engineered alibi.”  The hallways would lead to nowhere; there are chutes and secret passages to conceal the bodies.  This story is eerily reminiscent of the true story of Dr. H.H. Holmes, who constructed a hotel during the 1893 Chicago’s World Fair as a place to conceal his vocation as a serial killer. (Check out Erik Larsen’s haunting telling of the story in The City of Black and White.)

Mr. March is seen killing a construction foreman, for “a good full feeling!” He lived by the adage, “no body, no crime.” It was said he may have murdered three or more people a week and forced his wife to watch.  Mr. March has a trusty ally in Miss Evers (my maiden name, eck!), the laundress always ready to clean up his messes.  Things that upset Mr. March the most were “religion and regulations.”  After he kills a religious man and dumps his body down the chute, he orders the removal of all bibles form the hotel.

A crime scene is shown consisting of murdered migrant workers in a vineyard surrounded by the hotel’s bibles.  Mr. March’s monogramed handkerchief was found at the crime scene.  The police were on their way to arrest March, who was busy in a secret room murdering another victim.  Miss Evers warns him the police are on their way.  She offers to be his last victim; Mr. March shoots her before cutting his own throat with a sharp dagger than  falling into a zinc bathtub with his earlier male victim.

John claps sarcastically as Iris finishes the story of March.  He feels there is enough evil in men without the existence of the supernatural or an afterlife. Iris tells him the room John is staying in, was Mr. March’s office, adding, “If this Hotel had a heart, it is black as the ace of spades and you’re sleeping in it!”

John is at work the next day and they have connected the Oscar statue to the Gamboa murder. (He was the Oscar blogger.) John reveals to his partner the theory Mr. March’s murders are being continued another killer using the Ten Commandments as a guide.  John connects the migrant worker killings by March to “Thou Shall Keep the Sabbath Holy” since they were working on a Sunday.  The couple in the hotel concerns adultery, the Oscar killing concerns the worship of “false idols” and the disemboweled men were brothers who killed their parents. (Disobeying “Thou shall Honor Thy Mother and Father.) It’s a theory crazy enough to be true!

Tristan turns to social media to find a victim.  A bearded man enters the lobby, impressed with his date.  They enter the elevator up to the suite.  The Countess interrupts them and she repulses the bearded man.  The next moment, his jugular is stashed and Tristan feeds on the man, telling the Countess, “Just ‘cause I’m sucking on a dude, doesn’t mean I’m gay!” (This Tristan Duffy isn’t the most enlightened dude!)  The Countess pleasures herself at the site of her new protégé feeding.  They proceed to make love next to the man’s bloody body as the screen fades to black.

There was a lot of explaining in this episode, it took some of the mysteries away but still was satisfyingly creepy and tense.  It’s clear the Countess and children are vampires and Sally, Miss Evers and Mr. March are ghosts.  John continues to question the surreal happenings at Hotel Cortez, while he works tracking a real and living murderer.  Next week is Halloween and Angela Basset’s debut this season. So far this season is dark and suspenseful, just how I like my horror.

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.