The new season of Fargo, Uproxx’s favorite show of 2014, takes place in 1979. Unlike fellow FX anthology series American Horror Story, which hops from present to past like a time-traveling, drunk rabbit with largely unconnected characters (no matter what Ryan Murphy says), Noah Hawley’s loose Coen Brothers adaptation is going all Muppet Babies in season two.
To recap:
Season two will take us back to 1979, when Lou Solverson — Molly Solverson’s dad, albeit in a much younger form — was a Minnesota state patrolman, four years removed from serving in the Vietnam War. According to Hawley, the season will lead up to the grisly event in Sioux Falls that Lou referenced in the first season that caused him to leave the force for good. (Via)
The first time Lou Solverson (played by Keith Carradine in season one and Patrick Wilson in season two) alludes to Sioux Falls, is in episode three, when he and Colin Hanks’ Officer Gus Grimly have a friendly conversation about that “kind of a prick” Lt. Ben Schmidt (Peter Breitmayer). He’s Grimly’s boss, and Solverson reminisces, “We had a deal together once in Sioux Falls. Joint task force situation. That was a rodeo…”
Speaking of that “prick,” Schmidt scolded Grimly earlier in the episode for pulling over a stolen car and letting the “guy” go without a warning. After stumbling and stammering for a moment, Grimly is told to “Stop.”
Ben: It’s goddamn Sioux Falls all over again.
Gus: Yes, sir. What’s Sioux Falls?
Ben: Shut up.
What happened in Sioux Falls? Did they try to go to the Sertoma Butterfly House & Marine Cove, only to find it closed? Who knows! It wouldn’t be brought up again until episode nine, when Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton, and the aforementioned “guy”) drops by Solverson’s coffee shop.
Lou: Had a case once, back in ’79. I’d tell you the details, but it’d sound like I made ’em up. Madness, really.
Lorne: Bodies?
Lou: Yes, sir. One after another. Probably, if you stacked ’em high, could’ve climbed to the second floor. Now, I saw something that year I ain’t ever seen, before or since. I’d call it animal. Except animals only kill for food. This was… Sioux Falls. Ever been?
During the season finale, while sitting on a porch with a shotgun to protect his family, as Keith Carradine is wont to do, Solverson tells his granddaughter Greta about how he was a state cop for 18 years. “Took a bullet on the hip at a traffic stop,” he informs her. “Retired, full pension.”
When asked, “You ever do this before? Stand guard?” Solverson replies:
Lou: One other time, winter of 1979. Minus 4 degrees. Sat on a dark porch from dusk till dawn. Your stepmom was inside sleeping. Four years old.
Greta: Who did you think was coming?
Lou: It wasn’t a question of who, more like what.
Greta: Did it come?
Lou: Not that night. But soon after.
Greta has the right reaction to an answer like that.
There are going to be a lot of characters holding guns this season.
Also, Ronald Reagan.
