What did we learn from the violent, dark, occasionally funny fourth episode of Fargo? Well, a few things.
We learned that Dodd Gerhardt is a complicated, tragic figure, thanks mainly to two very telling scenes. The first was the episode’s opener, where a young Dodd tagged along with Otto to some sort of mob meeting that ended with stabbings and gunfire and all of the Gerhardts’ enemies stuck to the floor of a movie theater like Jujubes. That experience — sneaking up on a mob boss who is about to murder your dad, stabbing him in the neck, then watching your dad murder everyone else in the room — will shape a young mind, presumably, so this type of “The boy’s gotta learn how men are” father-son bonding excursion goes a long way to explaining how Dodd ended up as a loud, defiant sociopath.
But then we saw the flip side of that on the way home from the meeting in Kansas City, where he basically turned into a child again, begging for forgiveness and comfort from his mother after his actions before and during the meeting put the deal at risk. In hindsight, this revelation explains a lot, going all the way back to the scene at the dinner table where Floyd told him she’d be taking over throughout the negotiations. Turns out the headstrong murderer Otto groomed to continue the family legacy of fear and violence is also a sweet boy who desperately wants his mother’s approval. He’s like a freshman-year Psychology class come to life.
And these issues with his parents are probably what led to the complicated issues he has with his own daughter. I mean, provided you consider “His daughter is a cocaine-snorting wild child whom he physically abuses and who is sleeping with his enemy and tipping said enemy off to both a) the fact that he will probably need to be murdered for the deal to work, and b) the location of her grandfather’s doctor appointment, which led to a parking lot bloodbath that probably started a mob war” to be a somewhat complicated father-daughter dynamic. Which, yeah. Little bit.
We also learned that the Blumquists are royally, fantastically screwed, in about three or four different ways. If one were to rank their current problems, it would probably look something like this:
1) Dodd’s enforcer, Hanzee, figured out they killed Rye, and he probably would have killed them last night if Lou Solverson hadn’t shown up and waited for them on the porch. This is easily their biggest problem because sheeeeeesh did you see the scene with Hanzee at the auto body shop? As we discussed previously, Fargo is teaching a graduate-level course in dread-building this season, and that scene was another section of the syllabus. The only thing that kept the mechanic from getting diced up was Nick Offerman’s Karl Weathers emerging from the bathroom just in time. If Karl eats a diet with slightly less fiber… adios, Mad Dog.
2) Lou Solverson also figured out they killed Rye. This ranks slightly below Hanzee figuring it out for two reasons: One, Lou seems like a good guy who just wants to see justice done. Two, Lou is far less likely to chop off their ears after shoving their faces in the ground to muffle their screams. I feel like that’s an important factor here.
3) They are involved in a loveless marriage filled with manipulation and lies. It’s easy to pin this on Peggy because when we were introduced to her, she had just whacked a man with her car and left him to die in the garage while she made Hamburger Helper, and she’s been the one masterminding the cover-up. These kinds of things will color your assessment of a person’s character. But their marriage was a wreck even before this. Ed clearly wants to just buy the butcher shop and raise lots of kids and grow old in their little town. Peggy clearly wants… more. They should really consider couples therapy if they don’t end up dead or in jail in a week.
4) The bounced check. A problem? Yes, sure. But you have more pressing issues here, Blumquists. Focus.
But the troubles of Dodd and the Blumquists aside, the main thing we learned this week is that the Kansas City mob very much does not play around. Trace the timeline with me here. Two things happening at once. Floyd and the Gerhardt boys go to meet with Joe Bulo in the hotel conference room. She declines their offer and makes a counteroffer, which is itself denied, forcefully. Across town, legendary prog rock band Mike Milligan and the Kitchen brothers ambush Otto and his boys at the doctor, killing everyone but Otto and leaving him hatless in the cold.
Here’s the thing, though: It played out a little like retaliation for turning down the offer (Offer –> No –> Bangbangbang), but the events were set in motion before the official “no” was given. Maybe Joe and company had a pretty good idea Floyd wasn’t going to accept (Dodd electrocuting their boys in a donut shop might have something to do with that), but still, they didn’t even leave open the option that she was going to have a last-minute change of heart. Mike and the Kitchens were already stalking Otto, and 1979 is squarely within the pre-cellphone era, where calling off a hit last-minute becomes a whole thing. This was their plan. I repeat: The Kansas City mob very much does not play around. And now we have a war. It was always coming to this, obviously, but that in no way makes it a less exciting development
Odds and ends
– How good was Jean Smart during the negotiations? The whole thing, starting with her monologue about not being a pushover to her reaction to Joe Bulo’s point about the trouble with a family business. Holy hell. The show had given her a little meat to chew on before that, but man oh man, that was a steak, and she devoured it with glee. Fargo really just has an embarrassment of riches this season.
– Dodd’s pronunciation of “chocolate glazed” was further proof that Jeffrey Donovan is having way too much fun this season.
– Big shoutout to the Kitchen brothers just chilling out playing solitaire in the hotel suite while Mike was in the bedroom having adventurous sex with a Gerhardt. The relationship between Mike and the Kitchens fascinates me. Season three of Fargo could be entirely about them and I would be perfectly happy.
– Gotta love the calming, reassuring bedside manner of Betsy Solverson’s doctor. “Your bloodwork and your X-rays… these are not, as they say, good.” Okay, but give it to me straight, doc.
– You know, you think the best dialogue of the episode is going to be this one…
“Cheech says we’re going to the moon.”
“Who, you and Cheech?”
“No, America, stupid.”
… but then you get Mike Milligan finishing up The Ballad of Flower Rainblossom with the phrase “turning tricks for breakfast meat” and Ted Danson describing Karl saving Sonny after blocking up an auto shop toilet by saying, “Luckily, Karl was nearby stressin’ the plumbing.” We are truly blessed to have this show in our lives. Never forget that.
Fargo, good show.
