When Noah Hawley’s Fargo debuted on FX last year, the tale of a mysterious hitman Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) showing up to a small Minnesota town and meeting henpecked insurance salesman Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman, who returned to narrate an episode this season) was met with overwhelming praise. Set within the same universe as the Coen brothers’ 1996 midwestern crime noir, the two were connected through various nods to the film placed throughout the first season.
With the second season taking place 29 years earlier, focusing this time on young Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson, who was played by Keith Carradine in the first season) who’s caught in an all-out mob war. As great as the first season was, Hawley and company may have outdone themselves with season two, crafting a story that many are praising as being even better. Of course, it wouldn’t be a season of Fargo without some key moments echoing its source material. Here’s a look at some of these homages to the Coen brothers’ movie that are sprinkled throughout the show’s dynamite second season.
The opening conversations.
After a black and white flashback sequence that starts the season off — and foreshadows the season’s climax — we meet Rye Gerhardt (Kieran Culkin), who’s an hour late to meet with his older brother, Dodd (Jeffrey Donovan), and gets quite an earful about it. Similarly in the film, Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) arrives in Fargo, towing a tan Cutlass Sierra to deliver to Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare) and discuss his plan, also shows up an hour late to rather unpleasant company.
Rye Gerhardt/Carl Showalter
While Rye also bore a distinct resemblance to Carl, from his choice in fashion, hairstyle, right down to the weaselly little mustache, the season, at first, was even looking to become Rye’s story — that is, until the plot took an abrupt left turn or two, which the show is famous for doing. By the end of the second episode, Rye ends up suffering a similar fate to his cinematic doppelgänger.
Otto Gerhardt/Wade Gustafson
Their similarity didn’t go much beyond appearances, but when we first see Otto Gerhardt (Michael Hogan), the patriarch of the Gerhardt crime family, his look was clearly modeled after Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell), Jerry’s stern, unsympathetic father-in-law from the film. Wade, of course, got more than one line of dialogue, which can’t be said for Otto, whose character suffers a stroke partway through his opening speech in the season two premiere.
“…and for what?”
As the first season of Fargo came to a close, Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) laments the sudden violence that had plagued her town, echoing the speech Marge Gunderson gives near the end of the film. The second season also pays tribute to Marge’s speech, this time delivered by Hank Larsson (Ted Danson), Lou’s father-in-law and fellow state trooper. As Hank stops by the beauty salon to tape up wanted posters with Rye’s picture, he talks about the three that were killed at the Waffle Hut, then thought to be a simple robbery, and offers up the same kind of contemplation.
Incidentally, in this same scene, Betsy Solverson (Cristin Milioti), Hank’s daughter and Lou’s wife, ends up giving a fairly accurate conjecture of what might have really happened to Rye that night, an indicator of where her daughter Molly got her detective skills.
A nod to the film’s soundtrack.
As Peggy (Kristen Dunst) starts packing for her trip to attend a self-actualization seminar, the song “Let’s Find Each Other Tonight” plays in a background. Written and recorded by Jose Feliciano, it was covered for the show by musical gadfly Jeff Tweedy. The same song appears in the background of the film when Carl takes an escort out and the two attend a Feliciano concert. While the second season has excelled at crafting a masterful soundtrack that drew parallels to other, non-Fargo Coen brothers’ films, this was a simply delightful reference. After all, like Carl said, with Jose Feliciano, you got no complaints.
The use of an overhead camera.
One of the most talked-about moments of the second season was when middle brother Bear Gerhardt (Angus Sampson) drives his niece, Simone (Rachel Keller), out to the woods, after which a cover version of “Danny Boy” plays, both references to the Coen brothers’ 1991 gangster movie Miller’s Crossing. Though woven within that reference was a striking overhead shot of the forest, which shares a similar, surreal look with the overhead shot of a parking lot in the film, as Jerry returns to his car after a go-nowhere meeting with Wade.
“I’m goin’ crazy out there at the lake.”
After unwitting mob war participants Ed (Jesse Plemons) and Peggy go on the run with Dodd as their hostage, they hole up in a remote cabin out near a lake. Ed starts making frequent trips to a nearby payphone attempting to reach out to the Gerhardts for Dodd’s exchange. At one point, he goes inside to talk to the clerk, and utters this familiar line. After all, it was these fateful words that Carl said to a bartender in the film, which ended up giving away their location — once the bartender called it in.
Meanwhile, inside the cabin, Dodd’s situation begins to strongly resemble that of Jean Lundegaard’s, (Kristin Rudrud) who was was Carl and Gaear’s hostage in the film. To make both of the respective situations worse, neither of the cabins’ TVs seemed to get anything in terms of reception, until enough banging on the set eventually shows the same black and white image of a beetle on both screens.
Lou and Betsy Solverson.
Much like the first season did with Molly and Gus (Colin Hanks), Lou and Betsy, despite the violence and sickness that seems to consume their lives, are painted as the idyllic couple in love, much like Marge and Norm Gunderson (John Carol Lynch) were in the film. Betsy’s reaction to her cancer medication, where she couldn’t decide if she wanted to eat or vomit, also echoes Marge’s impulses as a result of her pregnancy. Ultimately, the second season ends much like the film, with a shot of the couple laying happily in bed, saying goodnight to one another.
Although, with the Solversons, there’s no talk about the merit of postage-stamp painting competitions, leaving a potential plot point wide open for the recently announced third season next year. Ball’s in your court, Hawley.
The end of the second season, the beginning of the first.
While not a reference to the film, but rather the show’s first season, in the quiet of the massacre, Hanzee (Zach McClarnon), gets his new identity handed to him while sitting in a park and talking about his plans for the future, to build an empire of his own. As this unfolds, two kids on the playground communicate with one another using sign language, revealing them to be young versions of Mr. Numbers and Mr. Wrench (Adam Goldberg and Russell Harvard from the first season, respectively). As the two start to get picked on by some bigger kids, we see Hanzee, now Moses Tripoli, walk onto the field. His first act under his new name is one that would ripple throughout the Fargo universe for years to come. (And that new name should tip viewers off viewers to Hanzee’s eventual fate, as our review posting later today will discuss.)
