Noah Hawley
Fargo - The second season

Fargo 2, the Sioux Falls Massacre.

This is a true story

The events depicted took place

in Minnesota in 1979

At the request of the survivors

the names have been changed

Out of respect for the dead

the rest has been told exactly

as it occurred

The thread connecting the first to the second season of Fargo isn't just the dark Coen-esque humor. There's more to it.

Premise:

The Sioux Falls Massacre echoes here and there in the first season of Fargo: the father of Agent Molly Solverson is Lou, the owner of Lou's Coffee Shop in Bemidji, Minnesota, and he was also a state police officer for eighteen years.

Lorne Malvo, the villain of the story, enters his coffee shop. He's looking for his victim, but Lou knows how to stand up to him and responds like this:

"Had a case once. Back in 1979. I'd tell you the details, but it'd sound like I made 'em up. Madness, really?"

"Bodies?" Malvo asks.

"Yes, sir. One after another. Probably if you stacked 'em high, you could've climbed to the second floor. 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?"

What can I say, the shadow, the echo of the Sioux Falls massacre is present in Lou's life, it's present in the murders signed by Lorne Malvo and Lester Nygaard, it's present in the investigations carried out by Molly Solverson.

The past, or the initial situation:

Whose is this pile of bodies?

Luverne, Minnesota, A.D. 1979.

Rye Gerhart is the youngest of Otto Gerhart's three sons, the head of the gang that controls the crime in the territory.

Rye is insecure, weak, inept, but in his own way, ambitious.

To create his own market, he needs to convince a judge to unblock some money for an investment. The attempt at bribery takes place in a Waffle Hut, but he crashes against a judge who is decidedly too upright, severe, and astute for him. Rye pulls the trigger, shoots everyone present, and stages a robbery.

The waitress, the only survivor, tries to escape, but Rye chases her down a deserted and snowy road and kills her too.

Injured and confused, Rye is distracted by the appearance of a spaceship, stops in the middle of the road, and is hit by a fast-moving car.

Rye crashes through the windshield, the car stops for a few seconds, then drives off, taking his body with it.

At the wheel is Peggy Blumquist. Peggy is flighty but practical, she doesn't "solve problems," but she dodges them and detonates them. Peggy returns home, parks the car in the garage, piles up some magazines in the kitchen, looks at herself in the mirror and cleans her blouse, then prepares dinner for her and Ed, her husband.

But during dinner, they hear noises coming from the garage. Peggy drops a glass and offers herself to her loving husband whom she usually avoids, yet the noises become louder. Ed and Molly go to the garage, see the shattered glass (Peggy claims she hit a deer), and the noises continue in the shadows until Ed sees a man, Rye, crouched in the dark.

As he tries to look closer, Rye attacks him, and a scuffle ensues that will end with the latter's murder.

What to do now? Peggy has the solution, get rid of the body.

Meanwhile, in Kansas City, a local organization approves an expansion project northwards at the expense of the Gerhardt family's business. The project is to take over an organization wounded by the disability caused by a stroke that struck the family patriarch, Otto Gerhardt.

The situation is ready to explode.

Kansas City versus the Gerhardts, Ed and Peggy Blumquist in the middle, as the good old Clint would say. Meanwhile, the police investigate.

A lot, perhaps too much, has been said about the Solverson family and the rhetoric of good and bad characters. So I'll skip that.

Also because what works is something else.

In a world falling apart, Noah Hawley throws in psychiatric cases whose seemingly normal lives intertwine with those of ruthless cops and gangsters.

About the vast, deep gap that separates Peggy from reality, it's been said. To love her more, you just need to know that Peggy talks to imaginary characters, but with real knives, pierces and torments the bodies of real gangsters. She electrifies the unlucky one with a taser, then in the final chase feels like a heroine who will be saved by a hero in a cinematic happy ending.

Her husband and butcher Ed chases the American dream with her. That's enough to describe him.

The bad guys, on the other hand, aren't what they used to be.

Well, their epic is over. The baddest succumbs to the women he meets, while the winner, at the end of the war, earns a spot in an office that resembles a closet in the human resources sector.

Only one might stand out, Hanzee Dent, the Lorne Malvo of the second season, a Native American who seems to have superpowers. Attached to the Gerhardts, offended and humiliated, he will partially take his revenge against the majority of white supremacists.

Yes, the racial theme is present, but it's joked about right from the initial digressive moments, where an actor dressed as an Indian talks to the (assistant) director of a western film.

• This is the actual field, they told me. Massacre of Sioux Falls, right? I think 300 of your people - braves - died here, what a hundred years ago?

• I’m from New Jersey.

• ...

• ...

• Sure, but you, you’re, you’re an indian, right? This is the last battle (...) Look, I’m a Jew, so believe me, I know about tribulation.

In short, the care of the soundtrack is maximal.

The surreal lines of the gangsters and the Blumquists are abundant and alternate with the nostalgic verdicts of the Solversons. In short, on one side there's the Coens and Tarantino, on the other Eastwood, McCarthy and again the Coens.

And then, did you wish to see the rapid sequence of deaths, marking Michael Corleone's revenge, at least for once with Locomotive Breath as background music?

Then in Fargo, you might find your consolation.

Enjoy watching.