BWW Recap: Things Are Starting to Fall Apart on FARGO

In tonight's episode of FARGO, "Fear and Trembling," the cracks are beginning to show. The truth about Rye is closer and closer to being revealed, and with it will come chaos.

The Gerhardt's already have enough to deal with, since the Kansas City folk don't seem very interested in a partnership. In a cross-cutting sequence, we see Floyd's offer get rejected and at the same time, Mike Milligan sends a message by killing everyone who accompanied Otto to the Doctor's. Joe Bulo, the representative for Kansas City, gives Floyd one day to decide if she will take their deal. However, after clutching her barely-there husband, Floyd alerts Dodd that her decision is war. Obviously letting her emotions cloud her judgement, Floyd is willing to sacrifice the life of her entire family in order to prove her strength. She and Dodd had a moment in the car, and you know he's happy with her decision, but his rash behavior will only lead to him getting killed. As evidenced by the opening scene flashback, Dodd only knows war, which means he won't have the kind of head needed when strategizing against the Kansas City team. He was willing to rough a few people up for a free donut and a lesson for Charlie, Bear's son. Dodd is obviously one of this season's bad guys, but I almost feel like it's all he has ever known, so it's stupid to expect anything less from him.

Even though the Gerhardt's have made a bad decision, I think Ed and Peggy win in that department. Not only is Lou highly suspicious of them after seeing the damage from their car, but they have Hahnzee, who is all but certain that Ed is Rye's killer after finding Rye's belt buckle in their fireplace. In a moment I expected to resemble Malvo's visit to the Nygard house in season one, Ed and Peggy were saved from torture and death by Lou's arrival at their house. Lou tries to reason with them, and tells them if they just admit what they've done now, it will be easier to get help, because the Gerhardt's will be coming for them. Ed wants to come clean, looking at the simple painting of a quiet farm life that he'll never get, but Peggy's abrupt cut-off telling Lou to leave ends that chance.

It's clear Peggy loves the drama and longs to live a life away from the norm. She lies to Ed about being on birth control, takes money for a seminar about "being the best me," and is willing to jeopardize their safety instead of coming clean to Lou. My only question is, if she's so unhappy, what is keeping her from running away? Ed can easily be pinned for Rye's murder, and if Peggy leaves town, she'd be free from everything she doesn't want to happen. I still haven't completely pinned down Peggy, but her Lady Macbeth type qualities still show for me, especially with the constant emphasis on touching her hair. However, I can't decide whether it will be her or Ed who snaps first. Peggy pushes away all of the things Ed wants, but Ed is a small town guy who couldn't serve in Vietnam due to only having one kidney, so he's never been experienced to this type of stress the way all of the other men have. He's due for a blow up soon, and with the way Peggy is acting, it could come quickly.

Even though there is so much impending drama and death to come, the most impactful part of the show for me so far is Betsy's story. Even though I know what's going to happen to her because of Season 1, it's still difficult to watch her go through this. She's so smart and such an important part of the show, yet she goes through the hardest ordeal: cancer that's getting worse. Not only is her chemo not working, but now she's being entered into a study where she could be getting placebos. Lou's blind optimism is sweet, telling her he thinks she got the real pill, but I think Betsy knows that things aren't looking good, she's smarter than that. However, I think somehow this study will come into play again later in the season, and her fate will definitely affect Lou and hHank a lot-it could even push them to doing things they wouldn't normally do.

Now on to my favorite character of the show: Mike Milligan (I swear I'm still not bias just because of his name). He constantly plays as the wild card of the show, and it makes sense that he'd find his way into bed with Simone, Dodd's daughter. Last episode I expected Simone to have more at play than just Dodd's lustful daughter, and I was right. She's willing to give up all of her family's secrets, which makes sense seeing how her father treats her. Going to Mike, however, isn't probably the best decision, because who knows how quickly he'll find her to be dead weight.

Finally, since it's the weird recurring theme of Season 2, I have to mention the glimpse of light we saw when Hahnzee is searching in the snow outside of the Waffle Hut. It looked almost like sun flare that created a bright colored light, and it could've been nothing, but to me it felt like this week's nod to the alien theme. The way the light changed as Hahnzee looked into the sky made it seem important enough to note to me. I still have no idea where this alien theme is going, and I keep waiting for some light to be shed on it.

This season of Fargo keeps getting better and better, and unlike last season that constantly used the shock factor to keep you coming back, it's the characters and the story that keeps you entertained. I eagerly look forward to next week.

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Let me know your thoughts on this episode of FARGO in the comments below, or tweet me at @kaitmilligan! Make sure to come back next Monday as I recap another epsiode!

Photos Courtesy of the Fargo FX Twitter

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