TV Review: Fargo - Season 2, Episode 7

TV Review: Fargo – Season 2, Episode 7

November 23rd 2015, 11:25pm

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Season 2, Episode 7: Did You Do This? No, You Did It!

SUMMARY: Lou (Patrick Wilson) and Hank (Ted Danson) try to rattle Floyd's (Jean Smart) cage while Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine) starts to feel the heat from the Kansas City Mob.

REVIEW: “Maybe I shoulda checked on that girl.” So says Ted Danson's Hank early on in this seventh installment of Fargo's impeccable second season. This answers a question many viewers had at the end of last week's episode, why did Hank not check on Peggy (Kirsten Dunst) after recovering from getting knocked out by Hanzee (Zahn McClarnon)? Hank's not stupid – that much is made clear early-on in his interrogation of Floyd at the station. Likely, he's got himself a mother of a concussion and isn't thinking straight, which accounts for him and Lou letting Ed (Jesse Plemons) run after their run-in with the Gerhardts.

Last week's episode was always going to be hard to top, but they give it a pretty good go with the amazing pre-credits sequence, which shows an orgy of insane killings going back and forth between the Gerhardts and the Kansas City Mob, all scored to Jethro Tull. Like last week's, this is a bloody (literally) amazing episode, with some incredible dialogue and directing. I mean, how great is that hero push-in on Lou after he warns Mike, “don't be offended if next time I shoot before I say hello.” Hot damn! It's moments like this or Betsy's run-in with “The King of Breakfast” that's put this over-the-top, beating season one as far as quality goes.

There are so many good bits in this one, from Mike getting all unhinged and babbling in French to Simone after a stern warning from Adam Arkin's Kansas City big wig (with a shaved head he's the spitting image of his Dad) that in two more days they'll send “The Undertaker.” Special mention should be made of Rachel Keller's traitorous Simone, who finally pushed her luck to the breaking point this week. Keller's terrific, with her on the one-hand being a spoiled, coke-snorting brat, but on the other possibly the natural result of having a dad like Dodd. You gotta love that line “it's not like my dad's the shark from that movie 'we're gonna need a bigger boat.'”Keller's run on the show is done now, but she was excellent, and her send-off to “Danny Boy” (shades of MILLER'S CROSSING) was great.

Another thing – how good is Nick Offerman as Karl Weathers (lol)? While mostly a joke for the first few episodes, last week he came into his own negotiating a fragile peace with Bear, but this week he had a shattering heart-to-heart with Betsy, with her asking him to look after Lou and Molly when she's gone and moving him to tears. It was an incredibly heartfelt, non-ironic moment and Offerman's role is proving to have the same kind of meat on the bones that Bob Odenkirk's did in season one – in that they're both comical characters who reveal a real flesh and blood human at their heart. Well done.

Speaking of The Undertaker, Mike didn't take too kindly to having his toes stepped on, so he made short work of him and his associates, but of everyone it's Mike's end-game which seems the most obscure, especially now that he's going to ally himself with Ed and Peggy, who've made short work of Dodd and are now doing to deal him out to the mob. Suffice to say, that's a crazy cool ending to an already amazing episode. This show is a virtual masterpiece, perhaps even better not only than Fargo season one, but even True Detective Season one. Has there ever been a better limited series? I'm not so sure.