Weekly Recap: Fargo, S02E02
By Rob Kerr, Visual Media Director
After the whirlwind of excitement and violence that was last week’s pilot episode, it should come as no surprise that the motley crew of Fargo season two have quite a bit of cleaning up to do. Giving the audience some time to catch their breath, "Before the Law" features much less murder while still offering up plenty of morbid tension and humor.
The patriarchal head of the Gerhardt clan could not have chosen a worse time to fall victim to a stroke, as a neighboring crime syndicate from Kansas City attempts to buy out the family’s operation. Matriarch Floyd (Jean Smart) quickly moves to take control of the empire, much to her eldest son Dodd’s disdain. Just as the Gerhardt family begins to search for their missing son Rye, so does the Kansas City syndicate in an attempt to use him to acquire the Gerhardt’s business. The latter effort is headed up by a very calm Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine), who quickly identifies himself as someone you do not want to cross. Milligan comes across as your average American citizen topped with a dollop of malice: he writes a complaint letter to Sears about a faulty coffee machine while strangling a victim with his own necktie.
The search efforts for Rye Gerhardt turn up fruitless, as the Blomquist family has been hard at work covering up Peggy’s hit-and-run and Ed’s subsequent stab-with-garden-trowel-and-stick-in-freezer. As Ed is a butcher by profession, he is left with the “disposal” of the body through means I will leave up to your imagination. The scene comes to a fantastic point when trusty State Trooper Lou Solverson stops by the butcher shop to pick up some bacon, narrowly avoiding an awkward encounter with a severed finger.
While its events were considerably less exciting and unpredictable than those of last week’s, “Before the Law” still throws some punches while creating a looming sense of tension, making you dread the moment when everybody’s terrible secrets will become known. And I’m willing to bet there will be a hell of a lot more terrible secrets in the following weeks.
