Conan Troutman

That might work short term (and it may give him a head start so they won't be coming after him immediately), but they'll find out eventually how Dodd died. They still have the shit cop to give them info, plus the story will likely hit the news - Hanzee was already on the front page of the newspaper. They will find out that Dodd has been shot (and the Butcher of Luverne never used guns before) and they'll likely find out it was done with the same gun that killed a couple of cops and the barkeep, which would link it to Hanzee. I think there's really no way he could keep that lie up more than a couple of days or weeks at best. Besides, he said he's tired of this life and wanted to literally cut ties with it (nice way to tie that together with Peggy's job), so he doesn't even want to go back. If he wants to run away, why go back? Now's the best opportunity he'll ever get and probably the last one, too. Plus he'd now get charged for murder by the police, so even if Floyd and Bear would somehow swallow that story, they wouldn't be able to protect him from the cops.

I'd like that. That time period hasn't really been covered by anything big recently and Otto's rise to power seems like a natural story. Another possibility would be a story set during the prohibition. The older cop mentioned something about it during Floyd's interview. Could also be a good option for a potential fourth season. Of course we just had Boardwalk Empire, so I'm not sure about that. Some wild predictions for this season: The only characters I'm sure will die are Mike and the remaining Kitchen brother. Everyone else could make it out alive, if severely damaged - some more mentally than physically. - Hank: I thought he'd die because someone in Lou's family has to. But we're past the point were it would have a big impact on the rest of Lou's story for this season, so I'm not sure about that anymore. He'll probably get shot in the massacre because they can't only have nameless characters die there, but may survive. - Betsy: I think we'll be informed that she did get the real pills, probably in one of the very last scenes of the season. She'll not get in remission, there's no time this season, but she'll get some hope. - Bear: I agree that he'll be the mob boss last season. - Floyd: I thought she might live, but now that she has lost almost everything, I don't see the point in that. But at least she'll get a dignified death. - Charlie: Pretty much as safe as it gets in custody. I'm curious if we get to see a glimpse of his future, but he might be to minor for that. - Hanzee: He already paid the karmic price most of his life, so he those racists he killed were a freebie. Plus I don't think he killed Constance. He doesn't have any reason to be at the site of the massacre, so he might escape. But then there's the whole manhunt going on... If he escapes, I can see him ending as some kind of recluse, away from the society that treated him poorly. Maybe he makes it past the border to Canada and becomes a Lumberjack... I'm only half kidding here. - Ed and Peggy: I'm still pretty sure they'll live. The bigger question seems to me what price will they pay? I could see their marriage falling apart, Ed doing I don't know what and Peggy being unhappy alone in California. Or maybe they finally get receptive to Lou's help (well, Ed already was, that one's for Peggy) and get some much needed therapy (again, mostly for Peggy, but Ed isn't totally blameless for their situation). - The other characters: I think all of Karl, Sonny, Noreen and Constance will come through. The first three are pretty far removed from the action at Sioux Falls and I don't think Hanzee killed Constance, just tied her up to gain enough time. And then we'll have truckloads of dead henchmen and cops. Sucks for them, but that's what you get for not having a name on a show like this.

Maybe he wouldn't, but Hanzee can't count on that. Before the events of the show, had Hanzee killed Dodd he certainly would've been killed. And even now I don't know how Floyd and Bear would react to this. They may be glad they got rid of a problem (Bear more than Floyd), but that doesn't mean they can just let Hanzee get away with it, if only because they may view it as an assault against the whole family. Maybe they'd let it fly, maybe not, but if I were Hanzee, I wouldn't take my chances. True, but last episode had no Peggy and very little Ed. So I'm more than fine with a Peggy and Ed centric episode, especially since Peggy is by far my favorite right now. She's just loads of fun and positively bonkers. She reminds me of Alison Hendrix from Orphan Black in that way. As for Hank, Netflix (they have first run rights for a couple of European countries) got me a good scare when they showed the screen cap where he's lying on the wheel barrow with his eyes closed as if he were dead or seriously hurt as the preview picture for this episode. That had to deliberate, so here's a sarcastic "thank you" for whoever is responsible. Yeah, the show isn't really high on the realism part. But that's fine and fits well in the Coen verse, where it's some sort of heightened reality at best. So if they're ignoring logic or real life demands here and there in order to make it a more satisfying show, it doesn't come across as "off" or lazy writing in the same way it would be in other shows. Hannibal was very similar in that regard. Good point. I guess it can only involve a lot of anonymous henchmen and cops. And/or maybe the massacre part refers more to the quality of the slaughtering, not so much the quantity. They're really just a (sensationally well done) take on the "bumbling fool causes lots of chaos" trope. And I think that works perfectly fine in this heightened reality kind of world. On a more realistic show, they would've been long dead, but here I think they'll make it out alive and (relatively) unscathed. To me, the show seems to be rather predictable (not that this is a bad thing) as far as the fates of the characters are concerned, precisely because of the more artistic than realistic world. Of the major characters, none of the deaths came as a surprise to me. I made a list on the basis of how one would expect the characters to end (up) if the main cause of death was karma a couple of episodes ago, and so far it seems the approach is pretty accurate: Bad karma demanded that Dodd, Otto and Simone would die and none of the characters with good karma have died as of yet. Agree, I hope we'll be seeing more shows like this. I guess VOD is a good place for this, more so than the networks. So hopefully Netflix and Amazon are taking notes.

That first half of the episode had me in stitches. Peggy's such a blast, I couldn't stop laughing. I'd watch the hell out of a spinoff about just Peggy and Ed wreaking havoc. Jeffery Donovan's performance was also great, you almost felt sorry for Dodd. Key word is almost, Dodd really outdid himself this episode. That was a well deserved bullet to the head. I wondered what the punchline of the Hanzee character would be, but now we got it and it certainly didn't disappoint. Although I'm curious how the gods of karma will judge his other killings this episode. Those cops sure were racist, but killing them was a bit extreme, same for the barkeep. But he didn't harm the more friendly shopkeeper and I doubt he killed Peggy's boss. She was very cooperative, so my guess is he just tied her up so that he'll get enough time to finish his job. So he might make it out alive after all. That certainly was the emotional part. But there's also a rational part: He simply couldn't have done it even if he wanted - the Gerhardt family was pretty stable before the KC mob intervened and there was no way for Hanzee to act on it before. Had he killed Dodd, the rest of the Gerhardts certainly would've exacted revenge, no matter how much of an ass Dodd was. Even now he can't go back because Bear would kill him. Simply quitting the job and walking away probably wasn't possible back then, either. Now that everything is in shambles and the Gerhardts aren't really capable of chasing after him, he might've recognized the opportunity to off him and get the hell out of there.

Well put, ITA. Ugh, please not! I didn't mind her as the crazy neighbor, but hated her and her story in "1000 cuts". That was mostly due to how it felt like a lazy plot device (more on that below), but I don't think the character could work in any way as some sort of villain. If she has to return, make her a minor annoyance Jessica has to deal with, but please not more. I think that was what worked so well about him - he wasn't your run-of-the-mill "I want to take over/destroy the world because I'm evil *muhahahah*" kind of villain, but was menacing on a much more personal level. A lot of times people confuse raising the stakes with raising the scale and as a result it ends up just detaching. Here the show raised the stakes primarily by having him go after Trish and that's why it resonates. It might if the main selling point was "look, it's a superhero show but here's the twist: most of the characters are female!". But it's not, so I don't see how it could be a problem. It certainly wasn't for me. Yeah, it probably would've worked even better if it had only ten episodes. Another thing I didn't like in "1000 cuts" was that it never felt like these things happened organically, but they had to because there were still three episodes left so of course the villain couldn't be defeated just yet (also the failed kidnapping attempt was somewhat superfluous. Jessica succeeded later, anyway, so you could've used just that). That's the problem when you do a heavily serialized show: If there's really only one story arc, you have to be careful to not stress that one out too much. I think this show and Daredevil would've benefited from either more smaller stories (like another case here or there) or simply fewer episodes. They're about a lawyer and a PI, so giving them some stuff to do besides the big bad doesn't seem out of place.

Ha, I guess you've seen Sin City 2 then? That was a really terrible use of VO, especially the ungodly amount of it. I was really talking about the season as a whole, where you definitely get a lot less VO than in the pilot. I still think it was good in execution there, but I can see why you'd want less of it.

I didn't say anticlimactic, I said anticathartic. His death didn't offer the emotional cleansing or payoff that deaths of villains usually offer, neither to Jessica nor to the audience. That doesn't have to be a bad thing (just as sometimes a story line can have an anticlimactic ending that still works) and it makes a lot of sense here - he was too dangerous (and enough of an asshole to senselessly take down the people at the dock with him) to give him a proper beating, just kill him quickly before he can do any more harm.

There's definitely some light. It's what's keeping her alive after all. She may not really know it's there, it seems to be more of an id thing, hardly conscious, she even seems to refuse it at times, but that whole friendship with Trish spells it out pretty clearly.

Damn, Jessica needed that hug at the end. And I need some cheap whisky now (or a P&R episode, well maybe both). What a ride. I thought Kilgrave's death was a bit anticathartic (that a word?) at first, but of course he couldn't have the decency to go out in a satisfying way. One pair is perfectly sufficient. Two pairs could be convenient in case you have to do laundry. Anything more is decadence.

I think it works well in this case. Not only because the noir-ish genre, but also because Jessica plays it close to vest and she's really only sharing her thoughts and feelings with Trish and it would be bad to reduce that character to a "Jessica-talks-about-her-feelings" device. So it's both used sparingly and actually useful information we otherwise wouldn't get, it's not like Dexter or Blade Runner levels of voice over. Speaking of Dexter, JJ creator Melissa Rosenberg was a writer on that show, so I think she got a pretty good idea of where the VO worked and where it didn't.

Who were the other three? Of the top of my head, I could see Eliza Dushku working for the role as well, but Krysten Ritter is really just perfect and one of the main reasons I was looking forward to the show.

So much this! I don't mind it when they serve a clear purpose, like with Iron Man, but in most cases they just look utterly ridiculous. That she doesn't have a superhero name is also refreshing. That's what drew me into the show, too. I really liked the trailers and what I heard about the character in general. Checked out Daredevil last week because the shows were supposed to be connected (and it got good reviews, too), but I like this show a lot better. Especially Jessica is a lot more interesting than Matt, and way more fun, too. Yeah, that was her. I had to think a moment where I know her from, but then I was like "Yay, Calamity Jane!". And of course she's excellent here, too. The credits are fine, though maybe a tad long for a show supposed to be binge watched. I liked Daredevil's a bit better. Reminded me of Hannibal, and everything that reminds me about Hannibal is a good thing. +1 for the relative lack of fight scenes. They're always in danger of getting boring whenever super powers are involved. They use them sparsely here, but well.

Ah, thanks! Makes a bit more sense now what that guy is doing there.

Maybe it's not the best idea to bluff you're bullet proof when you have two bloody wounds on your face... However, good use of exposition, for those (like me) still figuring out just how much damage she can take. So she's probably a bit like Buffy in that regard.

Obviously that plan couldn't work out smoothly, or the season would be over, but I liked how it got foiled by such a mundane thing as hired bodyguards. And Kilgrave doesn't seem to fall in the usual arrogant-villain-trap. Well done. Loved the interrogation scene. "Okay, this is just a day job, so please let me tell you every little bit I know." "Who cares, it's going to be useless anyway." "Shut up you two, let me at least carve him up a little."

Strangely, that didn't pop into my mind, even though it does pretty much every time now I hear the word. I was thinking about that Shamala...whatever movie for some reason, that I've only seen once like ten years ago. Curios about that Luke guy. I don't have any knowledge of comic books and he didn't show up in Daredevil or the Avengers movies (or at least I don't remember), so I'm a bit baffled. And yeah, Kilgrave's really scary. Just watched Daredevil last week, so Fisk is fresh in my mind. And while I really liked the character work and D'Onofrio did a superb job, I found him more interesting than scary.

Reminded me of the guy in the garage in Die Hard. Damn, of course that's it! I thought it was a police station in Sioux Falls where the massacre would take place, but that's right out of the window after this episode. It seems there is no Lester this season. And I'm perfectly fine with it. It was okay to resort to a similar plot as the movie for the first season, but three times probably would not have been the charm here. Sounds likely. Especially her just calmly leaving, stealing the car of the gangster she just electrocuted and driving to some seminar like nothing happened. That's Peggy for you. God I love her. He probably did check, but Peggy was already gone. She has a seminar to go to, ya know. I'll try: Doomed: - Dodd. Duh. - Mike. Nothing redeeming about him, either, other than being lots of fun. - Otto. We've only seem him as a helpless old man, but that doesn't give him a pass for his prior sins. Saved: - Ed. It would be tonally off if he were just to be killed now. The show would've killed him already if that was to be his fate. The classic innocent fool. - Peggy. Not nearly as innocent, but hurt/killed only mobsters so far and I don't see that to change. The worst she has done was ruining Ed's plan for their future, for which she may pay the price in the Coen Brothers' favorite currency, irony. More likely safe than not: - Bear. Like you said, he's the "good" one, at least of the three brothers. Plus someone pointed out how he looks like a younger version of the crime boss from season one. - Charlie. Another "in over his head" type of character. Those usually pay a smaller price. He tried to kill Ed, but also tried to spare Noreen. If he dies, it will be because of the impact it has on Bear, not because of his own actions. But I don't see it. - Karl. I expected him to get brutally gunned down the moment he stepped outside the door (the first time, when he wasn't aware of the Gerhardts' presence). Should be safe now. - Floyd. She's a mob boss, but other than that, is presented as one of the good guys. If she dies, it won't be karmic. More likely to die: - Simone. Tried to take revenge on her abusive Dad, which seems to give her bonus points as far as the overall theme is concerned. Then again, women are also free to screw themselves over by the decisions they make. And that decision already came back to bite her. Could go either way: - Hank. I think he definitely gets shot in the massacre. But no karmic reason and certainly not reckless, either, so maybe he survives it. - Betsy. It doesn't look too good for her now, but she has karma on her side and casting Cristin Milioti just screams "you didn't really think we'd let her die of cancer offscreen again, did you?" to me. -ETA: Forgot about Hanzee. He's a complete mystery to me right now. He's not really one of the good guys, but hasn't seriously harmed any of them either so far. The punchline of the character is still to come, I guess.

From wikipedia: "[...]ultimately the only human who does not succumb to this mass metamorphosis is the central character, Bérenger, a flustered everyman figure who is initially criticized in the play for his drinking, tardiness, and slovenly lifestyle and then, later, for his increasing paranoia and obsession with the rhinoceroses." Sounds more like Karl Weathers is a play on Bérenger.

Maybe he did check (or let someone else do it), it's not really that showing that scene would serve a purpose. Maybe he'll mention it when trying to convince them to confess, or it could be still not enough to arrest them. I'm not even sure if that would make much of a difference in the first place, since they don't really have any evidence just yet. They'd probably need to find some blood in the car or in the garage or the like so that busting the alibi would actually matter. It's probably a moot point now anyway, because after the events in the butcher shop, he certainly has enough to arrest Ed. Maybe not enough for a conviction (it clearly was self defense plus there's even a witness), but easily enough to justify an arrest and keeping him in custody, safe - at least in Lou's mind, he probably isn't really safe there. So it seems likely Peggy and Ed will be separated for the next couple of episodes, Peggy could go to the seminar after all. Going out of town isn't exactly the worst idea for her right now and so her boss could come into play. Her character would be a bit pointless if Peggy and Ed would just stay at the police together.

Damn this was great. More, please! Easily the best episode of a new comed... the best episode this year so far. Scho.

Yep, that's what I meant. Both Lester and Jerry committed far worse crimes for personal gain. That's why I said "rarely". But the "for personal gain" theme still holds true: I'd argue the motive for the crime is far more important than the crime itself. Peggy and Ed didn't (try to) gain anything, in fact, it already cost them. Lou may have saved their lives (at least for now) when he came to arrest them at the end of the episode, although the Gerhardts certainly won't stop at anything to get their revenge. So maybe we don't get some shootout at the waterfalls (we already had one in the country side this week), but the massacre takes place at whatever police building in Sioux Falls Lou takes the Blomquists to.

I guess that really depends on what choices he's going to make from now on, same for Peggy. The Coen brothers movies (as well as season one of the show) tend to kill off innocents, but rarely major characters. Main characters are usually punished or rewarded for their behavior. While Ed and Peggy certainly have committed some misdeeds, none are unforgivable or compare to what Jerry or Lester did in the movie and the first season, respectively. So if they finally learn their lesson, I'm predicting they'll get out of it relatively unscathed, at least physically (they already lost their car and the butcher shop, their house could be next). Though Peggy's boss might get caught in the crossfire, figuratively or literally.

I always thought Hank would have to die. Lou and Molly can't die, but someone close to them most likely has to be a casualty of that gang war. Betsy likely isn't going to fill that specific role, so that really only leaves Hank.

Ah, I didn't notice that. Maybe that's why he's so close to the Gerhardt family? His father/mother could've migrated together with Otto, maybe they were even related and he is actual family. Anyway, the gracious part doesn't seem to add up. Unless that's the foreshadowing part. He could spare someones life (Ed and/or Peggy? Lou?) or get spared himself. Maybe after some religious epiphany, which doesn't seem too out of left field, not with the aliens and whatnot. Jules from Pulp Fiction comes to mind. ETA: Googled some of the other names, especially the Gerhardts. We got: - Floyd: Coming from Lloyd, which means "grey" in Welsh - Otto: From the Old High German "ot", meaning possession or, more relevant for us, inheritance - Simone: Hebrew, "one who hears" And Rye and Bear, who are fairly obvious. Some of the others: - Ed: From the Old English "ead", meaning protector - Hank: From Henry, the root we're looking for here is "haim", another High Old German one, meaning "home" - Lou: From Louis, from Frankish Chlodowig, which translates to "famous warrior" or "famous in battle", we'll get to see him in action eventually in the massacre of Sioux Falls

It sounds like "Hansi", a pet name of "Hans", which derives from "Johannes" - the German version of John, meaning "God is gracious". No idea how that could possibly relate to the character, though.