S02.E10: Palindrome

[ElectricBoogaloo]

SEASON FINALE!

 

Peggy and Ed make a run for it.

[GUNTER]

We're realized!

[Ohwell]

Peggy should die.

[cpcathy]

She won't. She'll be the last one standing.

[Chaos Theory]

Peggy should not die. I will be very disappointed if she dies. Now if you want her to REALLY suffer...actualized Peggy returns home with Ed to a life she hates. There are fates worse then death.

[Eyes High]

Promo's out! There are a lot of "old" shots mixed in from previous episodes, but here's some new stuff (I think):

 

1. Three guys in suits walking down a corridor (this could possibly be a recycled shot from an earlier episode, assuming these guys are the Undertaker and his companions.)

2. Someone pulling a door shut with a sign that reads "Door must be kept shut. Temperature controlled."

3. Peggy looking miserable and terrified, with a green, misty background.

4. Someone pulling at the lock on the door in #2. It also looks misty or smoky.

5. Someone pulling a social security card out of a wallet. The name on the card reads Tripoli, the last name of the bearded crime boss from Season 1 who was massacred by Malvo. (The hands appear to belong to a white guy, but I can't tell. It's not Charlie, since the right hand appears normal.)

6. Ed, not looking so good, sitting and looking up. There's a greenish light.

7. Lou at a phone booth (not the one outside the gas station store) covering his eyes.

8. Ed and Peggy running at night, abandoning their car.

9. Peggy shooing a janitor out of a grocery store.

10. Hanzee standing in the aisle of a grocery store, rifle drawn.

 

If I had to guess, it seems like Ed and Peggy's last stand is in the meat locker of the grocery store, where Hanzee successfully corners them. I'm guessing that they're dispatched fairly early on in the episode so we get some nice closing stuff with the Solversons.

[GodsBeloved]

7. Lou at a phone booth (not the one outside the gas station store) covering his eyes.

 

Damn it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If Besty ... DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ::beats fists against desk::

[Eyes High]

There's also a shot in the promo of what appears to be Mike (in his maroon jacket ensemble from 2x09) attacking Gale Kitchen, who appears to have his gun trained on someone on the ground, from behind to take his gun. Not sure if that's recycled from a previous ep or not.

 

More tidbits from interviews, etc. about 2x10:

 

1. Noreen's actress is credited for 2x10. (Grain of salt about IMDB, but the other episodes she was credited for she appeared in.)

 

2. Dunst and Plemons had this to say about shooting 2x10:

 

KD: I was just so tired. My last night of shooting was just brutal. You’ll see why. I was thankful to be done with the show. Not for any reason except I was drained emotionally as a person.
JP: It’s a lot to walk around with.
KD: I was having nightmares because of what we were going through. I was ready to come back to sunny California. (...)
JP: The second to last day, we had a really long day of shooting when we did all this stuff for episode 10 and we had the DP operating the camera on this one shot that is probably my favorite scene that I’ve witnessed live. After that day, which was a really hard, emotional day —
KD: So hard. And the kind of day on normal movies you would probably have three days (to shoot), done in one day of work.

 

3. Zahn McClarnon said this in that great Wall Street Journal episode about 2x10:

I don’t know if there’s a clear reason why Hanzee went where he went, but more will be revealed in episode 10.

Walking into the cabin, all I had to do was look at Peggy. I was looking for somebody—a mother figure or daughter figure of some sort. It’s hard to talk about. You’ll understand more about what he’s saying there when you see the final episode.

[GUNTER]

5. Someone pulling a social security card out of a wallet. The name on the card reads Tripoli, the last name of the bearded crime boss from Season 1 who was massacred by Malvo. (The hands appear to belong to a white guy, but I can't tell. It's not Charlie, since the right hand appears normal.)

I think it must be Ricky!

He survived the shoot out, and can look like that boss guy 40 years later.

Same hair type.

Edit: on 2cd thought to me its clearly Hanzee's hands pulling that card out.

But ofc it could be Ricky who ends up taking Tripoli's identity.

Perhaps this suggests Ricky ultimately finishes Hanzee!

Edited December 8, 2015 by GUNTER

[Eyes High]

Another potential tidbit for 2x10 I forgot to mention is that Noah Hawley indicated that when telling the suits at FX about the season, he said that he would have three Ronald Reagan movies and a UFO. We've seen "clips" from two Ronald Reagan fictional movies: Massacre at Sioux Falls and Operation Eagle's Nest. Does that mean that we'll see another "clip" in the finale?

 

I assume that someone is going to take "Tripoli's" identity. A second look at the hands makes me second-guess my assumption that they belonged to a white guy.

 

Mark Acheson played Mr. Tripoli in Season 1. He's about 58 now, so 56 at the time of filming. Season 1 of Fargo is set in 2006, so in 1979 "Tripoli" (if that IS his real name) would be approximately 56 less 27, or 29 years old. I think Ryan O'Nan (Ricky G.) is the right age. I believe Brad Mann (Gale Kitchen) is also the right age. (Even if they're not, I think they could both pass for 29.)

[GUNTER]

I assume that someone is going to take "Tripoli's" identity. A second look at the hands makes me second-guess my assumption that they belonged to a white guy.

Clearly Hanzee's hands:

[AuntiePam]

Yeah, and Hanzee's coat sleeve.  As cold-blooded as he is -- killing Constance and that store clerk -- I want him to survive.  Maybe because he's not a conventional asshole, like Dodd.  Hanzee has some weird kind of dignity, maybe even integrity. 

 

I've forgotten most of season one.  It will really be fun to rewatch now.

[ae2]

Does the title of the episode indicate we end where we began? Come full circle? Not sure what exactly that would mean though. Coming back to S2x01 might have something to do with the showdown at the diner.

 

It could be something to do with ending near where season 1 began. 

[AuntiePam]

I hope it doesn't end with Peggy running someone down in a car.  A lesser show would do something like that, but not Fargo. 

[Ohwell]

Maybe somebody runs her down.

[Irlandesa]

If I had to guess, it seems like Ed and Peggy's last stand is in the meat locker of the grocery store, where Hanzee successfully corners them. I'm guessing that they're dispatched fairly early on in the episode so we get some nice closing stuff with the Solversons.

I don't know.  Normally I'd bet on Hanzee eventually getting them but a meat locker?  I'm taking the butcher every time.

[Stratego]

Clearly Hanzee's hands:

This is scene where Hanzee is matching the headlamp lens to the damaged Corvair.

[bentley]

 

We've seen "clips" from two Ronald Reagan fictional movies: Massacre at Sioux Falls and Operation Eagle's Nest. Does that mean that we'll see another "clip" in the finale?

 

There were snippets of another movie tonight, although the motel TV was mostly snow. Peggy and the "detective" who was protecting them were watching it. There was a dark-haired man in the scenes they showed, but I couldn't tell much more than that. Speaking of the detective, he actually turned out to be competent in a time of crisis, although I think Peggy gets the credit for spotting the bad guys.

 

I don't know exactly how cop radios work, especially the 1970s version, but couldn't Lou have radioed his own station and had them call the motel to alert everybody? Is nobody available on any other frequency? Even without cell phones, it seems like something more could have been done.

 

Jean Smart's character never did become the all out gangster leader I expected her to be. Or in Peggy's terminology, she never fully became realized. I really thought thematically she should have been the one to kill at least one of her sons. Either Dodd for defying her and trying to undercut her authority, or Bear for killing her beloved granddaughter.

 

I love the relationship between Lou and his FIL. They can't let the FIL die..can they? That plus Lou's wife all in one night is just too much. It's too much, I tell ya.

[Ellaria]

I love the relationship between Lou and his FIL. They can't let the FIL die..can they? That plus Lou's wife all in one night is just too much. It's too much, I tell ya.

 

I am asking for a few things from this show:

• Hank and Betsy cannot die on the same night.
• Hank has to survive the bullet in the stomach. Molly needs her dad and her grandpa.
• Lou has to arrive back in Luverne and be by Betsy's side when she passes on. She cannot die while he is trying to protect the Butcher and the Hairdresser.

 

That's not too much to ask, is it?

[Avaleigh]

3. Peggy looking miserable and terrified, with a green, misty background.

My vote is that Peggy is frozen and she'll have a Lester-ish death. 

Edited December 10, 2015 by Avaleigh

[Eyes High]

My vote is that Peggy is frozen today and she'll have a Lester-ish death. 

 

Sounds about right. Hanzee might lock them in. 

 

A desperate last stand fleeing while being pursued by an inexorable foe would be very much in line with Season 1.

[Quando]

 

We've seen "clips" from two Ronald Reagan fictional movies: Massacre at Sioux Falls and Operation Eagle's Nest. Does that mean that we'll see another "clip" in the finale?

The third one was the fictional Ronald Reagan movie "Moonbase Freedom" that was playing during the 1951 flashback scene in the movie theater when Otto and little boy Dodd took out that other crime boss.

[King of Birds]

We're realized!

I will think of this season of Fargo as  "Fargo: Fully Realized"

[annzeepark914]

Why was it accepted by Bear, et al, that Hunzee stayed back with Floyd when the rest of them approached the motel? She had a gun. He should've been with them.

 

I'm just so glad that there will be a Fargo 3.  I love this show and I haven't been able to say that about any shows (except Downton Abbey) for many years.

[cpcathy]

I will miss this cast when season three arrives.

[AuntiePam]

Why was it accepted by Bear, et al, that Hunzee stayed back with Floyd when the rest of them approached the motel? She had a gun. He should've been with them.

 

I'm just so glad that there will be a Fargo 3.  I love this show and I haven't been able to say that about any shows (except Downton Abbey) for many years.

 

Somebody's gotta protect the wimmen folk!  Didn't Bear tell Hanzee to stay back with her? 

 

The only other shows I love this much are Rectify and Better Call Saul.  I don't think any of the dramas on the "major" networks can hold a candle to what the cable folks are doing.  But I don't watch them, so maybe I'm missing some good stuff. 

[Black Knight]

Yes, Bear told Floyd to stay with the truck and that he would have Hanzee stay back with her. Then he told Hanzee to stay back with Floyd.

 

I see one of the shots in the promo is of Bear and Simone in the woods. Bear's dead, so he's not going to be the one having the flashback, and there's only one other person who can.

[AuntiePam]

I see one of the shots in the promo is of Bear and Simone in the woods. Bear's dead, so he's not going to be the one having the flashback, and there's only one other person who can.

 

It's interesting that this shot is the only one from a previous episode.  Are we sure it's Bear and Simone?  It looks like that same overhead shot, but maybe it's two other people.  ??

[cpcathy]

I thought I saw more than one shot from a previous episode, they won't be giving us any new, important clues in a promo, as rightly they shouldn't.

[Eyes High]

I see one of the shots in the promo is of Bear and Simone in the woods. Bear's dead, so he's not going to be the one having the flashback, and there's only one other person who can.

 

There were several old shots from the 2x10 promo: the Undertaker and his goons walking down the hallway, Lou straining to reach his gun, Rye staring at the UFO lights, Peggy firing through the door at Hanzee, etc.

 

With that said, Angus Sampson (Bear) is credited for 2x10. So who knows?

 

I thought I saw more than one shot from a previous episode, they won't be giving us any new, important clues in a promo, as rightly they shouldn't.

 

I don't know about that. I was able to guess more or less the exact plot of 2x09, save for Hanzee's betrayal and the UFO ex machina, just from the promo, the episode description, and the sneak peek. I think the 2x10 promo might reveal Ed and Peggy's fate: left to die in a supermarket meat locker.

[candall]

Hanzee has nice hands.  : )

[Avaleigh]

There were several old shots from the 2x10 promo: the Undertaker and his goons walking down the hallway, Lou straining to reach his gun, Rye staring at the UFO lights, Peggy firing through the door at Hanzee, etc.

 

With that said, Angus Sampson (Bear) is credited for 2x10. So who knows?

 

I don't know about that. I was able to guess more or less the exact plot of 2x09, save for Hanzee's betrayal and the UFO ex machina, just from the promo, the episode description, and the sneak peek. I think the 2x10 promo might reveal Ed and Peggy's fate: left to die in a supermarket meat locker.

I almost hope I'm wrong but this was exactly my thought. For some reason I feel like Ed and Peggy are going to have separate deaths. I can see them both going out via freezer but I also feel like at least one of them has a bloodier end probably Ed because he's the butcher. 

 

Even though I felt sorry for Simone I would be bummed if she turns out to be alive because it would rob that brilliant episode of its poignancy. JMO. 

[Dev F]

For some reason I feel like Ed and Peggy are going to have separate deaths. I can see them both going out via freezer but I also feel like at least one of them has a bloodier end probably Ed because he's the butcher.

I feel like if Peggy dies it'll be alongside Ed -- a prisoner of WE. (Conversely, if she lives I expect it'll be because she leaves Ed to die.)

[cpcathy]

It looks like the meat locker escape occurs at the beginning of the episode, they started running at the end of The Castle, who know how long they will be in there, however! I am keeping my fingers crossed for a 90 minute episode at the least.

[GUNTER]

I have a feeling the meat locker thing will be same kind of situation as peggy saw in that bad nazi movie. 

 

But this time the nazi is hanzee and Ed gos out to sacrifice himself but right on time RIcky shows up and finishes Hanzee! Takes the new id and becomes Fargo mobster boss and after the massacre he witnessed has his "kill and be killed, head in the bad, there's the message" policy! 

[Eyes High]

In a recent interview with Wilson (Lou), he was asked why Lou cared so much about Ed and Peggy's fate. He gave the answer that Lou knows that his wife is very sick and he can't save her, and he sees Ed's devotion to his wife and wants to save them because he can't save his wife (or words to that effect). It seems so obvious when he put it that way, but it was something I hadn't realized before.

 

If Lou is unable to save Ed and Peggy and loses Hank and/or Betsy in the last episode, I can't imagine how that would conform to the "tragedy with a happy ending" structure Hawley said in a recent interview that he wanted.

 

 

 

But this time the nazi is hanzee and Ed gos out to sacrifice himself but right on time RIcky shows up and finishes Hanzee! Takes the new id and becomes Fargo mobster boss and after the massacre he witnessed has his "kill and be killed, head in the bad, there's the message" policy!

 

I like your thinking, but I'm not sure about the timing. Hanzee is shown handling the Tripoli social security card in broad daylight. The pursuit of the Blomquists and what appears to be their last stand take place at night.

 

I do think that Ricky G being the sole survivor of the massacre (and great catch, by the way, I missed Ricky getting away in the confusion) will be important in 2x10. Wasn't he one of the guys from Buffalo? If so, you'd think he would just scurry back to Buffalo and get out of dodge before Kansas City moved in. I'm guessing that his life was spared by the writers for a reason, though, and that he seems the most likely candidate to become the "Tripoli" massacred in Season 1.

 

There's been some speculation about the Kansas City outfit being run by Jewish people. I don't think the names (Hamish Broker and Joe Bulo) give anything away one way or another. Both Hamish and Joe are played by Jewish actors (Adam Arkin and Brad Garrett), but Brad Garrett's most famous role is as an Italian character, so I don't know that that means anything. Joe Bulo did use a Yiddish word a few episodes ago.

 

The reason I mention this speculation is that I wonder whether Ricky G adopts a Jewish identity to fit in with the KC outfit. "Tripoli" sounds more Italian, though. 

Edited December 10, 2015 by Eyes High

[annzeepark914]

I'll be amazed if Simone comes back.  Someone posted a link to an interview she gave in which she talked about her character's upcoming death and how it affected the other actors.  Who knows...maybe it's (that interview) the writers' way of foolin' with us?

[cpcathy]

I think Simone is dead. I don't feel this show would do bait and switch in that way. The character finally got some dignity in that we didn't have to see her die.

[Rhetorica]

I think the title refers to Otto and he will be on the UFO chasing Hanzee over a frozen lake as the scene fades to black.

[AuntiePam]

rhetorica, Otto!  Yeah, that's a palindrome-- nice catch.  And he'd for sure have a reason to be chasing Hanzee. 

[Eyes High]

Given the book, where the author muses about Hanzee's motives being unknowable in a way that suggests no one ever had the opportunity to probe them firsthand, it sure sounds as if either Hanzee doesn't survive 2x10 or disappears off the face of the earth.

[pasdetrois]

I chuckled at the cops' attempt to go undercover at the motel: every single one of them in identical fresh white T-shirts and crisp new Wranglers.

[ChipBach]

I chuckled at the cops' attempt to go undercover at the motel: every single one of them in identical fresh white T-shirts and crisp new Wranglers.

YES!  They were all in uniform, just a different type of uniform!  I also loved the comment "and keep you pants on".  (Of course he died with his pants off")

[AuntiePam]

The title could also refer to things coming full circle, but I'm not smart enough to work it out, except for the obvious.  In the first episode, Rye ended up in a freezer -- we see Peggy in a freezer.  Anything else?

[Stratego]

Peggy gets run over by a car?

[AuntiePam]

Peggy gets run over by a car?

 

Maybe, but I hope not. 

 

I want her to live but I don't want her to get off scot-free.  Maybe it'll be punishment enough for her to end up back in the beauty shop. 

 

The only law she's broken -- so far-- is the hit and run, didn't report an accident, leaving the scene, etc.  First offense she could end up with probation.  If she does end up in prison, I can see her cutting inmates' hair and helping them reach their full potential.

 

I want the last scene to be Lou reading a story to Molly.

[Fisher King]

It looks like the meat locker escape occurs at the beginning of the episode, they started running at the end of The Castle, who know how long they will be in there, however! I am keeping my fingers crossed for a 90 minute episode at the least.

 

Comcast guide says the finale running time is 75 minutes.

[donkeyshot]

Maybe Hanzee is Otto's eldest son, that's why he takes over the imperium after Otto's dead. Somehow I think Charlie is Hanzees son instead of Bear's. Peggy killed Rye and Dodd, is she on the same war as Hanzee? I know she stabbeb him with the scissors but only when Lou and Hank arrived at the scene. Why is Ed not shot by Hanzee neither by Charlie when they had chance?  Pardon me english, I'm dutch.

[AuntiePam]

Charlie does look like he could have some Native American ancestry -- maybe from his mother? 

 

Peggy didn't kill Dodd -- Hanzee shot him.  Peggy and Hanzee aren't on the same side -- they just ended up at odds with the same people, the Gerhardts. 

 

Hanzee didn't shoot Ed in the cabin because he wanted "out of this life", he was done with the Gerhardts.

 

Charlie tried to shoot Ed in the butcher shop but missed.

[Stratego]

Charlie does look like he could have some Native American ancestry -- maybe from his mother? 

 

Peggy didn't kill Dodd -- Hanzee shot him.  Peggy and Hanzee aren't on the same side -- they just ended up at odds with the same people, the Gerhardts. 

 

Hanzee didn't shoot Ed in the cabin because he wanted "out of this life", he was done with the Gerhardts.

 

Charlie tried to shoot Ed in the butcher shop but missed.

Correction:  Hanzee didn't shoot Ed--because his gun was empty!