In this episode of Fargo, Ed is brought down to the station for questioning, and when the Gerhardts learn that that’s where he is, they finally track him down. Meanwhile, both Peggy and Simone are asked some very important questions as well. Oh, and Karl gets to play lawyer for a little while.
Right at the beginning of this episode of Fargo, Lou takes Ed in for questioning despite Peggy’s protests. At the station, Lou is surprised to see Betsy, who heard about the fire and was worried. It’s a full house because Noreen is there too, since, thanks to the fire burning up the shop she lived above, she has nowhere to go. Lou tells Betsy to take care of Noreen, which she agrees to, and I personally wonder what that car ride conversation entails.
But Ed isn’t the only one who was brought down to the station house. Charlie Gerhardt is brought in, and he is allowed one phone call when he gets there. Who does he call? His father, of course, so the Gerhardts quickly mobilize to take back one of their own.
Fargo Recap: A Massacre in the Woods and a Fire in Luverne >>>
The Gerhardts Go Their Separate Ways
At the Gerhardt homestead after Bear gets the phone call from Charlie, Bear goes after Dodd for sending his son out on the job. He beats up on Dodd until Hanzee pulls a gun on him, and to punish him for going after Dodd in front of “the men,” Dodd moves to punish Bear by beating him with his belt. But Floyd stops him just in time and orders them to stop and go after Charlie and Ed instead.
Dodd goes to Ed’s house, while Bear is sent for Charlie at the station, and Simone stays behind to warn her secret lover, Mike, of the proceedings. Simone is very angry at her father, after an earlier conversation in which he called her a whore and for, well, pretty much the way he treats her all the time, so she wants him dead and she wants Mike to be the one to do it.
Later, after everyone in the family has left except Floyd, who is feeding Otto in the kitchen, and Simone, Floyd quietly questions her granddaughter. She asks if she’s “with” them — the family, that is — and reminds her that she has to be all in; she can’t pick and choose. She then gives a bit of a speech about there being no difference between men’s and women’s work anymore, which is interesting and telling of her recent motives and choices (or maybe just of her understanding of her free-spirited granddaughter).
But as they’re talking, they’re suddenly attacked and shot at from outside. Because when Mike left with one of the Kitchen brothers and other Kansas City men, they didn’t head to Luverne, but rather to Fargo. It looks like maybe he’s not Simone’s Romeo after all.
Peggy’s Denial
Hank stays back with Peggy after Ed is taken away and questions her involvement in the whole situation. She’s preoccupied with questions, like whether she’ll be able to leave early the next day for her seminar despite everything going on, and Hank attempts to bring her back down to Earth by reminding her that a few men just tried to kill her husband.
He explains briefly about the turf war between the Gerhardts and Kansas City, and tries to make her see reason, but instead Peggy rambles about self-actualization and life’s journeys. Finally, he tells her that he’s asked a forensic team to come to town and check her car for microscopic evidence of blood, and when she claims that he can’t do that without the owner’s permission, he tells her he has it: from Sonny, the man she only just sold the car in question to.
Hank says she really needs to tell him what she can until he has enough evidence to know anyway, and Peggy seems to be at a loss. He asks why she didn’t go to the hospital or have someone call the cops when she hit Rye, and she rambles a little more before claiming that if they were involved and had to run, she’d do it and not look back. “I’m living in a museum of the past,” she tells him. And just then, cars pull up outside the house, and it’s not Ed who has returned home from police questioning.
The Search for Ed
Dodd and his entourage have arrived, and though Hank holds his own against them initially, talking them down while Peggy hides in the basement, it’s not long before Hanzee incapacitates him from behind and the men make their way into the Blumquist house. Before he is knocked out, though, he does tell Dodd that Ed isn’t there and correctly informs them that he’s down at the station.
Dodd has Hanzee go looking for Ed, while he and the rest of the men search the house in case Hank is lying. While in the basement, one of the men is somehow taken down by Peggy, who then surprises Dodd with the guy’s taser when they run into each other. We don’t see what happens next, but clearly Peggy isn’t going down without a fight.
Station Showdown
At the Luverne, Minnesota, police station, Lou questions Ed about the fire and Ed gets spooked and asks for a lawyer. As Karl, everyone’s favorite conspiracy theorist, is the only lawyer in town, he’s brought in to defend the man, despite the fact that Karl is quite drunk.
Karl gives a humorous, inebriated speech about free men and the system and such before he’s ushered into a room with Ed. He gives the poor guy some very confusing instructions about shaking his head in accordance with Karl asking whether he’s guilty or not guilty, and though Ed doesn’t really give a definitive answer, Ed agrees to defend him and leaves within minutes of entering the room.
Karl yells a little bit more at the police force present (I believe the phrase “watch your proverbial butts” is used) before attempting to leave the premises in a car Sonny drove him there with that the other man is still waiting in. But when he goes outside, Bear’s contingent of the Gerhardts is waiting.
When Karl tells them about their visitors, Lou orders that doors be locked and all area officers called in for assistance, but the nearest ones are about an hour away. He goes out to confront Bear anyway, but the Gerhardt brother won’t be persuaded — they want Charlie, and Lou has less than five minutes to turn him over before it gets ugly.
Karl Saves the Day
Lou goes back in and tells Karl that he really does need his help on this one and convinces him to go out and speak with the Gerhardts, acting as Charlie’s legal representation. And as Lou goes to sneak Ed out of a back window, Karl goes out front to attempt to get the men to retreat by appealing to Bear’s concerns for his son.
Karl explains that as a lawyer, he feels he should tell Bear that by showing up the way they have, they’ve only made his son’s case worse. Bear growls that he doesn’t need a lawyer anyway, but Karl gets him to hear him out. He says that as a minor, Charlie would get reduced sentencing, but by having this show of force, they’re hurting his chances. He also says that if they take Charlie now, he’ll always be running from the law.
Eventually, after a tense moment in which Bear points the gun at Karl and it really seems like he might shoot, the Gerhardt brother orders his men to retreat and they all depart.
Not Out of the Woods Yet
After Lou helps Ed escape from the police station while the confrontation is occurring, he sneaks him through the nearby woods as a temporary way to protect him. Not long after, they meet up with Hank, who drove over after coming to and responding to a radio message from an officer at the station.
During their meeting, Ed suddenly takes off, and Hank advises Lou not to chase after him. “We know where he’s going,” he states, and Lou wearily agrees. They drive off, but as it turns out, they’re not the only ones in those woods right then.
Hanzee slowly emerges from the trees, as he’s been following Lou and Ed since they slipped out of the station house. And while Hank and Lou went one way, Hanzee instead follows after Ed on foot, which probably won’t end well for the hapless butcher.
Fargo airs Monday nights at 10pm on FX.
(Image courtesy of FX)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
