‘Fargo’ recap: ‘The cook fell funny’

There’s something about the vast, unyielding horizons of the upper Midwest that makes it easier to get trapped there, vacuum sealed in a pristine snow globe, alone with your thoughts and your three-bedroom house and the past that haunts you at every turn.

The long arm of history haunts the whole of “Before the Law,” the second episode of “Fargo’s” second season, as the fallout begins to descend after the bloody events of last week’s premiere. The Kansas City crew has made the trek to the Gerhardt homestead in North Dakota and leaves nothing but unease and vague threats in their wake. They, it would seem, are the only people left unscathed by their pasts. Or perhaps we just don’t know enough about them yet to say what it is that keeps them up at night.

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It’s clear what’s plaguing the Gerhardt clan, however, as Floyd (Jean Smart) struggles to unite the family under her leadership after Otto’s (Michael Hogan) debilitating stroke. Floyd attempts to win Dodd’s (Jeffrey Donovan) temporary loyalty to her cause by appealing to his sense of family history and to the idea that the whole of their family’s legacy is more important than the blow to his ego that is his mother running the business in lieu of him, the eldest son. But despite her plea appearing to succeed on the surface, Dodd soon makes it clear that he has no interest in delaying his ascent to the throne.

All the same, Floyd’s recounting of the family history, a story Dodd professes to know already, was familiar, particularly for someone in her generation: second-generation immigrants whose parents came over from the old country and raised them in non-English-speaking homes. They bridged the gap between the old and the new, all the while desperate to preserve what their parents toiled so tirelessly to build.

Floyd’s generation survived the Great Depression, well aware of what true poverty costs and determined to not revisit the dark days of the Dust Bowl. It is a generation haunted by history, resolute in improving on what was given to them, and refusing to compromise when it comes to retaining what is rightfully theirs.

Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson) is also unnerved by his past, returning to the Waffle House where the triple homicide took place last week because “the cook fell funny.” What he means is that he can’t shake the look on the dead cook’s face, as though death had surprised him, not unlike a man who Solverson saw killed during his time serving in Vietnam. He shares this memory with his father-in-law, Hank Larsson (Ted Danson) who in turn shares a similar experience from his time serving in World War II.

In the end, Larsson spells out the difference between the two men’s experiences, saying, “I sometimes wonder if you boys didn’t bring that war home with you,” and he’s not wrong. Vietnam left a psychic scar on a nation and an era, and its ghosts seem right at home on “Fargo.”

Yet perhaps the most potent haints are those trailing Peggy (Kirsten Dunst) and Ed Blumquist (Jesse Plemons). As Ed is left to clean up the detritus of the murder of Rye Gerhardt (Kieren Culkin) from last week’s episode, Peggy sets about trying to carry on as usual, lest the couple raise suspicions. Ed is clearly burdened by the weight of their crime, lost in thought yet determined to do what it takes to keep the pair safe, whereas Peggy is largely anxious about the idea that they may yet be caught.

Or maybe it’s more than just fear of being apprehended for their crimes that concerns Peggy. Upon arriving to work, her very friendly co-worker admonishes Peggy, saying, “Don’t be a prison to ‘we,’” when Peggy tries to beg off on an outing, blaming her husband. Though not the case in this instance, it’s precisely the way Peggy feels about Ed, or used to, before the unfortunate killing they undertook.

Peggy and Ed are both haunted, she by the idea that her survival depends on providing a united front with a man she feels burdened by, and he by the burden of taking a man’s life to protect a marriage he may soon realize is less unimpeachable than he thought.

The weather may grow cooler as the autumn settles in, with October marching on toward Halloween, but ghosts are already all the rage in Fargo and the hauntings only look to get more severe.

Follow me on Twitter at @midwestspitfire