Saturday, December 5, 2015

Fargo S02 E08: LopLop

                                                       

I can’t state it enough how much I’ve been enjoying this season of Fargo. The Coen Brothers have created a show with one of the best scripts in town and actors who hit a homerun with each episode. My favorite characters are the husband and wife team of Ed and Peggy Blumquist. Kirsten Dunst should receive an Emmy for her portrayal of a person with a major personality disorder who leads her poor devoted husband (Jesse Plemons) down a rabbit hole of no escape. While Ed and Peggy go on a road trip with Dodd tied up in the trunk, Hanzee, Lou and Hank are on their trail.
                                                              

While Dodd, who is acutely aware that Peggy is the more dangerous of the duo, sits in a cabin bound my ropes, Ed is trying to make a deal with the Gerhardt family, but he isn’t having much luck reaching the big boss. Ed comes home to find Dodd bleeding from Peggy poking him with a knife. Peggy’s explanation: Dodd needs to learn some manners.
Hanzee
Zahn McClarnon’s portrayal of Hanzee is close to brilliant. He doesn’t say much this man who works for Dodd. He doesn’t have to. His soulful eyes reveal the years of pain and disgust he's had to endure. Hanzee is treated horridly by both Dodd and the patrons of a bar in Sioux Falls.
                                              

This is an American Indian who served in the military and fought in Vietnam. He’s received medals for bravery, but to the patrons of that bar, he’s just a half-breed. Racism at its most insidious because it is aimed at a proud people who are legally the rightful owners of this land we call America. Hanzee and Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine) are no strangers to the double standard of equality and maybe this is why I feel protective towards them even knowing that they are cold-blooded killers.
                                                            

Conclusion
Peggy lives in a world of make believe, but now she’s on the right track. She’s been actualized. She’s going to grab the world by its tail and tame it. Peggy actually gets her more common sense husband to invest in this fairy tale. While Ed offers Dodd on a silver platter to Mike Milligan, Dodd somehow escapes his ropes and knocks out Peggy.                                                  
 
Ed walks into the cabin and is almost killed when Dodd tries to hang him, but Peggy as usual comes to the rescue making Dodd very sorry that he ever met the Blumquist Duo from Hell. Dodd is played by actor Jeffrey Donovan.
                                                             

What was interesting about this episode is that Dodd, a brutal, chauvinistic bully, is played in a more comedic role and it added the needed humor to an otherwise bloody scene. Hanzee shows up just in time to do away with his boss and ask Peggy for a favor. Hanzee has left trail of bodies in his search for Peggy and Ed, but now that he’s found them, he needs Peggy to work some hairdressing miracles with his hair.                      
 
Ed and Peggy have one hell of a luck streak going for them. They always escape death at every turn. Hanzee’s gun refuses to shoot when he points it at Ed. As Hanzee takes off through the rear door of the cabin, Lou (Patrick Wilson) and Hank (Ted Danson) bust in through the front. I can’t wait to hear Peggy explain the dead Dodd on the cabin floor.

The Coen Brothers have done it again.

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