Fargo: Season 2 Episode 10 "Palindrome" Review

"Tomorrow morning we go home to bathe in that warm champagne that is corporate praise."

-Mike Milligan 

The final episode of season 2 of Fargo starts off with a montage sequence showing us all of the dead bodies of the Gerhardt family before taking us back to the Solverson home, where Betsy (Cristin Milioti) learns that she has been getting the real pills to treat her cancer not the placebos.  Unfortunately, her body has rejected the pills and if she continues to take them, they will kill her before the cancer can.

Back in Sioux Falls, Ed and Peggy Blumquist (Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst) are on the run with Hanzee Dent (Zahn McClarnon) in hot pursuit.  Hanzee manages to shoot Ed, but the Blumquists take cover in a freezer in the back of a grocery store.  

Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson) and Ben Schmidt (Keir O'Donnell) catch up to Hanzee, but after a brief shootout, Hanzee gives them the slip.

In the freezer, Ed tells Peggy that even if they survive the night, their relationship is not going to last as Ed will always want to go back to what they had before she hit Rye Gerhardt, whereas Peggy doesn't want that.  Smoke begins to fill the freezer and Peggy believes it is Hanzee trying to smoke them out.  Ed dies from his injury and Peggy prepares herself to fight Hanzee and opens the door to find only Lou and Ben outside, having hallucinated the smoke.  Lou takes her into custody and they return to Minnesota.

Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine) and Gale Kitchen (Brad Mann) go to the Gerhardt compound and claim it for Kansas City.  The only surviving member of the Gerhardt syndicate, Ricky G (Ryan O'Nan), returns to the compound to take as many valuables as he can, but he is killed by Gale.  Mike returns to Kansas City, where he is promoted to a desk job with a focus on accounting much to his disappointment.

Hanzee escapes Sioux Falls and manages to get ahold of a new identity and plans to go get his face changed and become a new man, under the name of Moses Tripoli, who is the head of the Fargo Mafia in season 1 of Fargo and is killed by Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton).  Hanzee also helps protect two young boys from bullies.  The boys are Grady Numbers (Adam Goldberg) and Wes Wrench (Russell Harvard) from the first season.

Finally, we get a scene with Lou and Betsy at home with Molly (Raven Stewart).  Hank Larsson (Ted Danson) is released from the hospital and joins his Lou and Betsy for dinner and a beer.  They reflect on what has transpired and Hank explains that all of the symbols Betsy found in his office were a new universal language of symbols he was creating, to make communication between people easier.  Our final scene has Lou and Betsy going to sleep and thus ends the second season of Fargo.

What Works:

My favorite part of the finale is Mike Milligan's storyline.  Seeing him claim the Gerhardt's compound and have Ricky killed was very satisfying, but then we see him get his reward; a promotion into the corporate world.  It's obvious Mike doesn't want this job, he wants to be out enjoying the freedom he feels he has earned.  Instead, he has to work with accountants.  It's a sad ending, but it's better than what Mike deserves.

I also really enjoyed the scene with Ed telling Peggy they are not going to work out.  I feel so bad for Ed as he loses everything, even his life, in trying to help Peggy and save their relationship.  But in the end, he knows it won't work, and he dies with the knowledge.  It's a sad story for Ed and I believe he is the most tragic character in the Fargo-verse.

The conversation between Lou and Peggy in the squad-card is also a highlight.  Both of them explore the unfair expectations placed on both men and women, which I find fascinating, but I also really like that Lou shuts down Peggy when she tries to make excuses for what happened.  A lot of people died because of Peggy's choice, no matter how unfair or unfortunate her circumstance were, and Lou doesn't let Peggy off the hook.  

What Sucks:

First off, I don't think the revelation that Hanzee becomes Moses Tripoli is well handled.  Moses was in two scenes in the first season and wasn't a memorable character in the slightest.  I was watching with someone who had seen it before and they had to tell me who Moses was.  I would not have remember at all.  I like the tie-in of Wrench and Numbers, but I don't like the execution here.  I didn't need Hanzee to be connected to the first season.  I would have preferred a different resolution for this character.

I do think this episode is a bit anticlimactic with the excellent cliffhanger from the previous episode, especially on rewatch.  The face off between the Blumquist's, Hanzee, and Lou was such an exciting prospect going into this episode, but knowing that a good chunk of it doesn't happen and is just Peggy's hallucination is underwhelming.  This is the problem with making a prequel.  Some characters are guaranteed survival and some of the tension is taken out of this because we know Lou and Ben will survive.  This also plays into the problem I have with making Hanzee become Moses.  If you remove that, we could have had a stronger resolution to Hanzee's character.  But because they chose the Moses-storyline, Hanzee has to survive.  I do think this season would be stronger if we got a better confrontation between the Blumquists, Hanzee, and Lou.

Verdict:

Fargo season 2 doesn't entirely stick the landed with "Palindrome".  The Hanzee/Moses revolution is poorly executed and I think this storyline robbed of us of a more satisfying ending.  That said, I like how tragic Ed's fate was, the resolution for Peggy and the Solverson's, and especially Mike's storyline and it was still a very enjoyable episode.  

 8/10: Really Good