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Palindrome
Season 2, Episode 10
S2e10
Episode Information
Air Date:

December 14, 2015

Written by:

Noah Hawley

Directed by:

Adam Arkin

Episode Chronology
Previous Episode:

The Castle

Next Episode:

The Law of Vacant Places

CrewGalleryTranscript

Palindrome is the tenth and final episode of Season 2 of Fargo, as well as the twentieth episode overall. It premiered on December 14, 2015.

Description[]

Peggy and Ed make a run for it.

Plot[]

Lou Solverson recites the "This is a true story" text that opens every episode over a montage of the bodies of Rye, Otto, Dodd, Simone, Floyd and Bear Gerhardt, while his wife wakes up next to his daughter after her fall. Noreen Vanderslice tells her that her body reacted poorly to her medication and that she needs to rest. Betsy narrates a dream she has that night: Lou and Molly grow older together after Betsy's death, and Molly eventually marries Gus Grimly and has a son with him. The Grimly family has his fifth birthday party at Lou's house, but the vision is suddenly interrupted by one of Hanzee Dent, his face scarred by Peggy Blumquist, standing over an open flame, as well as Lou almost being killed by Bear and Hank Larsson getting shot, threatening the future of her daughter.

Ed and Peggy flee from Hanzee, who kills a civilian that stops to help them and shoots Ed in the back, with Lou in pursuit. The Blumquists hurry into a supermarket and barricade themselves in a meat locker. Ed confesses that he does not believe their relationship will survive, even if they do. He gently tells her that her problem is always trying to fix what isn't broken as Hanzee advances towards the locker.

Mike Milligan and Gale Kitchen arrive at the almost empty Gerhardt compound. Milligan finds the maid, Wilma, still cooking in the kitchen, stopping Kitchen from killing her and decreeing the end of German (the Gerhardts' nationality) food in the house. He gives her a Gerhardt car and all the money stashed in the living room. Ricky G, who fled the motel massacre, hurries into the house to loot it, but is cornered by Milligan and Kitchen. Milligan declares himself a king and announces his intent to show an act of kindness and an act of cruelty, having already shown kindness to Wilma. Ricky tries to pull a gun on the two, but Kitchen shoots him in the chest. As he prepares to finish him off, Milligan stops him and lets Ricky bleed to death to complete his act of cruelty.

As the locker fills with smoke, Peggy realizes Hanzee is trying to smoke them out and relates the situation to the Ronald Reagan film she had watched earlier. She grabs a knife and bursts out of the door to fight, only to find Lou and Ben Schmidt: she had hallucinated the smoke, Hanzee had fled upon seeing the police outside the supermarket, and Ed has died from his gunshot wound. As morning breaks, an emotional Schmidt states he does not know where to begin writing up the events of the past few days. Lou tells him to start at the beginning and finish at the end. He drives off with Peggy in the back of his cruiser to Minnesota.

Peggy wonders aloud if she can do prison time in California, and Lou tells her a story from Vietnam about a helicopter pilot who was forced to leap from his aircraft onto a carrier boat and barely made the jump. He acknowledges that he understood why Ed was so desperate to protect her and his future family, stating that men have a burden to protect their loved ones, calling it "a rock we all push." Peggy retorts that her life was doomed from the start, as women like her are never able to choose. He pulls over at the Minnesota/South Dakota border to call his house, and Noreen picks up, explaining Betsy's situation. Lou asks her to deliver the message that he is coming back in state and will be home soon.

Hanzee meets with a man who gives him a new social security number and documents that give him the new identity of "Moses Tripoli," as well the information of a man who can perform plastic surgery. He asks what empire Hanzee is going to join, and Hanzee muses that he may start his own, deciding to kill the rest of the Kansas City Mafia. He speaks his native tongue for the only time in the series before wandering off to go help a pair of children, one with black hair and one deaf, being harassed by bullies. Hamish Broker, impressed with Milligan's handling of the situation, promotes him to a manager. This entails working a subdued office job and getting rid of his unprofessional cowboy attire. He wishes Milligan good luck and leaves him in his small office.

Hank, recovering, visits the Solversons, discussing the case with Lou and Betsy. They agree to leave the UFO out of their report, and Lou tells Hank that Hanzee has been put on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Betsy asks about the pictographs she saw in Hank's study, and Hank explains: after his wife's passing, he took time off from his work and reflected on the death seen on the job and in the war. He realized that all conflict stems from miscommunication, and created the symbols as a universal language so everyone could understand each other. Later, Lou kisses Molly good night and goes to bed with Betsy. They bid each other good night in the same way they did at the end of "Waiting for Dutch".

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring cast[]

Special guest stars[]

Co-starring[]

Deaths[]

Trivia[]

  • Betsy's vision of Molly's future is reminiscent of the ending scene to Joel and Ethan Coen's 1987 movie Raising Arizona. In the film, after kidnapping and returning a baby due to being unable to conceive one, the film's protagonists, Hi and Ed, go to sleep with Hi having a vision of the baby's future as well as him and Ed growing old together.
  • Dodd Gerhardt (Jeffery Donovan) makes an appearance as a corpse alongside the rest of his family, however unlike the others, he is not credited.
  • The story about the helicopter pilot throwing his family off his helicopter before he crashed it into the sea that Lou tells Peggy is true. The pilot was Ba Van Nguyen, a South Vietnamese helicopter pilot. More of his story here
Season 2 episodes

01. "Waiting for Dutch"
02. "Before the Law"
03. "The Myth of Sisyphus"
04. "Fear and Trembling"
05. "The Gift of the Magi"

06. "Rhinoceros"
07. "Did You Do This? No, You Did It!"
08. "Loplop"
09. "The Castle"
10. "Palindrome"

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