Fargo 1.02 “The Rooster Prince”

There is much to like about this second episode of the Fargo miniseries (this first season consisting of 10 episodes) and an important part of it lays in the fact that when the credits roll, after almost 50 minutes of intense noir drama, I hadn’t looked at the time — not even once — and certainly was not expecting the episode to end; so embroiled was I in the developing dark comedy thriller.

The episode is similar in tone to the first one, though the waters seem to have quieted a bit, if only for a moment. It could be said that we, impatient viewers, are given the logical series of events that should’ve come after the explosive inaugural episode. I am betting that next week will give us more murders and more twisted confrontations between these characters that sometimes feel written for the screen, instead of having been taken from a real story, as we are always reminded at the beginning of the show.

Also, though there’s less explicit violence this time around, it is with good reason, as the writers give us some very welcome character development that helps define the road that the story is going to follow.

If police officer Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) was a major character already, and seeds of her restless character had been planted, things get a turn for the worse after she decides that the route her new chief officer is taking on the investigation of the murder of the wife of Lester Nygaard  (played by Sherlock and Hobbit’s own Martin Freeman) is plainly wrong. He is clearly avoiding potential evidence and never really taking into consideration Molly’s theory – and the actual truth – that Lester could have murdered his wife and could also be involved in the murders of crook Sam Hess and the previous police chief.

If I kind of felt pity for Lester in the previous episode, maybe because of the way life and everyone in his life mistreated him, I now felt differently. He is a low human being that won’t admit his part in the crime spree, and doesn’t have the courage to confront Officer Solverson, literally running away from her and seeking refuge with his brother, who we know despises him, but can’t help but feel sorry for his loss.

The consolation comes when I think that inevitably, Lester will pay, as his actions have started a chain reaction that have brought into play mobsters straight from Fargo, who are looking for Sam Hess’ killer.

Meanwhile, the evil and careless assassin-for-hire Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) continues his dark journey. After leaving a trail of evil and death in Bemidji, he is now on another assignment in the nearby Duluth, having to off the soon-to-be-ex-wife of a supermarket guru. Every appearance of Thornton has gravitas, as his portrayal sums up every trait that the “evil guys” often have on the Cohen Brothers’ movies.

His character is always a really weird mix between scary and comical, and the best part of it all is that there is not one without the other; and you can see that Malvo loves what he does because it means he gets to despise almost everyone and make fun of them at the same time. What most of the characters who encounter Malvo realize, however, is that being verbally bullied by this strange man can be the least of their worries, as he has an aura of pure violence all around him; an aura that gets more real with every word he fires.

And, though everyone is looking for him to make him pay – Fargo mobsters, Bemidji police and soon Duluth police – he manages to stay away from all the fireworks for now.

Another character that is slowly growing, perhaps realizing that he could have stopped a dangerous individual who threatened his daughter’s life – none other than Lorne Malvo at the end of the first episode – is policeman Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks), who might be slowly having a change of heart after seeing the courage and pure heart of his innocent child. Also, what the heck is going on with Grimly’s housewife neighbor, putting on a strip show for him right before dinner? I guess we’ll see more of that, but it also adds to the sick and disturbed feeling of this series.

All the characters in the show seem to be, without knowing or acknowledging, inevitably being attracted to one another, as the many branches of this tree that is Fargo converges into one bad apple: twisted Lorne Malvo. It is going to be funny when they collide. Or not.