Well, that didn't take long. It was clear from the second episode of Fargo Season 2 that the mystery of what happened to Rye Gerhardt was going to be solved sooner than later. Peggy Blomquist, who hit the young mafioso with her car, and her husband Ed, who finished Rye off with a garden trowel, were doing such a poor job of covering it up that it was only a matter of time before they slipped. First Ed nearly fell to pieces when Lou Solverson showed up at the butcher's shop while he was disposing of Rye's body; then Peggy made the mistake of letting her boss see her banged up car, cracked windshield and all. Sure enough, in this Monday's episode, "Fear And Trembling," the Blomquists were found out. The only question is, what happens to them now?
Funnily enough, Peggy and Ed did such a bad job covering up their tangential involvement in the Waffle Hut massacre that not just one but two people cracked the case at the same time. First there was Gerhardt henchman Ohanzee Dent, dispatched from North Dakota to Minnesota to find out what happened to the youngest scion of the crime family. His first stop was the Waffle Hut, where Rye had gunned down the judge, fry cook, and waitress. On the road outside the diner, Ohanzee found a piece of glass from a broken headlight. He drove to the nearest auto body shop and, sure enough — he matched the glass to a car just like Prince Charming with Cinderella's slipper.
Ohanzee was able to intimidate the mechanic into giving him the identity of the car's owner, although gruff Karl Weathers was able to intervene in time — otherwise the hapless young man would likely have ended up bleeding out on the garage floor. The henchman wasted no time in hightailing it to the Blomquist abode, where he let himself into their home and snooped around... before fleeing at the sight of an approaching police officer.
That officer was Lou, who was called to the garage after the mechanic's terrifying encounter with Ohanzee. All it took was for Lou to hear who the man was looking for and who was doing the looking to put two and two together. He booked it over to the Blomquists' and parked himself on their front porch, waiting for the couple to get home from work. Although he told them that he knew they had killed Rye and he warned them that the Gerhardts would likely kill them when they found out, Peggy and Ed stubbornly refused to admit to their misdeeds. Lou left disappointed, questioning his faith in humanity.
So what's next? It would strain credulity were we to see the naïve couple survive an encounter with Ohanzee or Dodd or any of the rest of the Gerhardt clan. But series regulars Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons are unlikely to be killed off in the fifth episode of a 10-episode season. Maybe they'll go on the run. Maybe they'll be able to convince the Gerhardts that Rye is somehow still alive, given the lack of a body. Or maybe Peggy will turn out to be surprisingly resourceful with some clippers and a curling iron than we ever imagined.
One thing seems for sure: even if the Blomquists manage to survive for another few episodes, it seems increasingly doubtful that either of them will be making it out of Season 2 alive.
Images: Chris Large, Mathias Clamer (2)/FX
