Feh. She has "ABDUCTION" written all over her. Heck, in this ep. her first scene is foreshadowed by a lab rat in a cage.

Well, episode 1 was basically a big tribute act to the bit where Wade got shot - both in Otto's big facial close-up before his stroke, and Rye's episode with Judge Munt being an echo of that scene. (Guy with a little mustache demands something of older person, older person sez an unequivocal No, guy with little…

If I didn't know better, I'd suspect Ohanzee is waiting to see how all this plays out, to see if he of all people might have a shot at coming out on top. He could have reported his suspicions to Dodd or Floyd by this point, but he's hanging back. Like I theorised last week, he may be planning on just offing someone of…

Ohanzee does more visually resemble Anton Chigurh, and like both him and Malvo he prefers an unconventional weapon over a firearm.

What's interesting about that opening scene is that you can see Young!Otto being very much a pre-emptive echo of his son Rye. The scrawny little bastard really took after his old man - go into a public place for a hit, prove himself a man and try to grab some power; then basically just shoot down everyone there…

Also: gang wars? Amateurs messing things up? Cops who don't know anything? A kid with cerebral palsy? Silent, shifty twin assassins in snazzy outfits? A formidable mafioso paralysed in a wheelchair? Jesse Plemons running around murdering folk and barely showing his emotions?

Not to mention his damned butt-crack this time. Shudder.

Ah, who can tell with integers? I get 'em mixed-up sometimes, and I'm 25.

"Who did you think was coming?"
"It wasn't a question of who, more like what."
"Did it come?"
"Not that night. But soon after."

Joe Bulo.

No, you weren't alone. I think this is a tiny "Oh shiiii" moment for us, the audience alone, unbeknownst to the characters.

"And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!"

I think you're onto something here, especially considering how prevalent Fish were as a metaphor in Fargo S1 - for fate, for swimming against the tides, for something that slowly rots after it's caught, for being a fish-out-of-water, etc.

Note the way in E1 that he appears, in the photo, to be looking directly at the Kansas City guy while he's delivering his presentation. As though they're implying that there's only one Gerhardt brother capable of dealing with, or putting down, their competitors…

And while I'm making non-Coens comparisons, it just hit me: Ed & Peggy's arc owes as much to Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" as it does to "The Man Who Wasn't There" (the bit where they throw the body in the freezer is a nice visual echo).

And speaking of gang warfare: I cannot *wait* to see Jean Smart get to do her own version of the "Danny Boy" sequence from Miller's Crossing, however it plays out. If there's anything I enjoy, it's a woman of a certain age being a complete and utter badass.

The politics of failure have failed; we need to make them work again!

Won't someone think of the cartographers?!

As I've mentioned previously, there seem to be a lot of arrows pointing directly at Betsy as the Fargo Character Most Likely To Be Abducted. So far, evidence includes:

I was implying aliens, but sure, whatever.