Just when it didn’t seem possible that the first season of Fargo could be topped, Noah Hawley comes swinging hard with an excellent season two. The follow-up was actually a prequel to the first season, which focused on Minnesota state trooper Lou Solverson and Rock County sheriff Hank Larsson who investigated three homicides linked to Rye. Within that story, Peggy and Ed Blumquist get entangled when the former accidentally runs over Rye Gerhardt. Like any normal person would do, she continues driving with the body still on the hood of the car. This scene is beautifully laid out. Rye is coming off a massive killing spree inside of the Waffle House, thus making him an extremely deplorable person. On the surface, we’re actually happy that he is getting his just deserts by being run over. However, there’s a larger story at play here.
Peggy is clearly a psychopath. Any normal person would check to see if everything was okay if they accidentally ran someone over with their car. That moment has you thinking about Peggy’s upbringing and why this beautiful housewife isn’t fazed with running over someone. She didn’t witness the heinous crimes that Rye just committed. Or did she? It’s an interesting coincidence that Rye gets his comeuppance the moment after he commits his dirty deeds. The show never states or hints that Peggy was there at the crime scene, but that’s the fun of exploring into her character even more. Just exactly what was Peggy doing moments before she ran over Rye? Was she coming from something that frustrated or angered her? Maybe Peggy was an inner killer hiding her true self due to societal standards.
She’s portrayed as a woman with big-city dreams, but Peggy doesn’t really know who she is. She’s living the classic American dream, a loving husband, making a decent living in an area that isn’t too bad. However, the key thing is about how Peggy grew up. Her mother, Nora Knutson, died of breast cancer at the age of ten and went on to live in a farm. She was mostly a sheltered child shunned from the world. Was this by choice? Her backstory says that she spent most of her childhood tilling the soil, but that doesn’t mean that would ultimately stop her from interacting with kids. Was Peggy an anti-social being? Did her Aunt see Peggy as a threat to other children, which is why she mainly distracted her with work?
Peggy isn’t like most psychopaths portrayed on television. She isn’t going around killing people because she’s a bloodthirsty murderer. It would be great at getting into her psyche on what goes through her mind about life, love, and what she feels about the world she lives in. Fargo does an excellent job making us understand the housewife, but they still leave an air of mystery about her character that’s intriguing. Hell, we could actually get a mini-series with the Peggy that Dunst played in the second season, but the show is from her perspective. What was she thinking before she ran over Rye? It didn’t seem like she was trying to stop it from happening. What was her reaction after? From the offset, it just seemed as she shrugged if off and continued on with her evening. But surely even psychopaths have feelings, right? The story couldn’t be as simple as her going home and making cheap nuggets and tater tots.
Even then, is Peggy truly happy with the life she lives. Ed was clearly her second choice following the death of her true lover, Tim, who died in the Vietnam war. How much did that loss affect the young woman? Does she resent life as she knows it because she isn’t with the dream guy that she really wanted? There are so many directions to go with this character that it should be a fascinating study on the pressures of society and how women like Peggy are being held back from their true potential. Perhaps she has so little disregard for Rye’s life because she just doesn’t care too much about it. She’s putting up a front to survive, but the inner demon in her wants more than what she’s become. Fargo season two comes with a set of amazing and colorful characters that have an interesting layer of depth that should be explored more. With the fifth season up in the air, it would be great if Noah Hawley opted to dive back into the rich characters that come from season’s past.
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