‘Fargo’ Season 2 Finale: Love Among the Ruins

Last updated on: December 14, 2015 at 4:14 pm by Kate O'Hare

‘Fargo’ Season 2 Finale: Love Among the Ruins 2015-12-14T16:14:36-08:00 Kate O'Hare

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In Robert Browning’s 1855 poem, “Love Among the Ruins,” a young man looks upon the site where a great city once stood, now overrun with nature and a pasture for sheep. There, near the last standing stones of this once-mighty edifice, waits his true love. At the end:

In one year they sent a million fighters forth

         South and North,

And they built their gods a brazen pillar high

         As the sky

Yet reserved a thousand chariots in full force—

         Gold, of course.

O heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns!

         Earth’s returns

For whole centuries of folly, noise and sin!

         Shut them in,

With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!

         Love is best.

Tonight, Monday, Dec. 14, at 10 p.m. ET/PT, FX’s anthology series “Fargo” ends it second season (a prequel to last year’s first season, inspired by, but not based on, the Coen brothers movie of the same name) with an episode called “Palindrome,” directed by Adam Arkin and written by series creator Noah Hawley.

A Minnesota couple, butcher Ed Blumquist (Jesse Plemons) and his dissatisfied, unbalanced wife Peggy (Kirsten Dunst), come to the end of a long, strange journey that began with her hitting a killer — the son of a powerful Northern Midwest crime family, the Gerhardts — with her car, as he paused in the middle of a dark snowy road after committing multiple homicides, his gaze fixed on a UFO hovering nearby.

What followed has been a winding, brutal, bloody tale of a clash of crime empires, with many casualties, casual cruelties, betrayals and mindless murder. But the heart of “Fargo” — as it was in season one — is husbands, wives and family, some good, some not so good.

The Gerhardts, led by tough matriarch Floyd (Jean Smart), have torn themselves apart trying to keep their criminal enterprise intact after the patriarch (Michael Hogan) suffered a stroke.

Ed has seen what he thought was a happy marriage unravel as the extent of his wife’s psychosis, narcissism and chronic unhappiness lead him further and further from any semblance of normal to the edge of madness.

Meanwhile, Minnesota State Police Officer Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson), with the help of fellow officer and father-in-law Hank Larsson (Ted Danson), has tried to unravel the bizarre crime spree, while also worrying about his level-headed and brave wife, Betsy (Cristin Milloti), who’s balancing a battle against cancer with raising her six-year-old daughter Molly (played as an adult in season one by Allison Tolman).

Meanwhile, Gerhardt henchman Hanzee Dent (Zahn McClarnon), a Native American orphan taken in by the family, becomes an avenging demon in search of some way to escape his life.

While I can’t tell you what happens in the finale of “Fargo,” I can say that love, real love, wins in all the ways that matter, while all the counterfeit forms of it — greed, lust, envy — go up in flames.

Some Catholics may object to the level of violence in “Fargo” — and I can’t blame them. It’s not quite to the staggering heartlessness of the last few seasons of FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” or the depravity of the pilot of FX’s “The Bastard Executioner” (which is as far as I got in watching that one), but it’s up there.

Oh, and while it’s not HBO/Showtime standards, there is sexual content and language as well.

On the other hand, love and family never mean more than when chaos and destruction threaten. In the midst of the madness of the world, there are Lou and Betsy Solversons, standing by each other, supporting each other, enduring the pains and fears of ordinary life, but leaning on love and faith to survive.

At one point, a friend quotes to Betsy from the French philosopher Camus, who feels that death ultimately makes life a joke. I didn’t write down her reply verbatim, but essentially Betsy says that we all were put here with a job to do, and we have the time we need to do it, and then, when we stand before the Lord, He’s not going to want to hear that His Creation was a Frenchman’s joke.

I’ve seen faith-based tales that didn’t express the beauty and meaning of life quite as well as this tired, suffering woman, speaking from her private purgatory in the midst of a cold-hearted, wintry world.

If you haven’t been watching season two of “Fargo,” the 10 episodes are available to stream on several platforms, including FXNow, Amazon Prime, iTunes, CinemaNow, Google Play and OnDemand via DirecTV, Comcast, Verizon and Time Warner Cable.

Season one of “Fargo” is available on Hulu.

Here’s a preview:

Image: Courtesy FX

Don’t miss a thing: head over to my other home at CatholicVote and like my Facebook page.

Previous Post

December 11, 2015

'Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors' Outdraws 'The Wiz Live' -- Nearly 13M Viewers!

Next Post

December 15, 2015 Happy Festivus to All: 'Seinfeld' Comes to Los Angeles

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books breaking news digital media Faith practice food interview jane the virgin media movies music NFL Pope Francis Showbiz 101 social media sports technology television Uncategorized video

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz