that's what i mean; it just seems completely implausible that he wouldn't have offed her. or if he wanted to keep her alive, say something like "now i can kill you the way it oughta be--in front of your man". but even then he would've tied her up instead of just leaving her by the bed.

and i would think milligan would've bolted from the hotel if he saw a headline with his very own name in it and found another hideout. it's also worth noting that it seems like the gerhardts knew where milligan was (picking up simone) and didn't do anything there either.

that stuff is kind of sloppy. as far as the references, it has been a while since i've seen a coen brothers movie so some of them are totally lost on me. which is fine. i don't need a constant reminder that i'm watching something inspired by them.

Does anyone know why Hanzie shot Dodd? I thought they were tight?

Is it just Hanzie getting fed up with racism and going crazy or was there something else there that I missed? Seemed like he went crazy out of nowhere starting at that bar.

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and they made a point of showing that no hair was cut...so obviously he isn't done with that life just yet.

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You know me like that.

the payoff was fairly humorous. it was actually a pretty nice distraction. i liked the narration, and using the actor they did was great.

i think the best part of the whole sequence was peggy saying "it's just a flying saucer".

Was kind of hoping that the shootout wouldn't happen until Kansas City got there but this plays out nicely for a bit of a chase
with Hanzee, the couple and Milligan. The UFO thing is a little strange but doesn't detract from this great season.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

i wonder how many shootouts there have been in this season.

hawley's going to have a huge burden for season 3. you can't get much bigger than what's happened this season.

Yeah that is a pretty good question... He didn't have knowledge of the drop point at all did he? Even that... Pretty good tracking.

This show has been so excellent.

They didn't stick that landing.

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You know me like that.

Totally agree. A complete letdown of a finale. Loved the season. Strongly disliked the last episode, though I don't have any suggestions on what they should've done. Just not what they did, I guess.

ok.

i thought it was very well done. the symbology explanation was nice, and the fact that the solversons are together as a family was a nice touch.

i LOL'd at the office future for milligan.

If you don't read Alan Sepinwall on Hitfix.com, you should. Best TV writer there is.

He has an interesting story about Hanzee/Tripoli.

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/how-the-fargo-finale-revealed-a-hidden-secret-from-season-1

Here's his finale recap, which he liked more than I did:

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-fargo-sticks-the-season-2-landing-with-palindrome

AV club had a nice write up of the finale. the main women characters of simone, betsy, peggy, and floyd, provide a really good jumping off point of thinking about what this season deals with. mothers, loss, recklessness, family, and inexplicable insanity. peggy is probably the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to rationality of betsy. floyd may at one time been like simone, but matured and possibly hardened.

there is a lot going on in the finale. it's a shame you guys are dismissing it. oh well.

The Mike Milligan scene where they insert him into middle management was outstanding. The rest of the episode was just ok at best.
Why was Lou limping around in the early scenes where they show him growing older but he never gets shot or stabbed during the
episode at all that would cause him to be gimpy. Maybe next season? Thought that was odd. I thought it was a great season and
even though the finale wasn't all that I hoped it was the best series/season that I viewed in all of 2015. Bring on season 3.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

That's a bit bizarre. I follow him more than anybody and typically am in 100% agreement.

But, this one time I'm not, he used the exact opposite phrasing that I did. Creepy.

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You know me like that.

Peggy stabbed him in the back with a pair of scissors.

Also, she threw boiling water on his face at the hotel.

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It felt like the show should have ended last week with an extra 10-15 minutes.. This hour plus last night was bad and in necessary.. Still a great season and best show on TV.

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Loved the finale!

You guys are nuts to say it was bad. Let me ask you something...if instead of a finale, this week's episode was tacked onto the end of last week's episode and we had one giant 2.5 hour ep last week...if that happened would you guys be complaining about the ending? I doubt it. The finale ended up being a very long final scene, but I loved it. It was similar to the end of The Return of The King in that the final scene and wrap up took about an hour.

They wrapped up all the loose ends. I don't understand the complaints about us not seeing Lou's traffic stop shooting. When we're we ever promised a resolution to that question? I personally never assumed that would happen during this season.

The opening montage was great with Lou reading the "this is based on a true story..." opening with all the dead Gerhearts and then pausing when they showed his wife in a great is she dead or not moment. The look into the future was great. The tie in to season 1 with Hanzee was great although I need to rewatch that cause I don't remember any of that.

Peggy was fantastic till the very end. She should win some awards for her performance this season. Loved Lou interrupting her pity party in the squad car.

Mike Milligan getting the Vik Mackey ending was fitting for a guy who didn't really do anything to secure the so called victory he claimed over the Gerhearts other than sleep with the grandaughter and kill the old crippled man.

Too bad the next season happens in the recent past...was hoping for more Patrick Wilson.

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They lost me with the UFO. I loved the season overall and the character work was great.

But, to drop that in as the most important moment of the whole season for the main character, Lou, and then not even venture to explain what happened or why, it takes you out of the show completely.

I get that he was going for some Coen Brothers theater of the absurd or whatever but I can't get on board. For the characters to not even react or comment on what happened was just bizarre. One throw-away line is not a normal reaction to what occurred.

I had a hard time setting that aside through the entire finale.

Also, I think the Hanzee stuff was too cute. I've watched every episode and listen to an hour-long podcast about each one every week and I didn't get that reference. I thought he was going to turn himself into Malvo. It wasn't until later, in reading, that you find out the truth which, fine, maybe it's not that important and just in there as a little easter egg but I felt like the writer wanted you to believe what he was doing was important to his story.

The finale didn't ruin the season for me or anything. I just didn't think it was quite up to the standard the show had set leading up to it.

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You know me like that.

Looks like season 3 won't be until 2017. Variety says it will take place around 2010, with most likely all new characters.

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Fuck Edwards and Zobrist

That's funny cause I thought it was great the way they finally incorporated the UFO into the story. Its funny cause earlier in the season I was in the camp that the UFO was really stupid and I think you were arguing that you liked it. And they did cover it in the finale when Hank asked Lou if he was gonna put the UFO in his report. What else were they supposed to do on that front?

In general I think the UFO ended up being a great distraction to the story. It seems to me like most of the UFO stories we've heard all our lives originated out of the midwest and some small town or farmer getting probed. Loved that they incorporated that class of "urban legend" into the show in a way that didn't take away from the main story. When the UFO finally did show up the characters were so distracted that they didn't even have time to ponder what they were looking at..too many bullets flying around. Besides Hank and Lou, the only other people who saw the UFO and are still breathing are Peggy and Triploi and they aren't exactly talking about it.

I don't think you should get that worked up about the UFO, afterall it's just a flying saucer.

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well said shakes; and to put a fine point on it...the show's not about aliens. it has nothing to do with alien close encounters. it's used as a set piece, but not necessarily a plot point. crazy shit that happens that no one will believe. well, that is what a lot that makes up "fargo" in general.

i would've liked to see a conclusion with charlie, just because i liked him. and it seemed like noreen was changing her tune once she came into contact with him. i would've been keen on their story, should one have developed.

in many ways i thought this season was superior to the first. these characters have stuck with me a lot longer than the first season's, but it does make me want to revisit the first season to connect some of the dots.

i thought the only plot convenience (because the alien spacecraft as a deus ex machina was clearly on purpose) that was weak was ed finding out where mike milligan was. maybe that was on purpose too but it just didn't come across that way.

it still gets me how ed dies so pitifully, and quietly. that was unexpected.

I agree. But, when the climax of the entire season rests upon alien close encounters, then it really is a show about aliens.

I just didn't care for it. Yes, crazy shit happens on Fargo but with the exception of the fish tornado last year, which I wasn't thrilled about either, they are crazy coincidences that can happen and they continue to spin out of control. To me, that's what makes the show so interesting - how small decisions compound into crazy results.

Even the fish tornado didn't really impact the main plot. This was just too big of a deal in my book.

I still loved this season. But, this one thing did bother me and it's a pretty big thing. And, shakes, I don't know if I said I liked the UFO angle earlier. I might have. I wasn't expecting to have much of a problem with it but I also didn't anticipate them making it such a major point of the plot. I thought it would be something more along the lines of a thing that happens to somebody similar to the fish tornado.

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You know me like that.

You're losing me with "major point of the plot" argument. To me, it wasn't part of the plot at all, let alone a major part. Its just something really weird that happened to happen at the exact moment the season was coming to a climax. It happened, the characters took notice for a few seconds and then they went back to the pressing matters at hand. It didn't affect the plot at all (unless it caused one of the shooters to get distracted and miss but I don't remember if that was the case).

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Bear got distracted by a UFO and it allowed Lou to escape death and shoot him.

That's major.

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You know me like that.

I loved it. I was in the Hanzee becoming Malvo camp (especially considering what he does in Fargo in season one), but was fine with that not happening.
I can wait until 2017 if the quality is this high.

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I didn't think Hanzee could be Malvo, he's like 5'5".

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For one, we don't know if Lou was going to die there. We don't know if the UFO affected the outcome at all there. Even if it did, I wouldn't call it a major plot point....just yet another crazy event that changed the circumstances. also do we even know if Lou shot Bear? I read that it was Hanzie. Looked like Lou to me, but lots of people saying it was Hanzie.

Lou was never going to die, we already knew that from season 1 existing. So to have him end up living because of all things a UFO encounter is pretty cool if you ask me.

Honestly, I wouldn't even call the UFO the most unbelievable plot point of the season. I think having the KC mob holed up at a hotel with the whole world knowing about it and no one doing anything about it is a lot more unbelievable and far fetched to me than a random UFO sighting.

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The hotel thing was bothersome - as was the newspaper left conveniently for Ed to find.

And if it were just a UFO sighting, I'd agree with you. But this was a fucking UFO the size of a city block hovering 50 feet over their heads and beaming lights directly on Lou. That is a straight-up UFO encounter.

Of course Lou wasn't going to die. We all knew that. But, he was getting choked out. Bear was going to kill him and the main reason he wasn't able to do so was because life forms from another planet or the future or something took an interest in what was going on like they were watching a college football game.

It was just one Coen reference too far for me.

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You know me like that.