Palindrome (Fargo)

"Palindrome" serves as the tenth episode and season finale of the second season of the anthology series *Fargo*, which blends black comedy with crime drama. It is the 20th episode overall, with Noah Hawley, the series' creator, handling the writing and Adam Arkin directing. The episode aired on FX on December 14, 2015. It wraps up the season’s story, set in the Upper Midwest during March 1979, focusing on what happens after the motel massacre and the ultimate outcomes for the Blumquists, Hanzee, and others.

In the plot, Betsy, whose health is declining, provides a voiceover imagining how her family will carry on after she dies. She envisions the world changing over time, with Lou raising Molly, and later sees an older Lou visiting an adult Molly, her husband Gus, and her step-daughter Greta, along with the revelation that Molly and Gus had a son. Meanwhile, Ed and Peggy flee from Hanzee after the motel massacre, with Hanzee shooting Ed in the back. They hide in a supermarket meat locker, where Ed, bleeding heavily, says their relationship won’t survive. Elsewhere, Milligan arrives at the Gerhardt house, letting the maid leave with the family car and money. Ricky G shows up to rob the place but is shot by Gale Kitchen and left to bleed. Hanzee reaches the locker, locked from inside with a knife sharpening steel, and starts a fire that sends smoke inside. Peggy, realizing Ed has lost consciousness, grabs an icepick to fight, but when she opens the door, she finds Lou and Schmidt instead. The smoke was part of a mental breakdown mirroring a movie she had watched; Hanzee never entered the supermarket, and Ed died from blood loss. Peggy is arrested and driven to Minnesota by Lou. In Bismarck, Hanzee meets a handler who gives him a new identity as "Tripoli" and plans for plastic surgery to start a new organization against Kansas City. He then saves two kids from bullies. Milligan meets his boss, Hamish Broker, who promotes him but assigns him to a small accounting office, disappointing him. Hank visits Lou and Betsy for dinner, where they discuss how to report the UFO. When Betsy asks about strange symbols in his study, Hank says they form a universal language that helped him after his wife died. The episode ends with the family going to sleep.