‘Fargo’ recap: Beware the Jabberwock

There are few things in this world that are more terrifying than Lewis Carroll’s “The Jabberwocky.”

This is, by all rights, a ridiculous statement, both given the terrors that the world houses and the fact that “Jabberwocky,” at heart, is a nonsense poem squirreled away in a children’s book. But there’s something specifically about the cadence of Carroll’s nonsense that lends it a deeply foreboding air, a sense that danger lurks and that what’s to come will be fed by your fear.

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Perhaps some of this reading of the poem comes from interpretations of the creature as featured in modern retellings of the “Alice in Wonderland” stories, but when the lyrical verses were recited by Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine) in this week’s episode of “Fargo,” their latent menace returned with a vengeance.

But “The Jabberwocky” isn’t the only source of lurking menace referenced in “Rhinoceros.” The title of the episode is likely a reference to the 1959 Eugène Ionesco play of the same name, in which a drunken slob, driven by paranoia, finds himself surrounded by rhinoceroses, as every other individual of his small, French town are transformed.

At the time, the play was seen as an indictment of extremism in the wake of World War II, and throughout, the work examines the dangerous seduction of mob mentality, even in the face of the seemingly ridiculous.

As applicable as this seems on every level to “Fargo,” it is perhaps a particularly adept analysis of Karl Weathers, as portrayed by Nick Offerman. Weathers is the only lawyer in Luverne, Minn., a veteran, an impassioned drinker, and a conspiracy theorist.

Though he’s been largely sidelined at the local VFW for much of the season, Weathers is called upon in “Rhinoceros” to serve as lawyer for Ed Blumquist and, eventually, Charlie Gerhardt. More than that, it falls upon Karl to attempt to talk sense into Bear who, with his men, have surrounded the police station in an attempt to free his son and, failing that, kill Ed.

But Karl isn’t the same man as we’ve seen in previous episodes. All bluster and bravado when it comes to talking about what the country should be doing and the extent of his participation in the war effort, Karl seems shaken to his drunken core when tasked with facing down an angry, armed Gerhardt clan.

In the credits sequence, there is footage of Karl speaking to his acquaintances about how during war there is a camaraderie of men that just can’t be found stateside, but perhaps it’s something more than that. Often, veterans return home different having experienced the atrocities of war and Karl seems no different. But in running afoul of the Gerhardts, he is exposed to a chaos he is unfamiliar with, and that sets him on edge.

Karl Weathers thought he knew all the evil the world had to offer. He was wrong.

Conversely, Peggy Blumquist seems to have little concept of the evil standing just outside her door, nor does she care. With Ed being taken into police custody, Peggy views this as their opportunity to flee and finally start a new life more suited tot her.

Peggy is so clueless that she continues to plan on attending her Lifespring seminar in Sioux Falls the following day -- the same Sioux Falls that hosts the massacre that’s loomed over “Fargo” since season one.

Which feels like an appropriate juncture to take a moment and speak about Kirsten Dunst’s performance on this season of the show.

Dunst plays Peggy as simultaneously idealistic but naive, hopeful but broken, capturing that truly Midwestern sense of internal conflict that burbles, repressed, just under the surface. None of this is clearer than when Peggy tells Hank that in the moments after an accident, life doesn’t proceed as though in a vacuum -- that in reality, the aftermath is like a dream.

Throughout, Peggy’s eyes are tired, empty. Dunst is a marvel, making Peggy’s fear and resignation palpable with a single glance.

Uncertainty about the future suffuses the episode as characters must make choices to stand their ground or back down, time and again. Bear chooses to back down to spare Charlie. Peggy holds her ground versus Dodd. Mike attacks the Gerhardt compound with barrels blazing. Karl stands resolute in the face of danger.

But all are wary of the disjointed lyricism at work and, if wise, all will beware the Jabberwock.

Follow me on Twitter at @midwestspitfire.