History Headscratchers / Fargo

** To be ''slightly'' fair to him, they ''are'' in the middle of nowhere. Gaear presumably assumed that he would have plenty of time to mulch up Carl and be out of there well before anyone would discover what had happened, and by disposing of Carl in such a fashion he's making it very hard for anyone to identify him, and by extension his association with Gaear. It's still pretty stupid, but there is a logic to it; Marge managing to follow the breadcrumb trail back there at that specific moment was as much bad luck on Gaear's part as much as anything else.

** There are some exceptions dealing with, say, a pursuit of a criminal who commits the crime in one jurisdiction and then flees into another, which this situation might fall under, but very likely not. However, this is ultimately one of those "[[RuleOfDrama just go with it]]" moments that pops up in pretty much every story.

** Some of this may be an element of JerkassHasAPoint. Wade's not exactly wrong in his overall view of Jerry, but from what we see he doesn't exactly seem to be a particularly nice guy either. His actions around the business deal, for example, seem to be a ''little'' sketchy at least, since he actually appears to be trying to bully Jerry out of it rather than legitimately making sure Jerry isn't interested, since Jerry clearly ''is'' -- he presumably intended to bring Wade in as a co-investor, and getting together the capital for his share is a large part of his motivation for the kidnapping).

** Some of this may be an element of JerkassHasAPoint. Wade's not exactly wrong in his overall view of Jerry, but from what we see he doesn't exactly seem to be a particularly nice guy either. His actions around the business deal, for example, seem to be a ''little'' sketchy at least, since he actually appears to be trying to bully Jerry out of it rather than legitimately making sure Jerry isn't interested (since Jerry clearly is -- getting together the capital is a large part of his motivation for the kidnapping).

* In the film, isn't it a bit dangerous for a pregnant mother to travel around doing police work? Especially when she knows she's dealing with murderers? Don't they have maternity leave for that sort of thing.

** To get rid of the bodies. His partner was killed with an axe and the kidnap victim was shot. He was probably trying to destroy evidence and make it more difficult to prove how they died and that he was the murderer.

!!TV Series:
* Why is [[spoiler:Gus killing Malvo]] considered legal? It wasn't exactly self-defense... did he lie to the police?
** Arrests and prosecutions are at the discretion of the police and a prosecutor, respectively. If they feel like neither would be productive, they don't. Malvo is wanted in connection to at least thirty murders, including those of two federal agents, a Duluth cop, and the chief of Bemidji police. Police would immediately be sympathetic to Gus' actions and if he were arrested, it would be immensely unpopular among law enforcement personnel and civilians in the community. Any prosecutor would know that Gus would be acquitted in a jury trial, so going through a trial would be a waste of time and money.
** There's no indication that Gus even reported the incident. [[spoiler:Malvo died as he lived- a [[TheSpook phantom]].]]
*** Except for all the cops investigating the site and Gus getting a citation for bravery over it you mean?
*** Malvo had left his gun on the table nearby and had a knife right by his hand - perhaps everyone around agreed that Gus "obviously" saw him reach for a weapon and so he shot him. After all, justice had undoubtedly been done, and everyone would rather consider the whole mess wrapped up than drag Gus through the courts.
* Why didn't Lester report that his car was stolen? He initially blamed [[spoiler: Vern and Pearl]]'s deaths on an unknown intruder. He could have added a stolen car on to that list of crimes and it would have actually been true since Malvo took his car. Obviously, he didn't want to give the cops Malvo's name but since he didn't report a stolen car, it only raised more suspicions about him once the police realized Malvo was driving around in his car and he never said anything. If the cops ever caught up to Malvo in Lester's stolen car, they would have said, "Oh, this is our intruder" and called it a day. Lester would go on to deny ever talking about Sam to any strangers in the hospital and there would be nothing to connect the two men.
** People did see Lester and Malvo talking in the ER. The ER nurse would later confirm this so there would be a firm connection between the two. Malvo would just say that he killed Hess for Lester, Lester reneged on the payment, and they both go down. But on a simpler level, Lester was completely flying by the seat of his pants in the beginning. Being the meek man he was, his first instinct would have been to give a simple lie of "Oh, the car's in the shop" rather than go through the paperwork of filing a report and coming up with more lies.
* Lester was unconscious in the hospital for some time after the initial murders in his home. Why wasn't the clearly visible wound on his hand treated and the buckshot in his hand found immediately?
* Why didn't Lou recognize Malvo when Malvo came into the diner? It seems like Molly has made it her life's mission to solve the Nygaard/Malvo case, and seeing as Lou is a hard bitten ex-cop, I'd think he'd be all over hashing through the case with Molly. We know that Molly has several photos of Malvo, even in quite reasonable quality, and some of these have even been published in newspapers, I don't believe that Lou wouldn't have recognized Malvo if he saw him.
** How do we know that the photos have been published in newspapers? Also, we don't see "several" photos of Malvo, only three, two of them blurry: one from the CCTV footage of him dragging the victim through the office, the other from an ATM CCTV in Fargo (which Budge and Pepper pin to the wall in their basement) and another of him in character as the reverend. Even Pepper, who has glimpsed Malvo, finds it difficult to recognise him from the original CCTV photo. The Malvo Lou meets has silver hair and a goatee, not dark hair and a full beard, and we know that Malvo is a skilled actor. Lou clearly recognises that there is something very, very dangerous about the guy he meets (as he puts it to Lester with characteristic understatement, "I didn't think much of his demeanour") but he'd probably have to be a genius detective to recognise that it's the guy Molly is after.
* Why Lou and Hank allowed [[spoiler:Ed to run away without giving some sort of an effort to chase him?]]
** Hanks says that they "know where he's going," which is back home. As I recall, they make a passing mention about how they didn't expect him to hightail it back out of there so fast and slip away.
* Why wasn't Hanzee sent to [[spoiler: kill Ed at the butcher shop?]]
** The Gerhardts have plenty of killers. Plus, they don't seem to realize quite how much more competent Hanzee is than any of them.
* How long will Peggy [[spoiler: be in prison?]]
** [[spoiler: It all depends on what the Minnesota prosecutor can prove and what the judge is willing to dish out. But given how they can effectively prove that she and Ed kidnapped Dodd and that he died while under their imprisonment, she could be liable to up to 40 years in prison maximum, going by Minnesota law at the time. However, her defense attorney may be able to talk the sentence down or the judge may be more lenient on her, so she may get a reduced sentence. However, all signs point to her getting no less than 20 years in the slammer (parole possibilities notwithstanding)]].
* What exactly are Peggy's provable crimes? There's the hit-and-run (which police seem to think was Ed's doing) and obstruction of justice. Isn't that pretty much it? While she set some majorly destructive events in motion, every killing was done by someone else, and things like injuring or assaulting people could all be argued as self-defense.
** There's one big crime she committed that they can prove: Kidnapping [[spoiler: Dodd Gerhardt]]. While he did attack her in their house, immediately bounding and gagging said attacker and holding him for ransom/leverage is beyond illegal. It also doesn't help that [[spoiler: Dodd was killed]] while being held by the Blumquists; under Minnesota law, this allows the judge to sentence her for an even longer jail sentence because her and Ed's actions (albeit indirectly) led to the circumstances of [[spoiler: Dodd's death]]. Granted, she may get off easy if she's got a good defense attorney, who might try to convince the jury that Ed strong-armed her into doing the kidnapping or merely bring up how a dangerous mass-murdering criminal was the one who actually did the deed ([[spoiler: Hanzee]]). But given how the police will be able to prove that Peggy was stabbing [[spoiler: Dodd]] in the chest before he died (they likely have the knife used as evidence, with both his blood and Peggy's fingerprints on it) and her suspicious behavior before the kidnapping, she's likely to get some form of jail time even if it's not the maximum sentence.
* When Hank woke up on the porch and spoke to the dispatcher and was told about the siege at the precinct, did he just get in his car and drive off without thinking to check on Peggy and what happened to the Gerhardts that were there when Hanzee knocked him out?
* After the Gerhardts were officially wiped out thanks to him, why didn't ([[spoiler: Hanzee]]) let Peggy and Ed live and go about their business while he went about his?
** The narrator of episode 9 actually acknowledges this, remarking that nobody is quite sure why [[spoiler: Hanzee]] went after Peggy and Ed. However, the most plausible explanation the narrator gives is that [[spoiler: Hanzee]] wanted to get rid of the two people that saw his 'true' self when he asked Peggy to [[spoiler: cut his hair after he killed Dodd]]. This was a moment of weakness for [[spoiler: Hanzee]], and he wanted to make sure nobody remained who could remember that brief moment he revealed his self-hatred.
* What would've happened had Peggy (with a normal mental capacity) went immediately to the police after [[spoiler: running over Rye?!]]
** She would have been charged with hit and run. Her legal defense probably would have prevented Ed from buying the butcher shop. Rye would have survived. The war between the Gerhardts and the Kansas City mob would have gone on without that distraction.
*** Saying that, if Rye had survived, Dodd and Hanzee wouldn't have been able to pin his death on the KCM, thereby prompting Floyd and Bear to support full war; the conflict between the two groups would probably have played out very differently, with a probable Gerhardt family split between Floyd and Dodd.
* Why was Rye sent to intimidate the judge?
** He wants her to unfreeze the assets of his business partner, the guy with the electric typewriters and gambling debts.
* What happened to the other Gerhardt children? Dodd said that he has 4 daughters, and some of the earlier scenes had younger children running around the house. They aren't much after, but they were there.

!!Movie:

** Marge also had her gun drawn and aimed right at him. If he'd tried going for a gun or making a move towards her, she could and probably would have easily plugged him. And if she's got back-up, if he wastes time attacking her, then all she needs to do is cry out once, they're on top of him. But since she's visibly pregnant and unlikely to be able to speedily pursue him, his best chance was making a break for it.

*** Malvo had left his gun on the table nearby and had a knife right by his hand - perhaps everyone around agreed that Gus obviously saw him reach for a weapon and so he shot him. After all, justice had undoubtedly been done, and everyone would rather consider the whole mess wrapped up than drag Gus through the courts.

** Grimsrud didn't have a gun on him [[spoiler:at the woodchipper and he might have panicked upon seeing Marge, thinking that she wasn't alone.]] Criminals tend to be a rather impulsive lot, often reacting like children to sudden, unexpected triggers, especially if they think punishment has come for them.

* In the film, how come [[spoiler: Gaear didn't shoot Marge when she confronted him while he was shredding Carl in the wood chipper and fled into nowhere?]] It's not like he had any problem killing people during the film, as [[spoiler: the cop, the couple, Jean and Carl]] found out the hard way.