S2E1 · Waiting for Dutch

Complete story — includes the ending

In March of 1979, Otto Gerhardt, patriarch of the Gerhardt crime family in Fargo, North Dakota, is incapacitated by a stroke, potentially jeopardizing their dynasty's leadership and sending two of his sons, Dodd and Bear, into a power struggle. At a Waffle Hut near Luverne, Minnesota, Otto's third son Rye attempts to extort a judge into unfreezing the assets of his business partner Skip Sprang, but ends up murdering her and two restaurant employees. Wounded, he sees an apparent UFO and stumbles into the road, only to be struck by a passing car. The driver, beautician Peggy Blumquist, assumes Rye to be dead and hides him in her garage. Her husband Ed, a butcher, discovers Rye alive and stabs him to death after being attacked. The two elect to keep the incident a secret and hide the corpse in their meat freezer. State trooper Lou Solverson and Sheriff Hank Larsson (Lou's father-in-law) begin investigating the diner murders. At home, Lou tends for his cancer-stricken wife Betsy and their daughter Molly. In light of Otto's stroke, members of a Kansas City-based syndicate make plans to move on Fargo.