Fargo TV Series Easter Eggs

If you saw the film...FargoCarl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) gets fed into a wood chipper by his mostly-silent partner Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare). Chief Marge Gunderson arrests Gaear Grimsrud. Neither criminal keeps the $924,000 Carl buried by the road, deep in the snow, marked with a red-handled ice scraper. This misfortune starts a new path for young, desperate Stavros Milos. The film takes place in 1987.Fargo.

Two pushers want to break out and do something with their lives. Jerry seeks the lawbreaking, wrongly assuming a kidnapping plot will work. Lester falls under the power of Lorne Malvo, the passing-through-town killer. Both men dig themselves deeper until options run out. Jerry gets caught; Lester takes a frozen nap with the fish.

The Coens perfected the relentless bad man. Randall Tex Cobb’s bounty hunter Leonard Smalls appears in...Raising Arizonato the chilling Anton Chigurh inNo Country for Old Men, FargoThe showrunner kept pace with his unstoppable bad men, Lorne Malvo and Hanzee Dent.

InRaising ArizonaH.I. has a dream about the future. He sees himself and Ed with their own children and the future. Maybe it was Utah.

InFargoSeason two, Betsy Solverson fights cancer and has a dream about the future. She sees her daughter, granddaughter, future son-in-law, and husband doing well. She also sees the Gameboy and Costco. The narration uses the same rhythm and some of the same words from H.I.’s speech inRaising Arizona.

Mr. Wrench and Mr. Numbers from season one, the Kitchen brothers from season two, Carl and Gaear fromFargothe movie. Great henchmen come in pairs. Unstoppable inhuman killers work alone.

Season one shows what made Molly one of the smartest chiefs. This starts with the murder of her predecessor through bullied Lester Nygaard. The season ends with pregnant Molly thinking about life as chief with her husband, Gus, happy to be a mailman, leaving police work to his wife. Marge starts pregnant, caught up in a crime spree started by the mousy Jerry Lundegaard.

In season one, Lorne Malvo is on the bad side of mob boss Moses Tripoli out ofFargo. In season two, Hanzee Dent, with a face warped by Peggy’s hot coffee, gets a new identity. He seeks revenge for the outfit in Kansas City, saying, "Not apprehend, dead. Don't care heavily-guarded. Don't care into the sea. Kill and be killed. Head in a bag.” These are the same words Tripoli says in season one while he opens a fresh fish dish.

Season two ends with Dent stepping into a fight on a playground between two small kids, one deaf, and a bully. Dent draws his knife toward the bully, and the bully does not get a warning. Mr. Numbers and Mr. Wrench work for Mr. Tripoli, formerly Hanzee Dent.

In the filmFargo, Marge questions two women who stayed with Carl Showalter and Gaear. One tells Marge she went to high school in White Bear Lake. "Go Bears!" In season one, hit man Lorne Malvo pretends to be a mild-mannered minister from Baudette. He uses the Fargo prostitute's accent when he says, "Go Bears."

Supervillain Anton Chigurh robs theMike Zoss PharmacyinNo Country for Old Men. Lester Nygaard goes to the pharmacy for salve or unguent for his infected hand wound in season one ofFargoThe Coens shopped at this real-life pharmacy during their childhood in Minneapolis.

Season one shows a drink special on a chalkboard; it happens to be the Dude’s favorite drink.

Chief Marge Gunderson and chief-in-the-making Molly Solverson share a direct link, as do their spouses. Gunderson and Solverson have a natural instinct for solving crime, supported by kind, crime-interested husbands.

UFO sightings happen often with the Coens. In 2001'sThe Man Who Wasn’t There, Billy Bob Thornton’s character, Ed, sees a UFO in the final scene. Another character mentions seeing a UFO with her husband.

Season two ofFargo featured UFO imagery. The series opened with a triple homicide at the Waffle Hut and ended with a motel shootout, both showing a hovering spacecraft. Peggy Blumquist actually sees the huge overhead craft and tells her husband, "Oh that. It was a spaceship. No big deal."

The Coens and the show's producers used a 'real life' account by Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson from Marshall County, Minnesota, dated August 27, 1979, abouthis encounterwith a flying saucer.

We have one episode with a fully functional Otto Gerhardt (season two's premiere), but his look resembles Wade Gustasfon fromFargois striking. Both men cut a successful path through brutality and refused to back down. Both put themselves in danger through their lack of compromise, showing a physical similarity.

The film and the TV series share the same opening title sequences, though none of the stories are true.

InMiller’s Crossing, the rat fink Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro) begs for his life twice, asking Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) for mercy and exile instead of death.

Gaear Grimsrud gets bitten by Jean Lundegaard in the filmFargoHe tells his partner he needs unguent, a salve to heal hand injuries.

The film and the first and second seasons of the TV show share the same opening: nighttime car accidents.

In the film, Gaear Grimsrud loses control and kills his partner, Carl Showalter. He feeds Carl piece by piece into a wood chipper in an iconic scene. This happens in season two ofFargo appears in the list of 'Fargo TV Series Easter Eggs'., butcher Ed Blumquist (Jesse Plemons) dismembers Rye Gerhardt's body, feeding the parts into a meat grinder to hide his wife's accidental killing.

Rye Gerhardt’s dress mirrors Showalter's, from the turtleneck to the facial hair and hairstyle. It looks like the cocky Buscemi from the film. This reflects Showalter younger, before he teamed up with a silent partner.

When other filmmakers stopped making ransom notes, the Coen universe kept it alive.

Klubeck, from UTA, has represented the Coens for nearly twenty years. It fits well for him to be mentioned on a plumbing van.

Chumph (Glenn Howerton) reveals himself by leaving bronzer on his ransom note for Stavros Milos. Brad Pitt’s Feldheimer tries to pressure former CIA operative Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) inClueless Trainer Don Chumph points to Clueless Trainer Chad Feldheimer in Burn After Reading.in a similar clumsy manner.

Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) first used this term of disfavor inFriend-o, the phrase for wisecracking killers and dentists, appears in No Country for Old Men.. Fargo is in the list of 'Fargo TV Series Easter Eggs'.Characters in the series like the phrase. Season one’s Burt Canton (Stephen Root) uses it talking to fake dentist Lorne Malvo. When Mike Milligan and Gale Kitchen catch Ricky G robbing Gerhardt valuables, Mike says, “times are tough, friend-o.”

Being married to the Chief demands a certain hairstyle—one that lasts. The pageboy is clearly a power cut and intelligent. Women in the Coen world favor it. Ida Thurman, married to chief Vern Thurman, wore the pageboy in season one in 2006. Betsy Solverson, married to chief Lou Solverson, had the pageboy in season two in 1987.

A Coen brothers film trademark involves odd, memorable soundtrack choices. Besides Carter Burwell’s sweeping theme fromFargo shares soundtracks with other Coen projects., tracks fromO Brother, Where Art Thou? shares soundtracks with other Coen projects., Raising Arizona shares soundtracks with other Coen projects., and The Big Lebowski shares soundtracks with other Coen projects.These tracks appear throughout the series.

The series composer, Jeff Russo, kept the music score in the same style as Burwell’s film scores. He used many different versions of well-known tracks and sound cues.

Marge Gunderson is heavily pregnant and tracks Jerry Lundegaard’s lie when she meets old friend Mike Yanagita for lunch. Mike claims to be a widow then makes a move on Marge. She stays polite but is surprised. Later, Marge learns Mike was never married, lives with his parents, and has mental health problems. The scene shows Marge trusts people, and because she was wrong about Mike, she might need to look at Jerry’s story again.

The series may break the fourth wall or just playfully reference Thornton, the killer in season one. Young Molly makes a snowman outside the Waffle Hut with her mom. Her dad Lou is inside investigating a crime scene. When Betsy asks Molly what to name the snowman, she says, “Billy Bob.”

Season one ofFargo, Malvo confronts empty-headed trainer Don Chumph about his bad shakedown of Milos. Chumph leads Malvo into a supply closet where the word “LaBoeuf” is written in marker on the box—this is Matt Damon’s character name inTrue Grit.

H.I. carjacks a man inRaising Arizona,After robbing a store and slipping pantyhose over his head, the man sees, “Son, you got a panty on your head.” He escapes H.I.’s carjacking and has a story.

Sobchak and Weathers are both Vietnam vets, conspiracy theorists, and world philosophers. They both use hair triggers with nice guy sidekicks struggling to keep up. Weathers mirrors Walter’s “Shut up, Donny” to his own sidekick. “Shut up, Sonny.”

Marge and Lester’s coworkers at the insurance office like Arby’s for lunch. Chief Gunderson’s husband apparently brings Arby’s to her office. After a kiss, Marge tells Norm, “Ah, hon, ya got Arby’s all over me.”

Really Big Spoiler Here. Proceed With Caution.

Season 1: When Lester Nygaard kills his wife in a passionate moment, he seeks out the one man creepy enough to fix his problem: Billy Bob's Malvo.

History repeats itself in Season 3. (Spoiler alert. Here it is) When Emmit Stussy accidentally kills his brother with a framed stamp, he seeks out the one man creepy enough to fix his problem: David Thewlis's Varga.

This funny Easter egg honors Uli Kunkel, also known as porn’s Karl Hungus. Uli is a minor porn star, the leader of the band Autobahn, a fake kidnapper, and a nihilist who tosses bathtub marmots in The Big Lebowski. Uli believes in “nossing” and threatens to cut off the Dude’s “chonson.” Maybe in his retirement, Uli traveled to Bunny’s hometown, and they opened this sporting goods store.

In the film, Showalter and Grimsrud take Jerry’s wife, Jean, to a lake cabin. Mrs. Lundegaard has a sack over her head with her hands tied. As she tries to break free, the two henchmen watch, amused. She stays put. In season two, Peggy and Ed take Dodd hostage and move him to a remote lake cabin. Dodd tries to flee once he leaves the car trunk. But Peggy stops him.

In the film, Marge tells Gaear about the violent trail he and his partner followed to get nearly $1 million in ransom money. “To kill all those people. And for what? A little money?”

Season one's Molly Solverson gives this speech to the deaf henchman Mr. Wrench. Season two's Larsson uses the same line about the violence around the Gerhardts and the turf war.

Evelle and Gale Snoats get a shoutout. They also get a shoutout for their former prison buddy H.I. McDunnough. Are these the children of the infamousRaising Arizona.Did the baby-swiping gang finally get rehabilitated?

The Kitchen brothers seem to know Anton Chigurh’s trick for opening doors. They remove the lock on Skip’s typewriter with a shotgun blast.

Showrunner Noah Hawley says Milos is not a Coen brothers character. However, there are several ties. Both start humbly and build small town empires. They run cheesy commercials on local cable, smoke the same robes, and Milos mentions Arizona in his self-help book. Platt’s Milos could also be a nod to David Huddleston’sIs Stavros Milos Nathan Arizona from The Big Lebowski?The character celebrates achievers.

One intriguing callback uses the Waffle Hut for Rye Gerhardt’s accidental triple homicide. This sets off events for season two.

“You betcha,” “little fella,” and other phrases are common in both the filmFargo.and the TV series. “Okay then” is another phrase Coen characters use. This phrase appears mostly inRaising Arizona.. It entered the language ofFargo.the TV series too.

Freddy Riedenschneider (Tony Shalhoub) acted as Ed Crane’s (Billy Boy Thornton) lawyer inRiedenschneider the Cleaner, Riedenschneider Cleaning Service.Riedenschneider was a criminal lawyer hired to fix messes. In season one, Lester leaves his house untouched. He calls Riedenschneider Cleaning Service for help. When Lester mentions the blood, they hang up on him.

Shep (Steve Reevis) finds Carl left clues that make Marge Gunderson question him at the garage. Shep visits Carl. Carl is with a prostitute. Shep bursts in, wraps his belt around Carl’s neck, and pulls him back, making Carl lose a shoe.

Mistaken Identity.andFargo: Season 3both rely on a simple case of mistaken identity. In Season 3, Ennis Stussy (not Emmit Stussy) is robbed and killed. Carrie Coon's Chief Burgle enters the plot. If the Dude does not share a name with the more complex Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston), his rug remains urine-free.

In another reference toThe Big LebowskiMaurice smokes while driving. He drops the still-lit cigarette onto his lap. This directly references The Dude, who makes a similar foolish move with a joint inLebowski.

Sheriff Burgle recalls the diner waitress who broke Ennis Stussy's heart. The spirits of the nihlists from...The Big LebowskiThe Nihlist Diner looms large.

Season 3 features the falling air conditioner crushing Maurice's skull.

It looks like one of...Big Lebowski's.Many balls...

Mike Milligan hides out in the Pearl Hotel on the edge of town in season two. The hotel name clearly references Pearl, Jerry’s first wife in season one. Yelp probably won't give it five stars.

Fawn Knutsen became Fawn La Hoya after she started making "films" in California. Then she became Bunny Lebowski and married up. Is Bunny Deputy Knudsen’s long-lost relative from Moorhead, Minnesota, despite the spelling? Or simply a girl who learned that not everything shiny is gold in California. Peggy Blomquist never learned that lesson.