u/intrepidleppard

When I first watched S2, I thought it was a real bunch of malarkey how they reveal Hanzee becomes Moses Tripoli after the events at Sioux Falls. As far as I can se, this twist is one of very few things about S1-3 and S5 which is panned by an overwhelming majority of fans. On some reflection and a rewatch, it makes a lot more sense to me.

Before I explain why, I want to say I think I understand why people hate this twist. It's a confluence of two reasons. Firstly, Hanzee earned his place as a fan favourite with perhaps the most badass characterisation in the entire series. He's as lethal as Malvo but we root for him because instead of being evil, he embodies a degree of injured nobility despite his antagonist role. He never knew anything but harsh discrimination from white American society at large and the Gerhardt crime syndicate was the only family he ever had. He gives me lost knight vibes - if he had been accepted or even not actively shunned and discriminated against, he could have been a mighty soldier on the right side of Fargo's absurdist universe, kind of like what Mr Wrench becomes. He falls into the same category as the latter, a ruthless killer who is also a fan favourite and the degree of whose villainy is up for debate. He is a standout S2 character for me along with Lou, Hank and Betsy.* The point is, fans don't want him to fall off as hard as he seems to between S2 and S1 and that's understandable.

Secondly, on first blush it makes no sense and seems like a contrivance which is at odds with the rest of the Fargo story and universe. Anybody who rolled their eyes when the last episode told you that lean, mean killing machine Hanzee is the same person as the old glutton Mr Tripoli, I feel you. And I have seen people say things like, 'But why would he do that?'

But there are a few different reasons it actually fits seamlessly, with what TV Tropes would call 'fridge brilliance.'

(1) Why would Hanzee radically change his identity on a physical level? Because he just became the FBI's most wanted man. Plastic surgery would allow him to simply vanish and pursue his new goals of building his own criminal empire instead of living out a short and miserable life on the run.

(2) Why would he choose to be white? (Yes, this is an argument I have seen made in the comments.) Because he has known nothing but discrimination as a Native American his whole life and has finally snapped, as made clear in the last couple of episodes. It makes total sense for the character that any pride in his heritage he holds would at this point bend to his understandable desire for safety, peace and an escape from his current circumstances. Also, it makes complete sense he would now want to pursue personal power in the vacuum left by his takedown of the Gerhardts and he would be highly unlikely to be able to build the following he needs as a Native due to the aforementioned bigotry.

(3) Why is he fat and sloppy in S1? Because not only has he aged around 28 years, he has lived as a general rather than a frontline assassin for what surely must be at least 15. People have this idea that his ascetic badassery is innate to him. It is not - it was forced upon him by harsh circumstances he managed to escape, although he obviously took to these better than most. Is it any wonder he wants to enjoy retirement? Also, Tripoli clearly didn't look the way he did in S1 when he first made his debut. You think that guy could have destroyed the Kansas City Mafia, which Hanzee is implied to have done? Early Tripoli was likely just a white version of Hanzee, the same ruthless nature with the social capital Hanzee never had.

(4) How does all this tie in to Fargo's themes of absurdity? Because Hanzee's transformation between S2 and S1 is exactly what the Fargo universe would do to him in this position. His old identity as a dark force of nature (who Lou still talks about in such terms in S1 when telling Greta about Sioux Falls) fading away behind his new mask as he becomes the mask and the mask goes to seed? That's the Fargo universe working as designed: absurd, entropic and full of tragic irony. Even his old code, 'Head in a bag, that's the message,' has been twisted into something that ends up destroying his organisation even though his sense of honour and commitment seems to have survived all the Tripoli years because he still follows that code to the letter. So much so that he ends up sending Wrench and Numbers to avenge a loser associate like Sam Hess, who has more in common with the guys who racially abuse Hanzee outside the bar in S2 than Hanzee himself, and in doing so causing the destruction of his whole organisation at the hands of Malvo. Nobody escapes in the absurdist thunderdome of Fargo. Why should Hanzee?

*Sidenote: I originally had Joe Bulo as an underrated highlight here but on a rewatch I realised how much of his so-called stoicism is an expression of his narrative function as an embodiment of corporatisation and actually he sucks. If S2 was in 2025 he'd be directing the rollout of ChatGPT through the Kansas City Mafia hierarchy with the same bullshit little shrug. Also I didn't catch on the first viewing that the 'anti-Gerhardt mission' he fled from was actually a deer hunt. Mike grew on me on the second viewing too.

I was googling this guy called “V. M. Varga” in the hope of finding out more about him because he seemed like a very mysterious customer. Now my computer has frozen and won’t do anything. I cant even turn it on and off again. I posted this in r/techsupport and they were no help at all but somebody sent me over here. Can anybody help me fix my computer? Thank you!

V. M. Varga never reveals what his first and middle initial stand for. When Sy asks him his first name, he replies “V. M.” as if Sy hasn’t been listening to him and the question is confusingly stupid. Yet we can surmise they must stand for something. A good few theories have been put forward. The two top ones are “Vile Maxim” which ties in with Varga as a representation of predatory capitalism and “Virtual Machine” which ties in with his close association with technology and how he basically operates as a human computer virus.

I have one of my own.

Over the course of Season 3, we see Varga do the following.

- Take over Stussy Lots by trapping Emmitt and Sy with a hefty and legally dubious loan and then forcibly entering a “business partnership” with them instead of collecting repayment.
- Use Stussy Lots to scam millions of dollars in loans from legitimate outfits who will never get their money back.
- Drive a wedge between Emmitt and Sy, manipulating Emmitt into no longer trusting his best friend and going along with the scam.
- Urinate in Sy’s favourite mug and force him to drink from it.
- Have his goons beat Nikki Swango half to death in front of Sy.
- Have his goons go after Nikki and Ray with the intention of killing them.
- Poison Sy with some kind of nerve agent in a cup of tea, leaving him paralysed following a stint in hospital.
- Send his goons after Nikki again following her arrest, first to poison her in jail and then to attack a prison bus she is aboard, resulting in the deaths of several innocent bystanders as well as presumably some of the passengers when they crashed the bus.
- Cover up the Stussy murders and their significance by having his goons kill another two men called Stussy and a fall guy claim he targeted people called Stussy and take the heat.
- Take down Emmitt with breath spray and a blow to the head (from Meemo) when he finally stands up to him.
- Give Emmitt twenty million dollars, a paltry sum in comparison to Varga’s earnings that ensures Emmitt remains complicit as well as arguably functioning as a petty insult.
- Routinely say petty, mean-spirited things to insult not only Sy and later Emmitt and Nikki (“Were you born here?”) but also whole demographics like Jews and women.

We can also surmise he has been operating like this for some time as everything I listed besides the final bad habit is a function of his criminal business model.

Conclusion. “V. M.” stands for “Very Mean.” He is Very Mean Varga.