Warning: this review contains spoilers from the last episode, as well as from this one.

For those who didn’t see it:

This week, Joe Bulo (Brad Garrett) starts to make his move on Sioux Falls to start taking over. He brings with him Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine), who is trying to track down Rye Gerhardt (Kieran Culkin).

Hank Larsson (Ted Danson) and Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson) continue their investigation of the Waffle House Murders (and Hank does get the shoe down from the tree).

Peggy (Kirsten Dunst) and Ed Blomquist (Jesse Plemons) start to clean up their mess from the first episode and carry on with their lives like nothing happened.

For those who did see it:

While not a slow or bad episode, it’s just not a whole lot happens. The plot progresses without any really major advances. For starters, Mike Milligan’s motivations aren’t really clear. For the entire episode, he just drives around South Dakota and Minnesota to visit the scenes from the first episode. He doesn’t do a whole lot, but maybe that’s because he’s planning what to do. Towards the end, there’s a great scene between him and Hank when Hank has to pull him over. It shows that Mike isn’t a guy to mess with, and that Hank won’t back down when doing his job.

So far, the most interesting plot line is the Peggy and Ed one. Are they the good ones or the bad ones? Ed is wracked with guilt following his murder of Rye, suggesting he’s good and will try to do the right thing. Peggy seems indifferent, suggesting she has no moral conscious and will do whatever it takes to get away with it. She goes to work the next day and just acts like nothing happened. “Remember, keep a consistent profile”, she reminds Ed when he says he doesn’t want to go to work. While she’s at work, Ed stays home and starts to clean up the mess.

It concludes with a very tense scene at his butcher shop late at night, where he’s grinding up Rye’s body to dispose of it (I really hope that’s what he’s going to do with it, dispose. But who knows, it could easily go the Sweeney Todd route on this). Lou stops by to pick up some bacon, and it’s an almost cat-and-mouse like scene with Ed trying desperately to remain calm and make sure Lou doesn’t see the body.

Other than that, it was a mundane episode. However, it wasn’t bad, and it’s only the second episode. Show’s like this usually spend the first few episodes setting up the plot, and establishing and fleshing out characters. It’s necessary to set the stage for bigger things to come.