Peggy Blumquist quotes from Fargo

Peggy Blumquist

It's just a flyin' saucer, Ed. We gotta go.

Peggy Blumquist

We got a plan, you know?

The word "we" is a castle, hon, with a moat and a drawbridge. And you know what gets locked up in castles?

Peggy Blumquist

Dragons?

Princesses. Don't be a prisoner of "we".

Ed Blumquist

You sure about this plan?

Peggy Blumquist

It'll work. Like I said, my uncle used to drive his truck and drink Old Milwaukee. And, you know, insurance don't want to pay for accidents when you're drunk, so he came up with this plan. Every crack-up, he'd drive his truck to some deserted spot till he sobered up, fake a new accident to cover the damage he did drinking.

Ed Blumquist

Well, it's creative.

Peggy Blumquist

So, that's what we do. We cover the damage, file a report, and then, I mean, that should do it. We got rid of the - I mean, the guy's all ground up, and you burned his clothes, you said, so, once the car's fixed, it's - We're free. You been a real paladin.

Ed Blumquist

A... what's that?

Peggy Blumquist

It's like a knight. My knight.

Lou Solverson

You didn't fight, did you, Ed - in the war?

Ed Blumquist

No, sir. 4-F on account I got the one kidney.

Lou Solverson

So... There's a look a boy gets when he's been shot or a - or a land mine takes off his legs, and he's laying there in the mud, trying to get up, 'cause he doesn't feel it yet.

Ed Blumquist

I, uh, don't...

Lou Solverson

His - his brain hasn't caught up with the reality, which is... he's already dead.

Peggy Blumquist

Ed, he's scaring me.

Lou Solverson

But we see it, the rest of us. And we lie. We say, "Lay still. You're gonna be fine." If you'd been to war, you'd know the look. See, you and Peggy, you got the look.

My question for you is, how come after you hit that fella, you didn't just drive to the hospital or waved down a passin' motorist and ask 'em to call the cops?

Peggy Blumquist

You say it like these things happen in a vacuum. Like it's a test. Check "A" or "B". But it's like decisions you make in a dream, ya know? I'll tell you what, if it was me, and we had to run I wouldn't look back. For what? The dazzle? This house? This is Ed's house. He grew up here. His mom washing his undies, his father taking his paper to the commode. You ask me how come I buy all these magazines? I'm livin' in a museum of the past.

Lou Solverson

I was there at the end, you know? After the war, when Saigon fell, on the USS Kirk patrolling the coast. And when the country went, it went fast. And we had, like, you know, 24 hours to get everybody out. And not just Americans, but our allies, the South Vietnamese, all packed onto boats and helicopters. We stood on the deck and waved them in. And one by one, they'd land, unload, and then we'd push the whirlybirds into the sea. The damndest thing. But then, this Chinook comes. And those things - you can't just land one on a ship this size. So we wave them off. But the pilot's got his whole family inside, and he's running out of fuel, so it's now or never. So he hovers over the deck. People start jumping - scared or not - onto the ship. There's a baby - literally a-a tiny baby and the mother just - just drops him. And one of my boys like catching a ball, just sticks out his hands. So, now everybody's out, and I'm thinking, "How the heck is this pilot"- right? - "How's he gonna get out?" But he maneuvers off the port bow, and he hovers there for the longest time doing, you know, what we learned later - uh, takin' off his flight suit. And somehow he rolls the bird on its side, and just before it hits the water, he jumps. 6,000 pounds of angry helicopter parts flyin' all around him. And somehow he makes it. How'd he do that?

Peggy Blumquist

What are you sayin'?

Lou Solverson

Your husband, he said he was gonna protect his family no matter what. And I acted like I didn't understand, but I do. It's the rock we all push - men. We call it our burden, but it's really our privilege.

Peggy Blumquist

I never meant for any of this to happen. You know? Not to Ed. Not to anybody. I just wanted to be someone.

Lou Solverson

Well, you're somebody now.