WARNING: The following contains spoilers for FX's Fargo Season 4, Episode 11, "Storia Americana."
FX's hit show Fargo has continued to stick to its anthology format while finding inventive ways to connect the different stories into a kind of overarching narrative. Though it was a long time coming, the final episode of Fargo Season 4 has finally revealed how the story of 1950s-era gangs is related to events that will occur in North Dakota and Minnesota decades later by confirming a fan theory about Satchel Cannon's (Rodney L. Jones III) identity.
From the very first opening montage outlining the history of crime in Kansas City, fans picked up on the name of the Irish gang, the Milligan Concern. While the name itself didn't have many implications for Season 4's story, it was the last name of Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine), the slick and cold-blooded antagonist of Season 2. When Loy Cannon (Chris Rock) gave away his son Satchel to the Fadda Family to keep the peace, and when said son was taken under the wing of Rabbi Milligan (Ben Whishaw), there was instant speculation suggesting that this boy could one day grow up to be Mike.
The theory was confirmed in a mid-credits scene in the latest episode of the series, "Storia Americana," which flashes forward in time after Satchel watches his father get murdered by Zelmare Roulette (Karen Aldridge). In the scene, the camera pans to follow a car driving on a rural road, with Mike in the backseat and Gale Kitchen (Brad Mann) at the wheel. Mike looks out the window, and an image of Satchel walking Rabbit, the dog he found while on the run with Rabbi Milligan, is superimposed, with the implication that Mike is remembering his childhood.
In Season 2, Mike and the Kitchen Brothers accompanied Joe Bulo (Brad Garrett), the head of the Kansas City Mafia, to North Dakota. Following the impairment of local boss Otto Gerhardt (Michael Hogan), Bulo hoped to organize an expansion by negotiating a buyout from his remaining family. However, they were met with reluctance from matriarch Floyd Gerhardt (Jean Smart) and outright resistance from her son Dodd (Jeffrey Donovan).
To get leverage over Floyd, Bulo dispatches Mike to find the youngest brother Rye (Kieran Culkin), not knowing the latter has already been accidentally killed by Peggy (Kirsten Dunst) and Ed Blumquist (Jesse Plemons). During his search, Dodd manipulates the Gerhardts into killing Bulo and several others by suggesting that someone from Kansas City killed Rye.
In retaliation, Mike takes a firing squad to the Gerhardt residence and is tasked with finding and killing Dodd, who has been kidnapped by the Blumquists. Ed eventually calls Mike and offers him Dodd in exchange for protection, but by the time he arrives at the agreed location, Hanzee Dent's (Zahn McClarnon) plot to take down the Gerhardts has already taken place, leaving the entire family dead. A victorious Mike claims the Gerhardt home, now empty, for himself. However, when he returns to Kansas City, instead of a major reward, Mike is tasked with a menial desk job, which his boss suggests is the future of their business.
Despite such a momentous reveal, Hawley has not indicated whether any potential future seasons of Fargo will feature Mike. The show has previously also explored the childhood of Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman), but her story was not continued in either Season 3 or 4, so just what will happen with this connection isn't clear at this time. Still, this revelation has connected Fargo Seasons 2 and 4 in a major way by fleshing out the past of a major antagonist.
Created by Noah Hawley, the fourth season of Fargo stars Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Jessie Buckley, Salvatore Esposito, Gaetano Bruno, Ben Whishaw, Andrew Bird, Anji White, E’myri Crutchfield, Timothy Olyphant and Jack Huston.