Dodd Gerhardt

"Being grown's got a price, kid gets slapped when he's bad. When you're grown, you get the fist or the knife"

- Dodd to Simone "Boss can't be a woman"

- Dodd to Floyd Dodd Gerhardt was a mobster from Fargo, the eldest brother of Bear and Rye, the three sons of Otto and Floyd Gerhardt, the leaders of the Family Mafia and the father of four daughters, he is also the former boss of Hanzee Dent and one of the main antagonists in the second season of the television series Fargo.

He was portrayed by Jeffrey Donovan.

Beginnings and Rye
Since Dodd was a child, his father Otto Gerhardt influenced him to one day become the leader of the Gerhardt Crime Syndicate a criminal organization lead by Otto, one day his younger brother Rye ows him money so he goes to talk to typewriter salesman Skip Sprang. Skip pitches Rye the idea of an electric typewriter. And asks Rye to talk to a a judge named Irma Mundt and get her to unfreeze Skip's accounts so he can begin selling these typewriters, promising a cut to Rye. Rye follows the judge to a diner called Waffle Hut where he ends up killing the cooker, the waitress and the judge, after that he steals the money from the cashier and runs away but stops in the middle of the road distracted by an UFO in the sky and is ran over by Peggy a hairstylist from Luverne.

The Gerhardt Family
Meanwhile Otto suffers a stroke that leaves him unable to speak or move ever again, so the leader position of the Family is to taken, Floyd, Otto's wife is the first to claim the position, supported by the rest of the family but Dodd claims the position was his by right, Floyd talks to him telling him his moment will come one day, Dodd is still unsatisfied so he sends his personal bodyguard Hanzee Dent, a native american, to find Rye and make him support his position as legit leader of the family.

When the Kansas City mafia finds out about Otto's stroke they plan on take over the Gerhardt territory.

The Investigation
Peggy shocked and scared drives home with an unconscious Rye on his car, beliveing he is dead tries to hide him from his husband Ed a local butcher but when he hears noises coming from the garage he discovers Rye still alive, Rye attacks Ed and he stabs him with a gardening shovel in self defense.

Meanwhile Minnesota state trooper Lou Solverson and sheriff Hank Larsson (Lou's father-in-law) investigate the Waffle Hut massacre, that night Ed burns Rye's clothes in the fireplace and disposes of Rye's body using the meat grinder from the butcher shop but is interrupted by Lou when he casually visited the butcher shop to buy bacon, Ed hides the body and attends Lou bu Lou notices he is acting strange, Lou leaves the shop and Ed continues grinding the body.

Eventually the investigation leads them to the Gerhardt Family with the help of Fargo detective Ben Schmidt, Lou and Ben arrive to the Gerhardt farm and headquarters where they confront Floyd and then Dodd, they tell the family about Rye's shooting and then leave with no answer from them, later Dodd and Hanzee kidnap Skip and bury him alive.

Time after, Hanzee visits Waffle Hut and finds out broken glass in the road, he deduces he was run over.

The Butcher
After cleaning the garage and the car with bleach, Ed and Peggy stage an "accidental crash" to send the car to the mechanic, but Hanzee visits the mechanic looking for the car that killed Rye, he finds Ed and Peggy's car, he intimidates Sonny the mechanic to tell him who it belongs to, Sonny does and Hanzee breaks into Ed and Peggy's while they are working, Hanzee smells the bleach on the floor and finds Rye's belt buckle on the fireplace.

Meanwhile Floyd and Joe Bulo a high-ranking member of the Kansas City mafia negotiate a deal, during this meeting Dodd goes mad and Floyd orders to take him out of the room, Floyd then presents a counteroffer, as the meeting is taking place Mike Milligan and the Kitchen Brothers, hitmen from Kansas City ambush and kill Gerhardt's men while they are taking Otto to the hospital to send a message, they leave Otto alive, when Joe is informed about this, they refuse to accept Floyd's counteroffer and menace on killing every mafia member unless they accept their conditions.

Later Hanzee informs the family about Rye's death in the hands of "The Butcher" Dodd and Floyd believing "The Butcher" is the nickname of a hitman sent by Kansas City they start a war against Kansas City.

MafiaS War
While Joe Bulo and his men including the Kitchen brothers are hunting deers in the forest tehy are ambushed by Gerhardt's men, a shootout happens in the forest that kills 6 men from each side, Hanzee kills one of the Kitchen brothers as Joe Bulo escapes from the forest just to find Hanzee waiting for him, he decapitates him and sends his head to Mike Milligan.

Mike Milligan secretly has been sleeping with Dodd's rebel daughter, Simone and when he recieves Joe Bulo's head he threats Simone and uses her as a mole in the Gerhardt family. Lou's investigation leads to Ed and Peggy, he visits him and warns them about the war and that eventually they will find them, they refuse to confess however.

Dodd's nephew, Charlie (son of Bear) wants to be included in the family so when Dodd is preparing to go kill Ed and avenge Rye, Charlie convices him of letting him do it, Dodd accepts sending one of his men to take care of him, but when Charlie confronts Ed he chickens out, Dodd's man makes him do it, Charlie enters the Butcher shop and shoots at Ed but fails accidentally shooting the fuse box which starts a fire inside the Butcher Shop, Dodd's man bursts in and tries to kill Ed, but fails and the bullet ricochets skimming Charlie on the forehead leaving him unconsious, Ed kills Dodd's man and saves Charlie taking him out of the Butcher Shop. Ed escapes to his house but the police follow him and arrest him.

Bear and Charlie
Charlie is also arrested and calls his father, when Bear finds out Dodd sent him, he beats up Dodd but is stopped by Hanzee, Dodd was about to beat him with his belt but is stopped by Floyd, she then sends Dodd to find the Butcher and Bear to rescue Charlie from the police station, Hank is taking care of Peggy when Dodd and his men arrive, Hanzee sneaks inside the house and knocks out Hank while he was talking to Dodd (Hank tells Dodd Ed is under custody), Dodd sends Hanzee to the police station to kill Ed, during all of this Peggy was hiding in the basement, Dodd and two of his men enter the house, Peggy kills one of them hitting him in the head with a sink, Dodd then accidentally kills the other man and finally Peggy leaves him unconsious with Dodd's tazer stick.

Meanwhile Bear surrounds the police station, Lou's friend and Ed's lawyer, Carl convinces Bear of leaving as Charlie's sentence would get worse if they tried anything, Lou sneaks Ed outside the station and into the forest unaware that Hanzee is following them, Lou encounters Hank in the highway and Ed rans away.

At the Gerhardt's household, Simone informed Mike the house was defenseless right after everyone left, leaving only her, Floyd, Otto and other few workers, Milligan arrived to the house short after with his men and started shooting at the house not caring Simone was still inside, she and Floyd survived but Otto was killed.

Looking for Dodd
Peggy has tied up Dodd making her feel powerful and with a new attitude, when Ed arrives they put Dodd in the trunk of the car and drive away before the police can find them, unaware that Hanzee was spying on them so he follows them, Ed and Peggy arrive to an abandoned shack by the lake that belonged to Ed's uncle. Meanwhile at the house Bear orders his men to not look for Dodd nor give any information about his whereabouts as he prefers him dead, Bear finds out Simone is Mike's mole so he takes her to the woods and kills him also in revenge for Dodd getting his son arrested."Son, you got yourself a woman problem. How I know is they’ve been plaguing me my whole life. What’s the joke? Can’t live with them, can’t turn them into cat food. Personally, I don’t see the value in all that talking and the mood swings and the lack of rational thinking, which, brother, your bitch has got that in spades. See, the male of the species has got the potential for greatness. Look at your kings of old. Napoleon, Kublai Khan, Samson. Giants made of muscle and steel. But these women, even in those Bible movies, you see a Delilah and, uh, Scheherazade. I want to tell you my own private belief here. I think Satan is a woman. Think about it."

- Dodd on women Ed and Peggy keep Dodd in the shack for two days, on those days Peggy stabs Dodd twice to discipline him and Ed calls the Gerhardts to make a deal with them but he is ignored, so he calls Mike Milligan instead who accepts the offer, while Ed was away, Dodd frees himself while Peggy was distracted watching a movie, Dodd knocks her out and surprises Ed when he returns tying a rope around his neck and hanging him from the ceiling, Peggy wakes up and impales Dodd's foot to the floor, then he knocks him unconscious.

Hanzee's betrayal
Just as Ed and Peggy prepare to tie Dodd again, Hanzee bursts in, Dodd thinks he is saved but Hanzee doesn't seem interested in him, Dodd shouts at him to shoot them and take him to a hospital but Hanzee shoots him in the forehead instead, finally killing him, the police arrive and Hanzee is forced to escape, later he calls the Gerhardts telling them he found Dodd and that he is still alive so that they will come that night and he could put a trap on them.