How the Fargo episode timeline game works

Every card is an episode of the Fargo series, with a one-line hint about the story under its title, and you put them in order by original air date. You start with one episode on the timeline, date showing. Read each new card and place it in the gap where you think it aired. If you're right, the date is revealed. If not, it still lands in its true spot and costs one of your three lives.

Fargo is an anthology, with a new crime, a new cast and a new period setting each season, so the first job is working out which story a hint belongs to. The second, harder job is remembering which story aired first, since the settings don't run in historical order. Within a story the episodes follow one plot, so think about how far the trouble had spread.

Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in exact air dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.

What's in the deck

Here are 27 of the 27 cards you might be dealt. Their values stay hidden until you place them.

The Crocodile's Dilemma Drifter Lorne Malvo pulls meek Lester into murder
Buridan's Ass A blizzard shootout scrambles everyone's plans
Who Shaves the Barber? Malvo cleans up loose ends as Molly closes in
A Fox, a Rabbit, and a Cabbage A year later, Lester's luck begins to turn
Morton's Fork The reckoning arrives for Lester and Malvo
Waiting for Dutch A diner shooting sets a Minnesota crime war in motion
Before the Law The Gerhardt crime family faces a corporate takeover
The Gift of the Magi A Reagan campaign stop collides with the feud
Rhinoceros A jailhouse siege and a home invasion unfold
The Castle The Sioux Falls massacre erupts
Palindrome The dust settles on the Gerhardt war
The Law of Vacant Places Feuding brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy set off a tragedy
The Law of Non-Contradiction Gloria chases a lead all the way to Los Angeles
The Lord of No Mercy V.M. Varga tightens his grip on Emmit
Who Rules the Land of Denial? Nikki plots her revenge
Somebody to Love Emmit and Varga's story reaches its end
Welcome to the Alternate Economy Rival Kansas City syndicates trade their sons as insurance
The Pretend War Tensions escalate between the Italian and Black outfits
East/West A black-and-white detour to a strange roadside motel
Happy Loyalties fracture as the war turns deadly
Storia Americana The Kansas City war reaches its bloody conclusion
The Tragedy of the Commons A brawl exposes housewife Dot's hidden past
The Paradox of Intermediate Transactions Dot fends off intruders as her past closes in
Insolubilia A home invasion goes very wrong for Dot's pursuers
The Tender Trap Roy Tillman's grip on his ranch is challenged
The Tiger Dot is dragged back toward Roy's world
Linda A haunting detour into Dot's earlier escape