[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for Tulsa King Season 3 Episode 2, “The Fifty.”]
Cole Dunmire (Beau Knapp) did the unthinkable when he burned down the Montague house with Cleo’s (Bella Heathcote) father inside. It was an act of bitter retaliation against the family for taking a new deal with Dwight Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone) instead of selling their ailing bourbon business to his father, Jeremiah (Robert Patrick). Still, Cole showed up at the memorial service as if nothing happened and was roundly rejected by Cleo. He later confronted her again and denied having anything to do with her dad’s death, which she did not believe. So why did Cole think that he would still have a chance at friendship — or maybe even something more — with Cleo after everything he’d done?
Beau Knapp told TV Insider, “I connected with Cole. He was so vulnerable, and I came out [feeling like] he has a good heart. I mean, he has whiskey in his blood, and it’s passed down generation to generation, and he’s the son of Jeremiah Dunmire, so he’s kind of gotta be a little devil. But, at the end of the day, he’s got remorse and shame and guilt. Cleo and Cole have this backstory of this wonderful childhood growing up together, distillery families and great friends in school, and their families had dinners together, and I think that him seeing her again just brought back that kind of [feeling].”
“I don’t know if he thought maybe there was a chance that he could bring that friendship back into his life for that light, because he’s kind of been stuck in the dark,” Knapp continued. “I think he was hopeful and he wanted a friend… I think [he had] the remorse of he didn’t want to kill the father, but at the end of the day, he’s going to do whatever he has to do for his dad.”
Indeed, as we saw in the latest episode, Cole really would do anything for his father. In addition to murdering Cleo’s dad and destroying her childhood home, he also tried to attack her and Mitch (Garrett Hedlund) at his home, and, after he got a gnarly slash on his arm from Cleo, he returned home to be treated to an emotionless field cauterization by his father with a branding iron.
“I think Cole is so used to being belittled and abused, it doesn’t even register,” Knapp said of that jaw-dropping moment. “That’s just their relationship. But I think that’s what’s so sad about it is that he adores his father… and he would do anything necessary, whatever the cost, to make him love him again, or appreciate him, or live up to that expectation.”
By the end of the episode, Cole did get a bit of redemption when he saw Spencer (Scarlet Rose Stallone) being followed and attacked by a drunk in the parking lot as Dwight and Jeremiah had a tense meeting inside, and he swooped in to save her. So there is still some hope for him — even if he is a cold-blooded killer — but probably not so long as he continues doing Jeremiah’s bidding.
Tulsa King, Sundays, Paramount+
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