<\/p>\n
Last season it seemed like every Landman<\/em> episode featured an oil rig explosion, a plane crash, or your general mafioso-fueled chaos. But after the relatively tame premiere of season two, I was beginning to wonder if Tommy and the gang were settling in for a less pyrotechnic and more serene, subdued ride. Oh, how wrong I was. (Our regular reminder: Landman<\/em> is based on the Texas Monthly<\/em> and Imperative Entertainment podcast Boomtown<\/em><\/a>, and TM<\/em> is an executive producer).<\/p>\n This week\u2019s episode began with Cooper getting soaked in oil: Another one of his wells has struck black gold and is spewing it across the sky. Meanwhile, Ariana is worried. Cooper won\u2019t answer her calls, and the last time a man she loved didn\u2019t pick up his phone while out in the fields, it was because he was engulfed in flames. At last Cooper returns home and explains to Ariana his latest success. Instead of celebrating, Ariana begins to cry. She doesn\u2019t think they should keep seeing each other. \u201cI\u2019m so glad your dream came true,\u201d she says. \u201cBut being rich isn\u2019t my dream. It\u2019s yours.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s the next day, and we cut to Cami and her security guards, who almost beat up a man as he attempts to give Cami some legal documents. Turns out, she\u2019s been served. Tommy jumps on a group call with Cami, as well as with M-Tex\u2019s trusted lawyer, Nate (Colm Feore), and the team\u2019s new, token-liberal lawyer, Rebecca (Kayla Wallace)\u2014who, if you remember, Monty brought on full-time<\/a> before his death. Apparently, M-Tex received an insurance settlement of $420 million after a well off the coast of Louisiana blew up; it stipulated that the money be used to drill a new well in its place. That new well hasn\u2019t even begun construction\u2014and worse still, Tommy and the gang don\u2019t even know where the chunk of change went. The insurance company behind the settlement is now suing for damages.\u00a0<\/p>\n This legal breakdown is all very wordy, but watching Rebecca rip Nate apart is worth the jargon. Nate questions her ability to handle the case, because she has no experience with offshore drilling. \u201cYou are on the wrong side of this company\u2019s chain of command to be raising your voice at me,\u201d she snaps back. \u201cDon\u2019t ever do it again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Tommy is heading toward Amarillo to arrange his mother\u2019s funeral and picks up Cooper, who has been freshly kicked out of Ariana\u2019s house. They stop by Cooper\u2019s drill site. \u201cThis is mine,\u201d he tells Tommy\u2014a proud kid at show-and-tell. Tommy is stunned: \u201cA new restaurant has a better success rate than blind drilling,\u201d he says. The only hitch? Cooper didn\u2019t have anyone review the contract he signed with Sonrisa, the company that\u2019s financing his $40 million drilling project. Tommy calls Nate and asks him to dig up everything he can on them. Back on the road, Tommy passes off some sage relationship wisdom: \u201cYour girl problem is a lot easier than your business problem,\u201d he says. \u201cAll you gotta do is ask and listen, and remember what she said, and then make it come true.\u201d Simple.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let\u2019s head over to the old-folks home, where Angela and Ainsley\u2014who took a group of seniors to a strip club last season\u2014are still volunteering. No pole dancing here: These days, they\u2019re doing aerobics with the retirees (and pouring gin and juices). Unfortunately, Human Health Service inspectors show up. One of them makes the grave mistake of laying his hands on a visibly frustrated Angela, which leads to a knee in his junk and an elbow in his face. \u201cThe old-people police just got their asses kicked,\u201d squeals an octogenarian, delivering the line of the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n Later, in Fort Worth, Rebecca verbally shanks the aforementioned insurance company\u2019s entire team of lawyers. It\u2019s satisfying to watch, but the lead counsel plants a seed of doubt in M-Tex\u2019s otherwise unassailable jurist. He essentially offers Rebecca a job; she says she\u2019s happy where she is. \u201cI highly doubt that,\u201d he retorts as she walks away. He might be right\u2014Rebecca and Tommy had some pretty big dustups in season one. Could she potentially be lured away?<\/p>\n Back to Tommy and Cooper, who finally make it to Amarillo. As they scope out caskets, Tommy gets a call from Sheriff Walt (Mark Collie): Angela and Ainsley have been detained (and \u2019cuffed). Tommy yells a bit and gets the situation sorted, picks out a coffin, delegates flower duties to a funeral worker, and hits the road again to see Grandpa T.L.<\/a> They arrive, and T.L.\u2019s outside, back waxing poetic about sunsets. He then calls his son a crook, admonishes his grandson for following in his crook father\u2019s footsteps, and then begins to recall fond memories of his wife\u2014memories unfamiliar to Tommy. \u201cI remember when she was the brightest light everywhere she went,\u201d T.L. says. \u201cThe sun had already set by the time I was born,\u201d Tommy replies.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the ride back to Midland, Tommy reveals to Cooper that his parents were both abusive. T.L. \u201cworked himself into being a cripple\u201d after years spent on rigs and drank to keep up with his wife, who abused cocaine. T.L. would then come to Tommy\u2019s room to \u201cbeat his failures out of me.\u201d Tommy says it\u2019s probably for the best that he only ever saw Cooper on weekends after he and Angela split up and could thus avoid mimicking T.L.\u2019s parenting faults. \u201cI love you, dad,\u201d Cooper replies. \u201cYou did your best, and your best is good enough for me.\u201d For the first time in the entire series, Tommy is speechless; he looks as though years of pain and guilt have been lifted off his shoulders. It\u2019s a genuinely heartwarming moment in a show oftentimes overstuffed with soapy ridiculousness. Damn if you\u2019re not sniffling as Tommy lights up a cigarette, holding back tears.\u00a0<\/p>\n But this episode\u2019s not over. The next day, Nate hands Tommy all the intel he dug up on Sonrisa, the new company Cooper\u2019s gotten into bed with. Smiling back from the page, right next to Sonrisa\u2019s letterhead? It\u2019s Gallino (Andy Garcia), the Mexican-cartel head who not only saved Tommy in the last season\u2019s finale but promised the two would one day be friendly. Looks like that day has come.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s your new partner,\u201d Tommy tells Cooper. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a real f\u2014ing problem, son.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n