Summary
“Caprice” ups the pace with some surprise action as Dwight’s time in Tulsa becomes a lot more dangerous.
This recap of Tulsa King season 1, episode 3, “Caprice”, contains spoilers.
It’s all going on in Tulsa this week, and Tulsa King switches gears to suit, morphing from what was essentially a comedy about an older dude trying to get a driving license to a legitimate crime caper, with a suicide-by-explosion to start things off and an attempted drive-by to keep things interesting.
Tulsa King season 1, episode 3 recap
Let’s talk about that suicide briefly, as it’ll surely come to matter down the line. The ATF, including Stacy, have surrounded the house of a dog enthusiast named Dumont, who is inside with a good helping of guns and explosives. A colleague of his, Calon Waltrip, the figurehead of a one percenter motorcycle club, arrives to not-so-subtly tip him off that he’s surrounded and has no way out, so Dumont facilitates his own suicide in a big explosion. Dwight later describes this as a tough day at the office, which is probably underselling matters a fair bit.
But Dwight is feeling good. His recent deal with Bodhi’s supplier has kept the marijuana business profitable, and he knows what his next venture will be – nitrous oxide canisters, which people will huff out of balloons for $10 a pop. Since each canister can pump 350 balloons, and Mitch can purpose N2O in bulk through his restaurant, there’s a fortune waiting to be made.
The ease with which Dwight has ingratiated himself into Tulsa’s semi-legal circles has given Tyson a false idea of what it means to be a professional criminal. He has a five-year plan that sees him becoming a capo down the line, but Dwight has to remind him that a) he isn’t Italian and b) he isn’t a bad guy – both of those things are required to get “made”, though neither will prevent him getting killed. Wouldn’t a college education and an upright line of work be a better bet for a young man like him?
As if to prove Dwight’s point, when he goes for a driving test to get an Oklahoma license, a blue Chevy Caprice pulls alongside him at a stop light and enters several rounds into the passenger-side window, almost killing Dwight and his instructor. Dwight gives chase but is only able to get a description of the vehicle and a partial plate. He gives both to the instructor and tells him to dig up some information through the DMV – quietly, of course, since Dwight isn’t exactly looking for legal recourse here.
Dwight is admittedly picked up by the cops for questioning since while getting shot at isn’t a crime in Oklahoma, being a career criminal fresh out of prison who gets shot at shortly after arriving in town is cause for some concern. It’s Stacy who pulls some strings to get Dwight released, and after he thanks her with dinner, she thanks him by spending another night in his hotel room. It doesn’t look like this relationship is ending any time soon.
It doesn’t take much investigation to figure out who tried to kill Dwight. He initially suspects Vince and tells Chickie as much, though the latter doesn’t take the accusation well. Even if the matter of Dwight socking Vince in the mouth hadn’t been resolved in Episode 2, it wouldn’t make sense for Chickie to have Dwight whacked given he’s such a reliable earner.
That means that someone local tried to kill Dwight, and with some help from Stacy, the driving instructor, and the Department of Motor Vehicles, Dwight’s able to trace the offending, titular Caprice to the Fennario Ranch and a man named Armand. It seems like there’s a bit of a past there, and indeed a definite future, so we definitely have a lot more drama to look forward to in the coming episodes.
You can stream Tulsa King season 1, episode 3, “Caprice”, exclusively on Paramount+.
