Recap: ‘Tulsa King’ Season 2, Episode 1 Introduces Some Exciting New Villains

It’s mostly business as usual in the Season 2 premiere of Tulsa King, but there are a couple of hints of a step up in Episode 1, “Back in the Saddle”. Sure, Dwight Manfredi putting out fires left and right is par for the course, but when you see Neal McDonough and Frank Grillo turn up in a crime drama, you know things will probably get real sooner rather than later.

It has been a while, since here’s a quick refresher of where things stood in the Season 1 finale:

• Stacy sold out Dwight, so he’s facing a return to prison on the grounds of bribing a federal agent.
• Chickie got rid of his father and took over the Invernizzi crime family, but he’s facing some questions over his leadership thanks to Dwight setting up on his own and Goodie switching sides.
• The biker gang was dealt with in a rather brutal fashion, so we need a new villain.

“Back in the Saddle”

The Season 2 premiere begins with a reminder of how Dwight does business. He spends five minutes in jail awaiting his preliminary hearing and in that time he socks the local bully unconscious and befriends a green energy businessman named Harlan is who looking at 8 years for conning the government out of $12 million in subsidies for his wind farms.

And just like that, Dwight has an idea. But he has a court case to deal with first.

Even though Dwight’s state-appointed attorney can’t even shuffle the papers in front of him, Tina is determined not to see her father carted off to jail again. So, she puts up 10% of his substantial $3 million bail against her unmortgaged property to get him back out on the street and back to business.

Business Development

Business is going well enough, but there are some hiccups on the horizon. Bred 2 Buck and the casino business seem to have recovered from any recent shootouts, and Bodhi has significantly upgraded his marijuana store, Even Higher Plane. But that thicker veneer or legitimacy comes with an increased risk of litigation, so the place needs to be protected by a bulletproof insurance policy.

This is where the wind farm idea comes in. Dwight theorizes – pretty loosely, at this point – that if they can get free money from the government to subsidize some green energy, they can use that to power the marijuana operation on Uncle Sam’s dime, reducing overhead costs significantly and improving production.

Of course, Dwight and his ragtag crew – which now includes Bigfoot, one of Mitch’s oversized cousins – are not the only players in the medical marijuana business and any upgrades they make put them in direct competition with the season’s new Big Bad, but more on him in a moment.

Letting Bygones Be Bygones

Sylvester Stallone as Dwight Manfredi in Tulsa King | Image via Paramount+

In the meantime, Dwight is tailed by a couple of ATF agents who warn him about any potential reprisals against Stacy, which funnily enough is something Dwight doesn’t seem to have even considered.

That night, Dwight sneaks into Stacy’s apartment and helps himself to some of her wine, but he’s not there to threaten her. Instead, he reassures her that the decision she made earned his respect, and he isn’t all that torn up about the breakdown of their relationship since he never imagined it being long-term anyway given their very different lives.

But Stacy opened Dwight’s eyes to a different way of living that had been planed away by decades in prison. She helped him to open up and stop being lonely from having to play a character all the time. He appreciates it – but will she appreciate his gesture of goodwill enough to drop the charges against him? It’s unlikely, but something to think about as we go.

The Bad Guys Are Mounting Up

It softens the romantic blow for Dwight that he’s still getting on rather well with Margaret, who invites him and the gang to a fundraiser hosted by Cal Thresher, Oklahoma’s resident medical marijuana kingpin.

Thresher is played by Neal McDonough, so it’s obvious he’s a villain immediately, but just to make sure he quietly threatens Dwight out of the gate. What might have been a happy business deal shifts instantly into a declaration of war.

Chickie still has it out for Dwight, too. His leadership of the Family is under scrutiny thanks to Dwight and Goodie, so he begins taking matters into his own erratic hands as early as possible. We don’t see a great deal of him in Tulsa King Season 2, Episode 1, but his few scenes are impactful. He even gives Goodie a call so he can hear him execute his old associate, Jerry.

Chickie isn’t about to let sleeping dogs lie here.

Hey, It’s Frank Grillo

As if McDonough wasn’t enough, he has an associate who will likely represent another major spanner in the works for Dwight.

With Dwight and his mob implications all over the Tulsa Star, Thresher calls Bill Bevilaqua, played by Frank Grillo in a cowboy hat, and asks him for the lowdown on Dwight. Bill has some knowledge of or connection to New York’s Mafia families since he knows Dwight’s reputation and nickname of “The General” immediately, but he didn’t seem to realize he had set up shop right under his nose.

With the bar renovations and his plans to expand his weed operation, Dwight is suddenly a threat to both Thresher and Bill. The tip-off isn’t just a friendly heads-up, but a pretty clear instruction to Bill to get Dwight out of the way sooner rather than later.

That can only be good news for the audience.