Summary
Tulsa King‘s second season remains in no hurry to get anywhere, but it’s still a pleasure to hang out with these characters while the plot gets its ducks in a row.
Tulsa King has always excelled in crafting funny characters and smart dialogue, which is perhaps just as well since Season 2 doesn’t seem in much of a hurry to get anywhere, plot-wise. Episode 2, “Kansas City Blues”, gives our new villains a bit more explanation and shows how they’re going to threaten Dwight’s various business endeavors — not to mention his freedom — but thus far, there isn’t a great deal going on.
Still, with celebrity cameos, app puns, and funny scenes of Dwight trying to interact with local businesses, there’s still plenty to be talk about.
Bad Actors
Tulsa King‘s Season 2 premiere ended with the new villains, so we’ll start with them here. While Dwight is busying himself looking at sprawling country houses with Tina, getting dewy-eyed about their family’s future, there are plans to take him down from two different angles.
Bill Bevilaqua, introduced right at the end of the previous episode with no real explanation, is the head of the Kansas City Mob. Tulsa is his turf, and he doesn’t like how Dwight is making good money on it without his say-so. He’s ostensibly upset that Dwight didn’t give him a courtesy call or ask for his blessing, but that’s probably his arrogance getting the better of him since I’m pretty sure Dwight has no idea that he even exists.
Either way, Bill wants to send Dwight a message, and when a mobster says that, it’s never good news.
Cal Thresher, meanwhile, is equally dismayed by Dwight’s success, and especially his desire to expand his legal weed operation. But he’s not the sending-a-message kind of guy. Instead, he sits down with the U.S. Attorney, McGrath, who makes it clear that he will personally take the reins of Dwight’s still-ongoing legal case. In the American justice system, you know what that means.
Fundraising
With the Feds following him around, Bill making calls to Chickie, McGrath taking over his case personally, Tina debating about whether to uproot her entire family, and Bodhi making a jury selection algorithm sound like Tinder, it’s a minor miracle Dwight can get any work done at all. But he does find time to visit Harlan in jail and buy his wind farm for $7.5 million. It’s worth $12 million, but Harlan isn’t in a position to negotiate, and that prison commissary goes a long way.
Problematically, though, Dwight doesn’t have $7.5 million. The Bank of Tulsa won’t loan him that amount — though he does walk away with a courtesy coffee mug and mouse mat — and stolen catalytic converters don’t have enough resale value. Oh, about that.
Armand is struggling financially so Tyson pitches him an idea to swipe the catalytic convertors from every car in the lot of Donnie’s used-car dealership. Initially, it seems like Dwight has no knowledge of this happening, but when Donnie goes to see him it becomes clear that he does and is just spinning it into another business opportunity. Since Donnie can’t accuse him outright, he offers a protection service in exchange for Tina getting a new car. Dwight even suspects that he’ll be able to track down at least half of the missing converters. Sounds like a deal, and it might lead to a bigger one if Donnie is willing to sell the place.
A Celebrity Cameo and A Pun
Jelly Roll has a brief performance in “Kansas City Blues’
Even Higher Plane, Dwight’s new weed store, has its grand opening in “Kansas City Blues”. The place is packed, handing out free samples and booking celebrity guest spots. There’s a very funny interaction between Dwight and Jelly Roll before he gives a nice rendition of “I Am Not Okay”. It doesn’t mean anything for the main plot, but it’s a talking point in an episode that doesn’t have very many of them, which will do.
Oh, and Even Higher Plane’s app is called ChatCBD. That warrants a mention.
Trouble In Paradise
But there’s trouble in paradise. Tulsa King Season 2, Episode 2 ends with Chickie calling Goodie again, this time with a proposition instead of letting him listen to his friend being executed. Chickie has thrown in with the Kansas City Mob to take down Dwight, and if Goodie helps, he stands to inherit control of Tulsa, reporting to both New York and Kansas City.
This doesn’t sound like the most compelling pitch to me, but Goodie does enjoy it in Tulsa, so he says he’ll think about it. I’m not sure about this turn, personally — you’d think Goodie should know better, especially after Chickie killed his friend as recently as the previous episode. Will he really turn on Dwight? Or is this part of some long-term elaborate double-cross? I’m hoping for the latter, but we’ll have to see.
RELATED:
