Summary
“Heroes & Villains” reckons with the ramifications of the previous episode’s climax while devoting some more time to the season’s bad guy contingent.
I confess to having thought that Tulsa King Season 2 would start to intensify a little in Episode 4, but everyone’s wrong from time to time. “Heroes & Villains” turns out to be a surprisingly contemplative installment instead, one that ponders the wisdom of starting gang wars over business interests and suggests that perhaps the whole thing isn’t entirely worth it.
The episode is still entertaining, though. We get an extended sequence of Sylvester Stallone getting extremely high and regaling his surrogate kids with anecdotes about how things were back in his day, and we also get a little more on our villain contingent, in both New York and Tulsa. Some of it is quite illuminating.
Consequences
As it turns out, stabbing a made man in the Kansas City Mob to death isn’t something to be taken lightly. The first half of “Heroes & Villains” is devoted to examining the fallout from Dwight’s provocative killing of his would-be assassin, which manifests in a few different ways.
There’s the moral element. This is primarily expressed through Tyson, who goes home to his parents with blood on his sleeve as a reminder of what he has just witnessed. He claims to have stayed the night there just because he was in the area, but it’s clear to the audience that he’s at a personal crossroads. Driving a mob boss around is one thing; helping him kill people is another. This is what Tyson’s honest, upstanding, hardworking father has been warning him about.
Even Dwight seems regretful about the whole affair. He recognizes that he could have handled the situation with Bill differently. He could have made a deal that he could live with instead of telling him outright to get lost. He let his ego get in the way, and now his family is once again in danger.
So, too, are his employees. Dwight gathers everyone in Even Higher Plane to deliver the bad news that the mob might come knocking, and Bodhi, for one, isn’t thrilled by the news. This is Tyson’s turning point moment. He steps up to deliver a rousing speech and gives everyone present the opportunity to leave if they aren’t up for the coming fight. Nobody does.
Business Development
Powered by weed lollies, Dwight heads out to the middle of nowhere with Tyson, Mitch, and Bodhi to negotiate a price on the wind farm. Med Hat and his son Ahanu drive a hard bargain. The wind farm is on Quapaw Nation territory, so Med Hat wants 20% of the generated energy to be directed to tribal areas where it’s needed, which Dwight thinks is reasonable, and 20% of all the hydroponic weed profits, which Dwight thinks is not. But since Thresher has already made an offer to Med Hat — he bribed Armand for a tip on Dwight’s movements — it’s the best they’re going to get.
The next stop is Donnie’s car lot, which Dwight is still interested in buying, especially once he hears that Donnie has a license to sell GM products in perpetuity. Dwight will need permission from the company rep to get the licenses transferred, but it should be a small affair. That sounds like some famous last words to me, but something has to go well sooner or later. Right?
Vince Makes A Play
Things aren’t going well in New York. Bill is furious about what happened to Carl and blames Chickie for it since the plan was contingent on Goodie switching sides. With no real answers to give, Chickie lounges around all day and gets very drunk, strongly implying that he killed his father when his ego needs stroking, and then falling asleep like a big child.
Vince is visibly worried by all of this, especially the confession about Chickie drowning his father in his bathtub. So, when Bill calls again, expecting an answer from Chickie, Vince tells him he’ll be back in touch through proper channels so they can set up a meeting of their own. It looks like there’s going to be a leadership dispute within the Invernizzi family.
Cal Isn’t As Dangerous As He Pretends
And finally, we come to Cal Thresher. After his shrewd movements earlier in Tulsa King Season 2, Episode 4, I thought we were developing him as a real threat rather than just a business rival, but the tables are turned as we approach the climax.
Cal has a Chinese stakeholder in his wind farm named Jackie and uses illegal immigrant labor to keep the place ticking over. As all rich and influential people tend to do, Cal assumes that this gives him an unassailable negotiating position, so when he discovers that Jackie has been growing heroin on the land, he orders the operation to be shut down immediately.
To make his point, Cal has two of the immigrants who have been caught stealing strung up for a lecture and some kind of punishment, but Jackie has other ideas. While Cal is giving his speech he shoots the two men through the head, telling Cal that the poppies will be staying on the land. It’s a power play, and despite all his money and paid-off public officials, Cal doesn’t have the right kind of minerals to compete.
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