After ‘Tulsa King’ Season 2, Episode 9, What’s Left For Dwight?

After Episode 9 of Tulsa King Season 2, I’m not sure what’s left for Dwight Manfredi to prove. “Triad” removes the most dangerous new player from the board and leaves the remaining pieces in loose alignment, meaning that there are few obstacles to Dwight and his crew’s profitable control of Oklahoma. Except, perhaps, one person, but it’s difficult to imagine what he can really do.

That one person is Chickie, who barely features in this episode but by the end is on his way to Tulsa – by bus, since he’s on the no-fly list after being arrested at LaGuardia in Episode 6 – to convince Dwight to work with the Invernizzi family or, failing that, to take him off the board entirely. But what can Chickie do alone? He’s useless at the best of times.

Anyway, let’s break down the latest since there’s quite a lot to go over.

Goodbye Jackie Ming, We Barely Knew You

Almost as soon as he cemented himself as the real string-pulling villain by ousting Thresher from his own business in the previous episode, he’s given both barrels in this one. But with Ming out of the way – and Dwight, Thresher, and Bill all working together to bring it about – who’s really left to stand in Dwight’s way?

While it somehow hasn’t been mentioned until this point, Jackie, through Thresher, had a stake in Margaret’s ranch. Since he and Thresher were business partners when Margaret went to Thresher for a financial leg-up to prevent her ex-husband from buying her out, she automatically went into business with Jackie. It’s a bit irksome that this hasn’t been mentioned or implied until now, but whatever.

Either way, this proves to be Jackie’s downfall since it means that his takeover plot includes the Fennario Ranch, and there’s simply no way Dwight is having his beau imperiled.  This leads to a big standout ambush sequence wherein Jackie turns up believing he’s going to kill Dwight and Margaret in their sleep and ends up getting gunned down in the yard by Dwight and Bill’s combined forces.

To put the nail in the coffin – or the hatchet in the head, I suppose – Tyson finishes the job with the ceremonial tomahawk Dwight had been gifted after Jimmy’s death.

Armand’s Redemption

This whole setup was orchestrated by Armand, though Tulsa King Season 2, Episode 9 plays pretty coy about that for most of the episode. The last we saw of Armand he was stealing half a mil from Dwight’s safe, and when we catch up with him here, he’s pitching the assassination idea to Jackie.

It’s only after the ambush takes place that Dwight reveals Armand was in on it (although it was pretty obvious to begin with.) Armand had crawled back to Dwight with his money and a load of self-loathing apologies, and Dwight had put him up to the task to redeem himself.

And, all in all, the whole thing was pretty unequivocally a success. There’s even an argument to be made that it was too much of a success. With Dwight’s main enemy dead, and all of his people on the same page again, what else is there to worry about?

What’s Next For The Tulsa King Season 2 Finale?

Based on all this it’s easy to imagine that whatever Chickie does in the season finale is going to be rather drastic, since otherwise there’s no conflict. Dwight, Bill, and Thresher aren’t best friends by any stretch, but they’ve all realized they’ll make more money together than apart. Chickie and the Invernizzi Family are the only loose ends.

Now that Vince has taken over the Invernizzis on the promise of peace with Dwight, it’s a little weird that he’s now floating the possibility of Chickie taking him out. Has the newfound power gone to his head? Will Chickie turn on him and work with Dwight and Bill to try and usurp Vince? Is Bill planning a power play of his own? These are all outside-the-box theories, but something dramatic needs to happen in the finale, and knowing Taylor Sheridan, I expect a couple of key characters to be at risk somehow too.