Summary
Tulsa King Season 3’s wonky pacing is paid off in “On the Rocks”, with legitimate tension and surprises lighting a fire under multiple character arcs and subplots.
Is it just me, or is Dwight’s double-agent routine in Tulsa King Season 3 feeling a little distracting? Sure, we’re getting to a point – especially here in Episode 5, “On the Rocks” – where we couldn’t really do without it, since a lot of character dynamics are intertwining with it, but I just feel like it distracts from the much more interesting main plot. Everything related to Dwight’s liquor war with Jeremiah Dunmire here is great. But we have to spend a good chunk of an already short episode watching Dwight sit around with a creepy bomb-maker at Musso’s behest.
I’m sure it’ll all come together, but in the meantime, the pacing is feeling a bit rickety. Luckily, the back half of this episode, revolving around a dramatic Montague Distilleries launch and building to a surprising cliffhanger, really works, and allows some of the tension that has been simmering this season a bit of a release. Every season has a turning point, and we might have reached it.
After the successful reacquisition of the Montague 50, “On the Rocks” should have been a cause for celebration. It even felt like one, at least at first. Dwight gave Tyson some advice about being a man. Margaret kicked Cal’s political campaign into a higher gear. Cleo seemed a lot more even keel, and her relationship with Mitch a bit less tenuous. You can tell another setback is coming just from how well everything’s going.
We see some of those setbacks building. Dunmire has the attorney general in his pocket, naturally, and leans on him to send an inspector to the Montague launch to shut the whole event down. Cole keeps leaning on Spencer, too, though I’m less sure about this subplot. He doesn’t seem to have a particular endgame, and Spencer realises a little later that he’s part of the Dunmire clan and is actively working against Dwight, so what was the point of all that? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
But the inspector thing has a darkly funny payoff. While he’s “inspecting” the cellar barrels, Bigfoot attempts to scare him by knocking a few kegs off the top of the pile. This has the unfortunate consequence of pulping the dude’s skull and leaving his brains all over the floor, which is definitely funnier than I’m making it sound. But it presents a problem, since Dwight’s crew can’t be the prime suspects in the murder of a state official. The plan is to just leave him there and have Bodhi stumble on him in the morning. An unfortunate workplace mishap – things happen.
But this also creates a problem for Dunmire in Tulsa King Season 3, Episode 5, since the event doesn’t get shut down. Instead, he rocks up in person and has Cole take an axe to one of the barrels. His argument is that the 50 formula was conceived by him and Theo, and that in Theo’s absence, Cleo has essentially stolen it. I can kind of see how this might work, but given the way he turns up, Cole’s destruction of Montague property, and a really loud argument with the attorney general in which Dunmire essentially confesses to having forced him to engineer a shutdown through the inspector, I’m not sure why he thinks anyone would believe him.
But the bulk of “On the Rocks” revolves around Dwight’s relationship with Bill. Ray is still trying to flip Bill against Dwight, and Bill is looking for evidence not to, but Dwight keeps making him suspicious at every turn. This is where Dwight disappearing to do Musso’s bidding creates issues, since his acting suspiciously makes Bill worried. Sylvester Stallone and Frank Grillo share a couple of exchanges in this episode, a late one at Dwight’s house in particular, that have very legitimate tension.
This frosty dynamic is only going to be worsened by Bill’s unexpected arrest at the end of the episode. What’s all that about? Could it possibly relate to my theory that there’s a mole inside Dwight’s camp feeding Musso information about what he’s up to? Either way, it’s certainly going to look like Dwight attempted to have Bill taken off the board. And that sounds like something Musso would capitalise on to further control Dwight. It might have taken a good chunk of the season, but it does feel like things are starting to come together.
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