Summary
Tulsa King continues to knit its Season 3 storylines together well in “Art of War”, and aside from a weak subplot, things are heating up.
It took a while, but Season 3 of Tulsa King is really starting to knit together, a bit like an open wound or a broken bone. Everything will start to heal with enough time, and in Episode 7, “Art of War”, you can definitely feel those scattershot early outings coming together into something much more cohesive and energetic. Mostly, anyway. There are still some things left on the sidelines when they could do with being addressed – where’s Musso, for instance? – and some of the subplots feel a tiny bit like killing time and giving the whole cast something to do. But the core stuff really works, even if I’m not buying that anyone hasn’t heard of Sun Tzu’s Art of War at this point, especially a creep like Jeremiah Dunmire.
Speaking of Dunmire, he’s on his way out. You can feel it. He has been a good villain, but for the most part, he has fulfilled his usefulness, and Dwight has proven he’s more than a match for him. He might kick a few things over in his death throes, but otherwise, I think he’s done. His influence isn’t working anymore. His own son is getting – understandably – sick of him. And by the end of the episode, he’s behind bars. I’m sure it’ll be temporary, but a point has been proven.
It’s Quiet Ray that I suspect Dwight has to worry about, especially after that whole debacle at their secret business meeting. He does, admittedly, pick up the phone to Dwight and hear him out, but his partnership offer remains too steep to be genuine, and he can barely conceal the ire he feels about Dwight lining his pockets without his say-so. Dwight correctly summarises his intentions at the end of the call: “He’s going to whack me.” I think he meant to say “try”.
But Dwight has a business to run in the meantime, so he gets started on reinstating the distillery’s license, which was revoked at Dunmire’s behest (and after Bigfoot accidentally dropped a barrel on the state inspector’s head in Episode 5). This means flipping Attorney General Sackrider, which proves to be laughably easy. But what do you expect from someone motivated only by fear and greed? Dunmire is a scary proposition to a pencil-pushing functionary. Dwight intuits immediately that he can get around that by playing to Sackrider’s other weaknesses.
Luckily, by this point, Dwight is pretty absurdly well-connected. Margaret knows all of Tulsa’s political elites, so she takes Sackrider’s wife out drinking and learns a couple of choice pieces of information, including that their marriage is on the rocks on account of Sackrider’s gambling addiction. That’s wonderful news for a man who owns a casino, so Margaret persuades Thresher to invite Sackrider for a drink and a business meeting at Bred 2 Buck. All it takes is an offer of “free” chips for the roulette wheel. Sackrider can’t help himself. Before long, he’s $100,000 in the hole. Dwight’s willing to waive the debt, but only if he and Sackrider can be friends. Like taking candy from a baby.
Speaking of which, the weaker half of Tulsa King Season 3, Episode 7 finds Tyson and Goodie working on a little side hustle to knock over frat houses for the hidden contraband. This feels a little bit justified, since it’s an outgrowth of Tyson’s desire to fulfil a more meaningful role in Dwight’s organisation, but in execution, it feels like it mainly exists to give Goodie and Tyson something to do and keep Spencer, whom they rope into running recon for them, at the forefront of the audience’s mind. Spencer is important since she’s still spending ill-advised extracurricular time with Cole, who seems to have reached the end of his rope where his father is concerned.
I’m not sure I’m buying this. We’re supposed to consider the idea that Cole may have genuinely fallen for Spencer and is on the cusp of turning against his father, but I reckon he’s too far gone for that. And it’ll likely be Spencer who ends up paying the price for whatever his Hail Mary play to impress daddy ultimately ends up being. But it might not be any time soon, since Jeremiah gets a little too full of himself at the end of “Art of War”, marching into Sackrider’s office and assaulting him when he learns of his new deal with Dwight. However connected you might be, beating up the Attorney General in his own office can’t be ignored. A brief stint in jail should give Dunmire plenty of time to think about how stupid Dwight has made him look. I’m sure he’ll take that well.
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