‘Tulsa King’ Season 3, Episode 8 Recap – Things Take An Explosive Turn

And just like that, Montague Distilleries is once again open for business, thanks to Dwight’s slick power play to secure the loyalty of Attorney General Sackrider. But the win is short-lived, as expected. Jeremiah Dunmire remained behind bars for all of five minutes before being released with an even bigger point to prove, and, annoyingly, a visitor who wants to help him prove it. It was about time that Tulsa King Season 3 wove Dwight’s double-agent storyline into the main arc, and we finally get there in Episode 8, “Nothing is Over”, with explosive results.

As it turns out, the elusive Watchmaker knew something was amiss with Dwight. Why would a man who so obviously loathes him and everything he stands for want to retain his services? So, as a self-preservation tactic, the Watchmaker switches sides, presenting himself to Jeremiah as a willing compatriot. He’s determined to kill Dwight, but helping Jeremiah hurt as many people close to him as possible is offered up as a personal favour. Jeremiah thinks it’s divine intervention, naturally. God moves in mysterious ways.

But Jeremiah and the Watchmaker make a couple of assumptions. One is that Dwight would play by the book, which, of course, he doesn’t. The other is that Jeremiah could luxuriate in his victory. But his own smugness considerably backfires on him in an unlikely way, and while we don’t get to see how that plays out in “Nothing is Over”, it’s certainly something to look forward to. In the meantime, the thrill is in the crisis being averted.

The Watchmaker expects to double-cross Dwight and just take him out at their pre-arranged meeting, while Musso, despite having a very personal reason for wanting the Watchmaker apprehended, expects Dwight to play by the letter of the law and allow the Feds to arrest him. Neither party anticipates Dwight having already arranged a double-cross of his own. Mitch and Bigfoot emerge out of the shadows, take the Watchmaker away at gunpoint, and transport him to the Montague mausoleum, where he’s beaten, interrogated, and eventually stuffed — still alive — into one of the caskets. It’s a deserved fate, if you ask me. But it doesn’t solve the present problem, which is that he had already stashed a bomb at the hotel where Margaret and Thresher are throwing a campaign fundraiser.

The tip-off about this comes from an unlikely source — Cole Dunmire. Despite his “relationship” with Spencer feeling deeply inauthentic, Tulsa King Season 3, Episode 8 reveals it to be much more genuine than anyone thought. When he overhears his father gloating about hurting people close to Dwight, he worries it might be Spencer who’s in danger, so he tips her off about the pending attack. She and Tyson are running a money-making drug scam at Even Higher Plane behind Dwight’s back, so Tyson is able to call Dwight and warn him. The bomb is scheduled to detonate at 10 pm, so there’s a mad race to the hotel to evacuate everyone before then.

On the one hand, this season could have done with a major character death to liven things up a bit. But it evidently still has plans for Thresher and Margaret, so they, along with everyone else, survive the explosion by the skin of their teeth. But this development isn’t so much about the explosion as the implications of it being thwarted, which is important to remember. Consider the following, for instance:

• Musso still has Bill in custody. Dwight will presumably use the Watchmaker’s location to bargain for his release, but how is he going to be able to do that without giving away to Bill that he’s on friendly terms with the Feds?
• Everyone, including Margaret, has now seen Dwight interacting with Musso. He also managed to finesse a full Federal response to the bomb threat in about five minutes. To anyone paying even a little bit of attention, he’s clearly playing both sides.
• Cole sold out his dad. Once Jeremiah learns that there were no casualties at the hotel, he’s probably going to figure out that Cole was responsible, since nobody else knew about the operation.
• Even though Tyson managed to forewarn Dwight about the bomb, he was also running a probably ill-advised drug party out of one of Dwight’s legitimate businesses without his permission. Tyson’s private endeavours are liable to get someone arrested — or killed.

When you think of all this, it’s very hard to see how the remaining two episodes are going to have anything positive in store. And this is to say nothing of Quiet Ray, who still wants Dwight dead himself. That end-of-season feeling is definitely creeping in. It’s now just a matter of how many casualties will be amassed before we get there.

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