Summary
“Dead Weight” is the penultimate episode of Tulsa King Season 3, but it doesn’t really feel like that in execution, instead mostly playing out as an excuse for a fun Samuel L. Jackson cameo and a last-minute turn that should set Dwight on the warpath.
“Dead Weight” is the penultimate episode of Tulsa King Season 3, but it doesn’t feel like it. Not that there’s any particular way a penultimate episode should feel, I guess, but you know what I mean. Episode 9 is, for the most part, pretty laid back. It indulges in a much-anticipated Samuel L. Jackson cameo. It hints that Tyson and Spencer may have – predictably – gotten themselves in trouble. But it ends with the “big cliffhanger” of Joanne being kidnapped, which I’m sure Dwight will be upset about, but means little to me since she has been so surplus to requirements this season that I have, on more than one occasion, forgotten she was even in it.
Still, it’s always nice to see Sam Jackson. Here he’s playing the brilliantly named Russell Lee Washington Jr., a hitman in the frequent employ of New York’s crime families. Most recently, he was retained by Quiet Ray for a hit in Newark, New Jersey, which he was under the assumption would be his last. Russell is getting out of the game. He’s getting on in years, and he’s had enough. Naturally, Quiet Ray wants to hire him to take out Dwight over that misunderstood assassination attempt, and he won’t take no for an answer.
Luckily for Dwight, he and Russell have history. In fact, Dwight saved his life, so Russell travels all the way to Tulsa to tell him that there’s a hit out on him, but that he won’t be carrying it out. Ray eventually gets wind of this and tries to make his position clearer, but even though Russell definitely considers whacking Dwight – he turns up on his doorstep with a gun – he once again decides against it. This leads Quiet Ray to send another couple of New York goons to kill them both. He’s not exactly a sophisticated thinker.
All of this exists for the purpose of giving us fun scenes between Sylvester Stallone and Samuel L. Jackson. Sure, it builds on the angle of Ray wanting Dwight dead, but there’s no legitimate tension in that regard because Russell makes his position clear early, and he quickly teams up with Dwight to take out the other assassins. There’s a laidback – arguably self-indulgent – quality to it, but there’s a commonly held theory that there is no project that Sam Jackson’s presence won’t improve by default, and this, it turns out, holds true in Tulsa King. It’s just fun to see those older dudes do their thing.
But does that constitute enough drama for a penultimate episode? In that I’m not so sure, but there are, to be fair, other things going on in Tulsa King Season 3, Episode 9. Following the Deacon double-cross in the previous episode, Dwight now has leverage over Musso, but instead of using it to angle for Bill’s release – I guess he has decided he’s better off where he is – he pushes for a federal liquor license. Deacon’s dead, despite my having assumed that he was put in that coffin alive so he could be pulled out of it later, but Dwight has all of his confessions on tape, so Musso has no choice but to acquiesce.
The license is great news for Montague Distilleries, but it’s terrible news for Dunmire, whose suppliers pull out en masse and whose liquor stock ends up being returned to sender in huge amounts. Cole has to break this bad news, and Jeremiah responds as you’d expect, throwing a massive temper tantrum with an axe. It’s obvious he’s going to do something, but it doesn’t become clear what until the end of the episode, when he has Joanne kidnapped by one of his goons.
Elsewhere in “Dead Weight”, Tyson continues to flesh out his own business idea, which is literally just to sell drugs to college kids at clubs. Seriously, what is the point of this character beyond getting himself and everyone else in trouble? He has no other function. It isn’t immediately clear who he and Spencer have upset by peddling ecstasy on their turf, but it’s someone, and if it wasn’t going to backfire, I don’t think this subplot would even exist.
So, going into the finale, this is what we’re dealing with – Joanne has been kidnapped, Bill is in federal custody, Quiet Ray is determined to have Dwight and Russell killed, and Tyson has once again made a stupidly deadly mistake. There’s also Thesher’s political career to think of, though that has admittedly been sidelined. I don’t know about you, but this seems to have all the makings of an unsatisfying cliffhanger setting up Season 4. We’ll have to wait and see.
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