Summary
Landman achieves a couple of things in “Sins of the Father”. One of them is the shape of a proper narrative. The other is several profound moments of character writing and performance that suggest the show could live without one.
I knew things weren’t going to work out for Cooper. Landman isn’t the kind of show that would allow an idealistic young man to consistently strike gold, make a fortune, and live happily ever after. What I didn’t expect was that his travails might give Season 2 the closest thing yet to a proper overarching narrative. Cooper has unwittingly got into bed with a bad dude, and while Episode 3, “Sins of the Father”, also introduces some problems for M-Tex, giving Rebecca another opportunity to show off her legal eagle superpowers, that’s mostly done away with quickly. Cooper’s problem is big enough to still be ongoing.
But this episode is also a good example of why I really like Landman despite its refusal to operate by the usual standards of narrative storytelling. There’s a moment in “Sins of the Father”, a conversation between Tommy and Cooper as they drive back from briefly visiting the former’s father in his retirement home, that is unexpectedly beautiful; a moment of parental bonding that Billy Bob Thornton sells like it’s the most valuable commodity in all of West Texas. Which it is, if you can get past all the oil stuff.
Cooper can’t, at least not yet. His oil well project seemed to him like a dream come true, not just for himself but for Ariana and her son. But that illusion is quickly punctured here. Ariana isn’t impressed by the money. She doesn’t want to be rich, or to relocate, leaving her friends and family and ghosts behind. When she sees Cooper coming home covered in oil, she just sees history repeating itself. What he thought was their salvation might be their doom. After a night on the couch, he wakes up to Ariana telling him he should probably move out.
At least he has the money to stand on his own two feet. Or does he? Tommy suspects not, since his oil operation has been bankrolled by a shady company that turns out to be a front for Gallino, the powerful gangster who saved him from being killed by Jimenez in the first season but promised that they’d have a beautiful journey together. Lurking in the background to entrap Cooper, and thus gain leverage over Tommy, seems to have been his way of kick-starting that journey.
Since Tommy’s going to have his hands full with that, it’s likely he’ll end up leaving Cami to her own devices. And Cami’s in trouble too. A gas well off the coast of Louisiana blew up, and Monty was awarded a hefty settlement from the insurance company – in full, for reasons nobody can quite figure out – but was mandated to use that money to drill another well. No well was forthcoming; the money is now missing, and Cami is legally liable for it. This is as simplistic as I can make the scenario, anyway.
The responsibility becomes Rebecca’s, since the fact that M-Tex doesn’t have the money to drill anywhere means she doesn’t need any intimate knowledge of the technical details; she just needs a good line in time-buying bullsh*t to keep the plaintiff of M-Tex’s backs. She does this so well that the legal argument is essentially torn to pieces, resulting in a tetchy deal that seems to sweep the whole matter under the rug. Given how Landman operates, I have no idea whether this will come up again in the same form, if it’ll just be used to have Rebecca contemplate her future as M-Tex’s in-house counsel, or will compel Cami to do something rash out of fear of the wolves baying at the door. We can only wait and see.
Ordinarily, Tommy would have this handled, but he’s distracted in Landman Season 2, Episode 2, since his mother has just died. Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t especially keen on his mother, but he has to handle the funeral arrangements out of obligation to his father, who he isn’t keen on either. His trip to the retirement home with Cooper is besieged on all sides by other peoples’ problems – the issue with the well and the insurance payout, Cooper’s own romantic and professional misfortunes, and the fact that Angela and Ainsley get themselves arrested for assaulting two inspectors at the old folks’ home where they’re getting the residents drunk (a recurring subplot that remains, as far as I can tell, completely pointless.)
But the journey is illuminating nonetheless, at least for the audience. Tommy’s relationship advice is smartly written and expertly delivered, and the visit to T.L. yields a bunch of harsh backstory that goes a long way in explaining why Tommy is the way he is, both as a businessman and a father. T.L. was abusive; his now-late wife was a drug addict. Tommy never knew any version of his parents other than these ones that he feared and resented, which explains why he ran away from his responsibilities to Cooper out of fear of perpetuating the cycle. Cooper’s response – “you did your best, and your best is good enough for me” – is understated, but it’s a beautiful moment because Billy Bob Thornton wears the emotion of it in every contour of his face. Plot woes aside, this show is capable of profound moments of insight.
I still don’t have much of a clue where it’s going, of course, but given there’s something resembling an overarching narrative now, I can at least make a good guess. If the character drama remains this compelling, though, it might not even matter.
RELATED:
