Summary
Landman Season 2 has had its problems, there’s no doubt about that, but it has all been building to an ending that perfectly encapsulates everything this show does well.
You can say a lot of things about Landman. In my coverage of Season 2, I’ve probably said most of them already. It’s weird. It’s sometimes misguided. It doesn’t follow any of the usual rules about structure and pacing. It has an equality of focus that is almost unique, with random go-nowhere subplots about the residents of a nursing home visiting the casino being given equal importance to half-billion-dollar negotiations between oil executives and gangsters. And yet the ending of this season is near-perfect, in large part because of these things. Episode 10, “Tragedy and Flies”, is the quintessence of this show, everything it does well condensed into 70 minutes.
You can’t say it was full of surprises either. Several people in the comments of my recap of the penultimate episode predicted Tommy would team up with Cooper business-wise, and I was spot-on about what I thought would happen with the aftermath of Cooper assaulting Ariana’s attacker, and Ainsley’s college dorm dramas. But that doesn’t make seeing it all play out any less satisfying, especially in a show so assuredly about vibes above and beyond any other consideration. It all just works, even, weirdly, the stuff that kind of doesn’t.
Anyway, there’s a lot to break down, so let’s get on with it in reverse order of importance.
Ainsley Is Growing Up
Ainsley is growing up and leaving the nest, finally. And it only took one college training session to do it. Surprised by the intensity of the schedule, Ainsley suddenly realises she needs Paigyn, who’s the physio and a pretty good one at that. Paigyn must see something in Ainsley’s weak ankles — her being a bit of an outsider in the group, perhaps — that softens their bedside manner. And that softness helps endear Paigyn to Ainsley, so when a bunch of high school boys show up to harass them, Ainsley humiliates the kids and sees them off.
This had to happen, and was always going to happen in more or less the exact way that it plays out here, since Ainsley had to eventually stand on her own two feet. She had to learn how to compromise. This is it. She even tells Angela that she’s going to give the dorms another try, leading to another motherly meltdown about her baby flying the coop.
But that’s the least of Angela’s problems.
Tommy’s Big Idea
In case you’ve forgotten, Tommy no longer works for M-Tex. Of course, a man of his stature could walk into a similar position at another big company, or go back to being a landman, but he isn’t sure he has the energy for that life anymore, and besides, he wants to prove that he has one last home run left in him. His putting this home run together takes place throughout the finale, in between putting out a few other fires.
I’ll collect everything here, though. In short, our commenters were right — Tommy is going to piggyback on Cooper’s wells. Cami had no idea about that little deal, so even though M-Tex took over the leases, it’s a bit of a grey area. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to convince legitimate businessmen of that, but luckily Tommy knows a few people who aren’t legitimate businessmen. Enter, Gallino.
Tommy doesn’t have any issues convincing Gallino that M-Tex is a sinking ship with Cami at the wheel. Even Nate knows that. Cami summons him to Fort Worth to become interim president, but he resigns instead, citing the fact that Monty never intended the company to outlive him. It’s a sinking ship, and needs to be sold off. Gallino’s investment is never going to produce a return, unless by some miracle Charlie manages to find gas in the field. Tommy’s offering a sure thing. Cooper’s wells are already producing. If Gallino adheres to the terms of the original contract with him, he can recoup at 70% and split all subsequent profits 50/50. He and Tommy are going into business, but when the flicker of the gangster Gallino really shows itself, it’s easy to imagine there will be some roadblocks.
CTT Oil Exploration and Cattle
To solidify his new business venture, Tommy needs some legitimacy. He instructs Gallino to make out a check to a company called “CTT Oil Exploration and Cattle”, supposedly named because he hadn’t yet got around to making it an LLC and needed to ensure it was stupid enough that nobody else would take it in the meantime.
After picking up Cooper and Ariana, Tommy tells Cooper to set up a group chat including pretty much all of the major characters and summon them to Cooper’s dig site. Once there, Tommy lays out the structure of his new oil company. Cooper will be president, and Tommy the senior vice president. Nate is the treasurer, Rebecca the COO and chief counsel, and Dale the head of exploration. T.L. and Cheyenne will oversee the digging, hilariously, and Ariana will be the office manager.
In case you were wondering, CTT stands for “Cooper, Tommy, Thomas”. Aww!
Frontier Justice
Another big subplot in Landman Season 2, Episode 10 is, of course, the fallout from Cooper battering the man who was assaulting Ariana outside The Patch. This problem is slightly complicated by the fact that the guy died in the hospital, and as a big-time pipeline supplier, the optics aren’t great. As a result, the sheriffs are trying to throw the book at Cooper.
As predicted, the fact that Cooper continued hitting the dude multiple times after he stopped being a threat doesn’t cast him in a particularly good light. He’s going to need a lawyer. Luckily, Ariana knows a good one — Rebecca. After weeks of fluttering her eyelashes at Charlie, all Rebecca needed was an excuse to turn the typical shark mode back on. She storms into the interview room and makes a point of threatening to look up all of the department’s officer-involved shootings and open civil suits on behalf of all the victims’ families. If Cooper is prosecuted for excessive force, then by their own logic, law enforcement will be on the hook for enough damages to bankrupt the entire department.
Tommy is also on the case. He immediately calls Walt to help fix it, and then eventually turns up for a meeting with the assembled brass and just scorches the Earth. As it turns out, the guy died in the hospital of a heart attack, not necessarily from the beating, and in the great state of Texas, is any jury going to side with the guy trying to force himself on a young woman over the guy who heroically protected his wife?
The case is a non-starter, and Cooper is cleared of any wrongdoing. In every aspect, more or less, Landman Season 2 has a happy ending. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of problems to deal with in the future, which is why this finale feels as much like a Season 3 premiere as anything else. At this point, why not?
