Landman Season 1, Episode 6: “Beware The Second Beating”

Here are some random thoughts prompted by “Beware the Second Beating” — Episode 6, Season 1 of Landman. (The recap for Episode 5 is available here.) Warning: There are scads of spoilers here, so you should wait until you watch before you read.

• • Best line we have heard from Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy Norris in the series so far: “You bleeped with the wrong hillbilly.” Of course, he didn’t bleep himself, but you get the general idea.

• • Two great musical selections at either end of this episode: Ian Noe’s “If Today Doesn’t Do Me In” and Red Clay Strays’ “Sunshine (Western AF Version).” And the hits just keep on coming.

• • When Tommy announced plans to consult with Monty Mill in person at his Fort Worth home — there’s that little matter of the Mexican drug cartel demanding “compensation,”  remember? — Angela insisted on going along for the ride, to settle accounts things with Victor, her soon-to-be ex-husband, and, more important, lay claim to her Bentley. When she arrived at the home they formerly shared, however, she was greeted by Victor’s lawyers, who had been asked to assist him “in the dissolution of the marriage.” Because she had been, ahem, intimate with Tommy, Victor was able to exploit the adultery clause in their pre-nup and cut her off with, relatively speaking, next to nothing. She did get to keep the Bentley, however.

• • Glad to see we finally got more than a passing glance at Demi Moore as Cami Miller, Monty’s wife. Looks like she and Tommy are old — and platonic? — friends, entirely comfortable when joking about personal matters. (When she expressed mild surprise that Tommy and Angela are kinda-sorta reconciling, he replied: “Our first divorce as so fun, we thought we’d try it again.”) It should be noted, however, that the writers took pains to indicate Cami and Monty are happily married. For the time being, anyway. You can never be absolutely certain about such things in a Taylor Sheridan-produced series.
  • Before really getting down to business, Monty established his bona fides as Father of the Year while describing how much slack he cuts for his daughters after convincing one of them to attend TCU: “They want to drink margaritas, mess around with the boys — They can do it by the pool. They want to go to the bars, my driver takes them, picks them up.” That might sound a tad indulgent, but keep in mind: TCU is in Fort Worth. Not far from home. Maybe Tommy needs to pick up some parenting tips?
  • Rebecca and Nate arrived at Ariana’s place to negotiate a settlement with her and two other widows whose husbands died in the M-TEX oil explosion. Right from the start, Ariana was skeptical — no, make that downright suspicious — of their motives (with good reason), and slipped off to the kitchen to call  Cooper for advice. Unfortunately, Sheriff Walt Joebird (Mark Collie), not Cooper, picked up the phone. Even more unfortunately, he informed her that Cooper had been beaten within an inch of his life by person or persons unknown. Ariana identified Manuel as the most likely subject — then immediately took off for Midland General Hospital.

The recap for “All Roads Lead to a Hole” — Episode 7, Season 1 of Landman — is available here. 

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  Colm Feore as Nathan and Kayla Wallace as Rebecca Savage.

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• • Tommy cut short his confab with Monty — and spared us from another lecture about how replacing fossil fuel with clean energy would never solve anything — when Nate called with the bad news about Cooper. While defying speed limits on his race back home, Tommy got the messy details — including the name of the prime suspect — when Sheriff Walt called. Not surprisingly, Tommy said he would take care of matters. Sheriff Walt, knowing full well what that meant, replied: “Just leave me something to arrest.”

• • Angela beat Tommy to the hospital — by putting the pedal to the metal in her Bentley — and, despite her announced intention not to do so, immediately started freaking out when she saw her beat-down son in really, really bad shape, holding on for dear life. Tommy’s quick advice: “I know you’ve got a Xanax on you. So go outside in the hallway and take it. And then wait until it kicks in before you come back.” Tommy was surprised to see Ariana — identified by Sheriff Walt and others on the scene as Cooper’s “girlfriend” — holding vigil by his son’s bedside. But he thought it was best not to ask too many questions. Besides, he had more important things on his mind.

• • Things like paying a visit Manuel and Antonio at Manuel’s place in the man camp, accompanied by Dale, Boss (Mustafa Speaks), and “five thumpers who don’t play in their side of the sandbox.” While Boss and the thumpers used advanced interrogation techniques on Antonio to learn who else participated in Cooper’s beatdown, Tommy roughed up Manuel, and methodically explained how much time the thug would do for his crime. “I’m going to take 30 years of your life away from you,” Tommy said. “And if you ever come back here, I’ll take the rest of it.” There actually were two guys left for Sheriff Walt to arrest when he arrived. But just barely.

• • On the ride home, Dale expressed relief that Cooper would be safe from now. But that didn’t convince Tommy: “I got to get my boy out of here before somebody kills him… He ain’t mean enough for this place.” But will Cooper be willing to leave Ariana behind?