After the dramatic ending of Episode 1, Landman Episode 2, ‘Dreamers and Losers’ sees Tommy deal with the emotional aftermath of the devastating explosion. (Warning: spoilers ahead!)
The ending of Landman’s first episode left viewers with many questions. Did Luis, Armando or Elvio survive the oil well explosion? How are Tommy and Monty going to deal with the fallout? And will Tommy and his daughter ever be able to have a normal conversation?
Clearly, Taylor Sheridan is just getting started with his new series. We’ve been introduced to the foul-mouthed Tommy Norris and his no-nonsense approach to oil rigging, but with the problems already starting to pile up, he might be in over his head.
Episode 2 picks up directly where the first left off, so let’s recap exactly what happens.
Landman Episode 2 recap
Episode 2 opens with the aftermath of that horrific explosion in the first episode. Cooper is alive and conscious, but just barely. The same can’t be said for Luis, Armando or Elvio.
At home, Tommy and Nate debate over whether it’s cigarettes or sugar that kills you. Ainsley is still there, and when seeing that her boyfriend Dakota Loving is gone (thank God), she freaks out, despite being the one to tell him to leave in the first place.
There’s a brief naked run-in between Dale and Ainsley when he arrives home for a shower (without knowing she’s currently in there), that leaves him with a broken nose and her traumatized. After some bathroom negotiations, Tommy gets a call alerting him to the accident on Cooper’s site.
At his mansion, Monty tells Tommy an attorney is on the way to help deal with the plane fiasco from Episode 1, but soon finds out about the “blowout”. From his pained and angered response, clearly Monty is under some stress.
Tommy arrives at the accident and jumps into action. He finds Cooper, but seems less concerned with his son’s safety than he is about finding out whether he shut the valve off. He succeeds in doing it himself, but mutilates his finger in the process. Nothing a cigarette on an explosion site can’t fix!
At the airport, attorney Rebecca Falcone arrives to help M-TEX Oil sort out their latest woes.
Hospitals and house calls
At the hospital, Tommy calls Angela to let her know about Ainsley’s breakup and Cooper’s accident. When a doctor comes to see him, Tommy denies surgery to replace the tip of his thumb and simply whips out a pocket knife. The doctor watches in horror as Tommy cuts off the mangled end of his finger so they can stitch it up.
He then gets a call from the Sheriff, telling him they’ve found a body at the well. But it’s so burned they can’t tell who it is. In the ER, he talks to Cooper, who’s distraught about the loss of his three new friends.
But Tommy’s been through this before, and he’s more than prepared to skip the mourning to do what he has to do and tell the Medina family what happened. He strongly encourages Cooper to think about another career before he’ll have to do the same thing on his behalf.
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Monty and his family are at an athletics meet, watching his daughter compete. But Monty is still on the phone, trying to work out how to proceed after the accident. They agree to give the family of Luis, Armando and Elvio some money for compensation. Tommy arrives at the Medina home with the troubling task of telling them all three men died.
The trouble with lawyers
After another confusingly flirty call with Angela, Tommy agrees to meet Rebecca. He takes her to the site of the blowout, and the two argue whether the risk is just part of the job, or whether it’s down to neglect and faulty equipment. She wants to speak to Cooper, but Tommy deflects her. Despite their disagreements, Rebecca insists she’s on his side.
Monty and his wife, Cami, are at a company dinner when he gets a call from Tommy, furious that they’ve sent Rebecca, who will come down hard on any poor standards. As he tells Monty, “You don’t have a well that will pass OSHA standards Monty.” Clearly, they’ve been cutting corners somewhere.
But Monty isn’t having it, telling Tommy, “The boss is me, and don’t you ever raise your f**king voice at me again.”
Tommy then has a run of bad phone calls, including ones from Ainsley asking for him to fetch her a burger and Angela asking (yet again) if she needs to come to Midland to help with the kids.
When Tommy gets home, he and Ainsley have dinner together. She finds out that Cooper dropped out of school to work on the patch for Tommy. When Ainsley absent-mindedly calls him a “loser”, Tommy looks hurt, and tells her, “losers come here to win.”
Like father, like son
The next day, Cooper finally gets out of the hospital. In the car on the way home, he and Tommy argue about why Cooper wants to be a landman instead of finishing school. Cooper clearly wants to be like the wealthy Monty Miller, but Tommy tells him that for every Monty, there’s 100 of him.
When Cooper tells him the only difference between Tommy and Monty is that “Monty didn’t quit”, Tommy slams the car to a stop. “I didn’t quit, I bled out,” he shouts at his son. He harshly reminds Cooper that his crew his now dead.
But Cooper is insistent that he wants to run an oil company one day. He begs Tommy to put him on another crew. Despite hesitating, Tommy promises he will.
Landman Episode 3 will arrive on Paramount+ on November 24.
For more Sheridan, check out our guides to Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2, 6666, and The Madison. Don’t miss all the other new TV shows out this month, either.