We’re taking a three-hundred-mile field trip from Midland to Fort Worth during this episode, folks, so pack a snack.
The action opens in one of the tonier western suburbs of Cowtown, where we finally see Demi Moore, as Cami Miller, wife of oil baron Monty, doing something other than swimming leisurely laps in the pool of her palatial mansion. She welcomes Tommy, who has driven from Midland to brief Monty on sundry new threats to his business. She fetches Tommy a cup of coffee. (Just pause here for a moment and imagine Demi Moore fetching you a cup of coffee.) As Tommy waits, we get the lay of the land. The Miller mansion has everything: ugly, oversized art, chairs upholstered in tiger print, random women in business formal taking phone calls from the living room, and young adults in bathing suits who are drinking margaritas. (Our regular disclosure: The show is based on the Texas Monthly and Imperative Entertainment podcast Boomtown, and TM is an executive producer.)
It’s wild to hear Tommy give Monty the lowdown on all the messes currently within his purview, including the latest accident, in which a crew worker was crushed under a pile of pipes. Tommy can’t say for sure, but he feels pretty confident that Monty and M-Tex can’t be held liable for that one. Monty lightly warns the young folks (including his not-yet-21-year-old daughter) not to spill their margaritas on the carpet. “They want to drink margaritas, mess around with the boys, they can do it by the pool.” He tells Tommy he even has his driver take his daughter out to the local bars whenever she wants to go drink. Monty and Angela must have read the same parenting books.
Tommy and Monty chitchat about hypothetically (or not; who knows with these guys) chaining their daughters to cinder blocks before the land man gets down to business. The cartel that stole M-Tex’s private jet and lost all of its product in the accident from episode one wants M-Tex to reimburse it for that loss, to the tune of, say, $30 million, lest the recent rash of accidents start spreading to more of the company’s wells. That threat was witnessed by some of M-Tex’s roustabouts and has them spooked. Monty doesn’t seem too bothered, but Tommy suggests he call up some of his U.S. senator friends to see if they can call in the Army to “come down here and play war games for a few weeks” to scare the gang off. After Monty scurries off to make his calls, there’s a quiet moment as Tommy seems to contemplate the excess of the house. I get the sense that Tommy not so secretly yearns for Monty’s life, or at least his bank account. Meanwhile, he’s missed twelve calls from Sheriff Walt back in Midland, who has news about his Tommy’s son, Cooper, whom we last saw getting the living daylights beaten out of him by relatives of the crew members who died near Cooper in that well explosion in the pilot.
Cooper’s fate—for now, at least—is left a mystery as legal eagles Nate and Rebecca arrive at Ariana’s house to meet with her and the two other widows of the crew members who were killed in the pilot. Nate tells Rebecca to leave the talking to him. She may be a bulldog, but assigning monetary value to a loved one’s life is work for a dove, and that’s what Nate is. Even though Nate gently explains all the paperwork, the widows (who have various degrees of English comprehension) can barely understand a word he’s saying.
He finally hands each a check for $250,000—a gift, he says, from the company that “understands the challenges” the women are now facing after the deaths of their husbands. “What’s the catch?” one widow asks, but Nate assures them that there is none—just, you know, don’t ever say this was M-Tex’s fault. While the two elder widows sign the paperwork and accept their checks, Ariana starts asking questions. “What if it is your fault?” Ariana asks. “Then you’d have to prove it,” Rebecca snaps, the bulldog antsy to escape its cage. She explains the long and difficult legal battle Ariana and her family would be in for, but the young widow isn’t shaken. “If you’re not to blame, then why would you offer us anything?” she asks. Nate tries to turn the temperature down, but Ariana storms off. She’s got a call to make.
She, of course, calls her white knight, Cooper, but on the other end gets Sheriff Walt, who picks up Cooper’s phone straight from a police evidence bag. Walt tells Ariana that Cooper is in surgery after being found unconscious in his room at the man camp earlier that morning. “Someone hurt him really bad.” Sheriff Walt asks her if she knows anyone who’d want to hurt Cooper, and boy, oh boy, does she ever! She tells Walt everything—about Armando’s feud with Cooper, the guns, the threats—and heads to the hospital, leaving the proposed settlement from M-Tex decidedly unsettled.
Back in Fort Worth, Angela has finally arrived at her old place to end things with current husband Victor. I can only imagine that the budget the show was going to use on an actor for the still-unseen Victor was instead spent on renting this absolutely stunning Spanish-style villa. I assumed Victor was going to be some sort of putz, but boy, was I wrong. Not only have the locks been changed, but there are also two divorce lawyers waiting for Angela to end things and (the real kicker) a sorority-size group of mini Angelas running around half naked outside by the pool, drinking and, I can only assume, fighting over who gets to marry Victor next. Our poor soon-to-be divorcée has to leave the house only with the gifts Victor bestowed upon her during their marriage, including designer clothes, jewelry, a Bentley, and a cool $300,000 in her private bank account. Relatable queen!
Across town, Tommy is still hanging with Monty when he finally gets the news that Cooper is in the hospital. He hightails it out of Monty’s mansion to head back to Midland, and you can tell he is in full fixer mode—cool and collected, but with a fury burning inside. Angela calls Tommy from her Bentley, emotional and hoping for a sympathetic ear, but Tommy cuts her off to fill her in. The two agree to race to the hospital in Midland immediately. When Tommy tells her he loves her at the end of the call and she doesn’t reply, we’re left to wonder whether that’s because she’s stunned by Cooper’s beating or because she regrets leaving her wealthy husband.
As the two shift their vehicles into overdrive, Ariana arrives at the hospital, where Tommy’s daughter, Ainsley, and oil-worker housemate, Dale, are already waiting. A doctor comes out and tells the gang that Cooper is recovering from surgery. Our poor guy suffered brain swelling, broken ribs, and a collapsed lung. The doctor disappears, and Ainsley realizes Ariana has been hovering and—understandably, but also with a little too much gag-me-with-a-spoon attitude—asks who the stranger is. With a head cock and fight-me energy, Ariana throws the question right back. “I’m his sister,” Ainsley says. “I’m harder to explain,” Ariana replies, which at least lets us know she’s aware of the mess she’s helped make. The two sit about a million seats apart, Ainsley side-eyeing Ariana as the latter begins to pump breast milk for her son, who is hanging with his tías back home. You can see the gears turning in Ainsley’s brain as she tries to decipher who this woman is, why she’s pumping breast milk, and how she knows her brother.
Tommy is still in the car and on the phone with Boss, who is at home, playing video games with his son. Game’s over, though, because Tommy is pissed. “What the f— are your f—ing boys doing putting my son in the g—damn hospital? Do you not run a tighter crew than that?” Boss says he’ll have things handled by morning, but Tommy wants results tonight. “Keep your g—damn phone on,” he says.
Ainsley, Dale, and Ariana are finally allowed to see Cooper, and he looks beyond rough, his entire face bruised. I’m going to eventually need an explanation for Ainsley and Cooper’s beef, because their cruelty to each other, especially when one of them is in a hospital bed, is shocking to hear. “What are you doing here?” Cooper asks his sister. “I was waiting five hours to see if you lived through surgery,” Ainsley says plainly. “Sorry to disappoint,” he responds, eyeing Ariana hovering in the back.
During her turn at Cooper’s bedside, Ariana holds his hand, and the two engage in some of the saddest flirting I’ve ever seen. Then Cooper’s parents arrive. Of course, Tommy knows Ariana, and he asks her how her son is doing. The two share a moment before Angela bursts in and proceeds to have a breakdown at the sight of her beat-up son. “You better find the f—ers who did this,” she yells at Tommy. He tells her to go outside and take a Xanax.
Ariana mercifully takes off so Tommy can get the scoop from Cooper. “Nothing’s going on,” Cooper says. “Her husband just died. She called and asked for help, and I gave it.” Cooper, babe, I think you believe what you’re saying, but let’s take a look at the medical chart, take a reality check, and call me in the morning. Tommy already knows that Manuel and Antonio, Ariana’s cousins, were involved in the fight, but he wants to know who else. “You can tell me,” he says to his son, “or I’ll beat it out of the first two.” Cooper only knows where the guys are stationed, but that’s enough for Tommy, who takes off to put Operation Avenge Cooper into motion.
A security guard at the man camp calls Tommy to let him know Manuel and Antonio have just made it to their room. “I want you to turn those cameras off, and don’t cut them back on until I tell you, all right?” Tommy says. As he leaves the hospital, he collects Dale and tells Sheriff Walt to meet him at the man camp but to give him a ten-minute head start. His final instructions are for Ainsley, whose job it is to get a now very woozy Angela home. “Don’t let her drive,” he says, land-manning every loose end in sight.
Tommy and Dale arrive at the man camp, and the vibe is tense. Tommy pulls a thick wrench from the back of his truck, while Dale wields what looks to me like some sort of belt with a hefty buckle. Also in tow are Boss and a gang of five guys who are ready to provide backup. Justice is about to be served, land-man style.
I don’t know what Manuel and Antonio thought was going to happen when they beat up their boss’s boss’s son, but I guess it wasn’t the ass-whupping they’re about to receive. They open the door to Tommy and are immediately knocked to the floor. Boss and his crew take Antonio—who just had his hand smashed in an accident a couple days ago—into a separate room after he refuses to give up the names of the other guys who beat up Cooper. The sounds of Antonio screaming are visceral as Tommy has a chat with Manuel, who now sports a wrench-size gash on his forehead. “Needless to say, you’re fired. By noon tomorrow, you’ll be on a no-hire list for every f—ing oil company on the Permian Basin.” He then goes through the list of charges the sheriff is about to hit Manuel with, easily amounting to thirty years in jail. “You f—ed with the wrong hillbilly.” It’s almost worse than what’s happening to Antonio in the other room. Sheriff Walt arrives just then and arrests both Manuel and Antonio, who says, through muffled sobs, that he’ll give up the names of the other assailants.
“Place gettin’ wild again,” Dale says as he and Tommy drive away. Tommy says he has to get Cooper out of the patch before someone kills him. “Something about that boy just draws trouble to him, like bugs to a light,” he says. “He ain’t mean enough for this place.” Not like his dad.
Golden moments
- I rewound the episode with glee just to hear Billy Bob Thornton pronounce “cement” when Tommy and Monty swap stories about keeping their daughters close. You know the Golden Globe nominating committee loved the line reading of “SEE-mint.”
- Cooper barely survives the day, but he still has enough nasty energy to dunk on Ainsley, who misses her first patch party to be with him. “I’m sure there will be plenty of chlamydia at the next one,” he tells her.
- And finally, our good buddy Dale gets the line of the night after Angela scolds him for eating Cheetos in the hospital waiting room. “They sell it in a hospital, Angela. How bad can it be?”
