Well, Landmaniacs, we’ve officially made it halfway through our soapy spin through the oil fields of West Texas. There are cartels to contend with, ex-wives to disappoint, and scheming lawyers up to no good. (Our regular disclosure: The show is based on the Texas Monthly and Imperative Entertainment podcast Boomtown, and TM is an executive producer.)
We’re two minutes into the episode, and Angela is already wearing nothing and mad at Tommy. He’s out in the patch with Dale and Boss, checking wells, and it’s not looking good. Dale says these wells are 35 years old and will all need to be “worked over”—the phrase describing an expensive attempt to revive a well that may have clogged with minerals over time—like the one in last week’s episode. Angela wants to have a family dinner, but Tommy says he can’t promise he’ll be home in time. “Picking up right where we f—ing left off, huh,” she says. Sounds about right!
Tommy hangs up with Angela and immediately calls Monty, who is begrudgingly (and forebodingly) sucking down some sort of green juice. Monty hems and haws, but he eventually gives Tommy the go-ahead to have his crews start working over the wells one at a time. It’s an expensive job, and the wells might not produce, so Monty wants to take a cautious approach.
Last week, as you may recall, Elvio’s widow, Ariana, called up Cooper for a favor. Threats from her cousins (also known as Cooper’s coworkers) be damned, Cooper shows up at Ariana’s place and begins to help her sort through the piles of financial paperwork littering her dinner table. Following her husband’s death, poor Ariana doesn’t know whether she has more than one bank account, much less how much she has to pay for her mortgage or insurance. Cooper goes through it all with her and says he’s going to investigate Elvio’s 401(k), which I just know is going to come back up later. Until then, Cooper decides to do some yard work for Ariana.
We cut to Monty landing a chopper and settling into some sort of white-tablecloth meeting for oil and gas overlords. The execs argue back and forth over the politics of clean energy and the public perception of gas and oil companies before Monty throws one of his classic tantrums. “The world has already convinced itself that we are evil and you are evil for providing them the one f—ing thing they interact with every day, and they will not be convinced otherwise,” he says. Monty doesn’t want to get into the trenches and determine who’s good, who’s bad, who’s right, or who’s wrong. He just wants to protect his product. The suits take a beat before one of them makes a joke to crack the tension, and the issue gets dropped. One bigwig, however, leans over to give Monty a gentle reality check. “The party isn’t ending tomorrow,” he cautions, “but it is ending.” Hearing this line and remembering that green juice, I’m worried the wells and Monty are about to go bust.
Back at Ariana’s, Cooper is still doing yard work when Manuel passes by and pulls a gun on him (again!). Cooper and Ariana have been getting close, drinking beers and chatting about breastfeeding during Cooper’s breaks between pulling weeds and clearing brush. What’s a guilt-ridden 22-year-old to do? Cooper tells Ariana he doesn’t know how else to help, so chores it is. Manuel, however, doesn’t like Cooper “playing husband” and re-ups his threats. Ariana steps in to save the day. “How many times have you come by to help?” she yells at Manuel. “You don’t care if I lose the house or my baby starves. You just care if I f— another man.” Manuel is sure Cooper is only around to get into bed with Ariana, and at that accusation, Ariana stomps over to Cooper and plants a big fat kiss on Cooper’s lips. “He keeps playing his cards right, he just might have the chance,” she says. Ariana, girl, I know you’re going through it, but I don’t think this behavior is helping! Manuel speeds off, promising to see Cooper at work tomorrow, which I’m sure will be super fine and chill.
Now let us return to Château du M Tex, which isn’t just the place where Tommy and his gang live but also Nate’s office, much to fellow lawyer Rebecca’s chagrin. She already has daggers in her eyes as Nate begins going over the settlements for the widows and children of the three men who were killed. Nate says the company’s got a “compassionate” offer to the tune of $250,000 per household, plus college funds for each of the kids. Remember that 401(k) business Cooper was going to investigate? It’s already back! Rebecca says these families don’t know they’re entitled to the 401(k) distributions and that she intends to keep it that way. She doesn’t want any other attorneys or insurance companies to come mucking around and warns that this business could turn into a $40 million to $50 million lawsuit if the parties don’t settle quickly. If the families don’t bite at the initial offer, Rebecca promises to go into beast mode. “We are leaving each house with a check on their table and a f—ing signature on our settlement,” she says. Rebecca is made of switchblades. I’m truly scared of her and pray that Cooper comes prepared when this 401(k) business comes to a head.
A delightful Ainsley side quest pops up in the middle of the episode. She’s poolside in the backyard when Shelby, a pretty brunette from next door, calls her over and invites her to a “patch party” later in the week. The conversation is innocent, but it’s charged with so much sapphic energy I nearly combust. Is a very special episode in which Ainsley learns something about herself coming soon? We’ll have to wait and see.
Back in the patch, things go from bad to worse as Jimmy and his cartel buds from the pilot show up to shake down Tommy. Jimmy’s got his own Monty back home to satisfy, and the $30 million loss of product in that plane accident (and drug deal gone awry) is about to make everyone’s life more difficult. Tommy puffs up his chest, starts smooth talking, and eventually gets Jimmy to back down, but not before Jimmy levels a threat. “You don’t know anything about my business,” he says. “But you’re about to learn.” Dale has secretly recorded the conversation, and it seems that Tommy has a plan to keep the cartel at bay, but Boss says he and his guys aren’t setting foot in the patch until Tommy figures things out.
Tommy finally makes it home for supper, where there’s been an extreme home makeover, courtesy of Angela and her Fort Worth husband’s credit card. The show doesn’t tell us what Victor is up to beyond being a husband who doesn’t check his wife’s bank statements, so I can only imagine he is still down in Mexico on their vacation and assumes Angela is at the bar fetching more margaritas. There are dead animals on the freshly painted walls, new wood and leather furniture, and antlers everywhere as Angela sets the table and she, Tommy, Ainsley, Cooper, Dale, and Nate sit down for their family meal. You can tell Angela really is trying to make something happen here. There’s opera playing in the background, and she’s made bolognese sauce with wild boar and veal. She says it’s been ten years since her family was all together (Dale and Nate aren’t family, but she is graciously allowing these men who live here to join) and breaks out into a cheerful, if rambling, blessing of the meal. Unfortunately for Angela, her plot to have a picture-perfect dinner screeches to a halt when no one has any polite banter to entertain her with. Tommy grumpily explains his horrific day and devolves into some potty humor before Angela excuses herself, tears in her eyes. Tommy goes after her at Ainsley’s behest. If this is going to be their home, Angela tells him, she wants it to feel like one. Tommy argues that Midland is no one’s home, but Angela isn’t buying it. He’s been out here for 33 years. “You may not like your home, but this is it.” Tommy says Angela can’t expect too much, which is exactly the type of romantic sweet nothing I’d want to hear if I were leaving my millionaire husband for my alcoholic ex.
After dinner, Cooper is on the way back to the man camp when Ariana (of course) calls him up. She’s scared and lonely, and Cooper puts her at ease, which is very nice. If only someone would take care of Cooper. He takes one step into his room and is immediately met by Manuel and a bunch of other guys, who begin to beat the living daylights out of him. The next day, Manuel and Armando (who, I guess, is already okay after his hand was crushed on the job last week) play dumb when Boss asks where Cooper is and end up leaving for the patch without him, ominous music playing as the camera lingers on Cooper’s ajar door.
While Cooper is MIA from work, Tommy and Angela are up early as Tommy prepares for a trip up to Fort Worth to meet with Monty about this cartel problem. Angela says she should come, too, to finally break up with Victor. In a vulnerable moment, she gives Tommy one last chance to back out if he doesn’t want to get back together. Our land man is tough, but Angela is his kryptonite. “I don’t think we have an ice cube’s chance in hell to make this work. But I don’t possess the power to say no to you,” he says.
The two begin their drive, but they have to make a pit stop after one of Tommy’s men calls him about a delivery of pipes that is making his life miserable. Tommy tells Angela to stay in the car and finds the crew member standing on the pipes, wailing about how they’re all different sizes and will take forever to organize and how it’s a waste of his and his crew’s time. He stomps on the pile and it collapses, the steel crushing him beneath. The crewman, with only his upper torso sticking out of the rubble, asks Tommy for his phone so he can call his wife. “What do I say?” he says, blood pooling around him. “Tell her you love her,” Tommy says, as he runs to grab Angela’s phone and call 911. Angela, in the truck, can tell something is wrong. Tommy begs her to stay put and begins telling the 911 operator what’s happened, but it’s too late. The crewman has stopped breathing and drops the phone. We don’t even know if he got to talk to his wife in those last moments.
My heart cracks open as Tommy spots Angela, who has left the safety of the truck and now bears witness to the carnage. It’s her first time seeing Tommy “at work” in the field, and now she’s seen the worst part of it. That ice cube seems to be melting faster by the minute.
Golden Moments
This week, it’s all about Angela’s dinner, where the decor is over the top and no one cares about the bolognese.
- I’m practically howling at Angela’s explanation for her decor choices. “I just steered into the West Texas of it,” she says. “There’s no point in decorating this place like a condo in Dallas.” It’s the kind of Dallas shade that only a Fort Worth woman could throw.
- Angela is so proud of her bolognese, which includes wild boar from Italy, but both Tommy and Dale keep calling the dish spaghetti, which is mean, but also funny. I was laughing until Angela punched Tommy in his soft spot downstairs. Lesson learned! Don’t mess with a woman and her sauce!
- Angela’s breakdown in the kitchen is about the dinner going wrong, yes, but it also seems to be about her insecurity about getting older. Cooper is a man, she proclaims with horror, before delivering the line of the night. “I’m aging out of cougar, for f—’s sake!”
