“You wanna fight? Let’s fuckin’ fight.”
At the M-TEX man camp as Landman Episode 3 opens, Cooper’s morning cigarette is interrupted by Manuel (J.R. Villarreal) and Antonio (Octavio Rodriguez), who also brandishes a pistol, he doesn’t just roll over. Coop might be a worm, and an oil biz nepo baby, and have no direct support out here in The Patch – and yes, he’s still the only survivor of a pipejack blast that killed Manuel and Octavio’s cousins – but none of that means he’s gonna be out here looking over his shoulder. Both of his attackers are busted into the dirt in short order by the former college wrestler, and as a crowd gathers, the fight is further broken up by Boss (Mustafa Speaks). As we know, there are a zillion ways to die in the West Texas oil patch. In fact, Boss tells Cooper by way of introduction, “Devil cooking up new ways every day.” That’s why they don’t need to be trying to kill each other in the man camp. They’ve got a job to do, after all. And Cooper just met his new manager and co-workers.
At work, Manuel and Antonio know better than to disobey Boss. But they’re still surly and eyeing Cooper the next day when he rolls up to the family gathering to remember Luis, Elvio, and Armando. Undeterred, Coop offers his condolences to Luis’s wife – “Your husband was nice to me; they all were” – and she prepares him a plate of homemade Mexican food as he’s seated in the living room, right next to a young woman with an infant. She’s charmed by this flaco, who soon turns red as the heat of the food hits him. She laughs at his honest if humbling attempts to recover. And pretty soon, they both realize who each other are. The worm has met Ariana (Paulina Chavez), Elvio’s widow.
Manuel and Octavio can stare angrily at him from across the room all they like. Cooper and Ariana have made an immediate connection. (And from our perspective, the solid vibe between Jacob Lofland and Paulina Chavez is equally immediate.) He is kind. In equal measure, his awkwardness and graciousness helps her think not of grief, maybe for the first time since the accident. And it’s Ariana who wishes to keep him close. Who knows what’s gonna happen, but when she puts her head on Cooper’s shoulder, their collective temperament silently adjusts to what looks like permanence. Love is love, even in tragedy. Even in the Patch.
Nobody on the outskirts of the oil biz, or who thinks of it only in litigious terms, seems to understand the detached language of chaos that Monty Miller and Tommy Norris speak. A seven-million-dollar plane, stolen from their company by a criminal organization, destroyed on a road they built, by a speeding tanker truck owned by M-TEX’s direct competitor? As Monty tells one of his lawyers, all that static with the cartel is just one single example of how business gets done. That doesn’t change even if Monty, as the big boss, is technically the one holding the boot, because it’s his landman running point on all of these equipment thefts and OSHA violations. That doesn’t change anything at all. Because as Monty says, “Every company has a version of Tommy. You can’t function without one.” Remove him from the equation, either through litigation or termination, and Monty would only have to acquire a new Tommy. One with less experience and less respect.
In West Texas, as she inspects the semi truck vs private aircraft crash site, Rebecca Falcone is asking Tommy Norris similar questions. Things – large things, like planes, tankers, earth movers – go missing for a month or so, and they find their way back? Really? It’s not a concept the Northwestern University-trained liability attorney has a lot of time for. Which opens her up to another classic Sheridan-O-Verse lecture, this time about how oil sources green energy, like from wind turbines, to power its wells. If the alternative to doing business with petroleum was feasible at the level of national infrastructure – and profitable – the companies would have phased out fossil fuels years ago. But Tommy says it’s not, so they didn’t. Petroleum powers every product imaginable. (He recites a list.) The wind turbines themselves consume mass quantities of oil just to get built. It’s the same as attorneys trying to find someone to blame for the stolen equipment. That’s just part of it. In actuality, there is no one to blame but the marketplace, and its insatiable demand for their product. Until there is an alternative that keeps energy and money flowing, oil rules all.
Angela meant it when she said she was coming out to Midland, and Tommy and Ainsley are at the FBO to meet her when she arrives on her husband’s private jet. If Ali Larter was instantly memorable as Angela when was still posing on FaceTime and calling her ex a fucking asshole, she’s magnetic in person. Angela is all brash statements, pricey tops, and boot cut jeans, or decidedly less than that once they arrive at the country club – thanks for the membership, Monty – as she reveals a bikini in the middle of the place’s dining room. With Angela in town, the evolving story of the marriage that failed but still seems to be weirdly extant definitely has a new chapter.
“That’s the problem. With you, I’m always second.” These two speak to each other like they’re still currently inside the argument that broke up their marriage years before. And with Ainsley already on the couch at the rental house – she likes to hear her parents laughing together – Angela just moves into Tommy’s bedroom with him still in it. “You’re married,” he reminds her, “and not to me.” But what if she wasn’t? What if they could finally resolve what drove them apart? There’s no way Tommy is going to stop being a landman for Monty. But as he tells her in bed, quieter now, if Angela asked him, he’d be willing to try it on again. Love is love, even when it’s crazy. Devil cooking up new ways every day.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
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