Landman episode 3 sees Tommy come to the aid of attorney Rebecca, while Cooper is blamed for the deaths of his crew by their cousins.
In the last few episodes, Tommy Norris's dedication to being a landman had seen him lose half a finger and almost his entire son. Cooper narrowly survived the explosion at oil well 1422, but the accident left Tommy to deliver grim news to three grief-stricken families. The incident was just the latest of multiple pending legal actions and financial penalties that Monty — the head honcho of M-Tex Oil — was attempting to navigate with Tommy's help. Rebecca Falcone, meanwhile, had recently arrived to provide litigation support, but her critical stance left Tommy convinced he’d be made the company scapegoat. To add to his troubles, ex-wife Angela was back in town to comfort their children after a tumultuous few days – whether they wanted her there or not. Here's everything that happens in episode 3...
My ex-wife, the lush
Episode 3 began by giving Angela Norris (Ali Larter) the entrance her character deserved. We'd previously only seen Angela's head and shoulders as she and Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton) exchanged flirty barbs and innuendos via FaceTime. Now, she was flying into Aero Midland to reunite with her family, and Tommy and his daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) were braced for impact. She stepped out into the aircraft’s doorway: "Surprise!" she yelled, sporting sunglasses, a pearly-white smile, and an ankle-length dress with a slit running the length of her left leg.
"Dear God almighty," Tommy muttered, putting out his cigarette. Angela was clearly a woman who needed to be seen. And who can blame her? As the episode progressed, it became clear she was one of two female characters (alongside Demi Moore's Cami) whose needs came second to their husbands' jobs. Still, Angela's affection for Tommy clearly remained. She enthusiastically embraced him before insisting they abuse Monty’s Country Club membership and go have breakfast. But where was her luggage? Oh, she'd only be staying until the evening. What kind of motherly nurturing was she supposed to offer in just 12 hours? More than likely, she was there to ascertain if any romantic spark remained between her and Tommy.
In the line of fire
Monty (Jon Hamm), meanwhile, was at River Crest Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, playing a few rounds of golf with his legal advisor. And he was approaching the game with the same grim pragmatism that he ran his business. When Billy and Buck, two more senior members of the club, pulled up in their golf buggies and asked to play through, he flatly refused. He wasn't going to get bogged down behind them, because "I don't wait on nobody," he said.
As they walked the course, Monty's lawyer advised him that the only prudent course of action was to fire Tommy. "You have an employee who failed to report a theft of an asset worth $7 million dollars. That asset was used to move illegal drugs when it landed illegally again on a public roadway." On top of that, a pump jack violating OSHA standards was left in operation, and a work crew was killed as a result. It would be Monty, he warned, who would be found legally culpable if another accident occurred on Tommy’s watch. They had multiple tankers stolen every day, Monty countered. It simply wasn’t good business to report every one. Yes, his unnamed associate replied. But how was M-Tex Oil going to function "with an $80 million dollar lawsuit and a mandatory shutdown from OSHA?"
Margaritas for señoritas
Monty was in danger of hemorrhaging millions. So when Tommy called him to ask to use his country club membership, Monty couldn't have cared less. "When are you meeting with those reps from TTP?" he inquired. "I need this problem to go away." Tuesday, Tommy said. Get it done, his boss implored. He had three cases pending litigation and he didn't need three more. All that Angela heard was, she'd got the all clear on her boozy brunch.
Knocking back margaritas by the pool, Angela was being deliberately provocative. A little tipsy already, she flirted with their young waiter, daring him to imagine without a dress on. A gruff Tommy advised him to cut her off when it came to the alcohol. Meanwhile, Angela advised her daughter on how to take the perfect revenge pic to send to her ex, Dakota. Did she have her bathing suit? Angela enquired with a devilish grin. Ainsley left to get changed, while Angela disrobed in front of her fellow diners. She was embarrassing herself, Tommy said disapprovingly, as she revealed her skimpy red swimsuit. But what really grated on him were "the great life lessons you’re teaching your daughter".
Young snakes have the most venom
Tommy had the perfect excuse to leave when Rebecca (Kayla Wallace), the litigator from Shepherd-Hastings, called asking for his help. "We meet with TTP on Tuesday and I haven't seen the crash site." Without much ado, he went to collect her, though not before a foreboding phone call from oil and gas attorney Nate (Colm Feore). He warned Tommy that Rebecca didn’t specialize in petroleum cases but was "an expert in causation of liability". Monty sure wouldn't shoulder any blame, so he advised Tommy to do anything — anything — that might make her his ally. Sleep with her, even, if that’s what it took.
However, Tommy and Rebecca continued to aggravate each other as they drove to the crash site. She got defensive when he asked her age, assuming he was questioning her professional competence. He’d already insulted her gender and moral compass. He shot back that he was simply impressed that someone with four years' experience had gotten this case, and that "it was meant to be a compliment until you Gen Z’d your way out of it." They thought it best to stop speaking and he cranked up Country FM, and even then, Rebecca's hilarious eye-rolling and grimacing rang out loud and clear.
The TTP tanker was being towed away when they arrived. Rebecca wondered how a plane could be that easy to steal. Well, Tommy said, they didn’t have keys, so they were if you knew how to fly one. Theft was common in these parts. If Tommy reported every stolen vehicle, they’d be impounded for months until the federal government has solved the case. Meanwhile, he’d have to buy more tankers which would just get stolen. Did major oil companies like Chevron and Exxon allow their stuff to be wilfully leased by criminals? The cartels didn’t target them. Just the independents. “It’s the Wild West” Rebecca mused thoughtfully.
Turning her attention to a horizon filled with wind turbines, Rebecca asked if green energy was edging out the oil industry. Tommy offered to show her something — and wipe that morally superior grin off her face. Driving beneath a row of towering wind turbines, he explained that there was nothing "clean" about them. As there wasn't any electricity in this part of Texas, the wind turbines powered the oil wells. And even within their 20-year lifespans, they wouldn't offset the carbon footprint required to build them and keep them functioning. America had been built on "a 120-year petroleum-based infrastructure," and the tragedy for Tommy was that they'd run out of oil before finding a viable alternative. "There ain’t nobody to blame except the demand that we keep pumping it."
He made a persuasive argument. But what softened Rebecca’s attitude was when, facing a rattlesnake and paralyzed by fear, Tommy casually strolled over and severed its head with a shovel. Tommy previously described Rebecca as a "pit viper". Now she'd just been face-to-face with one. Did that mean she’d been metaphorically de-fanged and might become more of an ally from now on? Tommy, for one, seemed to feel more congenial towards her, stating that she’d certainly made a memorable impression.
Cooper’s new crew spells trouble
Elsewhere, Cooper (Jacob Lofland) was about to have a cigarette outside his tiny apartment, situated within a community of other roughneck workers, when two men assaulted him. But Tommy, a former member of the wrestling team, managed to get Manuel (J.R. Villarreal) in a headlock. He threatened to break his neck unless his accomplice laid down his weapon. When a crowd develops, he finally conceded. It turns out, both of them were cousins of Medina crew that died.
"How's that well explode and blow up my whole family and you ain't got a scratch?" they ask. Cooper didn't know. Just then, guy named "Boss"” (Mustafa Speaks) strolls over, diffusing the situation and apprehending their weapon. Cooper asks his attackers if he needs to be worried about them, and Manuel concedes that "you ain't got no problem with us."
Boss recognizes him as being Tommy Norris's son. He knows it's been a hard week. But that was life on the patch. Crewmen were regularly getting burnt to a crisp, electrocuted, or thrown off a rig. "Devil cooking up new ways every day," he said. Despite the risk of horrendous death, though, Cooper was thrilled when he invited him to join his crew. Who would he be working with though? The guys who just jumped him, of course!
Later, Cooper visited the neighborhood where the Medina crew’s family lived to pay his respects. He recoiled, however, when he locks eyes with Manuel, but approaches anyway before being halted in his tracks. Manuel refuses to let him pass until an older woman, Luis’ widow perhaps, approaches. Looking undernourished and remorseful, she regards him with motherly concern. "One big wind and you blow away." Come inside and eat, she urges. Despite his reluctance, he's cajoled indoors, with Manuel cautioning him against breaking out any more “kung fu.”
Their home is bustling. Luis' widow fixes Cooper a plate, before directing him to the couch. He takes a seat between a rotund man watching TV, and a young woman nursing a baby. She pays little attention to Cooper, until he almost chokes on his food, finding Mexican cuisine muy picante. She’s highly amused, and instantly identifies him as “the worm.” Yes, Elvio had described him to her vividly. "You're Arianna” Cooper exclaims. Arianna (Paulina Chavez) starts to cry, their exchange bringing back the loss of her husband, but temporarily forgets her troubles again when she watches a spice-intolerant Cooper try to clear his plate. He’s a welcome distraction, allowing her to forget how the heck she’ll carry on without Elvio. But, as she rests her head on Cooper’s shoulder, Manuel glares over at them.
'I can't be second again'
Tommy returned home late that night after scooping his drunk ex-wife and child off of the country club floor, and was surprised to find Dale (James Jordan), the petroleum engineer Ainsley maimed last episode, back at the house and unpacking his belongings. "They move up drilling to Swenson?" he asked. Nope. He'd had an argument with the missus. Oh, he'd been there, Tommy sympathized. But Dale seriously doubted it. "Oh really? Tennis pro bent your wife over my breakfast table too?" Dale helped an inebriated Angela indoors, while Tommy tenderly escorted his daughter inside. She murmured that she wanted to stay with her dad from now on, at least, before leaving for university. "I choose you," she said, and Tommy simply replied that doing so would break her mother's heart.
Meanwhile, was there a chance Tommy and Angela could salvage their marriage? Angela attempted to seduce Tommy, who lay inert in bed, merely commenting that she was drunk as she climbed on top of him. Well, they'd only had sex sober a handful of times in twenty years. What was stopping him now? Erm, the fact she was married to someone else. Angela confessed she'd trade it all in a heartbeat to have Tommy back. Doing the moral thing, and completely ruining the mood, he told her that Ainsley wanted to stay with him until she went to college. She sadly rolled off and nestled beside him. She'd only re-married for Ainsley’s sake, she said. Now she was going to be left alone in that giant house with a man she was only with for his bank balance. "Honey, if you want me to try again, I'll try again," Tommy said comfortingly. But his job demanded his attention two weeks out of every four. His mistress was his occupation, which ensured Angela would always be second place. And, putting a pin in the possibility of a marital reunion, she lamented that "I can’t be second again."
Kill the well
Early morning. In the pitch black the roughnecks began their commute to the patch. Cooper jumped in the car with his new crew, headed up by Boss. Manuel is also there, and far from thrilled to see him. After stopping by the Babes N Brew, where Boss orders a morning beverage far more complicated than Cooper's latte — ostensible to linger longer on the comely curves of his server — Manuel pulls out a knife. He holds it against Cooper’s side and menacingly warns him that, if he sees him with his arms on his cousin’s widow again, he’ll kill him. Even though, Cooper never did that and Arianna was the one seeking solace from him.
When Boss’s crew finally arrive at an oil field, it's daylight. Tommy is on the phone with Monty, informing him that the flow of oil from this 35-year-old well is slowing down. Did he want them to rework it, or "kill" (decommission) the well? It was only producing 12 barrels a day. In its prime, it yielded about 180. Monty didn't want to rework it when crude oil futures were in a dip (we cut to a shot of a graph, just to prove it) and fretful about losing millions of dollars. "Kill the well," he said with a furrowed brow, as his wife Cami (Demi Moore, so far monumentally underused) exited their pool and screwed up her face at him. "Take your pills" she urged. Because Monty was not looking well at all.
That meant all hands on deck as Dale requested the roughnecks bring the rig up before the end of the day. Cooper had been placed with the floor hands, and he’d have to think on his feet. "There are faster ways to die, but not by much," Tommy said. About to embark on a job with an high risk of injury, and with Boss providing only the most cryptic guidance (“Move like a boxer on this one. Shuck and jive when we stripping pipe.”), Cooper was told to figure it out as a procession of lorries thundered in, and in sped-up footage showed the crew begin to decommission the well. Then the episode rather anti-climactically came to a halt, with just the faint suggestion of more on-site peril to come next week.
Watch new episodes of Landman weekly on Paramount Plus, every Sunday in the US and Canada, or on Mondays in the UK and Australia.
