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The following story contains spoilers for Landman season 2, episode 6, “Dark Night of the Soul.”
TAYLOR SHERIDAN IS not messing around. It’s past the midpoint in Landman season two, which means it’s go time. He runs through a veritable bingo card of Sheridan screenwriting bits on “Dark Night of the Soul”—from an episode title referencing the poem by 16th century Catholic priest John of the Cross, to our favorite Fort Worth upper-echelon haunt Cattlemen’s, to the historic Will Rogers rodeo arena, to some casually poetic hand-wringing about memories, and a sign that says, “Our beer is colder than your Texas heart.”
And yes, more political commentary on the current proper legal term for “the saltwater out east of Galveston,” per Tommy. The Gulf of Mexico? The Gulf of America? “Let’s just call it the Gulf,” Lawyer Rebecca (Kayla Wallace) declares, as she’s about to get a headache, and anyway, she has bigger holes to drill.
But first, as has become his morning custom, Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy Norris yells at the radio, “Shut the fuck up—play the song!” Why the M-Tex Oil president doesn’t play Spotify Radio instead is beside the point, because the shouting and the cigarettes and wizened disdain are the point—and Thonrton’s better than anyone at it.
Except for possibly Sam Elliott, who acts as Tommy’s father, T.L., in more ways than one this season. Now finally ensconced in Chateau Norris, he fully intrudes in his son’s affairs (plural intended), first telling him to stop being “such a fucking slob” when Tommy throws a spent cig into his own water fountain (it’s only littering if it’s someone else’s house, you see), then insisting on riding shotgun on Tommy’s trip to Forth Worth for a work meeting.
Road trip! The Sam Elliott wisdom cometh soon.
After all, Sheridan is nothing if not a vivid writer. The title here may be a tease, but it’s a tease he means to deliver on. The dark night of the soul, in Texas layman’s (landman’s?) terms, is the spirit’s gas station rest stop complex on the way to self-realization. And Tommy is going through it. Think about it: How much longer can that ex-wife Angela (Ali Larter) keep the “ex” while keeping him warm at night?
“I’d say you’re pretty fucking married, son,” T.L. says. Tommy has no response, because what response could he give?
T.L. is right about more than that in “Dark Night of the Soul.”
The Bots Are Coming for Us—and the Roughnecks
Tommy’s not the only one having a dark night. Other characters suddenly find themselves wondering about their places in the universe. We drop into a massive sales convention for the oil industry, complete with cheerleadery models making themselves available for photo opps. Dale (James Jordan) and the M-Tex roughnecks gaze uncomfortably at the gleaming behemoth of smart machinery that promises to automate much of the oil drilling process, and cut down a human drill team from four workers to one.
Ominous piano notes tell you exactly what Sheridan thinks of AI: It’s already come for us, baby; now it’s just about who it’s coming for, and who’s left standing. But Dale has other things on his mind. He waves off the sales guys and pockets their hot sauce, presumably for his po’ boy later. Some inevitabilities just aren’t worth worrying about that much. This is why we like Dale. We would hang out with Dale. He kinda looks like he’s losing, but he’s secretly winning.
Angela’s Guide to Winning
Also winning, and looking like it, whether married or not: Angela. Success is her prerogative, practically her uniform. (“Oh, it bothers you to see my body?” she asks Tommy when he protests her coming down into the living room in just her underwear, with Dale and Neil, err, Nate around. But no one except Tommy is looking bothered.) Angela bribes a gym employee to crank the heat so she can sweat her body to perfection. Once she and Ainsley get wind of Tommy’s trip, she’s already envisioning the Neiman Marcus spree. The two will meet up with Tommy and gang and cap it off with a weekend celebration swilling tequila shots and dancing at Cattlemen’s Club in Fort Worth (save it for your Landman destination vacation; the joint actually opens up next year).
When Ainsley asks Angela if she has the blues, Angela can only laugh. “I never get the blues, baby,” she assures her daughter, looking radiant in the way only Larter can. “My grip is firmly on the scrotum of life. And I will never let go.” Amen.
Cooper and Ariana’s Wedding Planning
Among the things Angela plans to, uh, grip is a new engagement ring because, well, the old one is tainted. And new nuptials are in the air! Cooper successfully survived asking Ariana’s dad for permission to propose. When Ariana tells baby Miguel’s great-grandmother, her widow Armando’s (Michael Peña, killed all the way back in the show’s premiere episode, because Sheridan won’t let us keep nice things) grandmother, that she’s getting married, grandma is not so hands-off. Actually, she’s kind of terrifying.”You send him over,” she tells Ariana.
When he shows up, grandma tells the skinny wet dog—meaning Cooper—to sit down. “Look at me,” she commands with the fierceness only an abuela in charge can summon. “Now tell me why you should marry my grandson’s widow.”
The answer is almost unbearably sweet. “I’ve never been loved before,” he says as he begins to blabber. Phew, abuela is convinced. We’re still a tad skeptical of this wet dog, though. And Cooper definitely can’t afford an engagement ring with his shady oil deal he made with Gallino (Andy Garcia). Fortunately, Mom is happy to bequeath the one Tommy gave her years ago, what with her Neiman Marcus shopping excursion and all.
We Need a Scientist!
In the subplot that technically should be important (M-Tex’s future hinges on it) but ends up being the frothiest of this episode, Rebecca and her steel nerves are on a mission to make sure this new drill operation, which has to start imminently to stave off the insurance company’s lawyers, goes smoothly.
In other words, Rebecca needs a man who knows. Or as she hilariously puts it, “a scientist!”
The scientist (Guy Burnet)—you guessed it—is the smolderingly handsome roughneck she smashed after their turbulent meet-cute on the company jet. Turns out his name is Newsom, and he’s a geologist. We still can’t pin down his accent, though. English? Aussie? Kiwi? It doesn’t matter, he’s a scientist! (A search for Burnet says the actor is British, so we’ll go with that.)
The only real thing that gets done with this D-plot is a lot of wordplay about getting some, ahem, D.
“You need a crash course in getting drilled… offshore.”
What? You can’t expect Sheridan to be serious all the time.
‘Your Memory-Making Days Is About Behind You’
Elliott’s T.L. makes about as much trouble as you’d expect on his adventure to Fort Worth with Tommy, but he has revelations as well. After he kicks an old colleague’s ass at the Will Rogers Arena for talking poorly about his late wife, Tommy lays into him.
“Did he call her a whore or an addict or a thief?” Thornton just about spits. “‘Cause it’s true.”
Maybe so. And maybe T.L. gave up his life, and his son’s, “but for the hope that maybe she was in there somewhere son.” That is the beautiful creature he remembers, not the mom Tommy knew, the woman before the death of their infant daughter.
“It shattered me, but it didn’t scramble my soul. It scrambled her soul, son.”
“Pop, I don’t think hers was the only soul that got scrambled.” Thornton plays exasperated beautifully.
Tommy may not entirely understand what his dad has been through. But while the 80-year-old scamp is still on this planet, it seems to be his destiny (and Sheridan’s) to impart hard life lessons on his son as he finds his own way “before the smoking, the drinking, the rest of it slows you to a crawl,” T.L. tells him over drinks at the Cattlemen’s bar.
Remedy your mistakes while you can. “And quick.” That’s T.L.’s advice. Given that Tommy has already almost died once on this series, it’s advice he’d do well to take. Especially since Cami (Demi Moore) is starting to look at him like yesterday’s news. And Angela will stay winning, which means she’ll only stick around for so long.
Hopefully this line from T.L. rattles Tommy as much as it rattled us:
“Your memory-making days is about behind you, son. And trust me, living off ‘em isn’t no living at all. You gotta make ‘em while you can.”
Notes from the Patch
- Angela drops one adage after another, including that Texas standby “Diamonds are in Dallas.” And who can argue with this one? “Friday night is not a spectator sport. Friday night is full-contact.”
- Tune of the week: “All Around Cowboy” by Charley Crockett. This one goes out to Tommy, our “broken-down cowboy.”
- Gallino may be Tommy’s fiercest rival, but the drug cartel frenemy is also looking out for the landman, in a way, when he notices Cami’s trepidation about her direct report. “When those sharks smell her doubt in you, they’re gonna poison her with reason to get rid of you.” Is Tommy about to get axed? Probably not, but he’ll almost certainly have to fight for his life—and his rep in Texas.
Paul Schrodt is a freelance writer and editor covering pop culture and the entertainment industry. He has contributed to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, GQ, Men’s Health, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles magazine, and others.
