Landman Recap: Wait, Did [Spoiler] Just Die?!
Is Landman‘s Monty on his way to that great oil patch in the sky?
This week’s episode sure makes it seem that way, with the tycoon lying in a hospital bed, reflecting on his messed-up priorities. The last time we see him, he’s in the throes of what seems like yet another cardiac event. And then when Cami calls Tommy, and we can’t hear their conversation, but it doesn’t seem good at all? We’d put good money on the odds of Jon Hamm’s character not seeing another Texas sunrise.
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Read on for the highlights of “WolfCamp.”
SOMEBODY’S WATCHING ME | Tommy gets a call from an irate Texas National Guardsman, who wants to know why there were people where he said there wouldn’t be. Tommy points out that he said there was no oil in that area, and that the Guard’s presence was to run off the people that might show up there. Tommy suggests that he gets everyone out of there, because the cartel will clean up everything that happened. The military man reluctantly agrees.
Tommy immediately calls his cartel contact, who threatens to come after him. Tommy says he’s doing him a courtesy by not immediately going to the sheriff, but he acknowledges that life was better when they both stuck to their own business and didn’t have to deal with each other. Then he’s chilled when the contact indicates that he knows Tommy is in Ft. Worth and that Monty is in the hospital: “Like I said, I have an army, too, and eyes everywhere,” he threatens.
GOOD — AND TERRIBLE NEWS — FOR TOMMY | Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones swings by Monty’s hospital room to impart some wisdom about how Monty should spend more time with his kids… but then uses his example of buying the NFL team and employing his children, which doesn’t seem like a super replicable model, but who am I to say? After he leaves, Monty seems hesitant to take the older man’s advice; he blames his third coronary bypass procedure on a bum heart, not the stress of his business, and worries that he’d have no purpose if he retired. “That said,” he tells Tommy reluctantly, “I am planning on stepping back and making you vice president of operations.” But — twist! — he’s also offering a VP spot (exploration) to Rebecca, who is “the shrewdest negotiator I’ve ever seen, and she’s an absolute killer,” Monty says. In the face of Tommy’s protests, Monty suggests that he learn how to work with the lawyer, because she’s sticking around.
‘MY BODY IS MY PROOF’ | Ariana is spooked when Cooper starts talking about their shared future, given that they’ve only kissed a few times and things are still so weird. She tells him to focus on his own life, but he’s got something to say. “I have a dream, but don’t know if I have the courage to chase it just for me,” he tells her, adding that he’s already risked his life and quit his job for her, because he’s in love with her. “You want proof that I won’t quit?” he asks, lifting his shirt to show her the giant, purple bruise across his chest. “My body is my proof. I took one look at you, and I fell, and I’m still falling.” She starts kissing him but then the doorbell rings — interrupting them again! — and she grumbles that God is “begging us not to do this.” After she dispatches the door-to-door salesman, she climbs on top of Cooper and declares that they’re going to find out if they truly have chemistry… and then her son starts crying from his crib. “This is God’s last warning. If you don’t take it, you’re stuck with me,” she quips as they keep kissing. Cooper is more than OK with that.
They sleep together. She wakes up in the middle of the night to find him on the computer in the living room. He explains his plan for cobbling together enough ownership of small wells so that he can drill where the real money is, and then they’ll move to Ft. Worth and get out of the game. Later in the hour, Cooper approaches his first landowner about working with his dried-up oil patch, and the man is open to leasing young Norris the spot.
PAELLA, NOT JAMBALAYA | Tommy returns home from seeing Monty to find that Angela has made paella and invited Ryder to stay for dinner. Just like in Episode 5, Tommy makes a big fuss about how Angela went over the top with her expectations for the meal, and when they talk about it outside, he tells her he’s happy to have her do whatever she wants, dinner-wise, as long as he doesn’t have to participate. I think we’re supposed to side with him on this, but “Do whatever you want but don’t expect me to take part” is a bummer of a thing to hear from your partner, no?
Alone in his hospital room that night, Monty starts to grimace. As he grasps at his chest and gasps, his vitals monitor sounds an alarm. The next morning, Tommy gets a grave call from Cami, but we don’t hear what she tells him.
ELSEWHERE IN THE EPISODE | Angela and Ainsley continue their nursing-home good deeds by sweet-talking a local strip-club operator into opening early so the residents can have a good time. Only problem: The club only has female dancers, and some of the women residents would like to throw money at a male performer. Ainsley’s new boyfriend, Ryder, eventually — and very reluctantly — agrees to be that male performer.
Your turn! Monty must be dead, right? Hit the comments with your thoughts about the episode.
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