'Landman' Season 2 is back with episode 9, and it has been officially summarised as a 'mess'. How so? 'Tommy' has been fired, there is a war against mullets, and good roommates are not an easy find.
Landman Season 2 Episode 9 has been making waves online. Especially because while our favourite oil drama is getting interesting, the real oil market has also changed pace with new political policies, which, according to The Texas Tribune, will keep Texas oil companies from seeing any profit for at least the next decade. And while that definitely feels like a story for Landman Season 3, the current season is getting messy as 'Tommy Noris' is freshly out of a job, 'Ainsely' is out of the home, and the show's writer, Taylor Sheridan, is suddenly very anti-mullet. Warning: Spoilers ahead!
It seems like this week was all about Taylor Sheridan getting his characters to give up on their mullets. It began with 'Charlie', who had moved back in with 'Rebecca' following their last fight. His mullet actually suits him, but the latter jokes that they need to talk about it when he returns from his offshore drilling venture. Later, even 'Cooper' sets out in the morning to follow in his father's footsteps as a Junior Landman for M-Tex. He asks his fiancée if he should get a haircut on the way home, but she tells him not to change a thing.
'Ainsley's' college interview in the season 2 premiere and her undergraduate journey seemed to have taken a back seat with the ongoing drilling chaos. However, one needs to give it to Taylor Sheridan that her interview was one of the funniest scenes he had ever written. Nonetheless, 'Ainsley' is now making her way to college, and while it feels rushed, her TCU roommate is anything but someone you expected to find in Landman. 'Paigyn' is an off-putting sports medicine student with short ginger hair and a masculine physique, or how 'Ainsley' called it, "You would make a very strong base for a pyramid."
'Paigyn' uses they/them pronouns, is a vegan, doesn't want 'Ainsley' to play music in their room, owns a pet ferret, and declares their room a personal safe space for their mental health and meditation, over which 'Ainsley' has no say. Unfortunately, Landman leaves 'Paigyn' all alone as punishment as 'Angela' returns to sweep 'Ainsley' out of the dorms to her rented apartment for the semester. 'Angela' is quoted as saying:
"She just doesn't like herself. Instead of fixing the things she doesn't like, she blames it on everyone else."
Forty minutes into the episode, Taylor Sheridan drops the real bomb. With just one episode left for the finale, it was time for the real heat. And it seems like it's 'Tommy Norris', who is facing the blaze. The events unfold with 'Cami' telling him that she "understands it now, there's a rush… an exhilaration to the risk." However, while she is all set on betting her entire company on a 10 per cent chance, which, unfortunately for him, 'Tommy' reminds her is really bad odds. He adds that the only reason the roles were not reversed between her late husband and himself was that 'Monty' struck it big and 'Tommy' lost everything. "Now, I do everything I can to avoid it," he says.
That's his job, after all. Fix the problem and save the company as much money as he can. But despite constant warnings from 'Tommy' and her lawyers, 'Cami' wants to play the odds. "The President of my company can't be averse to the very thing that built it," she tells him. "You're fired." The words left not just 'Tommy' but the fans as well gasping as in no world had they seen that coming. And just like that, old friends have now turned into foes.
One would think that 'Tommy' being fired would be the last cliff-hanger before the finale. Well, it's not! We end things with 'Cooper' paying 'Ariana' a visit at the bar, but he can't find her. As dread sets in, he arrives just in time to stop a would-be assailant from harming her in the alley behind the bar, beating him within an inch of his life. The final shot is from a security camera, proving that they have the entire incident documented. The finale scene shows 'Cooper' consoling 'Ariana', the bar's owner calling for the police, and the attacker lying beaten on the ground, complaining, "I'm hurt." (Well, boohoo).
The scene is a sharp contrast to how the episode began. However, it somewhat seemed all over the place for a season that had been Taylor Sheridan's best work up until now. Fans felt that Taylor abruptly changed course and shoved all their crazy ideas that just didn't fit anywhere else into the last episode before the finale. While firing 'Tommy' was exciting enough, some felt that Taylor Sheridan didn't need to tack on gender politics and an unnecessary s**ual assault, which we've criticised his shows for in the past as well. It felt strange how long it took to finally escape 'Tommy's' house in that first scene, but looking back, it would've been a cosy place to be.
What are your thoughts on Landman Season 2 Episode 9? Let us know.
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