Recap of Episode 4 of ‘Landman’: “Embracing New Opportunities”

America has a pattern where every prosperous town pretends to be a struggling one. Everyone in these towns, including the pioneers like the visionaries, bankers, and salespeople, to the eventual arrival of opportunists, the desperate, and the criminals, understands the game. You need to take advantage while you can and be wise enough to save some for when things go downhill.

Tommy Norris observes Midland’s situation in “Landman,” currently experiencing a period of growth. In typical American fashion, and consistent with Taylor Sheridan’s writing style, Tommy informs Rebecca Falcone that this boomtown is no different from historical examples like Tombstone or Dodge City. Tommy speaks from experience, having witnessed the decline of a boom that contributed to the end of his marriage to Angela.

Angela and Ainsley were unwelcome at the country club but made an unexpected appearance at the Patch Cafe during Tommy’s post-deposition gathering with Rebecca. This scenario triggered immediate and sharp jealousy in Angela, despite Tommy’s dismissal of the idea of a “side piece” without a “main piece.” Later, during the ride back to the rental house, Angela expressed to Rebecca that Tommy requires chaos and conflicts to feel like a man. However, Rebecca, as a lawyer who never had any interest in Tommy, pointed out Angela’s logical contradiction. She questioned Angela’s jealousy, emphasizing that Tommy is not her husband, leading Angela to see Rebecca as competition. Angela’s presence in Midland goes beyond Ainsley’s Spring Break; she has intentions of winning Tommy back.

But first, that deposition, concerning the exploding-stolen-plane-parked-on-a-private-road. With Tommy in a Western-style sport coat and on his best behavior, and Nathan alongside, Rebecca proceeded to systematically destroy the attorneys from TTP. First, she proved that they didn’t have shit – no causation of liability, her professional specialty – and that they absolutely knew the entire deposition was just smoke. Next, she made them immediately draft an agreement of surrender under threat of legitimate and lengthy litigation. And then – and Tommy couldn’t help but LOL at this – she put the TTP attorney’s brazen sexism and ageism against her on complete and total blast. “Do you think they hired me because I’m pretty?” Rebecca’s billable rate is $900/hr, and this idiot was trying to diminish her with tone-deaf taunts. Visibly impressed, Tommy admits afterwards that he didn’t give Rebecca enough credit. She dismisses that. “Nobody does.” And she’s not interested in being anyone’s side piece, either.

While all this was going on, Cooper was working on Boss’s crew, right alongside Manuel and Antonio, the same dudes he put on the ground after they came at him in Landman episode 3. Re-piping an underperforming drilling rig, and with a demand from Monty and Tommy to get it back online ASAP, the crew worked for 20 hours straight to cycle out the rig’s corroded materials and replace them with new pipes. It’s the usual Life in the Patch quotient. Danger, divided by difficulty, equals a day and night’s work done. Nobody even quit when a piece of machinery injured Antonio. Cooper had to figure out on the fly how to replace him as a derrickhand, suspended in a safety harness hundreds of feet in the air. It’s an on-the-job training regimen that continues to be insane. But afterwards, Cooper gets a phone call that makes him immediately forget all of the dangerous sweat and toil. It’s Ariana. “I need to see you.”

Back at the house after checking on the rig rebuild, Tommy walks in on tears from all of the women in his life. Ainsley calls her mom a quitter for leaving her dad when the market crashed out, and fleeing instead to find the richest man who would have her. But Tommy knows the boom and bust cycle of his marriage to Angela was much more than a factor of financials. Which is why he’s a little floored when his ex-wife, also in tears, says she’s gonna leave her current and very wealthy husband. What? Tommy says she was miserable with him, even during the booms. And now she wants to get back together?

“I’ll always be gone, hon. That’s the job. We had great sex, and I made you laugh. That was it.”

“I’ll take great sex and a laugh any day. What else is there?”

This quiet, close conversation in the bedroom is another great example in Landman of how real Ali Larter and Billy Bob Thornton have made Angela and Tommy’s combustible but lovable relationship. Whenever the emotions run high, whenever they threaten to cycle up and down like the head of a chaotic drill rig, Landry and Thornton instead modulate the highs and lows, so the whole thing settles on the level where Angela and Tommy have always seen eye to eye. Better than anyone, they know how bad they were for each other. (“Oil and water,” is how Tommy put it to Ainsley.) But better than anyone, they also know the contours of their incongruities by heart. As she climbs on top and he sighs – “Oh, fuck”; “That’s the plan, baby” – Angela and Tommy officially decide to give being married another shot. Boom or bust, they’re back in on the dream.

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.