SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Tulsa King Season 3, Episode 5.

The biggest moment in Tulsa King Season 3, Episode 5 doesn’t come from a major character. It’s the health inspector whose head gets crushed in by a series of falling barrels. That’s the one genuinely surprising moment in the episode, which is interesting when the season is now officially half over.

“On the Rocks” can’t escape the feeling that the plot is going in circles. Jeremiah Dunmire stole the Fifty, then Dwight Manfredi took it back, and now in this episode Dunmire returns to reclaim it with a cadre of law enforcement officers, claiming that he has rightful ownership. This is certainly entertaining—Robert Patrick is chewing all the scenery with Dunmire’s big, angry speech—but is Tulsa King just going to be playing this tug of war between the two all season? At least in Season 2, Cal Thresher and Bill Bevilaqua had their own issues going separate from what they were trying to do to Dwight.

Speaking of Bill, he actually has some of the best moments here. Frank Grillo has transitioned from playing an antagonist into an ally very well, easing the character down a bit but keeping his brashness. The script for this episode, co-written by Lucifer showrunner Ildy Modrovich with Sylvester Stallone, lets Bill say what anyone in his position should be saying. He questions Vince on why New York isn’t just talking to Dwight directly. And he questions Dwight about his random disappearances, pointing out how untrustworthy that makes Dwight look. Bill becomes the voice of the audience in “On the Rocks,” which is an interesting leap for a character who started out as such a loose cannon.

But other than Bill, the remaining characters don’t grow very much. The biggest character moment comes early on, when Tyson and Dwight have a heart-to-heart in the car. Tyson shows more self-awareness in that scene than he has in most of Tulsa King Season 3, and Dwight doesn’t just encourage him or brush it off like another show might have had him do. He provides Tyson with necessary criticism to get better. Past that, the biggest development is that Spencer realizes who Cole actually is.

Plot-wise, the inspector’s death is the biggest question mark because it’s left open-ended, with the crew agreeing to report the incident as an accident the following morning. Of course Dunmire causing a huge scene is going to have consequences, but the viewer has seen him scheming before. Plus, they know that Dwight has hired the bombmaker to blow up Dunmire’s house. How far that plot gets remains to be seen—after all, the real goal is for Musso to be able make his arrest—yet audiences still know what to expect from the Dunmire problem. Even Bill being seemingly arrested by two SUVs worth of armed folks isn’t necessarily a game-changer, because it’s not hard to guess who ordered that. A health inspector getting crushed to death is so much more random and therefore fans won’t quite know where that’s going.

It’s also worth pointing out that “On the Rocks” is directed by Joe Chappelle, whose extensive credits include many episodes of Chicago Fire and another kind of mob drama in Godfather of Harlem. The latter is noticeable herein. Chappelle knows how to make countless scenes of people talking look alive. He creates visual suspense even when there’s not anything physical happening. That makes this episode look great and feel more intense than the plot necessarily is. Tulsa King Season 3 is creating a lot of sound and fury, but it needs to throw in a few more wrenches in the remaining episodes to give viewers something more than Dwight and Dunmire trading blows.

Tulsa King streams Sundays on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.