SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Tulsa King Season 3, Episode 6. It also contains discussion of suicide.

As Tulsa King starts the second half of Season 3, it still feels like the best is yet to come. Episode 6, entitled “Bubbles,” is another episode that has a lot of setup building to one climactic moment. It’s largely a road trip movie before it drops a bombshell at the end. And while that bombshell is massive, it feels like the series is running out of time to get to its destination.

“Bubbles” splits most of its narrative into three parts. Dwight Manfredi heads to Arkansas for a meeting with Quiet Ray to deal with the New York problem. He sends Mitch Keller and Cleo Montague to Louisiana in order to offload some of the Fifty to one of his connections. And last but not least, Bodhi and Grace venture off on their own errand. The episode moves between all three plotlines before the final scene is the apparent kickoff for the fireworks that Tulsa King has been so good at.

The Bodhi and Grace story understandably serves as some comic relief, but Bodhi actually has one of the best scenes in the episode. He confronts Mitch about why he had to be the person to find the body of the inspector who died in Episode 5. Bodhi points out that’s a trigger for him, because it reminds him of his friend dying in his arms during Tulsa King Season 2. Mitch hears his feelings and the two have a brief conversation before an awkward hug. It’s a short moment, but it’s a very nice touch that the show recognizes that it would be hard for Bodhi, and that Mitch recognizes that, too. It would be too easy to forget that, especially since any drama from the inspector’s death is set aside for now in favor of the road tripping.

Mitch and Cleo’s storyline is the most effective. It provides some excitement, because they get pulled over by a police officer who happens to be in the Dunmires’ pocket. The duo are able to pull off a scrappy escape, which is the biggest action moment until the end of the hour. But it also has two scenes of character development. Mitch explains to Cleo why he’s thrown his lot in with Dwight, and later on Cleo admits to Mitch how uncomfortable she is. The latter feels a little strange for the woman who was cocky enough to tear up Jeremiah Dunmire’s lawn—but it’s also good because it shows vulnerability under that bravado. It also creates tension for Mitch, as Tulsa King explores more of who he is and what he wants.

The big issue with “Bubbles” is that it basically moves past the two major plot points from the previous episode and doesn’t actually add anything new plot-wise until the end. The health inspector’s death isn’t really probed; all that has happened yet is that the distillery gets shut down, which becomes irrelevant once Dwight’s team is able to transport the Fifty. Bill Bevilaqua’s fate is left in suspense for a while, yet then there’s only one scene of him being held in federal custody. Either of these ideas could have—maybe even should have—been explored further, because that’s the stuff viewers want to know about. Instead, there’s only one sequence in Episode 6 that is a plot-changer, even though it’s a big one.

Dwight and Quiet Ray meet in Arkansas, where they get into an argument. Ray wants to muscle in on Dwight’s profits, while Dwight calls out Ray for trying to turn Bill against him. Cole Dunmire then spoils this by trying to kill Dwight—which starts a massive shootout. The gunplay itself is anticlimactic because no one gets hit; the suspense comes from the fact that Ray blames Dwight for the incident, which suggests that Tulsa is about to be at odds with New York again. That’s the kind of large-scale conflict that Tulsa King does very well and what the viewers are expecting after half a season. Everyone’s waiting for Sylvester Stallone to be able to cut loose.

“Bubbles” sets the stage for that, but taken on its own, it mostly feels like setup for larger plot points, whether it’s Dwight versus everyone or Mitch having to make a choice about his renewed relationship with Cleo. Even the story of Armand’s disappearance essentially gets brushed aside; Goodie simply tells Dwight in a phone call that Armand died by suicide. What seemed like it was going to be at least an emotional subplot just quietly fades away. Tulsa King Season 3 has a lot of balls in the air, but has yet to knock any of them out of the park.

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.