SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Landman Season 2, Episode 5.

Landman Season 2 has reached its halfway point, and the Paramount+ show is spelling out what its endgame is. Season 2, Episode 5, “The Pirate Dinner” gets very clear about how Tommy Norris is stuck doing business with the devil known as Gallino. But there are some jarring character shifts that happen along the way, resulting in an episode that’s dramatic but also a little bit bewildering.

As far as the plot goes, Landman co-creator Taylor Sheridan has his characters explain it in two scenes: one in which Tommy meets with the team to learn where Monty Miller put the missing $400 million that M-TEX needs, and one immediately thereafter in which Tommy explains to Monty’s widow Cami Miller who “Danny” actually is. The audience had a general idea of where Season 2 was going, but now they know for sure, even if the financial specifics still sound incredibly convoluted. Tommy is right when he calls the whole thing a “shell game.”

It’s important to have that clarity because the season is now half over, and yet it feels like things are just getting started. Landman has gotten all the mileage it can out of Gallino’s persona as a benevolent investor, and other characters questioning what Monty was up to. Sheridan has to rip the Band-Aids off those wounds so that he has enough time to satisfactorily resolve everything. “The Pirate Dinner” couldn’t make his vision for Season 2 any clearer, and it’s an appealing one, since Andy Garcia and Billy Bob Thornton have already mastered the back and forth between their characters.

However, when it comes to the other players, Landman Season 2, Episode 5 is not nearly as engaging. Angela and Ainsley Norris are once again off on their own plot island; neither Angela’s birthday party nor her idea for a pirate-themed dinner add anything to the episode. One could say these beats are comic relief, but the best comic relief still fits in with everything else going on. Tommy’s father T.L. doesn’t have much more to do, except a conversation with Ainsley’s friend and neighbor Shelby. That feels like Rebecca’s airplane subplot from the prior episode; it’s entertaining at the time, but seems to be just for that moment.

Contrast that with Landman Season 1, in which Sheridan wove together multiple stories in a slow burn where they all impacted each other. The best example of that was Ariana and Cooper’s romance, which was able to develop organically and was a very human story about grief. Season 2, Episode 5 shakes up their relationship again, this time to the other extreme. Just days after getting back together, Ariana is telling Cooper she wants full commitment and he’s deciding to propose marriage. The marriage idea might have worked better if Sheridan hadn’t broken them up in the season premiere. As it is, the relationship doesn’t feel equal anymore; it comes across like Cooper doing whatever Ariana tells him to do.

Along similar lines, Cami is completely unfazed when Tommy tells her about how he was tortured by the cartel at the end of Season 1 and who her would-be investor actually is. This woman who’s been written as so smart and capable, albeit naive about her husband’s business dealings, tries to tell Tommy that he doesn’t actually know where Gallino’s money comes from, and then that he’s already in business with the cartel anyway. That and her angry monologue about wanting to win feel so at odds with the desperate vulnerability of prior episodes. If that scene had been done in a different tone, with a crushed Cami telling Tommy that she’s got nowhere else to turn and doesn’t feel like she has a choice, it would have been far more successful. Having her rant about not losing and how “meetings come to me” is dramatic in the moment, yet it also makes her come across as arrogant and self-centered. It undercuts the nuances of her character that Sheridan had previously established.

And that’s the major issue with “The Pirate Dinner.” There are numerous instances where it feels like Sheridan is writing too much in the moment, instead of with his usual ability to play the long game. He picks the option that creates the most excitement now, even if it doesn’t jibe with what came before or what might come after. If Cami had pleaded with Tommy to make the deal instead of ordered him, and Tommy had fallen on his sword for his friend, that would be a wholly different and more heartfelt way to look at what’s coming next. If Cooper had decided on his own to propose to Ariana and surprised her with the idea, Landman Season 2 could go on to explore her process of being ready to make that commitment—especially since Cooper’s talk with Tommy proves he’s got a lot of growing up still to do. And one scene that could have been really interesting, Tommy going to see the still-recovering Jerrell in hospital, doesn’t happen at all.

Landman Season 2, Episode 5 lays its plot cards on the table so now the audience has an idea of what to expect and why it’s unfolding that way. It’s official who the “bad guy” is and what Tommy is going to have to do to beat him. There’s no doubt the episode drums up excitement for the second half of the season. But “The Pirate Dinner” creates that energy by going for the most immediate payoff, when it could have gotten a lot more return if it moved a few pieces around. Sheridan doesn’t need to convince the audience to come back next week; he already has them hooked. He can take his time to dig into this world that he and Christian Wallace so beautifully created.

Landman 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.