SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Landman Season 2, Episode 10.

Taylor Sheridan’s Landman has been a lot like wildcatting: it has its wins and losses. Season 1 of the Paramount+ series was one of Sheridan’s best,while Season 2 could be wildly uneven. But in retrospect, it looks like Sheridan was utilizing Season 2 to set up a fantastic Season 3.

The Landman Season 2 finale “Tragedy and Flies” involves Tommy Norris (an always captivating Billy Bob Thornton) being fired from longtime employer M-TEX OIL. Tommy decides to gamble on himself and his son Cooper’s talent for finding the right wells, starting a brand-new company called CTT Oil Exploration and Cattle. And he brings all of his friends and family along for the ride, including Cheyenne the stripper turned physical therapist. It’s a big statement to end the season, but more importantly, it dramatically reshapes the entire show.

From the beginning of Landman, Sheridan and co-creator Christian Wallace made Tommy a larger than life figure. Fans were constantly made aware, sometimes through dialogue and sometimes not, that Tommy was the real shot-caller at M-TEX. They knew he was the one getting things done for Monty Miller and then Monty’s widow Cami. They knew he had the loyalty of his employees, and if they’d forgotten that, Dale said it again in the Season 2 finale, declaring that he went where Tommy went. And they knew it in how Tommy was the largest force in every room he was in. Sheridan’s shows typically center around one big personality played by an even bigger name actor, but that’s been particularly true in Landman, where all Tommy had to do was start talking and people would be cowed.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense to have Landman Season 3—and thus all the seasons that may happen after it—be with Tommy in control. The third season is either going to prove or disprove the myth of Tommy Norris. Is he still going to be as powerful and smart when he doesn’t have the resources or pull of a company, and that unpredictable bottom line is his? Cooper may be the president of CTT, and the money might be coming from businessman slash drug lord Gallino, but audiences have already seen enough to know all roads in one way or another lead through Tommy. So moving him away from M-TEX is the ultimate challenge for him, and for Landman as a series. Was Tommy really the catalyst that made everything go? Or will it turn out that he needed the corporate machine more than he (or fans) realized?

With that in mind, some of Landman Season 2’s flaws look different in the rear view mirror. The first few episodes seemed like the show would dig further into Tommy and Cami’s friendship, deepening that dynamic and having them navigate rebuilding the company out from under Monty’s long shadow. Instead, Cami went from a relatively strong character to someone whose personality could change quickly and had no idea what she was doing—the latter specifically said by Tommy after she fired him. It was disappointing to see that deconstruction of her character; the fantastic Demi Moore’s last scene was Cami standing at her desk, looking like a deer in headlights.

However, the convoluted storyline that was M-TEX’s corporate woes makes a lot more sense knowing Taylor Sheridan’s plan for Tommy. In order to get Tommy to leave the company, he had to destroy the company—because Tommy’s loyalty would keep him from making that decision. Tommy was loyal to his longtime friend Monty, he wanted to support Cami and her family, and he also cared for everyone who worked for him. He wouldn’t want to go out on his own unless he was shoved out the door, which was essentially what happened (after Sheridan dropped a few hints about it first). Making Cami turn into an antagonist of sorts sealed that deal, because it removed the personal stake Tommy had in M-TEX, too. Sheridan may have taken the long way around, but he did the only thing that could put Tommy in position to become a “senior vice president.”

Not to mention, it also enabled Tommy to take everyone else with him, which is essential to being able to have a TV show. It would have been very difficult to tell a strong story with Tommy and Cooper off on their own, and most of everyone else still tied up in a company that now the audience has no reason to care about. And there are fun questions for those characters, too, most notably: How will their relationships with Tommy change now that they’re working for him and not with him? It’s not a huge shift given Tommy was already a leader, but friendships—or personal connections of any kind—can break businesses. (Just watch any episode of Kitchen Nightmares.)

Landman Season 2 had plenty of room for improvement; Cami was one example of how the characters lacked consistency, and the plot could often be scattered. There are still issues to work out in Season 3—most notably how to make Tommy’s wife Angela and daughter Ainsley relevant again, and not simply use them for comic relief. And in general, the writing of female characters took a step back this season. But Sheridan now has one crystal clear narrative to play with, and it’s perfect for the hero he’s spent two seasons building up. Landman Season 3 is going to unleash Tommy Norris, which means it’s also going to provide even more for Billy Bob Thornton to sink his teeth into, and everyone will be much better off.

Landman Season 2 is now streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 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.