The Episode Began With Mysterious Dead Bodies…Again
Spoilers for Season 2 Episode 4 of Landman below!!
Landman premiered Episode 4 of Season 2 (“Chasing Rainbows”) on Paramount+ on Sunday (December 7). The episode began with an M-Tex Oil semi truck driver driving erratically. He drove off the road and into a field, where he crashed in to a pickup truck parked near an oil digging operation. The driver inside looked unconscious as the camera panned out, showing that he had fashioned a hose from his exhaust pipe into the car to kill himself from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The aftermath of the crash shows that both drivers did not make it out of the crash. Later in the episode, the Sheriff calls one of the M-Tex lawyers, Rebecca, to let her know about the situation. Although both men were dead, he says it looks like the pickup truck driver was already dead before the crash, which is a good thing for M-Tex, but they still have to deal with the semi truck driver’s death.
When Rebecca answered the phone, she was getting on a private plane from Fort Worth back to Midland. To her surprise, the plane was filled with men and she had to sit next to a stranger. The pilot announced that the winds were up to 70 MPH, so take off and landing would be a little rough. And he was right! Take off was so turbulent that Rebecca screamed and grabbed on the hand of the man sitting next to him. He joked that she broke his hand, and once the plane was flying safely, he offered her a cocktail in a thermos that he brought. She agreed only because she found out the landing would be similar.
The next morning, she wakes up in the man’s bed, and something tells us their story isn’t over yet! We also don’t have any resolution about the truck crash, so we’re sure both situations will be explained in the next episode.
Ariana Supports Connor Even Though They Aren’t Together
Ariana is just ending her first shift at the bar, when she tells the head bartender that these late nights are not realistic for a single mother to keep up with. However, he convinces her that the money, even just two days a week, is worth it.
When she pulls up to her house, she finds Cooper asleep in her driveway. He explains that he is there to pick up an outfit for his grandmother’s funeral. Upon hearing this news, Ariana feels sympathetic towards Cooper and offers to go with him. When he protests, she tells him that he was there for her when she was grieving and now it’s her turn to be there for him. He pushes back again and with a bit of attitude, Ariana asks, “You don’t want me to go?” To which Cooper responds, “I want you everywhere.”
TL (Sam Elliott) was waiting at the funeral home when Ariana and Cooper arrived. Ariana told TL, “I’m sorry for your loss.”
TL responded, “I lost her years ago. Today I’m just saying goodbye.”
When they get back to Ariana’s house in Midland, she invites Cooper in, where they talk about their relationship ending. It’s clear they both still have feelings for each other and Ariana explains that she wants Cooper to fight for her. After spending the day with his family, she understands why being near family isn’t a priority for Cooper, but it is a priority for her, so whatever happens with their oil digging venture, she wants to live exactly where she is.
They agree and get back together.
Laying Tommy’s Mom To Rest
At the Norris house, Tommy walks into his kitchen to see Dale and Nate dressed up and offering their support for him. The three men, plus Tommy’s wife Angela and daughter Ainsley, drive together to
On the way to his mom’s funeral, Angela starts a fight in the car with Nate, and everyone. She is trying to make the road trip fun, but the men continue to point out that they are on the way to a funeral, which Angela seemed to not care about.
Tommy’s car arrives and they all say hello to TL. Angela and Ainsley hadn’t seen him in well over a decade, so it was a nice reunion.
They all walk to the gravesite, where TL is asked by the pastor to say a few words about his wife, Dottie. He refuses, saying that the Lord already knows how he feels.
After the funeral, the group goes to lunch, where TL reveals his house burned down in a power line fire years prior. As they are eating in silence, Ariana asks why no one is talking about Dottie. At every funeral she’s been to, the family comes together to tell stories about the deceased.
Tommy basically says that there’s nothing memorable to talk about, meaning there’s nothing nice to say about his mom. But after a few seconds, he does offer up a story about his mom.
He reveals that when he was 14 years old, he came home to her naked and face down in the bathtub. He pulled her out, called 9-1-1, and did CPR until she spit water in her face as he was giving her a breath. After he saved her life, she looked at him like he was a stranger and then she kicked him in the face. Then made herself another drink.
Tommy immediately packed up his things into a backpack, left town, and never came back. He finished the story by saying, “[There was] no miracle involving my mother other than her managing to die of old age. [Dad] was too weak to leave her, so I left all of ‘em. I didn’t come here to mourn her passing. I came here to celebrate it.”
Tommy left money for the bill and then waited in his truck. TL told a story about Dottie, from when they were teenagers, how they would chase rainbows in sprinklers together.
“Demons run faster than rainbows and hers caught up to her. I spent 60 years for her rainbow to return and it never did,” he said before admitting that he wasted his entire life on hoping her rainbow would return.
Angela attempts to get Tommy to say goodbye to his dad, especially after the story he just told. Tommy knew it was the rainbow story and refused. Everyone leaves, and TL stands there watching his family drive away. When they get home, Tommy sees Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) crying on the couch. She was so affected by the story Tommy told about his mom, and can’t imagine a mother doing that to their own child.
“I don’t care how many rainbows she chased, I hope God shoves one of the rainbows right up her ass,” Ainsley says.
Tommy reveals that he had a sister who died when she was four months old. The death of her child “broke her.” The grief drugged and drank her soul to death.
Angela is affected by the sadness of the day. And she tells Tommy that she wants TL to live with them and get to know their kids. The next day, Tommy shows up at TL’s assisted living facility and offers to bring him home to live with him.
“Not sure I deserve this,” TL says. Tommy replies, “What does deserve have to do with it, Pop?”
Cami Miller Mourns Monty – And Tries To Fix The Problems He Left Her
Cami’s first appearance in the episode shows her driving to her late husband, Monty’s gravesite. She brings him some items that he loved including a Cuban cigar and a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 23 years family reserve, which easily retails for $5,000. She pours the bottle on his gravesite and in a way to honor him.
When she goes home, she reaches for Monty while laying in bed and comes to the realization that she needs to sell the house. Later, she meets with Dan Morello and his wife for dinner to ask him to invest in her company. She tells him about how M-Tex Oil needs to begin drilling offshore so they don’t go down for insurance fraud, which was discovered in an earlier episode of this Landman.
She reveals that they will need between $325-350 million and will have to drill for about 10 months before the yield any profit.
Morrell uses an analogy that snakes are cannibals. Yes, they eat other animals, but they also eat other snakes. He implies that Cami is a rabbit, and Tommy is a snake. He will fund the project, but he will only negotiate with Tommy.
Fate Of Landman‘s Oil Field Laborers Revealed
In Episode 3 of Season 4 of Landman, five oil field laborers were affected by an H2C leak. One was trapped on top of an oil well and had to be rescued by helicopter. At the end of Episode 4, we finally learn his fate. He is alive, breathing on his own, and finally awake.
The other three laborers were waiting in the hospital for him, where the doctor revealed they they didn’t know what type of neurological damage he endured.
The patient had bandages around his eyes and once the nurse removed them to give him a new ice pack, it was revealed he couldn’t see.
The episode ended right there, leaving us with more questions for Episode 5. How will TL’s move into the Norris home go? How will the semi-truck crash at the beginning of the episode affect M-Tex? Tune in to Landman‘s Episode 5 next Sunday, December 14 on Paramount+.
Watch the trailer for Episode 5 below.
