Recap of ‘Tulsa King’ Season 2 Ep. 10: Happy paths

King of Tulsa

Reconstruction

Season 2

Section 10

Editor’s assessment

2 stars

**

Photo: Brian Douglas/Paramount+

The creators of mafia-related media would do well to remember that “My offer to you is this: nothing” was not Michael Corleone’s opening game. Mike seemed perfectly willing to negotiate with the crooked Nevada senator until the man became belligerent and racist and insulted Michael’s family. Only then did Don slam the negotiation window. What kind of businessman would he be if his first offer was always “fuck you”?

Well, he would be the same kind of businessman as Dwight Manfredi. Whenever he quote-unquote “negotiates” with a rival, the so-called general never gives up an inch of ground – and somehow this strategy always works. Dwight tells four different crime bosses where to stick it in this episode alone and faces no consequences at all. It’s hard to stay invested in the story of a man who is always right.

First on the case is oil heir and weed baron Cal Thresher. In gratitude for Dwight’s role in eliminating his rogue Triad partners, Thresher is willing to let Dwight name his price for compensation. Dwight simply tells Cal that he’s taking over Thresher’s entire weed empire, locking knots and running – down the barrel of his big enforcer Bigfoot’s gun. Not even Thresher’s courage in the face of this threat earns him any consideration from Dwight. One of the big villains of the season simply turns around and walks away from everything he had built out there because Dwight Manfredi told him to.

The next recipient of that Manfredi charm is Vince, the newly crowned boss of Dwight’s old family back in New York. As he tries to make amends with his former enemy, Dwight tells him he wishes he would get hit by a bus and hangs up. Look, man, even “my way or the highway” characters have to take the highway now and then, just to keep things interesting.

Bill Bevilaqua gets the next one. As the man who both tipped Dwight off to the Triad threat when he could have easily kept quiet, and the man who provided half the muscle needed to take them out, Bill makes what seems to me to be the very reasonable request from 50 percent of resulting weed surgery, no further complications needed. Dwight won’t budge from 25 percent because Bill’s men killed Dwight’s guy Jimmy the Creek, but that particular door of violence swings both ways, and a reasonable person might just take the deal to avoid more dead Jimmy the Creeks. Not Dwight!

The final fuck-you goes to Chickie Invernizzi, whose demotion from boss to messenger boy doesn’t sit well with him. Instead of pitching Dwight simply on a return to the New York financial fold, as he should, Chickie makes a case for herself. From banishing Dwight to Tulsa to ousting Chickie from the top spot, New York’s rules are broken. Chickie asks Dwight to return with him to New York, kill Vince and restore order, presumably with Chickie on top.

Granted, it’s not that good of a deal. Chickie is an untrustworthy asshole who killed his own father, and he’s doing this play from a position of desperation with no support from either his family or the other New York outfits. I would probably turn it down too. And Chickie’s negotiation tactics also leave a lot to be desired: You can’t say, “This isn’t a negotiation” to someone who has all the money and all the muscle. But Dwight picks the fight by almost immediately accusing Chickie of patricide, which happens to be true but definitely won’t win you any brownie points. So another potential deal gets shot in the head by Dwight’s arrogance.

Yet all this nonsense leads to one of the best scenes of the series. Rejected by Dwight, Chickie seeks an alliance with Bill and suggests they kill Dwight and divide his empire between them. The two mobsters arrive at Dwight’s casino to make what appears to be a bullshit pitch about expanding Tulsa-style operations to other Midwestern cities and splitting the profits three ways. Again, Dwight doesn’t even seem to be listening. And just as Chickie tries to redirect his attention, BLAM, he’s cut off mid-court by a bullet to the head from Bill. With this final betrayal, he convinces Dwight to give him the 50 percent cut after all. “You earned it,” Dwight growls.

That right there? That’s the thing. With the screenplay credited to both Terence Winter and Sylvester Stallone, it’s hard to know who to credit for what, but this kind of unexpected last-second assassination was Boardwalk Empire‘s stock in the trade, so I prefer the former here. Whoever came up with it shocked the hell out of me, that’s for sure. If this was the kind of serious gangster business King of Tulsa did it regularly, it would be one heck of a show.

But you still have an abundance of King of Tulsa nonsense to put up with. Lots of fun weed based scenes. Mitch cuts a cheesy commercial for the new car dealership he bought this season for some reason in a long subplot with no discernible payoff. Dwight basks in the adoration of his band of misfits, who all adore him for being so adorable. No psychological fallout for Tyson after his cold-blooded ax murder of a helpless guy in the last episode. No sign of Dwight’s ex-girlfriend or daughter, both of whom seem to have disappeared from the show without a trace, the latter of which left a teased romance with Mitch that went nowhere. All these repeated Dwight Manfredi non-negotiation scenes make him seem less scary than just stubborn and obnoxious.

And after all that, the ending comes from nowhere. Federal agents burst into Margaret’s ranch in the middle of the night, black bag Dwight with guns, and move him to an undisclosed location, where an off-camera voice tells him, “You’re working for us now.” Will this American entrepreneur prevail against the faceless agents of the Deep State of the Democratic Party? The way Dwight – a man who is never wrong, morally or strategically, and thus flatter than the prairie as a character – negotiates, he will be their boss before long.