‘Tulsa King’ Season 2 Episode 1 Recap

It’s largely business as usual in the Season 2 premiere of Tulsa KingBut there are a few hints of a step up in Episode 1, “Back in the Saddle.” Sure, Dwight Manfredi putting out fires left and right is par for the course, but when you see Neal McDonough and Frank Grillo popping up in a crime drama, you know things are likely to get serious sooner rather than later.

It’s been a while, but here’s a quick refresher on the state of affairs in the Season 1 Finale:

• Stacy betrayed Dwight, which could send him back to prison for bribing a federal agent.
• Chickie has ousted his father and taken over the leadership of the Invernizzi crime family, but is facing some doubts about his leadership as Dwight has set up his own company and Goodie has switched sides.
• The biker gang got taken down in a pretty brutal way, so we need a new villain.

“Back in the saddle”

The Season 2 premiere opens with a reminder of how Dwight does business. He spends five minutes in jail awaiting his preliminary hearing, during which time he knocks out the local bully and befriends a green energy entrepreneur named Harlan, who’s serving eight years in prison for defrauding the government out of $12 million in subsidies for his wind farms.

And just like that, Dwight has an idea. But first he has to deal with a lawsuit.

Even though Dwight’s state-appointed lawyer can’t even shake the papers in front of him, Tina is determined not to see her father hauled off to prison again. So she puts 10% of his hefty $3 million bond against her unmortgageable property to get him back on the streets and back to work.

Business development

Business is good enough, but there are some setbacks coming. Bred 2 Buck and the casino business seem to have recovered from the recent shootings, and Bodhi has significantly improved his marijuana shop, Even Higher Plane. But with that thicker veneer of legitimacy comes an increased risk of lawsuits, so the place needs to be protected by a bulletproof insurance policy.

This is where the wind farm idea comes in. Dwight theorizes—loosely at this point—that if they can get free money from the government to subsidize green energy, they can use it to power marijuana production at Uncle Sam’s expense, significantly reducing overhead and improving production.

Of course, Dwight and his motley crew—which now includes Bigfoot, one of Mitch’s hulking cousins—aren’t the only players in the medical marijuana business. Every upgrade they make puts them in direct competition with the season’s new Big Bad. But more on that later.

Letting the past rest

Sylvester Stallone as Dwight Manfredi in Tulsa King | Image via Paramount+

Meanwhile, Dwight is followed by a couple of ATF agents who warn him of possible retaliation against Stacy. Funny enough, Dwight doesn’t seem to have thought of that himself.

That night, Dwight sneaks into Stacy’s apartment and pours her some wine, but he’s not there to threaten her. Instead, he assures her that the decision she made has earned his respect, and he’s not too devastated by the breakup of their relationship, as he never imagined it would last, given their very different lives.

But Stacy opened Dwight’s eyes to a different way of life that had been planned away for decades in prison. She helped him open up and no longer feel alone in having to play a character all the time. He appreciates it – but will she appreciate his gesture of goodwill enough to drop the charges against him? It’s unlikely, but it’s something to think about.

The bad guys are piling up

It softens the romantic blow for Dwight that he still gets along well with Margaret, who invites him and the rest of the gang to a fundraiser organized by Cal Thresher, the kingpin of the medical marijuana world in Oklahoma.

Thresher is played by Neal McDonough, so it is immediately clear that he is a villainbut only to make sure he quietly threatens Dwight. What could have been a happy business deal immediately turns into a declaration of war.

Chickie still has it in for Dwight. His leadership of the Family is under pressure thanks to Dwight and Goodie, so he starts taking matters into his own hands as early as possible. We don’t see much of him in Tulsa King Season 2, Episode 1, but his few scenes are impactful. He even calls Goodie up so he can hear him execute his old partner Jerry.

Chickie doesn’t let sleeping dogs lie here.

Hey, I’m Frank Grillo

As if McDonough wasn’t enough, he also has a partner who will likely throw even more spanners in the works for Dwight.

With Dwight and his mafia implications all over the world Tulsa StarThresher calls Bill Bevilaqua, played by Frank Grillo in a cowboy hat, and asks him for the details about Dwight. Bill has some knowledge or connections to the Mafia families in New York, as he knows Dwight’s reputation and nickname “The General” directly, but he seemed unaware that he had set up shop right under his nose.

With the renovation of the bar and his plans to expand his weed business, Dwight suddenly becomes a threat to both Thresher and Bill. The tip is not just a friendly warning, but a pretty clear instruction to Bill to get rid of Dwight as soon as possible.

That can only be good news for the public.