Reconstruction
Episode 10 of Tulsa King season 2 starts with Dwight walking with Thresher and observing his business. Cal wants to be compensated fairly but Dwight is not here to negotiate. The fact that Ming hasn’t killed him is bargaining enough, but Dwight promises he’ll be put in the ground if he negates the deal on the table.
Thresher wants to negotiate properly like men, but Dwight has decided that, with Ming gone, he can just take over his whole business. Dwight warns that pride will get him killed quickly and as he’s wrapped up in the underworld, Thresher doesn’t have the chops for this and needs to leave the gangster life behind for, well, gangsters. Eventually he concedes and walks away from 18 acres worth of weed.
Dwight knows that change is afoot and with the list of enemies growing thinner (or so Dwight thinks), he’s adamant that they need to stop leaving dead bodies everywhere.
Donnie’s car sales is transferred in ownership while this is going on, as Vince rings and brings up to Dwight that in charge now. He also gives the heads up that Chickie is en-route and trying to negotiate but Dwight is having none of it. However, Vince does bring up that if he can’t convince Dwight to go back, Chickie is going to be killed off. Dwight wipes his hands of it but knows that it’s not going to go well.
Bevilaqua shows up to see Dwight and wants a cut of the business. He wants a part of what Dwight has built here and believes that because he helped kill Ming, that gives him a good enough reason to bargain. Dwight agrees to 25% but Bevilaqua refuses to budge on his 50% cut and eventually leaves. The pair leave things on a tenuous note, with a potential conflict coming in the future.
Chickie shows up at the weed shop and begins intimidating the workers until Dwight shows. He’s pissed and eventually they talk in Dwight’s office.
Dwight already knows all of this is a ruse and despite Chickie’s new “enlightened” mood, Dwight refuses to fall for it. After all, despite the allure of running the family at the head of the table, the gang were ready to just let him burn and never saw him while he served time behind bars. Loyalty is not big on Chickie’s list of traits, especially the way he dealt with his own father.
Chickie doesn’t want to go back emptyhanded, and promises Dwight that he’s not going back without him. Chickie heads over to see Bevilaqua instead next, trying to use him to get to Dwight. Bill agrees that Dwight is a greedy bastard but similarly, that he’s a good businessman and ruthless. Chickie is backed into a corner and wants to work with Bevilaqua to do what they need to do – whack Dwight.
In taking him out, Bevilaqua would be able to take his stake of the business while Chickie would try and make things right back in New York, so it’s a win/win deal for the pair.
Chickie and Bevilaqua show up at the casino, right off the back of Dwight making a deal with the natives. The pair have a proposition. They want to expand out the business that Dwight has built, using Tulsa as a base of operations to then expand out and take over the neighbouring places like Iowa and Arkansas.
Basically, the business would be set up as a franchise but the three of them would be in business together. However, as Chickie continues to talk, Bevilaqua suddenly shoots him in the head. He turns to Dwight. “50 percent”. And this is enough for Dwight to get a cut of the business.
However, the FBI are about to make their move. Headquarters in DC have requested everything they have on Dwight. All of this brews in the background, and eventually culminates in Dwight being grabbed in the middle of the night and taken out, bundled in the back of a van and taken to parts unknown.
Dwight is eventually sat in front of someone who tells him that he works for them now.
The Episode Review
So with the empire expanding and Dwight seemingly unstoppable, the ending confirms that this conflict is far from over. Now, it could well be that the FBI have moved in on Dwight’s territory and are about to exact their will, or it could even be Thresher being a snake and working behind his back.
I like the idea of it being Thresher because in terms of antagonists, he’s been pretty underwhelming, which is a shame because the opening of the series looked like it was setting up a massive conflict between the pair.
Chickie gets a suitable end though and it’s pretty shocking seeing Bevilaqua pull the trigger in that manner. He basically talked himself into a corner and as soon as he made it out that Bill was his subordinate, refusing to let him talk, that was it for Chickie.
The show has been a decent watch and the ending certainly leaves the door open for a potential third season. Tulsa King has been solid and great entertainment this year though and a suitably bombastic ending closes things out on a compelling note.
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Episode Ratoing
Why, particularly as this is on Amazon Prime, which we pay for, did we have to sit through something like 15 commercials? They disrupted the flow of the story.
In fact, I will never go to Arby ‘s again. They can keep their meats, if that’s what they are in fact serving.