On the table: a stack of legal documents, a cold cup of black coffee, and a single brass casing from a .45 ACP. He rolls the casing between his fingers. It’s a souvenir from the cartel shootout two episodes ago. A reminder that the line between landman and target has become terrifyingly thin.
“Monty’s in trouble,” she says, voice low. “The stroke didn’t just hurt him. It spooked the investors. Two of our silent partners in Houston are pulling out. They’re citing ‘operational instability.’ We both know that’s code for ‘we heard about the bodies in the desert.’”
Inside, Rebecca Falcone (Kali Reis), the sharp-witted, no-nonsense attorney, is waiting. She’s no longer just the corporate shark; she’s become an unlikely ally. The walls have ears, so she slides a burner phone across the table.
The offer: The cartel will inject $40 million into M-Tex through a shell company. In return, they get three dedicated pipelines, unmonitored access to two storage facilities, and a blind eye on certain “logistics” routes across M-Tex leases. Tommy would no longer be a landman. He’d be a ghost partner in a narco-oil empire. Landman Season 1 - Episode 9
“Ranger. It’s Norris. I need the kind of help that doesn’t exist on paper. And I need it by morning.”
He walks back to his truck. Gallo doesn’t stop him. He just watches, then makes a phone call. “He said no. Proceed to Phase Two.”
On his table—the same table from the cold open—is a severed horse head. Not a horse. A coyote. Gutted. And pinned to its fur with a hunting knife: a folded map of the Permian Basin, with every M-Tex well pad marked in red X. On the table: a stack of legal documents,
Tommy sets the glass down. He stands. For a long moment, he says nothing. Then: “You’re making a mistake. I’m not a good man. But I am a predictable one. And I don’t negotiate with people who threaten my family.”
He turns on the kitchen light.
It’s a small moment, but a seismic shift in Cooper’s arc. For the first time, he understands Tommy not as a distant, broken father, but as a man who has carried the weight of every hand he’s ever sent into the field. A reminder that the line between landman and
Later, coughing and shaking, Leo asks, “Why’d you come back?”
“Thirty million. By Friday. Or M-Tex gets carved up and sold for parts. And you, me, and every roughneck we employ will be out of a job—or worse. The other side of that gap? That’s where the cartel wants to plant a flag.”
A close-up of Tommy’s face, reflected in the window. Behind him, the coyote’s blood pools across the map. He looks less like a landman now, and more like a general on the eve of a war he never wanted.