Cooper (Jacob Lofland) is in for a major reality check in Landman‘s next episode. In this sneak peek at Season 2 Episode 5, “The Pirate Dinner,” he gets some very tough love from his father, Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton), about what he’s really gotten himself into by making a deal with Gallino (Andy Garcia) and what the consequences will be.
After trying to strike out on his own, Cooper struck liquid gold; all six of the sites he has drilled are delivering massive amounts of oil. However, to finance the operation, he made a deal with the company Sonrisa that seemed too good to be true because it was. Now, his father is working to get him out of bed with the cartel boss.
“You don’t know how this business works. You think you do, but you don’t, and you damn sure don’t know who you got in business with,” Tommy tells him, bluntly. “But since you’re so terrible at it, it might save you.” Tommy then spells out exactly how he plans to save Cooper from the trouble he’s brought on himself.
“M-Tex is gonna buy your leases, and we’ll cancel the note and cover your costs, drilling expenses, and surface lease maintenance, the whole thing,” he says. That is terrible news for Cooper, who thought he’d just become an overnight millionaire.
“So I get nothing,” Cooper complains. “You have nothing!” Tommy retorts. “Now, I take that back. You found a blind spot. You got good instincts, and, shock of all shocks, apparently, you’re a hell of a Salesman. So I’m going to hire you back, and I’m gonna start to teach you…”
“I ain’t workin’ no crew,” Cooper insists. Considering how bleak his experience on the field has been in the past, his resistance to this prospect is no surprise. But that’s not what his dad has in mind.
“No, you’re running one. And you’re gonna do exactly what I tell you to do,” Tommy insists.
Still, Cooper is massively disappointed, saying, “Three thousand barrels a day, and I don’t see a dime of it?”
That’s when Tommy tells him what’s what. “You were never gonna see a f***ing dime. They would foreclose on your leases and flip them and leave you in a mountain of f***ing debt and a ruined name in the basin, a landman makes $9,000 a month, plus bonus. Now, when I show you how this deal works, with your instincts — and I never had them, not like you do — you’ll make $9,000 a minute, but you gotta know the rules of the game to bend them.”
We’ll have to wait and see how Cooper responds to being pulled back into his dad’s professional orbit when the episode arrives this weekend.
Landman, Sundays, Paramount+
