Andy Garcia’s Gallino: Landman Season 2 Villain Explained

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Landman season 2, episode 2.

The newest episode of Landman season 2 reintroduced Andy Garcia’s Gallino, but some viewers may not remember who Tommy’s old villain is. At the end of Landman season 2, episode 2, Tommy and Neil discovered that Cooper had gotten into a business deal with a familiar face: Gallino. However, the episode didn’t explain who Gallino is or why he’s such bad news for the show.

There are, after all, a lot of important members of the cast of Landman, and Gallino has only actually appeared in one other episode of the show, nearly a full year ago. Viewers can easily be forgiven for not remembering exactly who Gallino is or what his involvement in Cooper’s life means. Luckily, you can learn everything you need to know about Andy Garcia’s character right here.

Andy Garcia’s Landman Villain Gallino Explained

The first time viewers met Gallino was at the end of Landman season 1. After dealing with Jimenez and his cartel for most of the season, Tommy was kidnapped and tortured. Just as it seemed Jimenez was going to kill Tommy to send a message, however, a group of men attacked his bar. Gallino was leading those men, and he saved Tommy’s life and let him go free.

As we quickly learned, however, Gallino is a higher-ranking member of the same cartel Jimenez belonged to. He only freed Tommy so that he could diversify the cartel’s interests and get into the oil industry in addition to moving drugs. At the time, it seemed like Gallino was going to threaten and coerce Tommy into giving him and the cartel a stake in M-Tex’s business.

Gallino also revealed some of his own personality while saving Tommy’s life. He’s a shrewd businessman who was surprisingly charismatic and polite, even as he threatened Tommy. He’s also open to new ideas, and he clearly sees that focusing on drugs alone is not the best choice for the cartel’s long-term interests. Gallino also revealed that he has the local police on his payroll, which means he’s a very powerful and well-connected man.

Landman season 2, episode 2 also revealed even more about Gallino. As Neil and Tommy discovered, Gallino has a public-facing persona as Dan Morrell, the founder of Sonrisa, a financial institution that lends money to oil companies. Sonrisa is almost surely a front for Gallino’s cartel, and it likely plays directly into his plans for the future and the reason he’s backing Cooper.

Why Gallino Secretly Backed Cooper Norris’ Oil Business

Emerson Miller / Paramount+

Even though we know who Gallino is and how he connects to Sonrisa, it’s not as clear why he would choose to back Cooper’s oil business. Gallino did indicate that he wanted to work with Tommy, not Cooper, at the end of Landman season 1, after all. Cooper’s business also should have been incredibly risky, and the terms of their contract were incredibly favorable to Cooper, as Sonrisa is only taking an 18% cut after recouping its expenses.

Presumably, Gallino had some inside knowledge of the oil wells Cooper was going to dig. As Cooper explained, every single well hit big, which shouldn’t have happened. Based on that information, it seems likely that Gallino is using Cooper as a patsy and a legal front for the cartel to move into the oil industry. Cooper is young and inexperienced, and he didn’t even question the shady deal until after the wells were dug. It’s not yet clear exactly how Gallino is going to manipulate and take advantage of Cooper, but whatever he has in mind is almost certainly going to cause problems for him and Tommy. If Cooper doesn’t go along with Gallino’s plans, there’s no telling how he’ll threaten or hurt Cooper to get him to comply. In short, Gallino’s return to Landman season 2 is bad news.