Warning, spoilers below for the first episode of Tulsa King.
In Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan's latest TV series, Tulsa King, Sylvester Stallone stars as Dwight Manfredi, a mafioso who's just been released after 25 years in prison. The first episode, entitled "Go West, Old Man," was directed by Allen Coulter, a TV veteran with episodes of Ray Donovan, Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos under his belt. The script was co-written by creator Sheridan and Sopranos alum Terence Winter, who also serves as showrunner. Between Coulter and Winter, there's a lot of mob genre talent behind the camera, and it shows.
The series follows Dwight Manfredi as the down-on-his-luck mobster is sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma to establish a foothold for his New York-based crime family. Stallone (Rocky, Rambo - whatever floats your boat) had always wanted to play a gangster, and Sheridan created the show specifically with The Italian Stallion in mind. (Producer extraordinaire Sheridan penned the pilot in just one day). The result is a slightly tragic and, at times, very funny western-gangster crossover with a lot of heart and, of course, some pretty great mob-life bravura.
25 Years Gone
The episode opens on USP Canaan, a high-security federal prison in northern Pennsylvania. (USP Canaan is, in fact, a real prison.) It's darkly ironic: In the Bible, Canaan is the Promised Land. The dawn breaks over massive barbed wire fences, and Dwight Manfredi (Stallone) lays on a cot in a concrete gray cell. He's being released from prison after 25 years.
In voiceover, Dwight takes a sardonic view of his ill fortunes. He's been shanked once, and he tries to avoid that sort of thing by reading "very good literature" and writing "very bad poems." The classics are stacked up beside his bed: Othello, Middlemarch, Nietzsche and, most notably, Faust - the story of the man who sold his soul to the devil.
Dwight maintains a philosopher's distance from his predicament, but he's filled with regret: "In retrospect, I ask myself if what I chose was worth 25 years of my life," he says. "The answer is no. Not 25 seconds." He should've been a barber, like his father. But Dwight's choice is a sunk cost at this point. What's the use of quitting the game when you've paid so dearly to play? He leaves his books behind, taking only an old letter from his now-grown daughter. "Daddy" is scrawled on the envelope in a child's handwriting.
Family Reunion
In a cab driving through New York City, Dwight sees the unfamiliar outside world for the first time in 25 years. In place of the Twin Towers, there's the massive One World Trade skyscraper. He chuckles when he spots a couple with VR headsets on, jabbing at the air. Dwight thinks he's headed to a bar called Scores (evidently some sort of mob favorite for welcome home parties), but his driver's been instructed to take him to a home on Long Island. Not a good sign.
The house is boujee in an early-2000s way. There's a lot of black and gold, and gaudy Italianate statues. Members of the Ivernizzi crime family sit at the dining room table. There's the aging boss, Pete Invernizzi, played by A.C. Peterson (Narc, Shanghai Noon). His son, Chickie (Domenick Lombardozzi), is now the underboss. It's clear that "Uncle Dwight" is past his sell-by date. He tells Chickie, "I'm expecting that after doing 25 years to save your father's a** for murder, to save your a** whacking a guy - who I actually liked, who didn't deserve it - I'm expecting some form of adequate compensation."
The boss promises that they'll "take care" of Dwight. His assignment? Plant the flag in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Set up a base for the syndicate there; it's wide open and ripe for the taking. But for Dwight, it's banishment. His wife left him when he was imprisoned, and his daughter, Tina, hates him. They haven't spoken in 18 years.
Dwight has nothing but his loyalty to the Ivernizzi family, and they're shipping him off to nowhere-ville. A Faustian bargain, indeed.
Not one to go quietly, Dwight knocks out Vinny (Vincent Piazza), one of Chickie's upstart capos, and the guns are drawn. But the boss puts his foot down, and Dwight begrudgingly accepts. "Tulsa. Yeah, why not? Be nice to breathe some fresh air," he says on his way out.
Fish Out of Water
Dwight touches down at the Tulsa airport in an immaculate suit and shades. We get a montage of southern scenes set to Marcus King's Too Much Whiskey. He hires a young cab driver named Tyson (Jay Will) to take him to a hotel that won't "break [his] balls." Tyson asks what kind of business Dwight's in town for. When he responds with "the none-of-your-f****n'-business kind of business," Tyson laughs and calls him a gangster.
Dwight stops the cab at a marijuana dispensary aptly named The Higher Plane. The store is run by a merry band of miscreants. Dwight is greeted by a heavy-set, useless security guard. There's a young man at the register, and a woman vaping behind the counter. Only one guard and no security cameras at a cash-only business? Risky moves. When Dwight asks to see the owner, the security guard confronts him with a can of mace. Dwight steps outside, grabs Tyson's metal water bottle, and returns. He chucks the bottle at the security guard's head, knocking him out (Dwight's KO Count: 2). Finally, the owner, Bodhi, a limp 30-something played by Martin Starr (Silicon Valley) emerges from the back room.
Next thing you know, Dwight is seated at Bodhi's desk scanning the books. The store is making a fortune, and Bodhi claims he keeps it all in the bank. But Dwight knows better. "Only states legalize this stuff. You put that money in the bank, and the Feds will have it by morning," he says. Dwight guesses that the poster on the wall is hiding a safe. He's right, of course. After some very gentle (but very effective) threats, Bodhi opens the safe, revealing $500,000 in cold, hard cash.
Dwight works out a "partnership." He'll take 20% a week. In exchange, he'll protect Bodhi from "the gangs" (Bodhi's confused. What gangs?) and the law. Bodhi asks whether he has a choice in the matter, and Dwight assures him, "Absolutely not." They shake on it.
Now in business, Dwight hires Tyson to be his driver for $2,000 a week, throwing him some extra stacks of cash to buy a Lincoln Navigator.
He finally makes it to the Western Plains Motel. It's an old, rundown place looking out on a busy, but depressing thoroughfare. Despite the less-than-sterile surroundings, he unpacks his things with extreme care. The man appreciates a neat fold.
He stares at a painting of a lone American buffalo on the wall. It's a fitting analogy - the mob man and the plains bison. Two creatures hunted to near extinction. The ones that remain are in captivity.
Friends and Enemies
Dwight heads to a nearby saloon for a plate of ribs and some bourbon (they don't serve Chianti). It's called the Bred 2 Buck, and it's run by a friendly barkeep named Mitch Keller, played by the always-excellent Garrett Hedlund (Mudbound, Country Strong). Pretty much the strong, silent type, Mitch has a gruff sensitivity about him. He's friendly, but mysterious.
The next morning, Tyson arrives at Dwight's motel not driving a Navigator. The car dealer at Donnie Shore's Auto Corral had threatened to call the police when he saw Tyson attempting to purchase a car in cash. Dwight decides to pay a visit to this Donnie Shore, a small-time buffoon - all bark and no bite - in a powder blue suit. He, uh, shows Donnie the error of his ways, using a telephone as a weapon. Dwight's mastery of any object is, well, impressive. He doesn't carry a gun - no doubt we'll learn he's got some moral clause forbidding it. Anyways, Dwight makes a pretty powerful speech:
"The problem is, you see a young black guy with a mountain of money and you say, 'Hey, he's gotta be a drug dealer.' But I walk in, in a nice suit, and you're not afraid anymore. See, the irony is, he's [Donnie] afraid of the wrong thing."
Donnie sells him the Navigator for $50,000 in cash.
Dwight and Tyson, the newly-minted gruesome twosome, head to the mall for some ice cream - something Dwight says he'd missed while in prison. (Canaan served tiramisu every night, which begs the question: Is this prison exclusively for Italian grandpas?)
Dwight didn't come away from his shopping trip empty-handed. He brings a security camera to Bodhi's dispensary, noting that the irony is not lost on him. The shop makes upwards of $5k per day, and Dwight suggests a money-laundering scheme: Clean the cash in a big-loss business like a tanning salon or a club. Bodhi is still wary of their "partnership," but he seems open to Dwight's advice.
The Rubicon
Back at the Bred 2 Buck, Dwight and Mitch both clock that the other has spent time in prison. Turns out Mitch was addicted to painkillers after a bull riding incident. He served an 8-year sentence for something or other, and he's been running the Bred 2 Buck for the past 5 years.
There's a rowdy bachelorette party at the bar, and the girls invite Dwight to join them for karaoke. He suggests something a little more...bachelorette-worthy? They end up at a strip club. Dwight sits in the booth looking like he owns the place. When he spots one of the girls being harassed, Dwight kicks her assailant where it hurts. (A great chaperone, that Dwight.)
He hits it off with one of the women in the party, Stacy (Andrea Savage), and the pair head back to Dwight's new, decidedly more swanky, hotel room at the Mayo. Stacy reveals that she's going through a divorce, and that her time with Dwight proved that she made the right decision in breaking off her marriage: If she could be intimate with someone else, then there was nothing left to hold onto. Dwight tells her that he's "glad to be [her] Rubicon," referring to the famous river Julius Caesar crossed, thereby igniting civil war in Rome. He's got an ego, this guy.
This little piece of geekery puts Stacy's grandpa alert on red. She asks how old he is, and when Dwight reveals that he's 75, Stacy is sort of disgusted. She pegged him for 55, max. "This is not an age gap," she tells him. "This is an age canyon." Ouch. She thanks him for a good time but leaves in a hurry.
The final scenes of the episode occur at the Tulsa Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (the ATF Police). We learn that Stacy, Dwight's bachelorette hookup, is an ATF Officer. The Bureau is tracking stolen shipments of AR-15s and ammunition, and they think a local militia group could be behind it. They've also been notified by the FBI that a high-ranking mafia capo was spotted in Tulsa. An image of Dwight is displayed on screen. Stacy recognizes him instantly, cursing under her breath. What are the odds her "Rubicon" is a big-city capo?
Turns out Dwight Manfredi isn't the only criminal element looking to squeeze the juice out of Tulsa. Whether he'll sink or swim - and whether he'll have an ally in Stacy - is TBD. The mob man seems to be enjoying his time down south, though. Maybe Tulsa will be the redemption Dwight's seeking.
New episodes of Tulsa King stream Sundays at 8pm CST/9pm EST exclusively on Paramount+.
READ MORE: 'Yellowstone' Creator Taylor Sheridan Uses the Same Actors Across His Many Projects
