Tulsa King's latest episode, "Stable," is the series's most plotted-out installment yet, and for good reason. We're more than halfway through the show's 10-episode first season, and all the chips are stumbling into place for what's sure to be an explosive final few episodes. The Sylvester Stallone-led series is, after all, an ensemble piece. There are a lot of players with still-fuzzy motives, and the endgame is clear: Dwight will have to fight a war on two fronts to protect himself, his Tulsa crew and, now, his daughter.
This week's episode underscores just how high the stakes are. A territorial dispute has led to bloodshed, and Dwight's so-called justifiable vengeance has placed the very person he avenged directly in the line of fire. Despite a characteristically violent ending, the episode isn't afraid to poke fun at itself. It's off-beat and sometimes jarring, but it makes for fun episodic TV: What did he just say? Whose side is she on? We get some answers this week, but the ball is very much still in play.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for 'Tulsa King' Episode 6, "Stable."
Pete vs. Chickie
The episode opens with a beautiful montage of early-morning Tulsa scenes. Pilot, the old white horse Dwight first encountered in episode 2, has escaped his stable again, and trots through town happy as can be.
We learn that Roxy (Emily Davis) — Black Macadam's resident munitions expert, Fennario Ranch hand and girlfriend to Macadam hatchet man Carson Pike — is an ATF informant. She meets Stacy (Andrea Savage) and Doug (??Miles Mussenden) at a diner and tells them all about the gang's run-in with Dwight, who she says is "the real deal." He muscled his way into the nitrous game, and he's shaking down a weed store, to boot. Stacy tries to shut her up. The ATF doesn't deal with nitrous, but with guns. And Macadam's got a veritable arsenal.
But Doug recognizes Dwight's name. The FBI alerted the ATF to Dwight's presence in Tulsa back in the first episode, and Doug plans on returning the favor.
Back in New York, Pete (A.C. Peterson) is home from the hospital, and he and Chickie (Domenick Lombardozzi) are at odds over Nico's murder. Shockingly, Chickie wants the "totally out of control" Dwight and his daughter, Tina, killed. Vinny (Vincent Piazza), predictably, is on board, but Goodie (Chris Caldovino) seems less enthusiastic. Pete, for his part, is incensed. Dwight is his son's godfather, and now the upstart wants to drag Tina into this? He slaps Chickie across the face and makes no doubt as to his feelings: "Dwight, Dwight, Dwight," Pete mocks. "Worry about yourself! If you were half the man he was, this would've never happened. Why do you make me treat you like this, huh?"
Not yet on the lamb, Dwight busts into Tina's (Tatiana Zappardino) flower shop, flipping the 'Open' sign to 'Closed' like he's back at The Higher Plane giving Bodhi the shakedown. He tells her outright that he killed Nico, and follows up the admission with well-placed honey: "Maybe you think I did this for me because of some code. But know it's so much deeper than that," he whispers. "This is a bond between a father and daughter. I wasted my life. I know that. And every bad thing that happened to you happened because I bought into this lie."
At last, everything's on the table. The mob life that Dwight "married" did not indeed marry him back, and the consequences of his choice reverberate to this day. Standing in the way of their complete reconciliation, however, is Tina's very real fear that Dwight's actions have put her life in danger. He promises that the Ivernizzis will come for him and him alone. He knows Pete. The boss is the boss, but he's not totally morally bankrupt.
Southern Comfort
Back in Tulsa, Dwight's operation is squeezed from all sides. Bodhi isn't answering his phone, and The Higher Plane is inexplicably closed. At the ATF Office, Doug alerts FBI Agent Oscar Ruiz (Alessandro Garcia) that Dwight is kicking up dust in town. And at Fennario Ranch, Roxy tells Manny (Max Casella) that Caolan Waltrip wants an audience with Dwight. (Did I mention this is a plot-heavy episode?)
At the Bred 2 Buck, Mitch tells Dwight about Bodhi's run-in with the law in last week's episode and encourages Dwight's meeting with Waltrip: "Can't hurt to be diplomatic." Famous last words.
In his newfound paternal warmth, Dwight calls Tina to check in, and she tells him that someone called her home phone and hung up. Very suspicious. He offers to send someone over to watch the house, but Tina declines. Besides, Emory's there to protect her. (Come on, Tina. You love your husband, but the guy's a complete milquetoast.)
In the middle of the night, Dwight rings up Goodie (guessing he's a pretty good guy?), asking if the Ivernizzis are up to something. Goodie catches his meaning, but claims he knows nothing about Tina: "Dwight, what do you need? We go back a long way. You can trust me." Dwight asks him to come down to Tulsa, and Goodie promises he'll run it by "the big guy." For Goodie, that's most certainly Pete. But for someone like Vinny, the top dog may as well be Chickie.
The next day, Stacy and Dwight enjoy a flirtatious tête-à-tête...at a bowling alley. She knows all about his nitrous and marijuana schemes, and she's gotten wind of something between Dwight and Nico in New York. What's more, the FBI knows it all, too. And if their relationship is found out, Stacy will be discharged just two years away from gaining her full pension. Dwight is thinking of ditching the Tulsa disaster for good, but Stacy doesn't want him to leave: "Some people live under a cloud. That's you and me, 'kay? It's gonna follow you wherever you go. My advice is find something to give a s*** about."
Meanwhile, Bodhi's at-home guided meditation session is interrupted by FBI Agent Oscar Ruiz, and we cut to the Feds raiding The Higher Plane. (The guy really can't catch a break.)
Dwight Meets Caolan Waltrip
In New York, Goodie poses the idea of a meet-cute with Dwight, and Pete gives his magnanimous consent: "Can't hurt to sit down. And take a peek at what he's got going on out there, while you're at it."
Finally, the Irish and Italian factions in Tulsa come together to exchange pseudo-intellectual barbs. Dwight, Mitch, Caolan Waltrip (Ritchie Coster) and Pike (Robert Walker Branchaud) meet in what looks to be a barn full of animal feed. When he's not terrifying, Coster is hilarious as the almost too-Irish Waltrip, prone to metaphor and quaint, flowery language: "Imagine with me, if you will, a man spends years building a business in his own community. His home. Further imagine, this man returns home after a hard day's labor to find a stranger in his kitchen. An interloper! And he is taking the food from the very mouths of the man's children."
Dwight (an extremely well-read ex-con, let's remember) is unimpressed. The analogy is flawed. Waltrip was born and bred in Ireland, meaning Tulsa is no more his home than it is Dwight's. And although Dwight is done with the nitrous game for now, Waltrip has no authority to block him if he changes his mind and decides to sell laughing gas balloons again. (A hilarious sentence, honestly.) Waltrip is amazed at his arrogance, telling Dwight that he's overplaying his hand. "When I play my hand, you won't see it coming," Dwight responds. Boom. But also maybe don't provoke the guy, Dwight?
The whole gang — Dwight, Mitch, Tyson (Jay Will) and Manny — are in a liquored-up strategy talk at the Bred 2 Buck when Bodhi (Martin Starr) walks in like the prodigal son, announcing that he's been interrogated and raided by the FBI. They cleaned out the safe and weed stores, too. Just to be safe, Mitch begrudgingly pats Bodhi down to ensure he's not wearing a wire.
What follows is Bodhi's touching but slightly fishy (more on this in the theory section below) official declaration that he's on Dwight's side. For one thing, Bodhi claims he told the Feds that everything was kosher with his business partner, Dwight. Crucially, we never saw this scene. Just like we never saw what Waltrip did to Bodhi (or, rather, what he made Bodhi agree to) in last week's hostage situation. But Bodhi seems to harbor genuine affection for Dwight — especially when it's revealed that Dwight secured his cash and product before the Feds could get to it. Bodhi is so relieved that he literally hugs him.
Pilot
Riding a wave of goodwill, Dwight chats up Spencer, the young barista played by Stallone's daughter, Scarlet Rose, at Triangle Coffee Roasters. When she tells him that Pilot, the free-spirited white horse that trots into town every day, is scheduled to be euthanized due to the massive fees his owners incur every time he escapes, Dwight decides to go full country. He plans to buy Pilot and hire Spencer to take care of the horse.
Dwight and Spencer make it to the ranch where Pilot's stabled. "Why this horse?" the ranch hand asks him, adding that Pilot isn't exactly in his prime. "He's old. He's stupid. Not good for anything anymore." (Sound familiar? Pilot is literally Dwight.) With his signature, preternatural ability to spot value where others see wasted investment, Dwight responds with, "He kept you on your toes." With the help of a fat wad of cash, Dwight manages to convince Margaret (Dana Delany) to stable Pilot at the Fennario Ranch until he can find permanent digs.
Stacy calls Dwight with an irresistible offer: if Dwight turns state's evidence and sets up Waltrip for a big gun bust, he'd be in the clear. Problem is, Dwight Manfredi is no rat. He did 25 years in prison without flipping on the Ivernizzis. He's not going to start squealing now. The guy can take a life easy enough, but he's got principles.
Shootout at the Bred 2 Buck
Over in Black Macadam land, the biker gang is gathered at their chosen dive bar, where Waltrip sits at a laptop looking at a personal bank account balance of some $8 million. (Guessing this is Waltrip's own account.) He instructs Pike to go to the Bred 2 Buck after closing and spook Dwight's crew with a few shots from a 12-gauge. Just then, Roxy sidles up to the table and asks what's going on with the mafia "grease ball." She's pushing it. Waltrip tells Pike to teach his girl some "manners," and when he stalks away, Pike violently grabs Roxy's arm and tells her to mind her own business.
At the Bred 2 Buck, Mitch is rattled by a broken beer tap. The saloon needs some serious repairs. Dwight asks if Mitch is in the market for a partner — someone to shoulder the financial burden of a renovation. The guy ran clubs in New York in the 1980s. Surely he could handle a Tulsa saloon. Mitch is just about the last person in Dwight's crew without skin in the game, so the moment is overdue and surprisingly heart-warming. The two ex-cons have a mutual respect for the weight they both carry. It's high time for a formal alliance.
But, alas, the rest of the episode is pretty bleak for Team Dwight. In New York, we see Tina's sweet, ineffectual husband Emory (Loren Dunn) get jumped in a parking garage. His assailant (even in the dark, it's obviously Chickie), catches him in an alleyway and breaks his arm. Poor guy didn't see it coming.
We then cut abruptly back to the Bred 2 Buck, where Dwight, Mitch and Mitch's very elderly father, Babe (Barry Corbin), are about to close up shop for the night when shotgun blasts shatter the windows. Dwight and Mitch lower Babe safely to the floor, grab their firepower (Mitch has a shotgun, Dwight a pistol) and head outside. Pike is seated on his bike out front, and both Dwight and Mitch shoot him dead.
Now brothers-in-arms, Mitch immediately tells Dwight that he agrees to their business partnership and the two shake on it. It's game-on now.
Theories
We learned a lot in this episode, but how does it all fit into the thrust of the season? Where could the breadcrumbs lead? Here's a breakdown of where everyone stands, and what their allegiances might be:
- Okay, so Roxy is a Black Macadam informant. Now that Dwight and Mitch killed her boyfriend, Pike, Roxy could retreat into Waltrip's net. But she and Pike obviously weren't living in domestic bliss, so maybe she has no love left for Waltrip's cause. And if Waltrip goes after her (after all, she knows a lot about his operation), it's possible she runs to Dwight's side.
- Waltrip's bank account is a total Chekhov's gun. There's no way that $8 million doesn't become a major plot point. Could our guy Dwight be coming into some money?
- Bodhi. Do you smell that? Like fish? Yeah, not buying that this guy was so easily released from Waltrip's and the FBI's clutches. Besides, we were never shown what actually went down. Bodhi could be playing both sides — three sides, even! Is he funneling information to Waltrip, to the FBI or both?
- Manny seems like a key of sorts. When he found out the Ivernizzis put a hit on Dwight, Manny fled New York. But he's maintained at least one mob tie (the Italian named Eddy). Maybe Manny can make a few phone calls and gather some muscle for Dwight.
- Finally, the Ivernizzis: Chickie hit too close to home in breaking Emory's arm. Will he tell Pete what he did? Will he try to hide it? And was Chickie the one who ordered Dwight's killing all those years ago? Judging from Pete's obvious love for Dwight, it seems unlikely that the boss himself would have hung "The General" out to dry. The saddest part? It almost doesn't matter anymore. Dwight's bedside chat with Pete felt like a real goodbye. But how does Dwight leave the Ivernizzi fold for good? Will Pete and/or Chickie just let him off, with all his baggage? It increasingly feels like all of Tulsa will be shouting one thing when the season finale rolls around: The Italians are coming.
Tulsa King streams Sundays exclusively on Paramount+.
READ MORE: Who's Who in Tulsa: A 'Tulsa King' Character Guide
