When Landman's Tommy And Cami Clash Over MTex's Future, Who Comes Out On Top? Read Episode 5 Recap

The "pirate dinner" that Sam Elliott previewed to TVLine a few weeks back sets sail in this week's "Landman." And while we braced for the type of carnage that can only come from Angela armed with a cutlass... Shocker: The evening goes by in placid and enjoyable (if over-the-top) fashion!

And that's good, because the rest of the hour is filled with tension and conflict. Cooper learns exactly how bad a deal he signed with Gallino, and how he's not quite the instant millionaire he thought he was. On top of that, young Norris also drives across the state to ask Ariana's very intimidating father for his blessing on their future. And then near the end of the episode, Tommy and Cami have a heated argument about MTex's future... and the landman does not come out on top.

Read on for the highlights of Episode 5, "Pirate Dinner."

T.L. sits in Tommy's backyard, staring out at the horizon, and Papa Norris' presence is a surprise to Nathan when he comes into the kitchen to make his coffee. The lawyer hounds Tommy to move to Fort Worth and hire a new landman, given that Tommy is currently doing both his old job and the new one. But Tommy isn't excited about giving up his oversight of the crews and their work. The conversation is interrupted by Angela and Ainsley, who determine that the theme of that evening's welcome dinner for T.L. will be "pirates," based on the old man's love of seafood. Then the ladies slip off to the old folks' home, and Nate sits and tries to calm himself down when his agitation over the household's continual chaos makes his heart beat irregularly.

Tommy checks in with T.L. before he leaves for work and offers his pop one crucial piece of advice: "Supper around here can kind of be an event, so I'm just warning you... You just have to see it to believe it. There ain't no f**king way to describe it."

Meanwhile, Cooper and Ariana wake up at her place and start talking about their future. "I'm Catholic, and Catholics don't exactly shack up," she says. He says he'll marry her in a heartbeat, if that's what she wants, but she says there's more to it than that: For one, he has to ask her father for his blessing and — be warned — her family's opinion on her dating Cooper "is mixed," she says. Cooper takes a deep breath and says that he'll go see her pop (who lives in Corpus Christi) later that day, after he talks to Tommy about some business stuff. "Hey," she says, suddenly serious, "I don't believe in divorce. I believe in forever. I've only been with two men in my life, and I'm not interested in looking for a third." He teases her that she's making him work for it, then gets up to get his day started.

Tommy and Cooper meet at The Patch Café, where Coop informs his dad that he's going to ask Ariana to marry him. "There's some things worth rushing, and others should move caterpillar slow. Marriage is the latter, son," Tommy advises. They table that discussion to talk about Cooper's oil wells; it quickly becomes clear that the younger Norris has zero idea how his "loan" from Sonrisa actually works. Long story short? He's got a boatload of drilling-related bills that he assumed Sonrisa would pay... but actually, he's responsible for them. It turns out that Cooper was able to hire his crews based on his sharing Tommy's last name, but he's in a huge hole. So Tommy proposes a solution: MTex will buy Cooper's leases, cover the costs and cancel the bank note. MTex also will hire Cooper to run a crew, and Tommy will teach him the business from the ground up.

Cooper is incensed that he won't see a dime of the money the oil from his wells will get, but Tommy points out that Sonrisa would've made it so he never would've seen that money: The company would've foreclosed on the leases so they could flip them, and all Cooper would be left with is a name ruined within the oil business. Tommy points out that Cooper's instincts are amazing — "and I never had 'em, not like you do," he adds, which is like a full-throated declaration of love for him — "but you've gotta know the rules of the game to bend 'em. And you've really gotta know 'em to break 'em."

Cooper acquiesces, and says he'll get re-started at MTex as soon as he's back from Corpus.

After Tommy leaves the restaurant, he finds out about the Episode 4 truck crash when Nate calls about something else; Noris is highly annoyed that no one told him before now. So as Nate and Rebecca fly to Fort Worth to meet with lawyers, Tommy heads to the crash site to talk with Sheriff Joeberg. The cop promises to call Tommy first when anything terrible happens in the future. Then Tommy finds out that there's ANOTHER calamity he didn't know about — the crew getting gassed, resulting in Jerell's still being in the hospital — so he calls Dale for details and then kicks his truck's tire a few times in frustration.

Nate and Rebecca travel to Fort Worth to talk to the insurance company's lawyers re: the rig that needs to get rebuilt. They know that Monty did super shady things with the money, and the lawyers are cracking down, giving MTex 45 days to get the well built or else they'll press criminal charges. "Tommy, we need to find this money," Nate says when he calls Tommy. "I don't think the buck stops with Monty on this one." He points out that Cami's name is on everything; her ignorance of what she signed doesn't shield her from responsibility.

Tommy makes a beeline to Gallino, where he tells the kingpin to take his funding and shove it. "I know who you are, and I know what your money is, and I can't have it anywhere near us," Tommy says. Gallino calmly lays out that there's no one who's going to be willing to lend MTex the money it needs without an interest rate that will eventually bury the business. "I am the f**king solution. So when you realize it, I'll be here waiting," he says as Tommy leaves.

Tommy's next stop is MTex headquarters, where Alan (still sporting the bandage from when Tommy broke a bottle over his noggin) is updating Cami, Nate and Rebecca about the missing $400 million. Alan maintains that the cash isn't "missing," but his answer is convoluted: Essentially, Cami technically has the money, but it's in various funds she can't access. Alan suggests that MTex and its subsidiaries file for bankruptcy, which would essentially end the oil company but would cancel the debt and allow Cami to keep her riches.

Tommy sends everyone out of the room so he can tell Cami that Gallino is the head of a drug cartel, and that if they accept a $400 million loan from him makes MTex "look like the engine of their money-laundering machine." She's like, well, we're already in business with him, and we don't know EXACTLY how he makes his money, so... in for a gram, in for a kilo? Tommy is vehemently against the idea. "You're dealing with a bad f**king guy here," he says, but Cami talks over him as she maintains that she won't lose her husband's company eight weeks after taking it over. She orders him to have their attorneys meet with his and draw up the paperwork. "And one more thing?," she says, "Don't ever summon me to a meeting again. From now on, meetings come to me."

T.L. spends his day at home getting locked out of the house, getting educated on "The View" and getting to know Shelby, Ainsley's friend who lives next door. When Ainsley and Angela return, he's tickled to drink a beer and watch them flit about the kitchen, preparing the roughly 300 lbs. of seafood Angela has procured for the meal. 

Hours away in Corpus Christi, Cooper listens to a recording of Spanish phrases as he approaches Ariana's parents' house. He meets her father on the front porch, where he's flanked by a bunch of other guys and a big ol' pooch. "Y'all sure like your guard dogs," Cooper says once he and Ariana's dad are alone in the backyard. We learn that Ariana's mom has cancer, and they're planning to return to the Permian Basin once she's better. "I'm in love with your daughter, and she says she's in love with me. I'd like to ask her to marry me, and I'd like your permission," Cooper says. Ariana's dad points out that Ariana is a grown woman who doesn't need his blessing — and she knows that, so she likely just wanted to see if Cooper would rise to the occasion. (She made Elvio do it, too.) Her dad cautions Cooper not to get himself killed in the patch — "She's tough, but there's only so much a person can take" — and that he'll take it upon himself to make sure Cooper dies if he ever raises a hand to her. "She'll kill you first," he acknowledges, "but I'll go real hard on whatever's left." Then he invites Cooper to have dinner and stay the night. So... a success?

Back in Midland, Tommy stops by The Patch Café just long enough to let us find out he doesn't have a sense of smell (thanks to a job injury when he was 30) and to chat with Ariana, whom he learns is now working there. They have a little banter, then he slips her a hefty tip for a beer he doesn't even drink.

Tommy returns home to find the place decked out like Pirates of the Caribbean: sea shanties, skeletons, gold doubloons, costumes, etc. Shelby and Rebecca are there, too, and everyone except Tommy is gussied up in pirate wear. Tommy loudly protests, but he's smiling and laughing too much for that to be a real thing, and the episode goes to black without a plate being thrown or an epithet being hurled. It's a Pirate Day miracle!

What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!