Landman Recap: Tommy's World-Shattering News, [Spoiler]'s Violent Attack

The penultimate "Landman" of Season 2 upends Tommy's professional life that feels shocking... despite the fact that both he and Gallino spoke of the possibility just a few episodes back.

By the end of "Plans, Tears, and Sirens," Tommy Norris is no longer employed by MTex. What's wortse, Cami delivers the news to her landman-turned-exec only after she's made him spend half his day flying to the gulf to watch the Rig of Bad Decisions get up and running.

In other terrible news, Ariana is the victim of a horrific attack outside The Patch Café. When you're done here, make sure to check out what Paulina Chavéz had to tell me about shooting the violent scene. But first, let's recap Episode 9.

It's absolute chaos in the house as Dale, Nate and Tommy work on the gulf rig — which is about to launch — and Angela and Ainsley prepare for cheer camp. Tommy escapes to the backyard for some solitude and finds T.L. placidly enjoying the morning.

They talk about the "physical therapy" Tommy arranged for his pop, who is appreciative. "Happy birthday, merry Christmas and any other holiday that warrants a gift," Tommy quips. T.L. seems... happy? Is this what happiness looks like on him? Hard to say, because we've rarely seen it, but I like it!

They talk a little more about T.L.'s new therapeutic regimen ("Son, there is very little Cheyenne could ask me to do that I wouldn't try"), then Tommy extinguishes his cigarette by tossing it into the pool (gross), and T.L. makes him fish it out — he's got aquatherapy later.

Elsewhere, Charlie is leaving his hourse to join the MTex folk at the Gulf site when he opens his front door and is surprised to find Rebecca standing there. She offers a mea culpa ("I made it personal. I had no business doing that") and says she doesn't want to break up with him, after all. "I'm not hearing an apology," he says, and she counters that she's not offering one: "This is a truce." But when he doesn't want that, either, she quickly spits out an "I'm sorry." She admits that she's lonely, but that she'd like her life to be different. He's definitely going to forgive her, but he makes her admit that she's "smitten," and pretty soon they're kissing.

Thing is, he's gotta live on the rig for the next six months. But neither of them look too worried about that as he teases her about dodging alligators to visit him and sending him "home videos" to help him wile away the long hours. "Before I come to visit, I'd like to discuss the mullet," she jokes, looking quite swoony as he climbs into the truck.

Tommy, Dale, Nate and Rebecca take the MTex plane to Fort Worth to pick up Cami, who glides aboard in a gorgeous pink number that is heavily at odds with the inherently dirty work on the docket. They touch down in Louisiana and meet up with Gallino, who's asked Bella to join him for the day.

Remember what I said about Cami's dress being out of sorts with the day? I couldn't have been more wrong, because Monty's widow is throwing a garden party to celebrate the rig's launch. Tablecloths, mint juleps, the whole shebang. "If you're going to take a risk, you might as well celebrate," Cami says. She's high on the rush of risk, a feeling Tommy says he no longer enjoys. "President of my company can't be averse to the very thing that built it," she says. And Tommy knows what she's about to say, but he wants to hear it anyway. "I'm saying you're fired," she says, slipping her sunglasses on before returning to the party to watch the rig float by.

Angela can barely keep it together as she drops Ainsley off for cheer camp at Texas Christian University. After the teen heads into the dorm, Angie sobs and calls the one person who can make her feel better: Jamie, her personal shopper at Neiman Marcus. Meanwhile, Ainsley meets her roommate, a sports medicine student named Paigyn ("like the godless religion?" our sweet, obtuse girl asks) who's from Minneapolis and has a pet ferret. Paigyn essentially is Ainsley's exact opposite: a vegan with they/them pronouns who word-polices Ainsley (her use of "penetrate" is "triggering") and requests that no meat or animal products enter the room, which is a "safe space." Ainsley has had enough. "I'll see they later," she says, stepping into the hallway and crying a little.

Ainsley heads straight to Greta's office, where the admissions counselor advises her to assert herself and "act like the adult your driver's license says you are." Instead, Ainsley calls Angela, who comes running, threatens to become a "tornado" and gets Greta to agree to agree to give Ainsley a medical exemption — allergies! — so she can live in a hotel suite for the week of camp. Oh, and Mama Norris is going to stick around so she can drive her kiddo to and from cheerleader camp. Because taxis and/or rideshare services don't exist in Fort Worth, apparently? "I wish you could stay with me all of college," Ainsley says as Angela load her bags back into the car. "Well, baby girl, that might just be the plan!"

Let's have a moment of lightness before the very dark end of the episode, cool? In a sweet exchange between T.L. and his "therapist" in the pool that evening, we learn that Cheyenne's name is really Penny, and that she's got $162,000 saved up to support her dreams of seeing the world. Go girl!

And now, the awful stuff.

Ariana steps outside during her Patch Café shift to call Abuela and check on Miguel. She assumes she's safe, so she's completely unprepared to see Johnny, the disgusting patron that she threw a drink at on her first day, coming at her with hatred in his eyes and racial epithets on his lips. He knocks her down, climbs on top of her and rips her shirt open, and he's attempting to rape her when Cooper (thank GOD) shows up and rips him off her.

Cooper whales on the guy so much and so hard that Ariana begs him to stop before he kills the pig. So he does, but reluctantly.  As Cooper pulls Ariana close, seeing if she's hurt, bartender Barney comes outside. He quickly calls the cops and gets two big bar staffers to keep Johnny where he is. The final shot makes it seem like the whole incident was caught on security camera.

Now it's your turn. What did you think of the episode? Hit the comments with your thoughts!