Landman Recap: Angela Throws A Deranged Family Dinner
"It's family dinner night," Angela informs Tommy at the start of this week's Landman. "Since when?" he wonders. "Since I thought of it when I woke up this morning," she shoots back.
And whatever else Angela is, she is DETERMINED. So by the end of the episode, the Norris family sure as heck has dinner together — along with Nate and Dale — in the rental condo Angie took it upon herself to redecorate. In a day. Using her soon-to-be-ex-husband's credit card.
With her former husband and children sitting down together for the first time in a decade, Angela is a little overwhelmed. When the conversation is stilted and the Norris kids keep sniping at each other, Angela is angry. And when she stalks off to the kitchen and Tommy follows, she's on the verge of tears.
"See, that's the problem," he explains. "You've got this image in your brain of how everything's supposed to go. But we don't know what that is, you know? We don't see it. So when it don't go the way you dreamed it up, you get pissed off and you throw a tantrum. And then I get pissed off and throw a bigger tantrum. And then we're back to Square One."
They talk. She admits that she's highly premenstrual. They hug. She punches him in the crotch when he dares call the Bolognese she made "spaghetti." They laugh. Out in the dining room, Ainsley brightens to hear it, but Cooper is sullen "because I'm old enough to remember when they were together," he says when his sister asks.
The next morning, Angela leaves the house early with Tommy: He's going to drop her at the airport so she can go back to Fort Worth and formally end things with Victor. Along the way, they take a quick detour to a work site where there's a snafu with some metal pipes. And that's where, when a worker standing on top of the pile of pipes stamps his foot, they all come tumbling down — crushing him in the process.
Elsewhere in the episode:
* Cooper goes overt to Ariana's house to help her figure out her finances, which are in a jumble since her husband's death. Then, because he's incapable of being in the room while she breastfeeds her son, he steps out into the backyard and winds up mowing the lawn and doing a ton of yardwork. She comes outside later and they share a beer and chat.
When he moves on to the front yard, though, Manuel happens to be driving by. He quickly pulls up and comes at Cooper with a gun, accusing him of "playing husband," but a livid Ariana gets between them. "How many times have you come around to help?" she asks. "You don't care if I lose the house, or if my baby starves. You just care if I f–k another man." They argue some more, then she makes a show of kissing Cooper on the lips in front of her late husband's heated friend.
Later, Manuel and his friends are lying in wait for Cooper at his place. They beat him very, very badly.
* The drug dealers who stole the oil company's plane — and who lost a lot of money in the accident in the series premiere — show up to a derrick and try to shake down Tommy. They are unsuccessful, but Tommy is a little shaken, and they vow they'll be back.
Now it's your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!