There is a curious — almost perverse — logic in the universe of Landman: fortune arrives fast, but the emotional price arrives even faster. And in the second episode of the season, “Sins of the Father,” Taylor Sheridan pushes each character to a delicate point where poorly thought-out decisions, questionable contracts, and unresolved family traumas all start knocking at the door at the same time. If Season 1 was about survival, Season 2, by all indications, will be about inheritance — not in the financial sense, but in the most intimate and brutal sense.

Cooper strikes oil and loses his footing

The story opens with Cooper experiencing the moment any character in an oil drama dreams of: a perfectly cinematic oil explosion. It’s the classic gusher, the wet dream of Texan mythology. But while he celebrates, covered in oil, Ariana sees something else: the beginning of the end.

He gets home late, dirty, and she waits for him in an emotional state that is part love, part panic, part premonition. Ariana doesn’t want a mansion, doesn’t want luxury, doesn’t want the oil-driven life that swallowed her routine, and even less does she want to lose the man she loves. But in Sheridan’s logic, fear becomes rupture. And she ends everything to avoid reliving her trauma.

The end of their relationship isn’t surprising, but it hurts, especially because Cooper reacts badly, becoming paralyzed. When Ariana kicks him out of the house, he returns to “Château Norris,” where he has to deal with his sister and with his parents’ toxic relationship.

The price of success: 7,000 barrels and one bad decision

Cooper is not just depressed: he is trapped in an irresponsible financial agreement. It’s about 7,000 guaranteed barrels, and the company that financed this miracle is called Sonrisa — a name that already suggests something suspicious.

Tommy, who has always seen more than he says, notices the danger immediately: Cooper signed a contract without consulting a lawyer. And worse: Sonrisa is not only obscure, it’s a fund that shouldn’t be so comfortable financing such high-risk operations.

Tommy asks Nate to investigate. And in Sheridanland, when Nate steps in with that “leave it to me” look, we know trouble is coming.

Monty’s downfall becomes a ticking time bomb, and Cami starts digging up corpses

While Cooper tries to gather the pieces of his heart and his contract, M-TEX discovers that it received — and lost — a $420 million settlement. It was money destined for drilling an offshore well in Louisiana that never happened, and which, for some murky reason (or not so murky), was paid directly to Monty, not to the company.

In other words, there is a giant financial hole, an enraged insurance company, and a trail of poorly buried secrets.

Under pressure, Rebecca Falcone shines as a lawyer who can turn legal jargon into a weapon: she uses the fact that the insurance company paid Monty directly as a contractual violation, flipping the blame, buying time, and securing a fragile truce. The requirement is simple: build the well, provide weekly reports, and face whatever scandal comes.

But Cami doesn’t swallow this polished surface easily. She senses Monty hid something, and she goes to search his office — an almost symbolic scene: the widow rummaging through the emotional and financial wreckage of the man she loved, looking for a thread of truth in a sea of incomplete paperwork and empty folders.

Sheridan, who is rarely subtle, uses the image to suggest that behind Monty’s golden persona lies an even deeper abyss.

Tommy: funerals, traumas, and a cycle that needs to stop

While everyone tries to put out financial fires, Tommy is dealing with another kind of loss: his mother’s death. Except he is not grieving — not in the conventional sense. Choosing flowers (“enough to say I tried, not enough to say I miss her”) reveals a deeper conflict: how do you mourn someone you were never able to love?

The visit to his father, T.L. (Sam Elliott, always impeccable), adds another layer, because he accuses Tommy of not feeling anything, and the conversation opens space for one of the best scenes of the episode: Tommy explaining, in a raw outburst, how his childhood was hell — a violent, alcoholic father, a mother destroyed by addiction, and him, a child trying to survive.

Ironically, it’s Cooper who ends the discussion, saying that Tommy did his “best” and that his best “is enough.” A moment of connection between father and son.

And then comes the final blow: El Jefe Gallino enters the game

Nate finally returns with the investigation. And the name behind Sonrisa is revealed — confirming the worst: El Jefe Gallino (Andy Garcia), the cartel leader who last season kidnapped and threatened Tommy.

The fund that financed Cooper is dirty money, and now the Norris family is, unintentionally, connected to the cartel. It’s the kind of revelation Sheridan loves: one character’s innocent mistake becomes a moral and criminal avalanche.

Tommy’s expression when he hears the name says everything: hell is officially open.