Landman Season 2 Episode 9 Review: Plans, Tears and Sirens Added Some Oomph Back to the Story

Critic’s Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

3.5

Here we are again! After the fiasco that was Landman Season 2 Episode 8, I jumped on the screener as soon as it appeared in my account.

Was Landman Season 2 Episode 9 an improvement? For me, it was, but I’m sure others will disagree.

I’ve needed discussion points about the times we live in, and Taylor Sheridan delivered a heaping helping with “Plans, Tears and Sirens.”

There is still far too much of Ainsley and Angela when you look at the show as a whole. The series is titled Landman, not Landman’s Ladies, so the deficit about the oil and gas industry is recognizable.

However, something we saw a lot of during Landman Season 1 returned: button-pushing discussion topics.

While we learned a lot about the oil and gas industry during the first season, that has settled a bit with the sophomore outing. But what Sheridan did with Ainsley’s trip to cheer camp works just as well.

The times, they have a-changed. But some things never do. One of them is the experience of meeting your assigned college roommate for the first time.

I had my own Paigyn in college. A gal who had the entire room moved to her satisfaction before I even stepped in the door. She had moved two armoires so they were perpendicular to the wall, creating a little haven back there.

Me? I had to sleep next to the door. And to make it even more fun, she had a boyfriend she’d traipse in and out at all hours, essentially walking through MY personal space to get to her own haven. Thankfully, it was for a summer semester, which was shorter than the average semester.

It was rough, but it wasn’t nearly as rough as what Ainsley got saddled with. Of course, for one week of cheer camp, I would have been fine making someone else’s life a living hell, just to do it. Paigyn, I would have crushed your little self-involved spirit.

For as much as Ainsley annoys me, I can admit she has a beautiful heart. So does Angela. They’re far too self-obsessed and vain, but when they show vulnerability, you can respect it.

So, yes, I’m an old, and it has been tough to wrap my head around the they/them of it all. It does require hijacking a societal understanding of pronouns for a different purpose, and that kind of change should get societal approval.

It’s made me rather sad that some people think of themselves first when supposedly wanting others to be considerate. Now before your feathers get ruffled, know that I don’t care what you do personally. But demanding others respect your choice isn’t the right way to go about things.

When you make demands about how others behave, it closes doors before they’ve even opened. You could argue that societal norms have done that for generations. Society does things to make things relatively uniform, such as with laws and traffic patterns.

We can’t all do whatever we want at any time. There would be chaos. Working together is always the best route, but your expectations and demands won’t always be met. Trying harder to reach an understanding seems like the right choice to me.

On Landman Season 2 Episode 9, Paigyn shut the door on Ainsley before Ainsley had even stepped through it.

When Ainsley talked with Greta, the school admissions advisor who still doesn’t appreciate Ainsley’s effectiveness, given the lack of many other things she believes a student needs to succeed, I felt for her.

Paigyn had made it all about Paigyn. Paigyn didn’t care about Ainsley’s safe space or desires; Paigyn didn’t give one shit about what it was like for Ainsley to walk into a self-revolving world. Paigyn made the entire conversation about Paigyn, forgetting that two people were involved.

And when Angela remarked that Paigyn missed out on having a friend, you could tell how badly Paigyn needs friends. Angela was right: Paigyn chose to blame the world for their problems rather than address them personally.

Angela recognized a tortured soul when she saw one, but she was also respectful enough not to infringe on Paigyn’s wishes by asking whether joining Ainsley and her friends at the pool might be of interest.

The whole thing made me kind of sad, and society today does too. Look, things I lived through were also painful, but I didn’t have to worry about offending someone just by opening my mouth. Now, I do it daily, and I thank God I grew up when I did.

What Landman Season 2, Episode 9 told me is that no college should assign roommates without a lot of facts. Why should any kid be thrown to the wolves, making their college experience miserable?

And make no mistake, Paigyn and Ainsley would have both been miserable for that week. Paigyn is likely miserable every day, but Ainsley at least has a shot at not being miserable, so I was (I know, it’s hard to believe) happy Angela interceded.

Kids today? I see you. I don’t know how to help, but I see how hard it is to be you. Just remember that today is but a moment in time, and someday, this will all be a silly memory you dig up, all the pain washed away. And keep trying. You may not be successful the first or even fourth time, but keep trying.

If there are more conversations about what it’s like to be alive today, then I’m all for Ainsley being front and center. I’d prefer they make way for more of the other characters, but I can handle it when a light is shining on something meaningful.

Of course, it took tossing a boatload of money at the problem to smooth it over, and that’s money Tommy might need to be saving now.

Just as his father’s thousand-dollar-a-day therapist is holding TL in the pool, and his wife and daughter are sucking up his cash reserves in the suite, Tommy got fired.

Cami is an idiot of a character, and if this brings her downfall, I will be yee-hawing my way through Landman Season 3. She just tossed her entire future into the lap of a drug kingpin.

Yep, Tommy got fired because he no longer has the fire in his belly to toss caution to the wind. He’s not breathing heavily over the thrill of the hunt anymore, and Cami sees that as a problem. Not that Gallino is a drug lord, but that Tommy lost his thrill for the hunt.

What she failed to realize was that Monty kept Tommy around because of that perceived flaw. Monty was the yin to Tommy’s yang. They balanced each other out.

If Monty was going to take a step too far, as long as he shared his thoughts with Tommy, Tommy could weigh in and give him the potential downsides, mitigating disaster.

Monty didn’t share anything with Tommy about the disaster M-Tex is currently wrestling with, and we see where that got M-Tex.

Cami knows nothing about the oil and gas industry. I’m not even sure she knows anything about business. After all, she signed a lot of contracts having no idea what they said.

Right now, she’s riding a high without ever experiencing the lows. And this high is actually built on Monty’s subpar management of M-Tex. Things are awful, but Cami is enjoying the thrill of the hunt.

Maybe someone should have clued her in on what happened to the last hunters we saw on Landman. They were chasing a thrill, and they got gassed to death. The lows will come, and Tommy knows it. Any gambler knows it. And wildcatting? It’s gambling with more money and higher stakes.

Cami has also failed to recognize how Gallino feels about Tommy. I don’t think he’ll be thrilled with her letting Tommy go. He’s not working with Cami for her insights, but because he’s getting something he needs from working with Tommy.

Sure, he’s got a windfall of cash coming if she succeeds or fails, but part of his fun is due to Tommy.

I kind of can’t wait to see the cartel pull Cami into a pit and pour gasoline all over her. Will she have the same swagger that Tommy has under such situations? Of course not. And I don’t think Sheridan will put her in that position, but dammit, I wish he would.

And what about the roughnecks? What about Cooper? What about everyone who works with Tommy every day and respects the hell out of him? Oh, they’ll continue working for M-Tex because the money is good, but will they be doing their best?

Tommy brings that out of them. We already saw how Cooper handles the roughnecks, and it’s not pretty. There is a certain finesse required to handle men like those, and Cami doesn’t have it. Will whoever she hires to take Tommy’s place have it?

Will anyone know M-Tex as well as Tommy does be available to step into his boots? Hell no.

Cami is out there making pageantry out of rig placement. That’s hardly a measure for success in the field. So much can go wrong here, and finally, finally, I’m interested again.

Of course, Sheridan could have this new development last no longer than an episode. Tommy could go crawling back to Cami. Gallino could demand Tommy be rehired. Cami could come to her senses. There is a lot that could happen to ruin my potential good time. I just hope it doesn’t.

And no, I didn’t forget that Ariana got attacked. I just saw it coming from about five minutes into the episode. What I did find shocking was that the barback didn’t know who Cooper was. He’s Tommy’s son and Ariana’s boyfriend. Has he had a bag over his head all season?

That story is just… played out already. I’m not even sure how they can light a fire under it to make me interested again.

The same can be said for Sam Elliott’s storyline. TL wishing he were younger so he could swim laps around Cheyenne aka Penny? It’s not exciting, and it’s not the storyline I’d write for Elliott if he were on my show.

There’s plenty to say about growing old. Most people will never have the stripper-as-therapist experience or the Angela and Ainsley old-folks home extravaganza. Yes, we need not to forget that older folks are just younger folks in a failing body. But what else? More meaning, please.

Rebecca came to her senses and apologized to Charlie. She (as do many of you) still has a problem with his mullet, but she’s also smart enough to see a good man in front of her.

They’ve got six months to get things together before they spend any more valuable time with each other. If they’re going to anchor the spinoff I’d watch, they need to work hard.

And there were even a few oil and gas industry tidbits tossed into the fray. There are 73 billion barrels of oil under the Gulf of America and 440 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

ChatGPT says that’s good for about ten years of US consumption, so not a lot. It’s kind of crazy to talk billions and trillions and see how quickly it runs out.

Those are the topics I would love to know more about. And the $10k cost per flight of a private jet. Those are the things nobody really talks about, but we all need to know. That’s what I loved about Landman Season 1, and I sincerely hope that Landman Season 3 takes us back in that direction.

Unfortunately, it feels like Sheridan may have already run out of things to say about it for eight out of ten episodes. It also seems like Season 3 may be devoted to Tommy trying to get back on his feet.

But what about you?

I’m satisfied that “Plans, Tears and Sirens” offers promise for what’s ahead. It’s a little late in the season to do much for now, but if all goes well, the future looks bright.

Do you agree or disagree? Vote in our poll and get yourselves into the comments below to start the conversation. I can’t wait to hear from you!