The following story contains spoilers for Tulsa King season 2, episode 2, “Kansas City Blues.”
THE VULTURES ARE swirling around Dwight Manfredi in “Kansas City Blues”, episode 2 of Tulsa King’s second season. The flamboyant Mafioso and his burgeoning empire are on the verge of fighting wars on multiple fronts, and that’s without “The General’s” mounting legal crisis as he awaits trial for bribing former lover and ATF agent Stacy Beale (Andrea Savage) with information on his enemies.
While the episode devotes most of its screen time, almost stream-of-consciousness style, to Dwight’s marauding around Tulsa, the most interesting developments this episode come when the focus is elsewhere.
We learn more about the men for whom Dwight has found himself in their crosshairs. Those come in the form of weed king and Gunther from Friends lookalike Cal Thresher (Neal McDonagh), as well as mysterious crime boss Bill Bevilaqua (Frank Grillo), who shows he knows how to handle a rifle while looking cool in a cowboy hat. This is a Taylor Sheridan show after all.
Let’s see how season two of Tulsa King is progressing.
Gang Wars
Everyone is making their intentions clear: Dwight Manfredi has got to go. Each party has their own method of course. Thresher is using his local political clout to strongarm a U.S. attorney to personally prosecute Dwight (who is defending himself) in his bribery trial. It doesn’t take the mobster long to figure out something is amiss, even as his presence in the town continues to make front page headlines. Upon sitting down for a tete-a-tete with the prosecutor—with Dwight looking to bargain a jail free plea deal—his keen eye spots a note from Thresher on his desk, revealing the conspiracy.
With it being extremely unlikely Dwight sees the inside of a penitentiary again, expect Thresher to reach deeper into his dark bag of tricks to stop his empire being infringed on.
Of a more pressing matter to Dwight is likely to be Bill Bevilaqua, head of the Kansas City branch of the Mafia, who considers Tulsa his territory. Though we only saw a glimpse of him in the season premiere, Bill is quickly established here as a fearsome presence, taking extreme issue with the apparent disrespect of New York’s western expansion.
A tense phone call with New York boss Chickie (Domenick Lombardozzi) outlines a dilemma and a solution. Bill wants some kind of compensation for the insult of his territory being violated, and a lightbulb goes off in Chickie’s big, bald head—he has a reason and means to rid himself of the pain in the ass Dwight has become.
The episode concludes with a hint of Shakespearean betrayal, as Chickie makes an overture to his former capo Goodie (Chris Caldovino), who became Dwight’s right hand man in Tulsa. The offer is put to him simply: kill Dwight and Tulsa is yours. Goodie has already proven that loyalty is not one of his strongest attributes, and the carrot of being the boss might be too tasty to turn down.
Son of a Sinner
Undoubtedly the most surprising moment of “Kansas City Blues” is when the crew’s recently renovated weed shop gets a celebrity visitor in the form of country superstar Jelly Roll. Dwight, being stuck culturally in 1975, of course has no idea who the facial tattooed crooner is and the two share a couple of deliberately awkward jokes with the sequence playing more like a Saturday Night Live sketch than surely intended.
We then get the reason the weed bar was renovated with a recording studio inside, as Jelly Roll hits the booth and belts out a tune which suitably impresses Dwight before he disappears back off into the sun, to let the plot continue.
Family Matters
Tulsa is gaining more Manfredi family members by the week. Dwight’s daughter Tina is mansion hunting in the city, and they are quickly joined by his sister, Joanne, played by Sopranos alum Annabella Sciorra, going against type as the softness to Sly’s rough edges. She encourages him to do whatever he can to be around for Tina, leading him to try and broker the aforementioned plea deal with prosecutors. The presence of Joanne adds an extra dimension to Dwight—who can linger in jokey bro mode at times—allowing him to show some real emotions.
To cap off the latest installment of Dwight Manfredi versus the modern world, he also makes clear his distrust of electric cars, appearing to consider them “woke” after Tina picks him up in a Prius that he mocks for its size and quiet engine. You can’t say Tulsa King doesn’t have its finger on the pulse.
