The second episode of Tulsa King Season 2 feels like the first. After a relatively slow-paced Season 2 premiere, “Kansas City Blues” gets the action started with plenty of scheming, some crimes being committed and unexpected returns. But the most interesting part of the episode is its effect on future installments — because it reveals several characters are working or might soon be working on the side of Cal Thresher.
“Kansas City Blues” references the fact that Dwight Manfredi is now facing competition not only from Thresher, but from Bill Bevilaqua, the head of the mob outfit in Kansas City. Episode 2 is the first real look audiences have at Bill and establishes that he’s just as much a threat as Cal. The episode stumbles when it shoehorns in a celebrity guest appearance, but it provides all the momentum that the season premiere needed and then some.
Tulsa King Season 2, Episode 2 Spotlights Frank Grillo’s Villain
Audiences Finally Meet Bill Bevilaqua
The Tulsa King Season 2 premiere introduced audiences to Neal McDonough’s character Cal Thresher, but the other half of the antagonistic formula had little more than a cameo appearance. Episode 2 is the one where viewers see what Bill Bevilaqua is really about — and what makes him interesting is that he’s an equal opportunity pain for both Dwight and his rival Chickie Invernizzi. It would be too easy for Bill to just be one-dimensionally focused on Dwight, since it’s Dwight who’s encroaching on his territory. And Bill does make very clear how offended he is by that move, but it’s not the only thing he’s angry about.
Bill Bevilaqua: Trespassing sounds like a simple word. But it’s bad.
One of the underlying themes of Tulsa King has always been the New York mob sensibilities versus those of folks from the Midwest, and that’s on display again in Bill’s character. He lumps Dwight and Chickie in together as “New York pricks,” and when Chickie gets on Bill’s case for not acknowledging his new leadership of the Invernizzi family, Bill wants none of his lip. There’s none of the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” stuff in this show. Rather, Tulsa King ends with Chickie telling Dennis “Goodie” Carangi that the Invernizzis are throwing their lot in with Bill — and he should too.
The casting of Frank Grillo is a large reason why this bending of the knee works. Even in scenes over the phone, Creature Commandos star Grillo has the edge to make Bill a believable threat; he doesn’t feel like just “the new bad guy.” Plus, writers Stephen Scaia and Terence Winter smartly frame this situation by what it represents for the whole mafia landscape — not solely Dwight. Many TV shows would have been fine with just one season-long adversary, especially since Cal is the villain who’s actually in Tulsa and therefore it’s a much more convenient story. Winter and company are keeping the mob side of the universe in flux, too, and by the time Bill arrives in Oklahoma (because he will) it’s going to be great drama because of their laying groundwork like this.
Tulsa King Brings Family Back Into the Equation
Season 2, Episode 2 Features Dwight’s SIster Joanne
Even with the mafia dealings going on, Tulsa King Season 2, Episode 2 carves out some time for both Dwight’s family and Tyson’s family, who are affected by their criminal exploits in different ways. On the positive side, Dwight and his daughter Tina are shown touring a house for Tina to move her family into. Tina falls in love with the house and before the episode ends, the paperwork is done for it while Tina talks about selling her business in New York and getting a fresh start. The person she tells that to is her aunt and Dwight’s sister Joanne (played by Law & Order: Criminal Intent alum and Luke Cage Season 2 villain Annabella Sciorra). Joanne promptly shows up at Dwight’s hotel room, declares that she’s “done with New York” and intends to stay in Tulsa.
These moves won’t surprise anyone who’s kept up with the Tulsa King news between seasons; a press release announcing that production had started on Season 2 revealed that both Sciorra and Tatiana Zappardino, who plays Tina, had been promoted to the main cast. But they create reasons for Tina and Joanne to be a larger part of the show — albeit Joanne’s reasoning is much more random. And that family element is one of the things that makes this show feel different from a standard mob story. Not all of Dwight’s adventures can be with his crew; to care about him, the audience also has to care about who he is outside of the mafia. Tina and Joanne are the two biggest parts of that.
Joanne Manfredi: You left Tina once, Dwight. You do it again, she’s gonna fall apart.
In even better news, “Kansas City Blues” features the return of Michael Beach as Mark Mitchell — a nice consolation for anyone still upset that his character was written out of Mayor of Kingstown. Mark is no Kareem Moore, but just getting to see Beach again is a pleasure. And Beach does a lot with relatively little; when Dwight ends up staying at the Mitchell home to avoid reporters, Mark’s disdain for him is clear. It’s a small moment to compare and contrast. Dwight’s family sees the benefits of his activities; Mark sees how Dwight’s behavior negatively affects his son Tyson. And both those perspectives are equally true.
Tulsa King Season 2 Sees Dwight Make a Possibly Huge Mistake
Preparation for His Trial Gets Off to a Rough Start
The third important aspect of “Kansas City Blues” is that Dwight chooses to represent himself in court — a massive mistake for most criminal defendants. There is an incredible Vin Diesel movie called Find Me Guilty, based on a true story about a mobster who defended himself and beat the government in court… but this is not that movie. It will be interesting to see if Tulsa King’s writers aim to show the issues that come with self-representation, especially for Dwight, who’s basing his decision mostly on his past legal history and is known to be not quite up to speed on many things. Will they explore the pitfalls that he faces? Or will the storyline feel like the Season 2 premiere, and have Dwight succeed purely because he’s Dwight and he’s played by Sylvester Stallone?
Cal Thresher: He’s moving in the wrong direction. And that’s my direction. I want him put away.
Either option is possible, because the episode also reveals which other characters are working against Dwight, and he catches on to one of them pretty quickly. Cal Thresher is revealed to have the local U.S. Attorney in his pocket and gets the man to personally oversee Dwight’s prosecution. His appearance in court is an immediate red flag to anyone with common sense (including the judge, who points it out). But as if that’s not obvious enough, when Dwight visits the man to strike a plea deal, he sees a message slip indicating that the U.S. Attorney took a call from Thresher. So Dwight now knows a link exists between the two. What he doesn’t know about is that Goodie is considering Chickie’s offer to turn sides — which actually feels very in-character, since Goodie already defected to Dwight’s team in Season 2. So Scala and Winter have lined their dots up very well.
The only weak point in Tulsa King Season 2, Episode 2 is a cameo and brief performance by Jelly Roll, under the guise of his having a concert at Tulsa’s BOK Center. The appearance adds nothing to the episode except to say “hey, here’s a celebrity at Bodhi’s grand opening party.” But aside from that one bit of randomness, “Kansas City Blues” has all the plot and the backstabbing that Episode 1 was missing. Dwight has a plan to get himself out of trouble and a plan with some newly-purchased wind turbines. His enemies and their plots have been clearly defined. In one episode, the show has laid all its cards on the table; now it just has to execute.
Tulsa King Season 2 streams Sundays on Paramount+.