The new villains being introduced in Tulsa King season 2 already look interesting, and I feel confident they’ll be better than Caolan Waltrip and the Black Macadams. Tulsa King season 2 is set to pick up with Dwight Manfredi’s (Sylvester Stallone) story as he continues his takeover of Tulsa, Oklahoma. While the new trailer for Tulsa King season 2 shows that Dwight’s criminal empire will definitely expand, it won’t be easy. He’s got new competition in the coming season, and those new villains are making me very excited for the show.
In Tulsa King season 1, Dwight had quite a few enemies. He first had to contend with Chickie and the Invernizzi crime family, as they banished him to Tulsa and eventually tried to take him out. Dwight also caught the attention of Stacy Beale and the ATF, both of whom tried to stop his illegal operations. While both of those enemies seem to be returning for Tulsa King season 2, one isn’t: Caolan Waltrip and the Black Macadams. Tulsa King’s new villains are replacing the biker gang, and I feel like they’re already proving that they could be an improvement.
Cal Thresher & Bill Bevilaqua Seem Like Compelling Villains For Tulsa King Season 2
Since Caolan Waltrip died at the end of Tulsa King season 1, the show brought in two new villains to oppose Dwight: Cal Thresher (Neal McDonough) and Bill Bevilaqua (Frank Grillo). Based on the trailer for Tulsa King season 2, it looks like Thresher and Bevilaqua are members of a rival gang that’s trying to take control of Tulsa, and they both seem like a cross between gangsters and cowboys. Thresher has been described as a ruthless business person who likes to wear cowboy hats, while Bevilaqua is a Kansas City mobster who shoots skeet and rides horseback for fun.
Aside from just their unique status as combinations of cowboys and mobsters, there are a few reasons why I’m so excited about seeing Bevilaqua and Thresher in action. For example, Thresher and Bevilaqua are almost perfect parallels to Dwight: all of them are gangsters, and Tulsa King season 2 will be a battle between their Western ways and Dwight’s Eastern methods. On top of that, both Grillo and McDonough are great actors, and they both have some extensive experience playing villains. Their skills as ac tors, coupled with the way their characters serve as a parallel to Dwight, should make them much more compelling than Caolan Waltrip.
Caolan Waltrip & The Black Macadams Weren’t Great Villains In Tulsa King Season 1
A big reason I believe Thresher and Bevilaqua can surpass Caolan Waltrip as Tulsa King’s best villains is because Caolan just wasn’t a very good villain. Caolan himself was fairly interesting, as the way he dodged Stacy and the ATF was fairly impressive. Caolan also didn’t really stand on his own, though, as everything he did was a reaction to the ATF or to Dwight’s growing power. To me, he never felt like more than a simple obstacle for Dwight to get past. The Black Macadams were even worse than Caolan, as they could have been swapped out for any generic biker gang without notice.
To me, Caolan Waltrip never felt like more than a simple obstacle for Dwight to get past.
Caolan Waltrip and the Black Macadams aren’t entirely at fault for not being the most interesting villain in Tulsa King, though. By design, they had to compete with two other (and more interesting) major adversaries in Chickie and the ATF, so they just didn’t get enough screen time to really become a memorable part of Tulsa King. Caolan wasn’t even introduced until episode 3, and he only appeared in a fraction of each episode after that point. While Thresher and Bevilaqua will also have to fight with other enemies for screen time, I still think they’ll be able to use it more effectively.
Tulsa King Season 2’s Villains Could Make The Show Even Better
Even though Caolan Waltrip wasn’t as great of a villain as I would have hoped for, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like him. I thought he played an important role in Tulsa King season 1, and that role was a big reason it became one of my favorite shows. Tulsa King season 1 was mostly about Dwight and his transition from prison life in New York to running a criminal empire in Tulsa. Caolan and the Black Macadams supported that narrative goal well: they provided some resistance and represented how Dwight was clashing with his new environment.
Caolan Waltrip accomplished Tulsa King season 1’s goal fairly well, but Tulsa King season 2 is a completely different story, and Cal Thresher and Bill Bevilaqua are already presenting some intriguing ideas for that new narrative. Now that Dwight’s gotten used to life in Tulsa, Thresher and Bevilaqua are going to elevate the show’s stakes and really force Dwight to adapt or die in a way that Caolan couldn’t. Finding out whether Dwight sticks to his old New York mafia ways or adopts some of Tulsa’s cowboy culture to rise to the challenge sounds like endlessly entertaining television to me.
Tulsa King season 2 also seems to be structured differently than season 1 was. Most of the suspense and drama of Tulsa King season 1 came from watching how Dwight could handle a bunch of small problems at the same time. Dwight has grown beyond that challenge, though, and so has his gang. Small problems shouldn’t be much of an issue anymore, so the massive threat that Thresher and Bevilaqua are likely to pose should be the perfect way to raise the stakes. With these new villains and the problems they’ll create, Tulsa King could be bigger and better than ever.