Dwight “The General” Manfredi has been representing himself in court since Tulsa King returned for Season 2 — a big gamble, even for someone who spends a lot of time in a casino.
“Oklahoma v. Manfredi” finds Dwight learning his fate re: the legal and penal systems (and has Manfredi practicing his closing argument in front of a group of very stoned associates at Even Higher Plane). You’ll recall that his alleged crime was bribery of a federal agent, AKA ATF agent Stacy Beale, with whom he had a complicated relationship in Season 1.
So, how does Dwight’s day in court go? He’s clearly a hit with the jurors, who chuckle at his jokes even when the judge and opposing counsel object. Then Dwight calls Stacy as a witness, giving everyone in the room a brief overview of their meeting, hook-up and her freak-out when she realized the difference in their ages.
“We were friends, Stacy? We confided in each other?” he asks, and she agrees that they did. “And you ultimately took a bullet that was meant for me?” Again, she did. So, he reasons, the million-dollar flash drive — which the government can’t prove is from him — might’ve just been a way of one friend saying “thank you” to another, right? She testifies that he didn’t ask her for anything in exchange for the “alleged” million bucks, and that’s that: There are no closing arguments (so why did we see Dwight practicing at the top of the hour?), and the jury retires to deliberate.
In the hallway, Dwight finds Stacy, who is not in a good way. “Just so you know this is goodbye. I’m being transferred to Anchorage,” she informs him. He apologizes for how everything went down, but she seems unmoved. “Your life, my life, no matter what, are failures,” she says flatly.
Pretty soon, the verdict is in. Though Dwight has acted like he has complete faith that he’ll go free, he still hands Tyson his watch, jewelry and money before court is called to session (in case he gets taken into custody immediately after). But the gesture turns out to be unnecessary: Dwight is found not guilty on all 18 counts of bribery of a federal agent, and he is free to go! “Hey, give my best to Thresher,” Manfredi tells the U.S. Attorney before leaving to attend his victory party at the casino.
Elsewhere in the episode:
* Thresher makes contact with Armand, who’s still in a huge financial hole that’s only about to get bigger: He’s agreed to give his wife whatever she wants in their divorce. So when Cal hands him $3,000 — “Who knows?” Thresher remarks, “Maybe one day, you’ll help me.” — Armand thinks he’s gotten extremely lucky. The windfall helps him make his late $10K payment to Dwight, though he lies and says the money is from a lucky bet.
* Bevilaqua and his associate, Carl, visit Dwight to demand that he fall in line under their organization while he’s in Tulsa, which they claim is under control of the Kansas City mob. Dwight disagrees, so Bevilaqua says he’ll send Carl back with another offer in a few days. All along, and thanks to that episode-ending phone call last week, it seems like Goodie is about to be a critical part in Dwight’s undoing. But when Carl shows up — during Dwight’s party — Goodie and Bigfoot stop him from shooting Dwight, then Goodie stabs him to death. They leave his body, wrapped in plastic, in Bevilaqua’s driveway as a message.
* Dwight and Margaret flirt, dance and spend the night together.