In Tulsa King, Dwight “The General” Manfredi isn’t quick to needless violence, but one of the most shocking moments of season 1 caused fans to wonder why did Dwight kill Nico “The Package” Bugliosi, a fellow mobster. Dwight has been estranged from his daughter since he stopped calling her from prison, and Dwight and Tina’s first reunion at the funeral of Dwight’s brother Joey didn’t go well for Dwight. However, when Dwight confronts Tina at her flower shop in New York, Dwight gets an even harsher dose of reality when Tina inadvertently reveals a horrible past event involving Nico.
While “Token Joe” is the first time Tina appears alongside the Tulsa King cast, Tina didn’t need an introduction for viewers to recognize that she’s Dwight’s daughter, as she’d been heavily discussed in the show, with hints of the deep trauma she experienced due to Dwight’s absence. When Dwight admitted to himself that he stopped seeing and calling his daughter from prison for himself and not for her, audiences rightly expected a tense reunion between father and daughter somewhere down the line. However, Tulsa King pulled a horrifying twist by revealing that there’s something more to Tina’s trauma than her father’s largely unexplained absence from her life.
Why Dwight Killed Nico In Tulsa King
Though Tina never explicitly said it, the implication of the tense conversation between her and Dwight at her flower shop is that the Tulsa King Nico incident was that he sexually assaulted Tina when she was young, while Dwight was in prison and unable to protect her. After Dwight got Pete Invernizzi to promise to look after his family while he was in the joint, Dwight Manfredi’s books in prison kept him company, and Dwight was able to pass the time in the relative solace of knowing that his mafia family was protecting his wife and kid outside of prison walls. As a fellow made man, Nico betrayed Dwight in the worst way possible, and he basically left Dwight no other recourse except brutal and definitive retaliation.
Tina being clearly traumatized was all the evidence that Dwight needed to confirm that he was justified in killing Nico in front of made men without due process. Notably, everyone who witnessed Dwight manhandle Nico to death didn’t intervene when they realized that Dwight intended to kill Nico on the spot, even Vince Antonacci who was still eager to pick a fight with Dwight. Apart from setting up the future of Dwight and Tina’s relationship, this scene also shows Dwight’s real status in the organization, and how the New York mafia’s code of honor works in Tulsa King. Like the boss, Pete, it’s likely that these men were also unaware of what Nico did to Dwight’s daughter Tina, but they nonetheless stepped back out of deference to Dwight.
Why Nico Bugliosi Aka “The Package” Looks So Familiar
The actor who played Nico Bugliosi is named John Cenatiempo, a screen veteran known for his roles in Sopranos, The Irishman, American Gangster, and several other crime films and series. Cenatiempo has made a career out of playing the bad guy, beginning in the early ’90s in films like Street Hunter, The Last Boy Scout, and Lethal Weapon 3, in which Cenatiempo’s character Smitty dies by getting knocked out and drowned in wet cement. Similar to Sylvester Stallone’s Dwight “The General” Manfredi throwing haymakers like a boss, John Cenatiempo’s Nico “The Package” Bugliosi dying a brutal death is Tulsa King paying homage to old school action films.
Tina not even being able to say what Nico did shows how Tulsa King borrows from reality, which, to be fair, was executed in a sensitive manner. Dwight brutally slaying Nico immediately after finding out about what he did also served as a small catharsis for audiences who were just introduced to Tina. Finally, as John Cenatiempo’s Nico taught viewers of Tulsa King the hard way, in any crime and drama series, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on characters content with being in the background.
How Nico’s Actions Set Up Season 2
While the Tulsa King Nico incident seems to have been resolved with Dwight killing him, it could be that those actions have unexpected repercussions in the story to come. Dwight already had a tense relationship with the rest of the mob family after he was released but the killing of Nico effectively makes him and enemy to Chickie who he wants to take out. It also puts Tina in danger of retaliation as Chickie proved he was willing to target her indirectly by assaulting her boyfriend.
However, it could be that Chickie uses the death of Nico to his advantage in taking down Dwight. The Tulsa King season 1 cliffhanger ending found Dwight under arrest from the ATF. It is possible that Chickie will decide having Dwight behind bars is safe enough and bring the fact that he killed Nico to the authorities. While ratting out a fellow mobster is a high crime in the mafia world, Chickie has proven himself a ruthless operator who doesn’t seem to have a line that he won’t cross.