Western Romance
‘Landman’ Finally Proves Why Tommy & Angela Are Meant To Be
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Landman Season 1 finale.]
No amount of immaculately served paella or acrobatic sex is going to ever make Tommy Norris a romantic. When times get tough, Billy Bob Thornton’s character in Paramount+’s Landman is the first to call up his ex-wife and current partner Angela (Ali Larter) just to say he loves her. But that’s about all the romance you are going to get out of the guy.
It’s just one of the many reasons why Tommy and Angela are the proverbial oil and water that should never go together. He is content living a life working the endless oil fields of West Texas, and she lives life like she is riding a mechanical bull — hard, fast, and easily thrown off course. And yet, their rekindled relationship has become one of the more stable parts of Tommy’s life as the first season ends. No, that isn’t a compliment to their strengths as a couple because, let’s face it, they have been volatile at best since reuniting while she was still married to another man. Rather, it is an acknowledgment that everything else in Tommy’s life has taken a turn for the severe in the final episodes of the season.
In this week’s season finale, he is reluctantly promoted to president of M-Tex after the apparent death of his boss and friend Monty (Jon Hamm). But the spiffy new title doesn’t protect him from being kidnapped and tortured by the drug cartel with whom he’s been locking horns all season. By the end of the episode, he’s barely holding himself together after having a nail driven into his leg, his body is doused in gasoline, and more than a few bones in his hand are introduced to the wrong end of a hammer. And yet, when he arrives home to a horrified Angela, he says he can’t tell her about any of it, choosing instead to offer something that cuts deeper than flesh wounds.
Ryan Green / Paramount+
“My whole life passed before my eyes, and all I saw was you,” he says to his lady, between groans from the many bruises and wounds littering his body. It’s short, it’s sweet, and Angela recognizes the significance of it immediately. It’s Tommy’s version of a grand romantic gesture.
These two are never going to be on the same page. In some ways, the lifeblood of their relationship lies in the constant work they put in to find some middle ground, and this is what that looks like. With the congealed paste of his blood and gasoline still caked on his face, it’s all he can do to muster those words, and it’s all she needs to hear to feel some comfort and reassurance in spite of everything, before she starts throwing blueberry pancakes at the situation.
This moment between them, perhaps the lowest decibel at which they’ve ever communicated, comes at just the right moment in the series, too. Of all the outlandish things that happened in the Taylor Sheridan-written first season — from strip club visits for the elderly to cringeworthy father-daughter conversations — the romance between Tommy and Angela was perhaps the one thing the show needed to justify the most. Not because of their age difference, which, if you haven’t heard, is the hot thing right now. But rather because these two people are vastly different in almost every way. They shouldn’t work, and not explicitly showing the audience why they are the exception to the rule can get tiring.
Let’s not forget, Tommy and Angela were already married once and it failed. So, what’s changed? Well, for one, time. With their kids grown up and a few decades of life lived apart, absence does make the heart grow fonder. Previously, their polar opposites were not a good match. But as they’ve gotten older, the hesitations of youth give way to the brutal honesty of experience. Today, they call out the problems in their relationship rather than patching over them with sex and food. In the penultimate episode, Angela’s increasingly elaborate family dinners spiraled into a confrontation about how her paella may be perfect, but she didn’t make it just out of love. She made it to feel appreciated, something that Tommy can certainly show in his own way but doesn’t want to be forced into expressing. Expecting love and truly offering it aren’t the same thing, she learned.
But on Tommy’s end, his lacking love literacy is still a work in progress as well, especially as he stares mortality right in the face. Usually unflappable to life’s curveballs, Tommy has undoubtedly been shaken by the one-two punch of Monty’s death and his maiming at the hands of the cartel. If it hadn’t been for Andy García’s cartel leader, who simultaneously saved Tommy and backed him into an precarious new partnership, the titular Landman probably wouldn’t have made it home for any more paella dinners. Don’t underestimate what experiencing death or something like can do to stripping away all the frivolousness of life and leave you appreciating with what matters most.
Does this mean Tommy Norris could lean into the role of a romantic leading man? Let’s not get too crazy. For now, this is still the man who can negotiate multi-million dollar oil rights on thousands of acres of land with his eyes closed and a few Miller Lights in his system. He’s mastered the art of being the landman by being the one who’s in control. That’s why Angela may be the best thing that’s ever happened to him — again. Despite being a bucking bronco herself, she provides something tangible to anchor him down as things begin to spiral out of control. With her, he’s along for the ride, and she’s given Tommy plenty of practice in holding on for dear life.
Do you think Tommy and Angela are meant to be? Vote and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
