In the second episode of Tulsa King, entitled "Center of the Universe," Dwight Manfredi learns that he is anything but the world's focal point. Directed by Allen Coulter (who also helmed the series premiere), this week's installment sees Dwight reflect deeply, and painfully, on his past - while being forced to confront his own irrelevance.
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It's a meditation on fatherhood, sacrifice and hero worship, and Sylvester Stallone's own legacy is a meta-textual element that makes the performance that much richer.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for 'Tulsa King' Episode 2, "Center of the Universe."
Center of the Universe
The episode opens on a bespectacled, off-duty Dwight sitting at a laptop in his hotel room. He's found his daughter Tina's information on a public records database. She's 32 years old, married and living in New York City. Dwight hits a paywall (relatable) when he tries to access her phone number. He doesn't have a credit card, of course. The first rule of mob life: Never leave a paper trail. Not so easily followed in a world gone cashless.
Meanwhile, Stacy (Andrea Savage) calls up gal pal and sister-in-criminal-justice Agent Anne Gibson, played by Nicole Shalhoub (Evil, The Good Fight), for a deeper look into Dwight's criminal record. (Who doesn't Google a prospective boyfriend?) She learns that he's a longtime member of the Sicilian Mafia (the "Cosa nostra"), and that his extensive wrap sheet "goes back to before The Beatles." A fair amount of baggage here. He murdered a man called "Ripple." That's probably the mob-ordered killing that landed Dwight in prison. He also killed a man while serving his 25-year sentence, but it was in self-defense. Maybe too much baggage. Stacy takes heart in the fact that the authorities tried to get Dwight to turn state's evidence six times, but he never budged. "At least he's got some integrity," she says.
Later on, we get a peek inside Stacy's private life, and the view isn't so rosy. She's been separated from her husband, Edward, for over a year, and he's dating someone else. Stacy tells her therapist - a cardiganed, Spalding Gray type played by Frank Wood (Joker) - about her date with old guy/criminal Dwight. She doesn't plan on seeing him again. "Good," her therapist responds.
Dwight is kicking around downtown when he comes across the so-called Center of the Universe (title drop!), a real-life spot in Tulsa with strange acoustic properties. It's basically a gray circle on the pavement surrounded by low concrete walls. A homeless woman tells Dwight that if he stands in the center of the circle and speaks, no one outside the circle will hear him. "People talk to God in there," she says. Dwight gives it a try. His voice echoes, but the woman can't hear him. He steps out of the circle and offers her some cash, but she refuses his "scuzzy money." (At this point, Dwight desperately needs a new catchphrase. "Cash is king" is just not working out for the guy.)
Speaking of dirty money, back in New York, Chickie's counting cash in the backroom of a laundromat. Vinny, the capo that Dwight knocked out last week, is back from the hospital with a broken jaw. Accordingly, he wants Dwight dead. Chickie warns him that Dwight is his father's longtime friend, but he promises to speak to the boss about how to settle the score between the two.
"I Like Ike"
Things are heating up around Dwight in Tulsa, too. A hay wagon pulls into the front gate of Fennario Ranch, where we see Armand "Manny" Truisi, played by Max Casella (aka The Sopranos' Benny Fazio). Manny appeared only briefly in last week's episode as a mystery Italian who, after spotting Dwight in Tulsa, made a desperate-sounding phone call to someone.
This week, we learn that someone is a man named Eddie. We don't see his face, but he calls Manny to confirm that "Ike" is indeed in Tulsa. (Dwight was named after President "Ike" Eisenhower.) Manny has a mini-meltdown. He thinks Dwight's in town for the sole purpose of killing him. These Mafia men and their egos...
Meanwhile, cold-blooded killer Dwight is just trying to adapt to the vagaries of the twenty-first century. He heads to the bank (with Tyson in tow) to open a debit card, but his ID expired in 1998. No dice. "That's why people break the law," he says. "Because they make everything legitimate so friggin' complicated."
We cut to the Department of Public Safety, where Dwight is taking a written exam in order to get a new driver's license. He passes the test (after strong-arming a teenage boy into flashing him the answers), and he can't help but turn sideways, mugshot-style, while having his license photo taken.
Back at the bank, Dwight uses his newly-issued learner's permit to open a debit card. It's a much-needed victory, albeit short-lived. Chickie calls to suggest Dwight pay Vinny a $100,000 "tax" to make amends. Dwight accepts, but not without some griping: "I'll send him something," he promises. "But if you hear it ticking, don't open it."
Stacy goes against doctor's orders and visits Dwight's hotel room to level with him: She's an ATF Agent, and she knows he's an ex-Mafia capo with a murder conviction. When that doesn't thoroughly sting him, she asks what his daughter thinks of his being in Tulsa. Dwight responds that he hasn't seen Tina, or the rest of his family, in 18 years: "It was hard for her to see me all locked-up. She was only a kid. So I said, 'Don't come back no more.' Save her the pain."
There's nothing left for him in New York. Stacy's playing bad cop, but it's obvious she has a soft spot for Dwight. Before she leaves, she warns him that if he gets caught up in Tulsa, there's nothing she can do to help.
The next day, Tyson's washing the Navigator in his parents' driveway, and we meet his father, Mark, played by Taylor Sheridan alumni Michael Beach (Mayor of Kingstown). Mark is a plumber - blue-collar and honest - and he'd rather Tyson go to college than cart around a criminal all day. "John Lewis didn't get his head broke on the Edmund Pettus Bridge so you could spit shine some gangster's Lincoln," he says. Tyson jokes at first ("He did it so you can unclog them white folks' toilets"), but then assures his father that he can learn a lot from a businessman like Dwight.
Jimmy "The Creek"
It's road trip time. Dwight, Bodhi, and Tyson drive to Bodhi's supplier, Jimmy "The Creek" (played by Outlander's Glen Gould), to negotiate a better deal. They're greeted at the marijuana farm by Jimmy's menacing cousin, Badface, played by Jonathan Joss (The Magnificent Seven). He and Dwight get off on the wrong foot, to put it mildly. Badface calls him a wasi'chu, and Bodhi provides the translation: a "greedy, non-Indian person who steals the fat." Jimmy runs out, intervening with a, uh, peace offering. Dwight politely declines. He wants to keep a clear head for the negotiations.
Inside the main house, Bodhi and Tyson sit on a sofa drinking herbal tea and Dwight enjoys some crackers and apricot preserve. The negotiations are going nowhere. Jimmy says they won't get a better price from any other grower, and he offers some measly concessions: A few free cases of CBD gummies and "Rapture Patch personal lubricant."
But Dwight calls his bluff, and we see his business acumen (and his penchant for theatrics) in full force. Jimmy's operation is much larger than he let on. Dwight guesses the farm covers at least 500 acres, and he's been overcharging Bodhi for the dregs: "You wanna sell me bruised fruit from your bumper crop and I'm supposed to be touched by your generosity?"
He gets Jimmy down to almost half the original price, to Bodhi's amazement. They shake on it, although Dwight wishes they would "smoke the peace pipe." Before they leave, Jimmy tells him the apricot preserve he's been scarfing down is heavily infused with THC. "I was wondering why I was feeling so good," Dwight laughs.
The Mick
On the car ride back, Dwight is in rare form. The Allman Brothers' Statesboro Blues comes on the radio, and Dwight asks Tyson to turn it up. Smoking a joint, Dwight says he feels like Rip Van Winkle: "You wake up after 25 years. GM has gone electric. A phone is a camera. Coffee! Five bucks a cup! And the Stones, bless their heart, they're still on tour." He rails against the current generation and declares his confusion over pronouns.
But it's clear that Dwight's fist-shaking grandpa righteousness comes more from a fear of his own obsolescence than from any political convictions. He's all for change, he says, "But somebody keeps moving the goalpost." He's out of prison, but he hasn't seen his daughter. He did 25 years in the clink without squealing, but he wasn't given Brooklyn or Queens as a reward. Instead, he was banished to Tulsa. Dwight still hasn't left the school of hard knocks - heck, even the guy's one-night-stand turned out to be an agent. He's fabulously unlucky.
In his weed-fueled sentimentality, Dwight insists they stop at Mickey Mantle's childhood home. The legendary baseball player was Dwight's hero growing up. He asks the guys who their heroes are. Tyson's is Muhammad Ali, and Bodhi's is, predictably, Elon Musk. "What about your fathers?" Dwight asks.
Fathers and Sons
At long last, we return to the Bred 2 Buck Saloon, where Dwight and Mitch (Garrett Hedlund) have a heart-to-heart about their daddy issues (it's in the water this episode). Mitch is at his wit's end with his borderline-senile father; he plans on putting him in a veteran's home.
Dwight is fighting a fair amount of filial guilt himself. Growing up, he was embarrassed by his immigrant father, who barely spoke English. He tells Mitch about the time he and his friends were playing stickball in the yard, and a baseball hit his father in the chest. His father's instinct was to kick it, not catch it. It's understandable: Soccer is king in Italy. "You try telling that to an 11-year-old stupid kid who worshipped Mickey Mantle," Dwight says. Like Tyson and Bodhi, Dwight was looking for heroes in all the wrong places.
Back at the Fennario Ranch, Manny calls the Mayo Hotel and learns that Dwight is indeed staying in Tulsa. A look of sheer terror crosses his face.
The next morning, Dwight receives his debit card in the mail, and it's off to the public records database. He gets past the paywall and calls Tina's home. Her husband, Emory, pick up, shocked to hear from Tina's father. Dwight can hear their children in the background, and he pleads with Emory to put Tina on. She finally comes to the phone: "You wanted to hear my voice. There. You happy?" Dwight asks to see her, and she hangs up.
That evening, Dwight heads back to the Center of the Universe to ease his conscience. Standing in the center, with no one around, he tells the truth about why he and Tina are estranged: He couldn't bear her visits in prison. "I stopped seeing her because it was too hard on me," he says, tearing up. "I love you. I quit on you. And I'm sorry." Oof.
As it stands, Dwight has a few key allies in Tulsa. So if it comes to blows with Manny Truisi, "The General" has some muscle in his corner. All bets are on Mitch getting his hands dirty for a cause; he's been in prison, and he knows the ropes. Tyson and Bodhi are less valuable than Mitch, but competent enough to carry out orders. And Stacy? She talks a big game, but she's already broken the rules once by accessing Dwight's files. Odds are she's willing to do some more extra-legal work in the future. After all, Dwight is her "Rubicon."
New episodes of Tulsa King stream Sundays at 8pm CT / 9pm ET exclusively on Paramount+.
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