The Tulsa King Season 2 finale isn’t a finale — it’s an epilogue. Season 2, Episode 10, “Reconstruction,” has very little of the impact that viewers expect from TV season finales. Instead, the Paramount+ show calmly moves from place to place, summing up its various storylines, and relies largely on a cliffhanger to draw viewers back for a potential Season 3.
“Reconstruction” follows Dwight Manfredi and his crew as they plan for their future, both professionally and personally. The characters who had once been serious threats to said future largely fade away. And while one person doesn’t survive the episode, “Reconstruction” is a slow end to a season that started just as quietly, losing the momentum that was built in between.
Tulsa King Season 2 Finale Struggles Without Conflict
Dwight Faces Very Little Opposition in Episode 10
Tulsa King’s decision to eliminate Jackie Ming in Season 2, Episode 9, “Triad” renders Episode 10 largely inert. Ming’s former business partner Cal Thresher, once painted as the scheming, cunning rival to Dwight in both business and romance, simply walks away — literally — after a “negotiation” with Dwight about his marijuana farm that has no real tension in it. The other major antagonist of Season 2, Bill Bevilaqua, does better because he helps tie up the show’s biggest loose end, but he too just settles with Dwight and walks out of the Bred 2 Buck. And Chickie shows up, but he just does the yelling he always does.
The second season got off to a slow start because Season 2, Episode 1, “Back in the Saddle” was just 42 minutes of how great Dwight was. That same problem exists in “Reconstruction.” It’s just Dwight and his team getting what they want, over and over again. Dwight tells Thresher he’s taking over the business and after some arguing, Thresher gives up and says he never much cared for the business anyway. Remember that this was someone established as an incredibly powerful businessman in Tulsa. Elsewhere, Mitch officially signs the paperwork to take over Donnie Shore’s car dealership. Armand gets his job back at Fennario Ranch after another pretty quick conversation. Ahanu reaches a deal with Dwight to enter into a partnership, too. It all comes together too easily.
At no point is there ever a serious threat to Dwight’s safety or his businesses, until the cliffhanger ending in which Dwight is taken out of bed and into custody by masked men. It’s as if the season ended with Episode 9, and the writers are using Episode 10 to look ahead to Tulsa King Season 3 — including said cliffhanger. Season finales are meant to be some of the biggest episodes in a TV show, in which everything comes to a head and characters have great development. This one just feels like stretching out a story that ended up short.
Tulsa King Season 2, Episode 10 Bids Farewell to Chickie
The Character Had Clearly Run His Course
The biggest moment of Tulsa King Season 2, Episode 10 is that Chickie dies — yet it’s a relatively quick scene and one that the audience likely saw coming. Not only had Chickie been on the outs with his New York crew for some time, but he no longer added anything to the show, either. “Reconstruction” is an example of that; he just shows up and complains and yells again. Chickie tries to appeal to Bill, and then when the two show up at the Bred 2 Buck, Bill unceremoniously shoots Chickie in the side of the head. Dwight tells Bill that he “earned” his fifty percent after that.
Bill Bevilaqua (to Dwight): I was here long before you. I’m gonna be here after.
Visually, it’s surprising to see Chickie just randomly die in mid-conversation. But because it’s random, it doesn’t have as much impact on the audience as it could. He doesn’t go down after trying to kill Dwight or after one last massive confrontation. The two have an argument in the back office at Higher Plane, but that’s just more of the same old song. The only positive here is that it’s Tulsa King getting rid of a plotline it doesn’t need. After Dwight had established himself in Tulsa, Chickie had less and less relevance, being in a complete other state from where the main story was taking place. He also never really grew as a character so there was no reason to care about his fate.
His death does beg the question: if there is a Season 3, will New York be in it at all? Or now that Vince is in charge and seems copacetic with Dwight, will the writers retool the show to focus solely on Tulsa? The latter would be more efficient, but it would mean making a few changes and likely bumping actor Vincent Piazza (who plays Vince) out of the main cast.
Episode 10 Feels Like a Tease for Tulsa King Season 3
The Season 2 Finale Lacks Meaningful Character Development
The final minutes of Tulsa King Season 2 see Dwight in handcuffs, escorted into an unknown facility by two men in black, who ominously tell him “You work for us now.” The one suggestion about their identity comes from a quick scene in which an FBI agent says that Washington has requested all their information on Dwight Manfredi — which comes out of nowhere for both the Bureau and the audience. It would have been better to lay some pipe for this idea, because assuming that it is the FBI who arrested Dwight, what does that storyline offer that viewers didn’t get at the end of Season 1? He’s going to be in more trouble with the federal government, just a different agency.
There’s little character development for the rest of Dwight’s crew. Tyson Mitchell’s storyline transforming into a true gangster also seems to have ended in Episode 9, as he’s a non-factor in Episode 10. Tina Manfredi doesn’t appear at all, since she was sent back to New York, while it’s still hard to care about Joanne Manfredi’s business ideas for Higher Plane.
Goodie is mostly sitting on the sideline. There’s a fun scene for Garrett Hedlund when Mitch unveils his first commercial for the car dealership, but the laughs don’t make up for the relative lack of action. And having Dwight give a big speech to the whole assembled crew near episode’s end feels almost like an explainer to the audience about where the whole series stands.
Tulsa King Season 2, Episode 10 is more like a postscript to what already happened with a tease for next season, instead of a proper season finale. It’s too relatively quiet and it’s certainly too easy. There’s nothing wrong with Dwight ending the season on a win. Given that the last season didn’t conclude well for him, it’s a fair change of pace. But there’s so much more that could’ve been done with the episode, since it had not one but three characters who’d been in opposition to Dwight at some point. There could have been more conflict, there could have been more action, there’s even room for some emotion. For example, what about a phone call from Dwight to his daughter, just checking in on her and reminding the audience that this victory came at the cost of that relationship?
Tulsa King Season 2 is now streaming on Paramount+.