Spoiler alert: This article contains major plot details from the season two finale of Paramount+’s Landman.
The second season finale of Landman closes where it began: with Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy Norris standing under the Texas sun, face-to-face with coyotes, once again confronting the limits of control, survival, and time.
Created by Taylor Sheridan and Christian Wallace, the Paramount+ drama has never shied away from excess, and season two leaned fully into its identity. Oil deals, cartel money, family chaos, near-rape accusations, potential murder charges, ferrets, strip clubs, physical therapy sessions, and cultural flashpoints all collided in a season that often felt outrageous by design. Yet the finale, titled “Tragedy and Flies,” pulls those threads together into something unexpectedly reflective.
In the closing moments, Norris addresses a coyote much as he did at the end of season one. But the bravado is gone. Where he once told the animal to run after surviving a cartel beating, this time he speaks with restraint: “You can’t have today, bud. Today is mine.” The line follows a day in which nearly everything in Norris’ life collapses and rebuilds at once.
Earlier in the episode, Norris is fired by Cami Miller (Demi Moore), the newly widowed head of M-Tex Oil, after clashing over the company’s future. At the same time, he helps his son Cooper escape a murder charge stemming from a violent confrontation that prevented a sexual assault. The emotional center of the episode arrives in a quiet conversation with Angela (Ali Larter), Norris’ ex-wife-turned-fiancée, who grounds the chaos with brutal honesty.
“You know the time’s coming when tragedy’s going to dominate our days,” Norris admits, listing illness, aging, and loss as inevitabilities. Angela responds simply: they are winning now, and that has to be enough.
Despite the introspection, Landman never abandons its operatic instincts. Norris rebounds almost immediately, forming a new oil company, CTT Exploration, funded in part by $44 million from cartel boss Danny Morrell (Andy Garcia), formerly known as Gallino. The partnership is uneasy, with both men aware that violence and moral compromise are never far away. Garcia has already hinted that Norris may soon be forced to cross lines he’s been avoiding.
Loyalty, a recurring theme across Sheridan’s work, becomes the foundation of Norris’ rebirth. His inner circle is folded into the new company: Cooper as president, Norris as senior vice president, his father T.L. (Sam Elliott) overseeing drilling operations, and trusted allies filling executive roles. Even profit-sharing is introduced, an almost jarring gesture of collective reward in a universe usually defined by ruthless individualism.
Elsewhere, Cami Miller begins uncovering signs that her late husband’s business dealings were less clean than she believed, setting the stage for future conflict. Moore, who had a limited presence early in the series, has spoken positively about the depth of the role and Sheridan’s approach to writing female characters, leaving open the question of how central Cami will be going forward.
The finale also resolves one of the season’s most debated storylines. Paigyn, a non-binary college student portrayed by Bobbi Salvör Menuez, initially appeared to serve as a cultural lightning rod, clashing with Michelle Randolph’s Ainsley in a way that drew predictable commentary. However, the final episode subverts expectations when Ainsley defends Paigyn against homophobic harassment, reframing the arc as one about empathy rather than caricature.
As ever, Landman balances sincerity with moments that border on self-parody. Sam Elliott’s character spending late-season episodes in a flirtation-heavy physical therapy arc with a stripper-turned-therapist underscores the show’s willingness to indulge in excess, even as it reaches for emotional weight.
By the time the coyotes return in the final scene, the message is clear: survival in Landman is never permanent, only temporary. Wins are fleeting, danger is constant, and tomorrow is never guaranteed. With the series already renewed for a third season, the finale leaves Tommy Norris standing, battered but breathing, fully aware that “today” is all he can truly claim.
