‘Landman’ Season 2, Episode 5: Ending Defined

On Landman, Cooper Norris (Jacob Lofland) has a knack for making impulsive choices.

In season 2, episode 5, Ariana (Paulina Chávez) pushes Cooper towards marriage, suggesting they cease “shacking up.” He doesn’t have second ideas — though maybe he ought to, contemplating Ariana’s ongoing grief over her late husband.

“He simply needs to make [Ariana] completely happy. That’s all he has wished from the start,” Lofland defined throughout an interview with Decider in December 2025. “He’s bought a lot respect for her. He’s going to do no matter she says.”

Later within the episode, Cooper meets along with his father, Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton), who brings him crashing again to actuality with some arduous truths concerning the oil enterprise. Tommy lays out why Cooper’s cope with Gallino (Andy Garcia) was a foul transfer — after which affords a means out that spares him from monetary destroy.

“Cooper’s studying. He thinks he struck gold; he thinks it’s superior,” Lofland instructed the outlet. “He comes to search out out that possibly it isn’t so superior. Now he’ll have to begin backing up and go, ‘Nicely, possibly we don’t have to make these choices so quick.’ ”

So, what occurred in season 2, episode 5 of Landman? Right here’s a breakdown of every thing that occurs, from Cooper and Ariana’s marriage plans to Cami’s resolution to associate with Gallino.

Why does Tommy rent Cooper?

Throughout breakfast at The Patch Cafe, Tommy lays out a tough reality for Cooper: placing oil is just one piece of working a profitable enterprise. He factors out that Cooper by no means shaped an LLC or introduced in an accounting agency to handle debt and payables.

“You do not know how this enterprise works, you suppose you do, however you do not,” Tommy says, earlier than outlining a plan for Cooper to stroll away from his partnership with cartel boss Gallino. “M-Tex goes to purchase your leases. We’ll cancel the notice and canopy your prices.”

Recognizing Cooper’s drive to make it within the oil enterprise, Tommy then affords him a job as a landman for M-Tex.

“A landman makes $9,000 a month plus bonus,” Tommy continues. “Now, after I present you ways this deal works, together with your instincts, you make $9,000 a minute, however you gotta know the principles of the sport to bend them, and you actually gotta know them to interrupt them.”

Begrudgingly, Copper accepts the job.

Why does Alan recommend M-Tex file for chapter?

Cami Miller (Demi Moore) believed she had averted a lawsuit with M-Tex’s insurance coverage supplier, Blanton. Nonetheless, the corporate reversed course, issuing a 45-day deadline to start redrilling the Louisiana offshore properly that blew out.

Monty Miller’s (Jon Hamm) longtime private legal professional, Alan Thomas (Jim Meskimen), then delivers one other blow, revealing that the $400 million insurance coverage settlement paid to Monty in full was funneled into M Miller Insurance coverage and Casualty — a C-corp Monty established to keep away from earnings tax.

Alan additional explains that the $400 million is now tied up throughout a number of non-public fairness funds, making it practically inconceivable to entry with out main penalties.

“I would prefer to current an answer. M-Tex and its subsidiaries file for chapter,” he says. “[Cami] information for Chapter 11. The planes return to the financial institution. [M Miller Insurance and Casualty] buys them proper again once more. The debt is wiped fully clear. Then, you are within the insurance coverage enterprise.”

However pursuing that choice would come at a steep price: M-Tex would forfeit all of its land leases — and successfully stop to exist.

Does Cami settle for Gallino’s mortgage?

After the assembly with Alan, Tommy speaks with Cami privately and divulges that M-Tex has ties to a cartel. He explains that the corporate as soon as bought mineral rights at public sale, solely to find the land belonged to a cartel working in Mexico.

Tommy tells her that when negotiations unraveled, the scenario practically price him his life — till the cartel’s boss, Gallino, stepped in. He warns Cami towards accepting the $400 million Gallino has supplied for the Louisiana oil rig.

“Now, the FBI, they could discover a technique to forgive us for leasing their minerals, however a $400 million mortgage? We appear to be the engine of their cash laundering machine,” Tommy says.

Unwilling to contemplate chapter — and reasoning that M-Tex is already doing enterprise with Gallino — Cami tells Tommy she plans to maneuver ahead with the mortgage.

“I cannot lose the corporate my husband began in our storage eight weeks after taking it over,” she says. “I am not gonna declare chapter, and I am not going to let some insurance coverage firm sue away from me. The supply that [Gallino] made is an efficient one, and I am accepting it.”

Are Cooper and Ariana getting married?

Ariana raises the concept of marriage with Cooper, explaining that Catholics don’t “shack up” with their boyfriends. Cooper is straight away on board, however Ariana tells him there’s one situation: He has to ask her father for her hand first.

That sends Cooper on a solo, hours-long drive to Corpus Christi to fulfill her mother and father. He’s met with skepticism by Ariana’s father, who however invitations him inside for a beer.

“I’m in love together with your daughter, and he or she says she’s in love with me. I would prefer to ask her to marry me, and I’d like your permission,” Cooper tells Carlos Barrera (Gabriel Rodriguez).

Ariana’s father responds, “She’s a grown girl. You don’t want my permission. She is aware of that. She simply wished to see in the event you’d do it. Guess you handed the take a look at.”

The dialog ends with a warning from Mr. Barrera, who tells Cooper that if he ever lays a hand on Ariana, he’ll kill him. He then invitations Cooper to remain the evening, slightly than make the lengthy drive again to the Texas Basin.