Landman Season 2 Finale: A Shocking Death Raises the Stakes for Billy Bob Thornton

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Landman season 2 finale.

Things turn deadly in the season 2 finale of Landman.

In the penultimate episode, Ariana (Paulina Chávez) was assaulted in the alley behind The Patch, where she works as a bartender, by former patron Johnny (Mike Harkins). His attempt to rape her was cut short by the arrival of Cooper (Jacob Lofland), who then beat Johnny unconscious before the police arrived.

After convincing Ariana to go to the police and report the assault, Cooper was pulled in for questioning. Authorities then revealed that he punched Johnny 17 times — and that Johnny died at the hospital afterwards.

Ariana, luckily, had the foresight to get Rebecca (Kayla Wallace) involved and she arrived at the sheriff’s station within minutes to defend Cooper, proudly declaring herself a “life ruiner” who would hold nothing back should the case go to court.

At that point, Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton) was aware of what was going on, thanks to a heads up from Rebecca, who advised him to put in a word with any of his law enforcement friends as Cooper was facing a potential murder charge.

He put his own call in to his friend, Sheriff Walt (Mark Collie), and later stopped by the sheriff’s office to put the case to bed.

A call to the hospital had revealed that Johnny died after suffering a heart attack, and Tommy called out the officials for “siding with a rapist” when they claimed the heart attack was a result of Cooper’s attack.

“Maybe he would’ve died from a heart attack raping my future daughter-in-law,” Tommy offered. “A widow with a 7-month-old.”

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He then said that had he been in Cooper’s shoes, that “the son of a bitch wouldn’t have seen the inside of the ER … it would’ve been straight to the f—ing morgue with that piece of s—.”

“How about only one person got their life ruined today?” Tommy suggested. “No telling how much therapy this girl’s gonna need once she heals up from her broken nose and her separated ribs and her concussion.”

His next threat was to call the press, naming CBS and ABC, and tell them what happened, warning the police station about the onslaught of public attention such a case would bring — and the sympathy for Ariana that would ensue.

Walt took Tommy’s side, as he told the police to “just go with the heart attack, clean this whole thing up for everybody.” The police chief confirmed that no charges had been officially filed, and once Walt said that the county was fine to drop any charges against Cooper, they were all in agreement.

Tommy then paid Ariana and Cooper a visit, where he assured Ariana that the murder charge was taken care of, and then told Cooper the same.

When Cooper said that he went too far in his attack on Johnny, “past the point of defending” Ariana, Tommy got serious and told his son, “Don’t ever say that again. Don’t say it to Ariana, don’t say it to anybody.”

The season 2 finale of Landman is now streaming on Paramount+.