James Oconner 
Anil Krishna 
Jonathan Millar 
Tulsa King Season 4 Episode 1 Recap: Dwight’s World Falls Apart After a Shocking Plane Crash
© Paramount+
Tulsa King is back, and Dwight Manfredi is already finding out that running a legitimate business doesn’t mean he can leave his old life behind. The Season 4 Episode 1, “W.W.D.D.,” starts with Dwight trying to make Friedman Enterprises look like a proper business, but his crew still has a habit of getting into trouble. There are new enemies to worry about, old mob rivalries are getting uglier, and then the episode throws in a tragedy that could change everything for Dwight. Whatever plans he had for a quieter life in Tulsa, they don’t look very realistic anymore.
The Crew Has New Ways to Make Money, but Tyson Makes a Mess of Things
The episode’s title stands for “What Would Dwight Do?”, which is the question Goodie wants the crew to ask themselves before making a move. Not everyone seems interested in following that advice, though. Mitch has found a way to turn a used car dealership into an insurance fraud operation, with help from junkyards and people inside the DMV, while Bodhi keeps the weed shop running. The younger guys, meanwhile, are getting a little too confident.
Tyson is the biggest problem here. Goodie wants him to talk things out with Santiago, a dealer who could become a useful contact, but Tyson apparently thinks he knows better. He and Spencer decide to break into Santiago’s safe instead, and the plan goes about as badly as you’d expect. When a bag spills during the robbery, Tyson ends up shooting Santiago. It’s a pretty serious mistake, and the trouble doesn’t end with the shooting. At the hospital, Santiago gets a visit from a well-dressed British man who’s clearly not someone to mess with. He’s looking for the missing drugs, and Tyson has just given him a very good reason to come after the crew.
Quiet Ray Makes Sure Everyone Knows Who’s in Charge
While Dwight is trying to grow his business in Tulsa, things in New York are getting nasty under Quiet Ray, who’s taken control of what’s left of the Invernizzi crime family. Ray doesn’t seem particularly interested in making people comfortable with the new arrangement. During a mob sit-down, he pulls a severed head out of a bowling bag to make his point. Subtlety clearly isn’t his thing.
Dwight and Ray eventually work out a territorial deal that lets Dwight expand his liquor business into the Northeast, but it’s hard to imagine either man walking away from that meeting feeling good about the other. They have an agreement, sure, but trust is another matter entirely. Ray sends someone to Tulsa to keep tabs on Dwight, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about how secure this arrangement really is. Bill is also busy looking after his own interests and playing both sides, so the mob politics are already a mess before the season has properly got going.
Who Is Leonardo Timpone, and What Happened to the Plane?
The episode’s most disturbing storyline starts with a man calling himself Leonardo Timpone. Dwight and Margaret encounter him at an expensive restaurant, where he appears to be a waiter with a rather suspicious Italian accent. It’s a strange little moment, and it becomes harder to ignore when Timpone later turns up at the Bred-2-Buck with a case of very expensive wine. Bodhi has a bad feeling about the delivery, and honestly, he probably should have trusted it. The wine is accepted and served, and not long afterward Margaret and Thresher head off on a private plane with their pilots. Then everything goes horribly wrong. The aircraft suffers a catastrophic failure and crashes, leaving Margaret and Thresher presumed dead.
It’s a brutal turn at the end of an episode that had already introduced several reasons for Dwight to worry. The strange wine delivery makes the whole thing feel even more suspicious, although the premiere doesn’t fully explain what Timpone is up to or exactly how the crash happened. For now, there’s a lot left unanswered, and Dwight is about to have much bigger problems than a business deal gone wrong.
What the Season 4 Premiere Means for Dwight
If Margaret is indeed gone, Dwight has lost someone important just as he’s been trying to build a life that doesn’t revolve entirely around crime. Her presumed death, along with the apparent loss of Thresher, could push him right back toward the kind of violence he’s been trying to keep at a distance. And he has plenty of other problems waiting for him. Tyson’s botched robbery has put the crew on the radar of a dangerous British criminal, while Quiet Ray is already making moves to keep Dwight under control from across the country. The legitimate-business plan is still there on paper, but it’s getting harder to see how Dwight can protect it while everyone around him keeps creating new enemies.
The premiere leaves Dwight in a terrible position, and the timing couldn’t be worse. He has a crew that doesn’t always listen, rivals who don’t trust him, and a potentially devastating personal loss to deal with. If this is how Season 4 begins, the General may not have much choice but to return to the life he was hoping to leave behind.
About the Author
