Summary
- The new villains in season 2 of “Tulsa King”, Cal Thresher and Bill Bevilaqua, could surpass the previous villains Caolan Waltrip and Black Macadams.
- Thresher and Bevilaqua are unique cowboy gangster villains who will challenge Dwight’s criminal empire in Tulsa.
- Adding compelling villains in Season 2 increases the series’ tension and plot, promising a bigger and better season.
The new villains are introduced in Tulsa King Season 2 already looks interesting and I am convinced that they will be better than Caolan Waltrip and the Black Macadams. Tulsa King Season 2 will pick up the story of Dwight Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone) as he continues his takeover of Tulsa, Oklahoma. While the new trailer for Tulsa King Season 2 shows that Dwight’s criminal empire will definitely grow. It won’t be easy. In the coming season, he will have new competition and these new villains make me very excited about the series.
In Tulsa King Season 1 had Dwight quite a few enemies. First, he had to deal with Chickie and the Invernizzi family, who banished him to Tulsa and eventually tried to take him out. Dwight also caught the attention of Stacy Beale and the ATF, both of whom tried to stop his illegal activities. While these two enemies appear to be returning to Tulsa King Season 2, one is not: Caolan Waltrip and the Black Macadams. Tulsa KingThe new villains replace the biker gang and I feel like they’re already proving they could be an improvement.
Cal Thresher and Bill Bevilaqua seem to be convincing villains for season 2 of “Tulsa King”
Since the death of Caolan Waltrip at the end of Tulsa King In season 1, two new villains appeared as Dwight’s opponents: Cal Thresher (Neal McDonough) and Bill Bevilaqua (Frank Grillo). Based on the trailer for Tulsa King Season 2, it looks like Thresher and Bevilaqua are members of a rival gang trying to take control of Tulsa, and they both seem to be a cross between gangsters and cowboys. Thresher is described as a ruthless businessman who enjoys wearing cowboy hats, while Bevilaqua is a Kansas City gangster who enjoys skeet shooting and horseback riding.
Tulsa King
Season 2 premieres on September 15 on Paramount+.
Aside from their unique status as a combination cowboy and gangster, there are a few other reasons why I’m so excited to see Bevilaqua and Thresher in action. For example: Thresher and Bevilaqua are almost perfect parallels to Dwight: They are all gangsters and Tulsa King Season 2 will be a battle between their western ways and Dwight’s eastern methods. Additionally, both Grillo and McDonough are great actors and both have plenty of experience playing the villain. Their acting skills, coupled with the way their characters serve as a parallel to Dwight, should make them much more convincing than Caolan Waltrip.
Caolan Waltrip and the Black Macadams were not major villains in Season 1 of “Tulsa King”
A big reason why I believe Thresher and Bevilaqua can outperform Caolan Waltrip. Tulsa KingThe reason Caolan is one of the best villains is because he just wasn’t a very good villain. Caolan himself was pretty interesting, as the way he evaded Stacy and the ATF was pretty impressive. However, Caolan didn’t really stand on his own two feet either, as everything he did was a reaction to the ATF or to Dwight’s growing power.. To me, he never seemed like anything more than a simple obstacle for Dwight. The Black Macadams were even worse than Caolan, as they could be swapped out for any biker gang without notice.
To me, Caolan Waltrip never seemed like more than a minor obstacle for Dwight to overcome.
Caolan Waltrip and the Black Macadams are not entirely to blame for not being the most interesting villain in Tulsa Kingalthough. They had to face two other (and more interesting) big enemies in Chickie and the ATF, so they just didn’t get enough screen time to really be a memorable part of Tulsa King. Caolan was only introduced in episode 3 and only appeared in a fraction of each episode after that. Although Thresher and Bevilaqua have other enemies to contend with for screen time, I still think they can use it more effectively.
The villains of the second season of “Tulsa King” could make the show even better
Although Caolan Waltrip wasn’t as great a villain as I had hoped, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like him. I thought he played an important role in Tulsa King Season 1, and this role was a big reason why it became one of my favorite shows. Tulsa King Season 1 focused primarily on Dwight and his transition from prison life in New York to running a crime empire in Tulsa. Caolan and the Black Macadams supported this narrative goal well: they offered some resistance and represented how Dwight clashed with his new environment.
Caolan Waltrip has done it Tulsa King The goal of the first season is pretty good, but Tulsa King Season 2 is a completely different story, and Cal Thresher and Bill Bevilaqua are already presenting some intriguing ideas for this new narrative. Now that Dwight is getting used to life in Tulsa, Thresher and Bevilaqua will ramp up the tension on the show and really force Dwight to adapt or die in a way that Caolan couldn’t have done.. Finding out if Dwight sticks to his old New York mafia ways or adopts some of Tulsa’s cowboy culture to meet the challenge sounds like endlessly entertaining television to me.
Tulsa King Season 2 also seems to be structured differently than season 1. Most of the tension and drama of Tulsa King Season 1 was born out of watching how Dwight was able to deal with a number of small problems at once. However, Dwight has risen above that challenge, and so has his gang. Small problems shouldn’t be a big problem anymore, so the massive threat that Thresher and Bevilaqua will likely pose should be the perfect way to raise the stakes. With these new villains and the problems they will cause, Tulsa King could be bigger and better than ever before.
