NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Tulsa King season 1 episode 7, "Warr Acres."
The brewing war between Dwight Manfredi's (Sylvester Stallone) random gaggle of criminals and Caolan Waltrip's (Ritchie Coster) Black MacAdam biker gang has been heating up over the last few episodes of Tulsa King. Especially after Dwight and Mitch (Garrett Hedlund) shot and killed Caolan's right-hand man Carson Pike (Robert Walker Branchaud) at the end of episode 6, "Stable." "Warr Acres" opens with Dwight and Mitch burying Carson's body. But only after they take his Black MacAdam biker jacket to send as a message to Caolan.
After taking one look at the jacket, Caolan realizes Carson is dead. Carson's girlfriend Roxy (Emily Davis) takes the news a lot harder than Caolan, especially since she is also an informant for the ATF, reporting to Stacy (Andrea Savage).
Roxy tells Stacy about Carson's death, saying he was only at Mitch's bar to blow out some windows as a warning. Realizing Roxy's opportunity to get incriminating evidence that can lead to Caolan's arrest is now diminishing, Stacy tells her to go steal anything of note she can find in Caolan's bar.
After hearing about Carson, Stacy confronts Dwight in his hotel room. She asks him if he killed Carson, only for Dwight to ask Stacy if she has been drinking, something that she's been doing more and more recently. Dwight, unsurprisingly, acts like he doesn't know what Stacy is talking about, but she's so livid at him. She tells Dwight he has "f***ed up her life" ever since she met him, before leaving furiously.
Things are about to get much tougher for Stacy, too. Roxy, thinking Caolan is out, breaks into the bar, looking for the computer she'd previously seen him using that detailed how he amassed over $8 million for the Black MacAdam gang. After searching around his office, Roxy finds it, only for Caolan to appear out of nowhere.
Roxy confesses everything to Caolan, hoping he'll forgive her. There seems to be a glimmer of hope after Caolan admits he's always found her attractive. This is just a ruse, though. After putting a necklace around her neck, Caolan strangles Roxy to death. While waiting for Roxy to arrive the next day, Stacy calls her, only for Caolan to answer and basically confirm, without actually saying it, that Roxy is dead.
As well as the increasing animosity between himself and the Black McAdams, Dwight is also having to contend with growing problems in New York. The most pressing issue is the safety of his daughter Tina (Tatiana Zappardino), who calls Dwight to tell him her husband Emory (Loren Dunn) was mugged and brutally attacked.
After killing Nico (John Cenatiempo), Dwight is certain the Invernizzi crime family were behind Emory's injuries. So much so that he asks Tina to join him in Tulsa with her family. Of course, Dwight is correct, under-boss Chickie (Domenick Lombardozzi) was the one who beat Emory. But Tina would rather assume it's all just an unlucky coincidence and declines Dwight's offer.
That's until she gets another mysterious, silent phone call in the middle of the night. Freaked out, Tina asks Emory about moving to Tulsa. But since he works on Wall Street and she's only just reconnected with Dwight, Emory can't understand why she trusts him so much. Emory insists they'll be OK and Tina, begrudgingly, decides to stay in New York. At least, for the time being.
One person who has made the trip from New York to Tulsa is Goodie (Chris Caldovino), Chickie's consigliere, who is there to iron out the number of issues between Dwight and the Invernizzi family. While Goodie and Dwight get along like old times, at night Goodie calls up Chickie and says Dwight has his own crew, which includes Armand (Max Casella), who fled New York in 1998. Goodie confirms Dwight is getting very big in Tulsa, much to the annoyance of Chickie.
Dwight has a plan to make even more money, too. He wants to open up a casino with Mitch and Bodhi (Martin Starr). After visiting The Higher Plane to gauge Bodhi's interest and tell him they'll need half a million dollars to set it up, Bodhi reveals he actually already has the money. And then some. That's because Bodhi has been stealing Bitcoin and NFTs online. He even turns to Dwight and asks, "Did you think you were the only criminal in Tulsa?"
Meanwhile, after learning Pete (AC Peterson) has been given the all-clear and no longer has cancer, Chickie looks to settle back into life as his right-hand man. However, Chickie can't shake a number of grudges he still has with his father.
He's upset Pete made him enter a life of crime, when he really wanted to join the Army. He's also distraught that Pete sees Dwight as more of a son than him. While giving his still ailing father a bath, Chickie snaps, drowning him in the water. With his father now dead, Chickie steps up as the new boss of the family, telling Vince (Vincent Piazza) that he plans on getting things back on track.
Back in Tulsa, Goodie tells Dwight about Pete's death. Goodie has to return to New York immediately for the funeral. But Dwight won't be joining him. Even though he knows it's disrespectful not to, particularly because Pete was like a brother to him, Dwight can see the chaos ahead. He knows that going back to New York would be incredibly dangerous for him at this point.
All of which sets Tulsa King up very nicely for its final three installments. While not one of its most engrossing episodes, "Warr Acres" once again shows that Tulsa King is able to get its plots into place, while still being tense, compelling and always enjoyable to watch.
All episodes of Tulsa King season 1 are streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus.
