Blood & Oil Review: The Ripple Effect (Season 1 Episode 2)
I think I like Blood & Oil. Last week I was a little bit on the fence, but some of the weirdness seems to have leveled out. I don’t, however, like everything that’s happening on the show right now. Spoilers ahead.
First of all, everyone is okay. Happ and Billy have some burns, but nothing more serious (besides the loss of a lot of money, oil, and equipment) came from the scuffle that ended the series premiere. I’m so relieved.
Darla still seems like she might be bad news, but I gotta say, I like her. She’s the only one who isn’t willing to rule out Wick as a suspect. Which, let’s be honest, should be obvious. If you name your child Wick, he is going to, at some point, try to light you on fire. It’s in his name!
Wick is so annoying to me. He’s just so helpless. I can’t feel sorry for him, even though he clearly feels bad that things got so out of hand with his little plan. He actually looks sad when he sees Happ’s burns and surprised when the whole place goes up in flame. I’m sorry, but how do you grow up around oil fields all your life and not know that it’s all super duper flammable? Like I said, he’s helpless.
I’m also disappointed in Cody. She seemed so ride or die last week, but now she’s all over the place. I get that she doesn’t want to live in a seedy apartment complex anymore, but I feel like they just decided that they are going to use the first million to grow more money, not spend half of it on a house. I am downright mad that she let Billy back out of his deal with Happ to buy a house instead. That’s a dumb use of the money.
I thought they wanted to be oil tycoons!?
I feel like the baby storyline is putting Cody on the sidelines as a mother instead of keeping her as Billy’s let’s-take-risks-and-get-super-rich partner. Which is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. I mean, I get that she doesn’t want to have the baby living in that apartment, but she’s like three weeks pregnant. She needs to calm down and not spend all the money right away.
I am also pretty frustrated by how she’s treating Billy. It has not been long enough yet to start getting annoyed when he’s on the phone with Happ, out to lunch, etc. I mean, they must made a million dollars. I need her to calm down.
Billy not actually ending up being part of the deal aside, I love that he and Happ go to a fancy lunch to discuss the cost of replacing their oil and equipment and they guy gives they a high price so they are just like ‘LOL, we’ll buy your company instead.” That’s the Billy I want to see more of.
I think this episode was a lot more balanced (AKA, less Soapy) and had a much better pace. Storylines are building and characters are starting to come into their own. I might not be loving everything the characters are doing, but I do like how it is all being presented.
We are introduced to a lot of elements that could become something bigger this week. For one, Happ’s daughter seems to be a bit… um… disgruntled about her family (and already making out with the hired help! Classic bratty rich girl move!). The Wick drama is obviously not going away. He may be off the hook (at the moment) for the oil heist, but he’s not off the hook for murder. Darla knows what’s up and she does not seem like the type to let things go. Also, the guy who sold Billy the land coming by and saying “you’re in bed with the devil now” is probs foreshadowing.
So far Happ has seemed like a great guy, but the very last minutes of the episode show us some other sides of his personality. Apparently he knows Jules. Like knows her. And he’s being followed by some kind of investigator. FBI? Private eye? I’m guessing we’ll see more of that next week. I’m on the edge of my seat, again.
What did you think of this week’s episode of Blood & Oil?
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Blood & Oil airs Sundays at 9/8c on ABC.
Amanda Coyne
Amanda is an associate editor for Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer, teacher, and pop culture enthusiast with a love for 30 Rock and The Mindy Project. She is also the proud mother of two orange cats. Follow @amandarcoyne