Tulsa King season 1's ending leaves Sylvester Stallone's Dwight "the General" Manfredi in a tricky situation via a major twist. Let's break it down.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Tulsa King season 1.
The Sylvester Stallone-fronted series Tulsa King season 1 ending features a cliffhanger twist that leaves the fate of the action veteran unclear. Tulsa King takes the mafia genre to the Midwest with the story of Dwight “the General” Manfredi. Played by Sylvester Stallone, Manfredi is an ice-cold convict who has just finished serving a twenty-five-year prison sentence for a mob hit gone wrong when Tulsa King season 1 begins.
Although it is clear that Dwight took the fall for someone else, the lead character of Tulsa King isn’t exactly rewarded for his selflessness. Instead, he is essentially exiled to the small city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and told to start a criminal empire there. Never one to give up on a hopeless cause, Manfredi sets to work establishing a relationship with his estranged daughter Tina, forging a rivalry with the gangster Caolan Waltrip, and selling nitrous oxide via a ragtag gang of misfits that he assembles. These efforts pay off in Tulsa King season 1’s last two episodes before a cliffhanger ending puts the General’s empire in peril.
What Happens In Tulsa King Season 1’s Ending
In Tulsa King season 1’s ending, the show reveals how Dwight Manfredi ended up in prison all those years ago. It turns out that he took the fall for a killing that was really Chickie’s responsibility. Dwight’s daughter Tina grew up without knowing her father thanks to his lengthy prison spell, but the General only served that prison sentence because of Chickie's actions. After Chickie handcuffed a hostage, Ripple, to a radiator while torturing him, Wen Dwight tried to stop the torture and a brand that Chickie was brandishing set the room they were in alight. Unable to find the handcuff keys, the General shot Ripple as a mercy killing.
With this background established, Tulsa King season 1’s final episode returned to the present day. In this outing, Dwight first confronted Chickie, who wanted in on his Tulsa operation. Dwight sent him packing to New York and, in a rare smart moment, Chickie left Tulsa without a fight. Dwight then outsmarted Caolan Waltrip, the leader of a local rival gang, the Black MacAdams. Dwight’s prison reading list paid off as the master manipulator tricked Caolan into attacking Mitch’s bar, shooting the rival boss in the ensuing gunfight. This left Dwight with no more enemies, at least until the General’s bar/casino opening was busted by ATF agents who arrested him.
Did Dwight Defeat Caolan Waltrip For Good?
While Caolan Waltrip was even more dangerous than Chickie (who killed his own father in cold blood), he was not impossible to defeat. After Dwight’s confidante, Bodhi, used his technical know-how to take all the money from Waltrip’s account and transfer it to Dwight, the leader of the Black MacAdams instantly attacked the General’s bar in revenge. Dwight knew this is what Caolan would do, so he already had the upper hand when the two faced off. Dwight shot and killed Caolan, effectively ending the reign of the Black MacAdams in Tulsa. While Tulsa King season 2 could reveal that Caolan had a second-in-command, his unstable persona makes this unlikely.
