Blood and Oil: Fight or Flight

After a two-week break, Blood and Oil returns tonight for the first of its final three episodes. Let’s catch up on where we left everyone.

“Fight or Flight” took a turn toward the series Blood and Oil probably intended to be when it grew up with the introduction of Hap’s ex, Annie Briggs, played by Lolita Davidovich, who invites Emma and Billy to Houston for the day, and Billy just goes, without telling Cody, who’s JUST miscarried their child.

Cody’s got other issues when Gary is brought into the ER and the sheriff tells her he’ll likely never wake up. When she asks Billy about it, he of course lies. She also quickly dispatches Kess and Ada back to their homeland when she catches him dealing drugs and Ada confesses that they left home because Kess had a gambling problem (random) and she’s worried because she found a casino matchbook.

Cody confronts Kess and tells him they’re leaving town, which I’m guessing she bankrolled, but she does not tell Ada about the drugs, so the whole thing looks like Kess’s idea. So, whatever was planned for the show, Ada, Kess, and the food truck business were not a part of it, which now is sort of moot. (Unless the food truck and shady Finn stay on.)

Billy’s co-conspirator, Wick, gets played by Carla when she discovers that Jules did not end things with Hap, or vice versa. After Jules finds the ski mask in her apartment and confronts Wick about it, she ends it with him. Wick goes back by the bar later, at Carla’s insistence, and walks in at the exact wrong time to see Jules hot and heavy with Hap.

Since revenge is best served inside a prison, Wick’s response to the betrayal is to agree to help the Feds build a case against his father, something the sheriff is definitely in the loop on — or at least he is in the loop on their initial offer that Wick rejected before he found Hap with Jules. Hmmm.

Lacey, meanwhile, is working with undercover A.J., at Hap’s direction, to fake a geologic report for his handlers that disproves their suspicions about the oil reserves and instead makes them look like natural gas. So, Lacey might be joining her papa in jail at some point. Hap is also aware of the Federal investigation, just not their new insider.

Back in Houston, I had to laugh that Annie’s private plan touched down just outside of downtown (that would be a no — I live here). She brings Emma and Cody to a ball as her guest, complete with loaning them fancy clothes, and then she kiboshes the proposed deal, because she thought face-to-face was better? Billy tries to psychoanalyze her about being hesitant because of her relationship with her ex-husband, and she hears him out and then sends them on their way.

Billy goes to see Hap and tells him he can’t be his business partner because he doesn’t trust him, and then a surprise Annie waltzes in and announces that Billy is her partner. It’s all very mwa ha ha but not. Hap just laughs that it’ll be an interesting challenge, if nothing else.

And Gary wakes up at the hospital. Dun Dun DUN!

Before that, though, there’s a moment between Emma and Billy that’s skated past when they say goodbye at the airport. I’d bet that was part of the long arc and Cody and Billy would split and he’d go with Emma and she would give Finn a chance. I’m OK that this didn’t get to be a show that tore the main couple apart and kept working on reuniting them, if that was the plan (and I guess that was supposed to mirror Hap and Annie’s origin story?). That would have been mega manipulative and more soapy than drama, hence the two writers rooms.

Don Johnson Tweeted out a pic from the last day of production back on the 16th, with “for now” added, and he’s an executive producer, so maybe there’s hope for an international financial save that will bring them back somewhere for second season (I’d think not on ABC, but who knows?).

Until December 13th, Blood and Oil airs Sundays at 9 pm e/8 c on ABC in the U.S. and 9 pm e/p on CTV in Canada. Here’s a sneak peek of tonight’s new episode, “Rats, Bugs, and Moles,” which will have everybody all gussied up again and covering up their secrets and lies.

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