Cartel Cash Keeps Spreading in Landman Season 2
When we first dug into Sonrisa in our earlier piece, “Sonrisa Revealed: How Cartel Money Funds Cooper’s Wells on ‘Landman’ Season 2,” the company looked like a shady Odessa backer with unusually generous terms and a hidden Dallas money man.
Three more episodes into Season 2, that picture is no longer theoretical.
The show has now put a name, a face, and a wider business plan on Sonrisa’s money.
As of early December 2025, Landman Season 2 has aired Episodes 1 through 3 on Paramount+. The season premiered on November 16, 2025, at 3 a.m. ET, with new episodes dropping weekly on Sundays. The ten‑episode run is scheduled to wrap on January 18, 2026, according to Paramount+’s published release calendar. Season 1 pulled 14.9 million global households in its first four weeks and became the streamer’s most‑watched original series at the time, so this cartel‑oil crossover is playing out in front of a large audience, not a niche crowd.
Here is where the Sonrisa storyline stands now, and why fans cannot stop talking about it.
Where Season 2 Stands and Why Sonrisa Still Matters
Season 2 opened with “Death and a Sunset” on November 16, followed by “Sins of the Father” on November 23 and “Almost a Home” on November 30. Episode 4, “Dancing Rainbows,” is next in line.
By the end of Episode 2, viewers already knew that Cooper Norris had quietly drilled six wildcat wells under his own name, all funded by Sonrisa, an Odessa‑based outfit with a Dallas financial pipeline. Those wells all hit oil. The tension between Tommy’s old‑school caution and Cooper’s big swing anchored that hour.
Episode 3 does not walk any of that back. Instead, it widens Sonrisa’s reach and clarifies the man behind the company. It also pushes cartel money directly toward M‑Tex, the troubled operator at the center of the show’s corporate story.
For anyone trying to track the business logic of Landman, Sonrisa is now the hinge between family drama, cartel politics, and corporate collapse.
Quick Refresher: The $48 Million Sonrisa Deal Cooper Signed
The fundamentals of the Sonrisa deal were laid out on screen in Episode 2, and they are still the backbone of everything that follows.
Cooper tells Tommy that:
- Sonrisa fronted about $48 million to drill six wells.
- The contract splits revenue 50‑50 until Sonrisa recoups its costs.
- After payout, Sonrisa’s ongoing cut drops to just 18 percent of profits.
Those numbers come straight from Cooper’s explanation in “Sins of the Father” and were confirmed in multiple recaps and ending explainers. Tommy’s reaction is immediate and blunt. The 18 percent post‑payout share looks absurdly low for a high‑risk, high‑capital program with no collateral from Cooper. He tells M‑Tex’s in‑house lawyer to dig into Sonrisa and find out who would lend that kind of money on those terms.
The paper trail that lawyer uncovers is what set up our first Sonrisa piece:
- Sonrisa has a front office in Odessa, but the funding is controlled through a Dallas financial fund.
- That Dallas fund is linked directly to cartel boss Gallino, played by Andy Garcia, who surfaced late in Season 1.
- The registered owner on Sonrisa’s documents is Dan Morrell, a name that points back toward cartel money.
By the end of Episode 2, several outlets summarized the finding this way: the fund manager and founder behind Sonrisa’s LLC structure is the same man running the cartel operation, even if the show does not recite his full CV on screen. The deal that looked “too good to be true” turns out to be exactly that.
Tommy captures the problem in one line to Cooper: “That’s your new partner, and it’s a real f‑‑‑ing problem, son.”
Episode 3 Names the Man Behind Sonrisa
Episode 3, “Almost a Home,” finally moves the Sonrisa story from spreadsheets to a table at the Cattlemen’s Club.
Andy Garcia’s character steps into the spotlight for the first real time this season. Here is where things get precise, and a bit messy on the naming front.
Different outlets use different labels:
- Some recaps, including Entertainment Weekly’s coverage, continue to call him cartel boss Gallino and tie him directly to Cooper’s Sonrisa funding.
- Others, including People magazine and various international write‑ups, refer to the same man as “Danny Morrell,” a well‑connected Fort Worth businessman whose legitimate holdings mask his cartel activities.
- Primetimer cuts through that confusion by describing him as “cartel boss Gallino, operating under the alias Dan Morrell.”
In the episode itself, he introduces himself in business settings as Dan or Danny Morrell, not Gallino. A Yahoo TV recap of Episode 3 spells out what that means for the Sonrisa story. According to that write‑up, Morrell:
- Presents himself to Tommy as the owner of Sonrisa and of “many other perfectly legal businesses.”
- Makes clear that his portfolio of clean companies sits on top of revenue streams that are anything but clean.
His pitch line is direct and chilling for anyone who watches the books:
“What I do is reinvest income. I diversify revenue. Where that revenue comes from is irrelevant.”
With that, Sonrisa stops being just “a weird Odessa company” on a contract page. The show ties the LLC to a flesh‑and‑blood operator who moves seamlessly between Fort Worth steak dinners and cartel enforcement.
From Cooper’s Wells to M‑Tex: Cartel Capital Looks for a Bigger Door
Sonrisa’s role in Cooper’s six wells is already risky. Episode 3 raises the stakes by showing Gallino/Morrell aiming much higher than one ambitious 22‑year‑old.
M‑Tex, the company Tommy works for, is in serious trouble by this point in the season:
- A $420 million insurance payout that should have funded a replacement drilling rig ended up with former CEO Monty instead of building the rig.
- The insurer is pressing for answers, and M‑Tex is scrambling to announce and begin construction so it does not look like fraud.
- On top of that, Episode 3 adds a deadly hydrogen sulfide leak at an M‑Tex storage site, which kills hunters and hospitalizes workers, triggering new legal exposure.
Harper’s Bazaar and other outlets have noted that the show’s H₂S incident draws from real‑world Texas cases, including documented fatalities in 1975 and 2019. In other words, M‑Tex’s problems are not just dramatic devices; they echo known hazards in the industry.
Into that mess walks Dan Morrell.
At the Cattlemen’s Club, he sits down with Cami Miller, played by Demi Moore, who has stepped in as the public face of M‑Tex after Monty’s death. Recaps from Primetimer and People agree on the essentials:
- Morrell offers to invest in M‑Tex and help stabilize its finances.
- Cami does not sign anything, but she tells him she may need backers like him.
- The conversation ends with a handshake, which commentators interpret as a signal of serious interest rather than a binding deal.
So, by the close of Episode 3, cartel‑linked capital is no longer confined to Cooper’s six wells. It is now circling the main corporate player in the show, at the moment that company is weakest.
Tommy vs. Morrell: Cartel Money Hits the Family Fault Line
The Sonrisa deal is not only a balance‑sheet problem. It is also ripping through Tommy’s relationship with his son.
CinemaBlend’s coverage of Episode 3 highlights a crucial confrontation between Tommy and Danny Morrell. During that meeting:
- Tommy makes it clear he sees Morrell as a direct threat, not a routine investor.
- He tries to draw a line between himself and Cooper’s decision, telling Morrell:
“You’re not partners with me. You’re partners with a 22‑year‑old kid with a net worth of a f‑‑‑ing 30‑year‑old pickup truck.”
Morrell answers by going straight at Tommy’s weak spot. He calls Tommy out for failing to support or be proud of Cooper. Several recaps note that he argues Cooper’s success came from real insight, not blind luck, and that Tommy is too stubborn to see it.
That exchange does two things at once. It confirms that cartel money now has a contractual grip on Cooper’s wells and shows how that grip is being used to widen a generational rift inside the Norris family.
Off screen, co‑creator Christian Wallace has said this alliance will create “real interesting trouble” for Cooper as the season continues. Jacob Lofland, who plays Cooper, has described his character as “free falling,” rushing into decisions he does not fully understand and hoping for a safety net that may not exist. Those comments match what the Sonrisa storyline already shows on screen.
What Viewers Are Arguing About: Shell Companies and Aliases
If you spend time in fan spaces, two main Sonrisa topics keep popping up: how to label the company, and how to label the man behind it.
Sonrisa as a shell
Landman.tv’s earlier Sonrisa explainer noted that fans “quickly jumped” to calling Sonrisa a shell company, even though the show never uses that exact term. Viewers recognized a familiar pattern:
- A small, local‑address company,
- Contract terms that make little conventional sense,
- And the real money sitting in a different city, controlled by a far more powerful figure.
The reveal of the Dallas fund and the Gallino connection in Episode 2 only strengthened that reading. By the time Episode 3 aired, online conversation, as summarized in recaps and explainers, treated Sonrisa functionally as a cartel front disguised as a regional oil investor.
“Dan Morrell” vs. “Gallino”
The other point of debate is what to make of the Dan or Danny Morrell name.
Landman.tv’s “Dan Morrell’s Identity Explained” piece rounded up how different sources handle it:
- Some English‑language recaps talk about Dan Morrell as the named owner of Sonrisa, implying a distinct character.
- International coverage and outlets like Primetimer are more direct, describing Morrell as an alias Gallino uses on corporate filings for Sonrisa and related Dallas funds.
- Another Landman.tv article, focused on “Bella, Danny Morrell’s wife,” notes that fans searching for the character’s glamorous spouse tend to use “Danny Morrell” as shorthand, because they have seen the same man operate under both names in storylines and promotional material.
Episode 3 seems to lean toward the alias interpretation, putting “Morrell” forward in polished business rooms while the cartel label sticks in law‑enforcement and back‑channel conversations. For now, viewers appear to be settling on a practical compromise: Gallino is the cartel boss; Dan or Danny Morrell is the name on the Sonrisa paperwork.
Why Sonrisa Now Sits at the Center of Season 2
Sonrisa started as a contract term and a company name. Three episodes in, it is much more than that.
The company’s money touches almost every major pressure point in the story:
- Cooper’s independence: His six‑well strike, funded by Sonrisa’s $48 million, proves he has an eye for oil. It also ties his future to cartel capital structured in a way he does not really grasp.
- Tommy’s loyalty split: He is trying to protect his son, fix M‑Tex’s mess, and keep cartel money as far away as possible. Morrell’s needling about his parenting makes that balancing act harder.
- M‑Tex’s survival: A missing $420 million rig payout and a lethal hydrogen sulfide leak have pushed the company to the edge. Morrell’s handshake with Cami offers a financial lifeline that comes with obvious strings.
- Cami’s next move: As the person now fronting M‑Tex, she has to choose between conventional backers who may not solve the crisis and a cartel‑linked investor who can likely write a very large check very quickly.
Every time the camera follows Sonrisa’s trail, it lands somewhere important.
What Happens Next for Sonrisa and the Norrises
Looking ahead, the schedule matters. New episodes will keep dropping weekly through mid‑January, with the Season 2 finale slated for January 18, 2026. That gives the writers seven more hours, from Episode 4 onward, to pay off the Sonrisa setup.
We already know a few things from the creative team’s comments:
- Christian Wallace expects Cooper’s partnership with Gallino, through Sonrisa, to be a main source of “real interesting trouble.”
- Jacob Lofland has framed Cooper as a young man hoping someone will catch him as he falls, without realizing who is actually waiting below.
- Andy Garcia, in interviews about the role, has emphasized that his character is a savvy businessman pushing into the Texas oil patch, not just a one‑note drug boss.
Taken together, those remarks point toward Sonrisa and Dan Morrell not disappearing into the background. Instead, they suggest this will be an ongoing, season‑long test of who gets to control Texas oil money on the show: old‑line operators like Tommy, desperate companies like M‑Tex, or cartel‑backed investors who see shale as just another asset class.
For now, we have a few firm markers:
- Cooper’s six wells remain under a contract backed by a Dallas fund run by Gallino / Morrell.
- Sonrisa’s owner, on paper and in person, is now sitting across from Cami Miller and offering to plug M‑Tex’s balance‑sheet hole.
- Tommy has identified the danger clearly, but his own family history and M‑Tex’s crisis may limit what he can actually stop.
As new episodes air, we will continue tracking how Sonrisa’s money moves, what it buys, and who ends up paying the real price.
