Charlie Newsom on Landman: Who He Is, Who Plays Him, and What Really Happens on That Turbulent Flight
Viewers settling into Landman Season 2 this fall expected more Permian Basin politics, oilfield accidents, and Taylor Sheridan family drama. They got all of that. They also got a brand‑new name lighting up search bars: Charlie Newsom.
By early December 2025, “Charlie Newsom Landman” and “Who plays Charlie Newsom?” were already rising search terms as Episode 4, “Dancing Rainbows,” rolled out on Paramount+. The episode’s official logline promises that “Rebecca survives a wild night,” and recaps have filled in the rest. That “wild night” involves a turbulent private flight, a charming oil and gas engineer, and a hookup that many fans and critics are calling uncomfortable, even by Sheridan drama standards.
Here is a detailed look at who Charlie Newsom is, who plays him, and why his first major storyline is already one of the most talked‑about moments of Landman Season 2.
- Who Plays Charlie Newsom on Landman?
- Where Charlie Fits Into Landman Season 2
- Rebecca Falcone: The Other Half of the Story
- Episode 4: A Fatal Crash and “Rebecca Survives a Wild Night”
- The Turbulent Flight: How Charlie Newsom Enters
- From Flight to Bed: The “Wild Night” Explained
- Why Viewers and Recappers Call It Controversial
- Charlie as Oil and Gas Engineer, Not Just a Fling
- Guy Burnet in the Spotlight Again
- What Happens Next
Who Plays Charlie Newsom on Landman?
The short answer is straightforward and already familiar to many TV viewers: Charlie Newsom is played by British actor Guy Burnet.
Burnet has been working steadily on screen since the early 2000s. According to his filmography, he first broke out in the UK on Channel 4’s soap _Hollyoaks_, playing Craig Dean. He later moved into American television, turning up in prestige and genre series including:
- _Counterpart_ on Starz
- _Ray Donovan_ and _The Affair_ on Showtime
- _Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams_
On the film side, Burnet appeared in _Pitch Perfect 3_ in 2017, the western _Dead for a Dollar_ in 2022, and most recently in Christopher Nolan’s _Oppenheimer_ in 2023, where he played physicist and spy suspect George Eltenton.
So when fans ask, “Who plays Charlie Newsom on Landman?” they are looking at an actor who has already moved through several high‑profile ensembles. Landman adds another major credit to that list, this time with a Texas oilfield backdrop.
Where Charlie Fits Into Landman Season 2
To understand why Charlie’s arrival matters, it helps to place him in the show’s broader timeline.
Landman is created by Taylor Sheridan and Christian Wallace, and it is based on Wallace’s 2019 Texas Monthly podcast _Boomtown_ about the Permian Basin oil boom. Season 1 premiered on November 17, 2024 on Paramount+, ran 10 episodes, and wrapped on January 12, 2025. The show follows landmen, executives, roughnecks, and wildcatters as the West Texas boom reshapes the local economy and fuels global energy politics.
Season 2 launched on November 16, 2025, again with a 10‑episode order and weekly Sunday releases on Paramount+. Episode 4, “Dancing Rainbows,” landed on December 7, 2025 at 3:00 a.m. ET for U.S. subscribers.
Ratings have only pushed the show further into the spotlight. Season 1 drew a reported 35 million streaming viewers in total. When Season 2 arrived, its premiere collected over 9.2 million views in its first two days, a figure that represented a 262 percent jump from the Season 1 debut and made Landman Paramount+’s most‑watched series premiere to date. The streamer moved quickly and renewed the series for a third season in December 2025, right in the middle of Season 2’s run.
Charlie Newsom enters that world in Season 2 as a recurring new character. Casting announcements published in July 2025 list Guy Burnet as Charlie Newsom, described consistently as an oil and gas engineer. One outlet calls him “charming” with a “sharp mind and a magnetic edge,” while another notes that he is positioned as a technically credible figure with “boots‑on‑the‑ground” knowledge of drilling operations.
He is credited in the Season 2 premiere episode, “Death and a Sunset,” which signals that the writers intend him as more than a one‑scene guest. His first major spotlight, however, arrives in Episode 4.
Rebecca Falcone: The Other Half of the Story
Charlie’s breakout moment is impossible to separate from Rebecca Falcone, the lawyer who has been part of Landman since early Season 1.
Rebecca is played by Canadian actress Kayla Wallace, known to many viewers from Hallmark projects such as When Calls the Heart. In early casting write‑ups for the series, the character (then listed under the surname “Savage”) was described as an “extremely capable and intimidating liability attorney,” dispatched from a big firm to West Texas to “clean up a mess.”
Within the show’s continuity, Rebecca works as a causation lawyer at Shepherd‑Hastings before later becoming in‑house counsel for M‑Tex Oil, the fictional operator at the heart of Landman. M‑Tex is where Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy Norris serves as landman and, after Season 1’s events, as company president.
Rebecca usually reads as careful and composed on screen. She understands liability exposure, corporate spin, and the limits of what she can say in a room full of grieving families. That history is part of why the “wild night” she shares with Charlie in Season 2 feels so jarring for many viewers.
Episode 4: A Fatal Crash and “Rebecca Survives a Wild Night”
Episode 4 of Season 2, titled “Dancing Rainbows,” is where the turbulent flight and the controversial hookup take place. According to Paramount+’s official synopsis, the episode centers on two main threads:
> “A tragic crash sets off a day of reckoning, unearthing painful memories for Tommy and Cooper. Rebecca survives a wild night.”
Recaps fill in the details of that crash. Early in the episode, an M‑Tex truck collides with a man who appears to be attempting suicide on the road. Both the suicidal driver and the M‑Tex employee die. Sheriff Walt Joeberg relays those facts to Rebecca just as she is boarding a plane.
Rebecca, now representing M‑Tex, acknowledges the seriousness of the situation. She tells Walt she will “call back” once she lands, signaling that she intends to step into crisis‑management mode as in past episodes.
Instead, the show sends her in a different direction.
The Turbulent Flight: How Charlie Newsom Enters
Rebecca boards a private jet where she is the only woman among a cabin full of men. Among those passengers is Charlie Newsom, introduced in the recap as a charismatic engineer.
Mid‑flight, the jet runs into heavy turbulence. The episode plays the sequence as an extended beat. Viewers see Rebecca scream and panic as the aircraft shudders. The men around her, including Charlie, mostly stay calm. Previous episodes have already established that she does not handle turbulent flights well, and “Dancing Rainbows” leans into that trait.
Charlie steps into that tension. He engages Rebecca, speaks with her, and mixes her a “special concoction” to drink. Recappers describe it as “Charlie’s special cocktail,” a drink that she gulps down in an attempt to steady herself. She becomes increasingly intoxicated as the flight continues and as the turbulence underlines her lack of control.
The contrast is pointed. On the ground, a driver and a company trucker have just died. In the air, the company lawyer is drinking with a charming engineer and screaming her way through turbulence.
From Flight to Bed: The “Wild Night” Explained
What happens after the plane lands is the heart of the controversy.
According to two independent recaps, Rebecca goes home with Charlie Newsom once they are back on the ground. One recap puts it bluntly, saying she “fornicates with him at his house” after drinking his special cocktail. Another recap emphasizes that she “sleeps with Charlie Newsom”, and notes that the timing is what makes it uncomfortable.
Both accounts are consistent with the official phrase that “Rebecca survives a wild night.” In practical terms, that wild night consists of:
- Surviving a turbulent private flight
- Getting drunk on a cocktail mixed by Charlie
- Going home with him and having sex, rather than immediately following up on the fatal crash
Nothing in the episode suggests Rebecca has returned Walt’s call or started triaging the legal exposure for the two deaths. Instead, the camera follows her into Charlie’s personal orbit.
Why Viewers and Recappers Call It Controversial
On paper, Landman blending oilfield catastrophe with complicated personal choices is on brand for a Sheridan show. In practice, many viewers and critics have flagged this particular storyline as a step too far, largely because of tone and timing.
Recaps have highlighted several points:
First, the double fatality involves an M‑Tex truck and therefore falls directly into Rebecca’s professional lane. She is the company’s legal shield in public crises. The show reminds viewers of that by having Sheriff Walt call her as she boards and by having her verbally commit to follow up.
Second, the episode cuts from the grim facts of the crash to scenes that play almost like a romantic comedy setup. The panicked woman afraid of flying, the calm and charming stranger, the special drink, and the post‑flight hookup are familiar tropes. One recap criticizes the writing for turning an “uptight” professional into someone acting “totally silly” within minutes of learning that two men are dead.
Third, there is the issue of Rebecca’s larger arc. Earlier Season 2 scenes show her meeting with outside attorneys who offer her a higher‑paying job and warn that M‑Tex is a “sinking ship.” She knows the company is in financial trouble and that her loyalty may not be rewarded. That context leads one recap to read the night with Charlie as possible foreshadowing of a personal and professional breaking point. Even so, the same recap questions whether this particular moment, framed the way it is, serves the character well.
A separate recap uses the word “uncomfortable” and focuses on the emotional math. Rebecca is shaken by the crash, anxious about her future, and trapped on a rattling plane. Instead of processing that with anyone in her established orbit, she ends up in bed with a man she has only just met.
Those are the elements that have made viewers replay and debate the sequence, and that have driven many of the searches for “Charlie Newsom Rebecca flight episode.”
Charlie as Oil and Gas Engineer, Not Just a Fling
It would be a mistake, however, to see Charlie Newsom solely as Rebecca’s one‑night stand.
From the moment his casting was announced, trade coverage and fan sites agreed on one point: Charlie is an oil and gas engineer first. Outlets introducing him ahead of Season 2 repeatedly used that label. One described him as “charming” but anchored in technical expertise rather than boardroom politics. A Landman‑focused breakdown added that he comes off as someone with “boots‑on‑the‑ground” experience and that his storyline would highlight “corners of the business” that viewers might not expect.
Guy Burnet’s preparation appears to have matched that intention. In a profile aimed at Landman fans, he is described spending time with real oilfield workers, visiting drilling sites, and walking through operations on rigs. He reportedly worked on technical vocabulary such as “flowback,” “downhole,” and “blowout preventer,” aiming to speak like someone who actually understands what is happening at the wellhead.
The show’s overall premise, built around lease agreements, operations decisions, and safety lapses, gives room for a character like Charlie to do more than mix cocktails on a jet. As the season continues, his position as a field‑side engineer and his early connection with M‑Tex’s in‑house counsel set him up as someone who could bridge the gap between the dirt and the boardroom.
For now, though, the clearest images viewers have of him are on that flight and in that bedroom.
Guy Burnet in the Spotlight Again
Charlie Newsom’s arrival also marks a notable turn for Guy Burnet himself.
In the two years leading up to Landman Season 2, Burnet stacked several attention‑getting roles. He appeared in _Dead for a Dollar_ in 2022 and _Oppenheimer_ in 2023, then joined the cast of Netflix’s action‑comedy _FUBAR_. Stepping into Landman places him inside a Taylor Sheridan universe that already includes Yellowstone, 1923, and Mayor of Kingstown, all strong performers for Paramount+.
During press around the Season 2 launch, Burnet cropped up in lifestyle and entertainment coverage that followed the show’s New York promotion. In one December 2025 Q&A, he talked about styling his own red carpet looks and even mentioned riding the New York subway with Landman director Stephen Kay on the way to a screening. It is a small detail, but it underlines a point that resonates with many fans: despite the oilfield setting and the occasionally outsized drama, the people bringing Landman to the screen are still commuting like everyone else.
As searches for “Who plays Charlie Newsom?” keep climbing, that mix of high‑profile credit and grounded preparation is part of why Burnet may stick in viewers’ minds beyond a single controversial episode.
What Happens Next
As of early December 2025, Landman Season 2 is not yet halfway through its run. “Dancing Rainbows” is Episode 4 of 10, with the season finale scheduled for January 18, 2026. Both seasons stream exclusively on Paramount+, which currently offers an ad‑supported Essential tier and an ad‑free Premium tier with Showtime and live CBS.
Paramount+ has already committed to a third season, reflecting the strong viewership jump between Season 1 and Season 2. That renewal means that whatever happens next between Rebecca Falcone, Charlie Newsom, and M‑Tex Oil will play out over at least two more years of storytelling.
Recaps have framed Rebecca’s night with Charlie as a sign that she may be reaching a breaking point with the company, professionally and personally. The same pieces stress that she still knows more about M‑Tex’s legal exposure than anyone else in the main cast. Charlie, for his part, walks into the story as an engineer with technical credibility and now a direct line to the company’s top lawyer.
For Landman fans, the answers to several overlapping questions now sit with these two characters:
- Will Rebecca stay at M‑Tex or take the outside offer she has already heard?
- Will Charlie’s role as an engineer bring new scrutiny to the company’s safety practices after the fatal truck crash?
- And, of course, will that “wild night” become a one‑off mistake or the start of something longer term?
Those debates are already fueling online discussion and search traffic. Whatever direction the writers choose, one fact is clear for anyone typing the obvious query into a browser:
On Landman, Charlie Newsom is the oil and gas engineer who sleeps with Rebecca Falcone after a turbulent flight in Season 2, Episode 4. And Guy Burnet is the actor behind him.
