Any good mystery has layers. On the surface, things may seem clear-cut, but the best mysteries have so much more to ponder than just the question of whodunit. The case of why Dale Washberg killed himself at the outset of the first season of The Lowdown was, of course, about much more than that question. (Among other things, we quickly learned that the case was about whether Dale even committed suicide.) The same is true of the core mystery of this show’s second season. The question of Mekko Dean’s whereabouts has quickly spun into something much darker and more disturbing. Halfway through, we know the case involves not just a passionate public defender but an excessively tough county sheriff and her thuggish deputies, as well as a vaguely defined “diversion program” for inmates.
With “A Dog With Two Tails,” we learn that even Sheriff Vela Thorne isn’t at the top of this corrupt pyramid. No, the top would appear to be Judge Jed Sallsman, played by preeminent character actor John Hawkes. Hawkes has proven himself capable in a lot of different genres, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that it feels likes he’s been cast here because Judge Sallsman is as an inversion of his character from the greatest of all TV dramas, Deadwood. In that extremely profane version of how the Wild West turned into a functioning American society, Hawkes played Sol Star, the best friend of Sheriff Seth Bullock, and was often one of the friendliest, kindest characters in a sometimes very bleak story. With his role on The Lowdown, Hawkes is playing a vastly more two-faced would-be cowboy. It’s not for nothing that he’s first introduced via grumble as someone who thinks he’s “the second coming of John Wayne.”
That grumbling someone is none other than Governor Donald Washberg. As I’d assumed at the end of last week’s episode, the phone number for a “Big D” that Lee had written on the inside of his boot was the governor’s. What’s the point of having friends in high places if you can’t use them as a literal get-out-of-jail-free card? Once he’s quickly freed from Sheriff Thorne’s jail cell, Lee wants to buddy up with Governor Washberg, whose arrival in Woodrell County piques the interest of Judge Sallsman. From his first appearance in a local diner that’s straight out of an exhausting New York Times “How did Trump win?” story, Hawkes is a lot of fun, utilizing a lower vocal register and evincing a blend of folksy charm and sharp-eyed grimness.
Sallsman, Washberg, and Lee spend a large chunk of “A Dog With Two Tails” together, but it’s just Sallsman and Lee who are intentionally two-faced throughout. The judge invites Lee and a mostly unwilling Governor Washberg on a tour of his expansive ranch, Tallgrass, but with an undeniably underhanded motive. Lee is just as capable at playing two parts: an unknowing writer amazed at Sallsman’s fancy mansion, and a furiously self-righteous truthstorian who can barely stop from yelling when someone screws up the lyrics to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”
It’s at Tallgrass that Lee begins to see how much deeper Mekko’s story runs. The diversion program we’ve heard about is straight from Sallsman, fittingly and blandly called Fresh Start. Fresh Start is a meatpacking facility at which incarcerated men can work instead of wasting away in jail cells. Sallsman crows that they don’t even have guards on the payroll, and the brief promotional video he shows displays a working-class environment that’s meant to make viewers think no one would ever want to leave. As impressed as the governor is with the program, Lee clearly is not. You don’t need Ethan Hawke to glower, as Lee does after the video ends, to make clear that Lee knows how much of a lie he’s being told.
The first two-thirds of “A Dog With Two Tails” is a balancing act—the season’s core mystery unfolding alongside the absolute delight of three immensely talented actors ping-ponging off each other. We know from the first season that Kyle MacLachlan as a man on the campaign trail was enjoyable to watch, as Donald Washberg works very hard to be a blandly charming politico in spite of constantly slithering away from controversy behind the scenes. Now that Washberg is on top of the state, he’s very happy to be that empty suit, even if it gives him back problems. If it was up to the governor, as soon as he got Lee out of Sheriff Thorne’s jail, he’d be gone from Lee’s life for good. And he keeps trying and failing to hold Lee in check, chiding the writer for asking the judge how many head of cattle he has or daring to ask for a tour of Fresh Start.
Hawkes is the newbie here, and quickly establishes himself (as Martha Plimpton did last week) as a force to be reckoned with. We have conveniently not gotten wind of Judge Sallsman before now (he’s clearly not the type to visit Tulsa very often), but Hawkes is very effective at instantly embodying a type of modern masculinity that camouflages its anxieties and insecurities by playing old-fashioned cowboy. At one point, Lee gushes over some posters for movie Westerns Sallsman has in his house, including one for “Dances with Kevin” (which we know as Dances With Wolves). I’m honestly a bit surprised The Lowdown didn’t name-drop Costner’s most recent starring role, the hit TV show Yellowstone. Judge Jed Sallsman seems like a dude who watches the Taylor Sheridan-verse and longs to live in that world every day.
Lee, if nothing else, has a fire lit under him after his encounter with Judge Sallsman. He may not fit into the world of faux-cowboys, but he’s more than happy to have the chance to rent that world asunder. Yet as perceptive as Lee can be about the dangers of men with power, one of his key flaws is not grasping when someone would rather avoid taking on his crusades. Take Ginger, who we last left at Deborah Spence’s house. Ginger made it through that situation fine, but by the end of “A Dog With Two Tails,” she’s haunted. She doesn’t need much convincing to believe that Deborah’s son Nathan died under vastly more mysterious circumstances than what’s in the official record. That’s before she and Lee, upon visiting the house again, learn that Deborah has died (apparently from carbon monoxide poisoning). Lee sees this as a sign that they’re doing something right. Ginger sees it as a sign that she’s gotten in too deep.
Unfortunately for her, she pushes Lee away at the wrong time, demanding that he leave her alone even as he’s built up a full head of steam. That night at a local gas station, Ginger makes another call to her jailhouse source Pooky, who says that all he’s heard about Mekko Dean is that the guy killed some kid (clearly Nathan). Ginger can’t wrap her head around this presumed lie for too long because she’s greeted at gunpoint by McMann and Lonnie. You can tell she’s had a long day when she almost happily places herself in the trunk of their car, to their consternation. Lee did have the right idea in mind – he didn’t want to leave Ginger alone. But who’s to say he’s in any less danger, since he’s only begun to realize how big of a hornet’s nest he’s kicking up.
Stray observations
- • Rafael Casal has double duty this week, briefly appearing as Johnny at Francis’ bowling-alley birthday party while also directing the installment.
- • Casal rose to fame as the co-writer, director, and co-star of the indie film Blindspotting. Listen carefully to the narration of the Fresh Start promo video, because that voice belongs to his co-writer and co-star, Daveed Diggs.
- • Judge Sallsman’s ranch reminded me, by sheer accident, of William Macon’s on HBO’s Lanterns, not just because that character was played by Hawkes’ co-star in both Deadwood and Winter’s Bone, Garret Dillahunt.
- • It does not seem accidental to me that the Judge shows off many of his historical artifacts to Governor Washberg and Lee. That’s the first time we’ve even had a connection with Marty’s archeological-dig story, which only briefly gets mentioned this week.
- • That brief mention is mostly via an impassioned monologue Frog delivers to Ray, Marty, and Abel about how white culture happily misappropriates and steals items from local tribes. Tommy Lee Jones delivers it with great gusto, but I won’t lie: I mostly liked it for the brief punchline. After Frog’s big speech, Abel says, “He really sounds like someone we know, doesn’t he?” He does, at that.
- • That The Lowdown is funny is nothing new, but I do like how the show keeps surprising us with the ways in which it’s funny. To wit: the long, slow descent of the projector screen coupled with Donald and Lee arguing about whether Judge Sallsman can operate his own projector-screen remote was an unexpectedly goofy bit of humor before the Fresh Start video brought the mood down.
- • Also funny: the bowling-alley uniforms saying “The Pony Boys” on the back.
- • One last thing: I very much enjoyed how Lee demanded his coffee have no milk because he is now “lactose-very-intolerant.”
Keep scrolling for more great stories.