SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for “The Crumbs of Hope,” the first season finale of “Landman,” now streaming on Paramount+

If the beginning and end of the first season of Paramount+’s Landman are any indication, co-creator and writer Taylor Sheridan may be targeting lead actor Billy Bob Thornton.

“I think Taylor is trying to kill me,” Thornton says diversity. “He had me beaten at the beginning and the end. At least he let me throw a few punches myself there in the middle.”

Of course he’s joking. There’s no “Landman” without Tommy Norris, Thornton’s no-nonsense land rights agent and operations manager for oil company M-Tex. But that doesn’t mean Sheridan, who wrote all ten episodes of the first season, didn’t put his hero to the test.

In the finale, Norris is informed that his boss and close friend Monty (Jon Hamm) is unlikely to recover from his massive heart attack in last week’s episode, and among his final wishes is that Tommy be promoted to president of M-Tex and will be the executor of his estate, which he wants to fulfill immediately together with Monty’s wife Cami (Demi Moore). However, the monumental change in Tommy’s world is ignored when he is kidnapped minutes later by Jimenez (Alex Meraz), the leader of the local drug cartel who has been threatening M-Tex’s drilling sites all season. This isn’t a surprising turn of events, of course, considering that Tommy has used the military to “conduct training exercises in the oil fields” to deter the cartel’s drug operations. Unfortunately, during one of these exercises, one of the trading centers in question was accidentally bombed, killing some of Jimenez’s men.

Tommy is tortured with hammers, nails and gasoline in the back room of a club within inches of his life. Fate looks grim when Jimenez and his men are executed by their boss Galino, played by Andy Garcia. The tense scene, in which Galino all but demands that an unruly Tommy become his partner rather than his opponent, marks the first time Thornton says he has ever shared the screen with his longtime friend Garcia.

“Andy is such a great guy and great actor, and when we shot those scenes at the end of the last episode, it felt so good because we were two old veterans kind of going head to head,” says Thornton. “It was quite an experience and I have to say every moment felt real. Tommy is now dealing with someone who is really smart. The other guys were hired to work for him, but now Tommy is talking to the man himself. There are pros and cons to that. Since he’s so smart, who knows what Tommy will be tricked into?”

In the final moments of the season, Tommy is sent home with at least one new nail wound in his leg – and a much bigger problem in his hands. Series co-creator Christian Wallace, who was behind the Boomtown podcast on which the series is based, calls this new partnership “a blessing and a curse” for Tommy’s future. (Paramount+ has not officially ordered a second season.)

“The cartel and the oil industry are like strange neighbors living side by side in West Texas,” Wallace said. “Now Andy’s character is thinking about making a change and using that closeness in a way that could benefit him.”

Thornton sums up the threat: “What do you say?” Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Tommy figures that maybe if he becomes semi-friends with this guy, they might actually be able to work this out, because it’s going to happen one way or another.”

While Garcia’s appearance added surprising star power to the finale, the series is still making headlines for the unexpected cameo of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who delivered a lengthy monologue at Monty’s bedside that has since gone viral. Wallace confirms that the scene was unscripted and was created because of Sheridan’s long-standing friendship with Jones.

“Taylor just said, ‘We’ll let Jerry Jones do his thing and tell this incredible story from his own life,'” says Wallace. “And I think everyone on set that day was blown away by how honest and vulnerable he was when he laid it out. It was a pretty powerful moment.”

Thornton was sitting front row for Jones’ one-off monologue when Tommy enters the scene and simply sits to the side as Jones recounts his own intertwined story of family, football and oil.

“Jerry Jones is originally an Arkansan like me, and we had never met,” he says. “I just met him that morning and we just jumped into it. Essentially he was telling his own life story, and it was completely natural. And it was pretty hard to be in the room and listen to it. You felt like you weren’t in a scene on a (TV show). It felt like you were just sitting there listening to a man tell his story.”

While Jones’ speech was inspiring, it came too late for Hamm’s Monty, over whose intubated body Cami and her daughters are seen crying in the final moments of the season finale. “It’s safe to say Monty is deceased,” Wallace says. “But when you take a big player off the field, it opens up opportunities for other players – and I think that’s all I can say at this point.”

Killing Hamm’s character is strategic not only for Tommy’s rise, but perhaps for Cami as well. Wallace is celebrating her Golden Globes win for “The Substance” and is currently a frontrunner for an Oscar nomination. She says they are thrilled to have Moore in the cast and plan to keep her should the series continue. “There’s a lot more story to tell with Cami,” he says. “Taylor has big plans, that’s all I’ll say.”

However, anyone worried that Tommy’s promotion could mean less time in the oil fields and more time in the boardroom can allay those concerns – at least if Thornton has something to say about it. While he doesn’t know what Sheridan and Wallace will come up with for a second season, he thinks Tommy will take over the reins of M-Tex on his own terms.

“Tommy would much rather be out there doing what he did, but unfortunately it’s the right thing to do in these circumstances,” Thornton said. “Tommy knows he can be helpful. But he also never wanted to be a leader – that goes against his nature. So I don’t think Tommy will stop being a country man. I don’t know exactly, but I know the character – and I know that I certainly wouldn’t stop.”