After a few slow burns and scattered subplots, Tulsa King Season 3 finally hits its stride in Episode 6, titled “Bubbles.” This episode ties together the loose threads that have been dangling since the start of the season, and it does so with a bang literally. Every storyline collides in an explosive hour that feels like vintage Tulsa King; gritty, unpredictable, and gloriously messy.
Dwight’s Liquor Empire Meets Trouble
Everything in this episode spins around one very intoxicating centerpiece - booze. The Montague 50 liquor operation, once Dwight Manfredi’s golden ticket to legitimate success, has become a ticking time bomb. The distillery, once a symbol of ambition, is now soaked in blood after Dunmire’s inspector ends up with his skull crushed under a giant barrel. Dwight, ever the strategist, stages the death as an accident and sends poor Bodhi to “discover” the body to make the setup look real.
The plan almost works but now the authorities have shut down the distillery pending investigation, freezing operations and pushing Bodhi’s already fragile nerves past breaking point. With legal sales off the table, Dwight’s patience runs dry. So he decides to go old-school, reaching out to an eccentric contact from his past, Johnny Wednesday, for help moving the product underground.
Mitch and Cleo are dispatched to sweet-talk Wednesday, while Bodhi and Grace head to St. Louis to hunt for distribution opportunities. Their mission leads to a fun, fast-paced montage where the crew “reclaims” the confiscated liquor and hits the road like modern-day bootleggers on a mission. But beneath the humor and adrenaline, there’s an unmistakable shadow of Bill’s disappearance.
Bill’s Mysterious Vanishing Act
While Dwight’s focus remains on keeping the liquor flowing, the sudden vanishing of Bill throws everything into uncertainty. Bill was last seen meeting Dwight, and since he wasn’t exactly discreet about where he was headed, the rumor mill starts spinning fast. Even Goodie, Dwight’s trusted ally, subtly asks if Dwight might’ve “handled” Bill himself.
But Dwight knows he didn’t pull that trigger and his gut tells him the real culprit might be Quiet Ray, the New York mobster still sore about Bill’s loyalty to Dwight. If Ray wanted revenge, this would be his move.
Dwight’s solution? Face the problem head-on. He arranges a long-overdue sit-down with Quiet Ray at a restaurant called Bubbles, located in the neutral grounds of Hot Springs, Arkansas. But as Tulsa King fans know, nothing is ever truly “neutral.”
Enemies on Every Front
Meanwhile, trouble brews elsewhere. Attorney General Sackrider, who’s made it his personal mission to sink Dwight’s operation, manages to slip a tracker onto Dwight’s car. He’s convinced Dwight’s business is rotten, and he wants proof. On the other end, Jeremiah Dunmire orders his right-hand man Cole to take things further, follow Dwight and eliminate him once and for all.
But Dunmire can’t resist humiliating Cole first, reminding him that his late brother was a decorated soldier while Cole is just a man in camouflage trying to please daddy. These power dynamics perfectly capture the kind of ego-driven desperation fueling Tulsa King’s new villains.
Meanwhile, Dwight’s crew hits a few bumps of their own. Mitch and Cleo get pulled over by a Highway Patrol officer secretly working for Cole, forcing them into a quick, rough takedown before escaping. Bodhi and Grace, on the other hand, get the unsettling call about Bill’s disappearance mid-trip, sending their anxiety into overdrive.
And as if fate wasn’t done testing them, Cole’s hitmen cross paths with Bigfoot in a gas station parking lot, a mistake they won’t make twice. The muscle-bound bodyguard quickly makes it clear why Dwight keeps him around.
For a moment, it seems like everything might actually be falling into place. But the illusion doesn’t last long.
The Sit-Down at “Bubbles” Turns Deadly
When Dwight finally walks into Bubbles with Tyson and Bigfoot at his side, there’s a tension in the air thick enough to cut with a knife. Ray has brought along Vince, a deliberate insult meant to rattle Dwight. The two mobsters exchange polite smiles laced with venom before diving into business.
Ray makes an outrageous demand: 80% of the liquor profits. Dwight laughs it off, calling it what it is, robbery, but he also confronts Ray about Bill, accusing him of having something to do with the disappearance. Both men puff up with pride, anger simmering just beneath the surface.
Before they can come to blows or worse chaos erupts. Cole, who slipped into the restaurant unnoticed, suddenly opens fire on the table. Bullets fly, glasses shatter, and the quiet meeting turns into a blood-soaked mess. Dwight and his men fire back, managing to avoid casualties, but the damage is already done.
Ray storms out, convinced Dwight tried to have him killed. And no matter how much Dwight tries to reach out afterward, Ray won’t answer. To Ray, this was a setup.
Now Dwight has multiple fires to put out: Ray’s fury, Dunmire’s vendetta, and Musso, his old boss, who secretly has Bill and hasn’t revealed why. Each threat is circling closer, and Dwight’s once-stable empire feels like it’s collapsing one brick at a time.
Tragedy in the Shadow
Amid the chaos, Tulsa King quietly slips in another twist. Armand, who’s been missing for much of the season, is found dead—apparently by suicide in a run-down motel. The reveal is subtle and almost throwaway, but it raises eyebrows. Armand’s disappearance never seemed significant enough to justify such a grim payoff. Was it really suicide, or is there more to this story? The show doesn’t say, leaving viewers unsettled and suspicious.
A Return to Classic Tulsa King Energy
By the time the credits roll, “Bubbles” feels like a turning point. The pacing, tone, and tension finally recall the show’s first-season energy, where every decision carried weight and every character felt one bad move away from destruction.
Episode 6 is packed with double-crosses, moral dilemmas, and the kind of raw emotion that’s been missing for a while. It’s a reminder of why Tulsa King works best when Dwight is caught between his old-world mob instincts and his attempts to build something new in Tulsa.
As Dwight stares at the growing storm ahead; betrayed allies, missing friends, and enemies on all sides—the stakes couldn’t be higher and with only a few episodes left this season, one thing’s for sure: the real fireworks are still to come.
Read more: Tulsa King episode analysis
