- - “Landman”: Sam Elliott's T.L. Cries After Getting into a Fight About Losing His Infant Daughter: 'It Shattered Me'

Julia MooreDecember 22, 2025 at 1:31 AM

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Emerson Miller/Paramount+

Sam Elliott as T.L. Norris in Landman season 2 -

In the Dec. 21 episode of Landman, Sam Elliott's character T.L. throws a punch at an old colleague, prompting a teary-eyed confession to his son, Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton)

Elliott, 81, joined season 2 of the hit Taylor Sheridan series and told PEOPLE he brings "healing" for Thornton's character

New episodes of Landman premiere Sundays on Paramount+

A new side of Sam Elliott is on display in the latest episode of Landman.

The actor, 81, plays T.L., the grieving father of Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton) in season 2 of Taylor Sheridan's hit series, and in the Dec. 21 episode, a reunion with an old colleague brings out the anger in him.

T.L. accompanies his son on a drive to Fort Worth for the day, eager to get out of the house, and while Tommy has a business meeting with Danny (Andy Garcia) and Cami (Demi Moore), T.L. runs into Nash Peters, an old employee of his on an oil rig he worked on years ago.

The two exchange pleasantries at first, before T.L. shows his disinterest in catching up, which prompts Nash to call him a "d---." Moments later, Tommy's meeting with Danny and Cami is cut short when he watches his dad punch Nash, sending him falling down multiple rows of bleachers.

Tommy intervenes, dragging T.L. out of the building before security gets too involved, and a teary-eyed T.L. makes a confession.

Paramount+

Sam Elliott in 'Landman'

While Tommy assumed the comment that precipitated the punch was an insult about his mother, who died in the season 2 premiere, which is how T.L. came back into his estranged son's life, it was instead about an even more delicate topic.

“I’m glad you don’t understand, because I barely understand it, and I lost a child, too. But she didn’t grow inside me. My body didn’t nourish her," T.L. told Tommy, referring to his late sister, who he told Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) died when she was four months old from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

Of that loss, T.L. said, "It shattered me, but it didn’t scramble my soul. It scrambled [your mother's] soul, son."

Tommy's mother, Dorothy, fell into a cycle of addiction after the baby's death, as he previously explained, leading to an estrangement between mother and son. T.L., meanwhile, waited decades for his wife to come out of the darkness.

T.L. described his late wife as "the most joyous, loving creature that I’ve ever seen on this f------ planet," but that was not the version of her that Tommy ever met.

"You could say I wasted my life and ruined yours, and maybe I did, but for the hope that maybe she was in there somewhere, son."

In response, Tommy said to his father, “I don’t think hers is the only soul that got scrambled.”

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Emerson Miller/Paramount+

Sam Elliott as T.L. and Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy in Landman.

Elliott described T.L. as a "fractured man" in an interview with PEOPLE ahead of season 2's premiere.

"It's gone on for him for years, since his wife turned inward, and he waited forever for her to come out of it, and she never really did. But consequently, [Tommy] paid for it, while [T.L.] checked out," Elliot explained.

T.L.'s return to Tommy's life is an "emotional ride," the actor said, but the father and son are "healing that relationship that's falling apart."

New episodes of Landman premiere Sundays on Paramount+

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”