Landman Season 3: Empire Built on Fire – The Rise of CTT Oil in the Heart of Betrayal | Yellowstone Spoilers

In the brutal oil fields of West Texas—where fortunes are carved from scorched earth and loyalty is as volatile as crude—Yellowstone: Landman Season 3 ignites a story of ambition, blood, and betrayal that refuses to stay buried. This season follows Tommy Norris, a fixer-turned-founder whose dream of independence mutates into a ruthless empire forged under cartel pressure and corporate sabotage. What begins as a gamble for freedom becomes a war for survival—one that scorches everyone who gets too close.

Tommy knows the truth of power before anyone says it aloud: ownership is an illusion if you don’t control the ground beneath your feet. Fired from MTX Oil by the ice-cold Cammy Miller, Tommy stares at a future stripped of corporate armor. But the fall is only the spark. He launches CTT Oil—named for himself, his son Cooper, and his hardened father TL—believing family and grit can beat suits and boardrooms. The plan is simple: drill fast, drill smart, and stay free.

Freedom, however, comes at a price. To get rigs moving, Tommy shakes hands with Galino, a cartel boss whose charm cuts sharper than steel. The warning is whispered, not shouted: fail, and he’ll take what Tommy loves most. Tommy pretends the deal is just business, but the shadow follows him home.

Cooper throws himself into the work, eager to prove his worth on the rigs. Young, fearless, and burning with belief, he sees CTT as their chance to rewrite the family story. TL, by contrast, sees ghosts in every flare stack. He’s lost too much to oil—his wife, his health, his faith—and warns Tommy that dancing with devils always ends in flames. Tommy pushes on anyway, locking down a lease that seems too easy to secure.

The land fights back. Old wells poison the soil. Rival crews lurk at night. A valve explodes in a fireball that nearly kills Cooper. Was it an accident—or Cammy’s opening move to crush her former employee before he gains traction? Paranoia takes root as Galino’s men arrive early, demanding payment with smashed windows and veiled threats. Tommy stands tall, but fear gnaws at him. This isn’t just business anymore—it’s family.

Angela, Tommy’s ex-wife, returns to the edges of his life, drawn by unfinished feelings and fresh danger. Their daughter Rebecca comes back too—smart, ambitious, and unwilling to stay sidelined. Angela begs her to stay clear, but Rebecca sneaks onto the site to help Cooper map drills. Their bond grows amid the chaos, even as an anonymous call warns of poison in the water supply meant to shut CTT down for good.

When oil finally flows, celebration turns to dread. Tommy’s old ally Dale Bradley brings word that MTX is buying judges and circling the lease. Phones feel tapped. Trucks feel tailed. Sleep disappears. Then Cooper vanishes. Tommy finds him hours later—beaten, dumped, and barely alive. The message is clear: back off. The question is from whom—the cartel, the rivals, or someone closer?

An insider is leaking plans. Trust collapses. Angela pleads with Tommy to end it before it kills them all, but CTT has become his legacy. He can’t walk away. Sabotage continues. Fires light the sky. Galino expands his reach through oil lines while bought cops look the other way. Pulling out would mean ruin; staying means blood.

Rebecca digs into records and uncovers Cammy’s illegal fracking, bribed regulators, and a scheme to flood the market and bankrupt independents like CTT. It’s leverage—but using it risks all-out war. When Galino demands Tommy transport “special cargo,” he refuses—only to be framed the next day when cartel goods appear in his hijacked truck. With the law closing in, Tommy hides in the badlands and realizes the only way out is through.

Cooper survives, but the warning lands. TL lays out the truth with a bottle and a revolver on the table: next time they won’t miss. Rebecca breaks into MTX after hours and photographs everything. Angela wants the evidence turned over to authorities. Tommy knows better. He uses it as currency.

Galino summons Tommy to a private airstrip. The threat escalates: comply, or Cooper won’t wake up next time. Tommy caves, moving unmarked crates through back roads and collecting blood money that spreads CTT’s reputation overnight. Wells hit big. Money pours in. But a driller goes missing—his truck found wrecked, blood inside. The sheriff calls it an accident. Tommy doesn’t.

Cammy strikes again, ordering a fire that guts CTT’s main pump station. TL confronts Tommy with the oldest question in the oil patch: family or fortune? Tommy chooses both—even as history circles back to punish them.

Rebecca finds a lawyer not on the take, but protection costs more than they have. Galino calls again, demanding a pipeline diversion that would poison protected water tables. Tommy refuses. Survey stakes appear anyway. Someone has moved ahead without him. War is inevitable.

When armed men sabotage the rigs, CTT fights back. In the aftermath, a wounded attacker reveals the unthinkable truth: the leak is Dale Bradley—Tommy’s oldest friend. Confronted, Dale breaks, admitting he’s been paid by both Cammy and Galino to protect his own family. Something dies in Tommy that morning.

The counterstrike is cold and calculated. Dale is forced to confess on camera. Cammy is lured to an old refinery and trapped under floodlights as her crimes play back on a screen—her voice ordering the fire that nearly killed Cooper. She’s handed to the feds, her empire collapsing in real time.

Galino answers with violence. Cartel trucks descend on the Norris home. Rebecca and Angela barricade in the storm cellar. Cooper and TL arrive under fire, driving the attackers off. The house burns. The family survives—but the cost is clear.

Tommy takes the fight to Galino’s compound. With Rebecca’s hacked access, alarms stay silent as charges are placed. Inside, Galino offers a devil’s bargain: transfer every lease, pipeline, and account to CTT in exchange for his life—insurance that will destroy Tommy if Galino dies. As the compound burns, Tommy signs. He saves his family, takes the throne, and sells his soul in the same breath.

At dawn, Galino sits cuffed in the CT yard like a living liability. The crew waits for orders. Tommy lays out the truth: they now control half of West Texas—but Galino must stay alive. Drilling accelerates. Money flows. Peace doesn’t. Federal pressure mounts. Cammy rots in jail and makes one final call. Days later, a drone drops death on a CTT well pad, killing three men in white-hot flame.

Season 3 ends with CTT richer than ever and more cursed than before. Tommy Norris stands at the center of a blazing empire—victorious, damned, and trapped in a game where the next move could burn everything to ash.