Tulsa King Officially Kills Off Two Major Main Characters

Published Oct 16, 2026, 4:00 AM EDT Sean is a senior writer for ScreenRant and has been writing about new TV releases since December 2023. He has received multiple advance screenings of popular shows and ideated his own coverage read by hundreds of thousands of readers. Sean is a self-published author of a Western novel. Sean has also written award-winning opinion pieces related to local politics while getting his Bachelor's degree in journalism. Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Tulsa King season 4, episode 1.Sylvester Stallone's Tulsa King season 4 got off to an explosive start with a premiere episode that left two of the show's main characters dead. Paramount+ and the reviews for Tulsa King season 4 have promised another exciting chapter in the story of Dwight Manfredi, and the season's premiere did not disappoint. Adding to the excitement surrounding the new season is the early confirmation of Tulsa King season 5 and the first trailer for Frisco King, Samuel L. Jackson's spinoff show. In marketing Tulsa King season 4, Paramount+ teased villains both old and new for Dwight, a shifting in the scales of balance in Oklahoma, and a "crushing personal loss." That last part was immediately revealed in the premiere for the new season, as two of the show's oldest and most central characters in the cast of Tulsa King were killed off in the episode's final minutes. These character deaths could change everything for Dwight and Tulsa King season 4, and they're worth diving into. Margaret Devereaux & Cal Thresher’s Plane Crashed In Tulsa King Season 4, Episode 1 Brian Douglas / Paramount+ Margaret Devereaux (Dana Delaney) and Cal Thresher (Neal McDonough) both met their untimely ends in Tulsa King season 4, episode 1. Thresher asked Margaret to accompany him to the Governors' Conference on the Mariana Islands, which required them to take his private jet. As they were in flight, however, everyone on board the plane, including the pilots, was fast asleep while air traffic controllers tried to get in contact with them. Joanne then delivered the bad news to Dwight in the middle of the night: Thresher's plane went down somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. While Tulsa King didn't outright show viewers Thresher and Margaret dying, it might as well have. People don't generally survive plane crashes in the middle of open ocean, especially when the pilots are asleep and unable to brace for landing in any way. Margaret and Thresher are almost certainly dead. It's not yet clear how or why Thresher's plane crashed. As previously noted, everyone on board the plane was asleep, including the pilots. Pilots would never just fall asleep at the proverbial wheel, so there's a good chance some kind of malfunction or sabotage occurred. Thresher did have a lot of enemies, however, so there's no good way to narrow down who may have sabotaged his plane, if it was sabotaged at all. Thresher and Margaret dying in a plane crash has massive implications for Tulsa King season 4. Margaret's death is going to be a devastating loss for Dwight, especially considering how close they've grown over the years and how loving their relationship was. How he handles it emotionally is impossible to predict, but it's hard to imagine this won't affect his work and his general emotional state for the rest of the season. Thresher's death won't be nearly as impactful as Margaret's but it could still carry some major consequences. With Thresher dead, Oklahoma is out a governor. His lieutenant governor, Amanda Clark (Gretchen Mol), will now take his place. During their first interaction, Clark refused to even shake Dwight's hand, so she clearly won't have as amiable of a relationship with him as Thresher did. Dwight also doesn't have any leverage over Clark, which means she could be a huge obstacle in the future. Tyson Made An Enemy Of A British Gangster: Tulsa King’s New Villain Explained Image via MovieStillsDB Along with its massive character deaths, the premiere of Tulsa King season 4 also introduced the season's first proper villain, a British gangster who has his sights set on Tyson. Continuing their scheme of selling ecstasy in nightclubs from last season, Tyson and Spencer encountered Santiago, a man who tried to intimidate them into stopping their side hustle. Tyson then convinced Goodie to help him rob Santiago for his ecstasy pills and ultimately had to shoot him. At the end of the premiere, Santiago was visited by a new character, identified in the credits as English Dan (Richie Stephens). Santiago clearly worked for English Dan, and now that Tyson stole his massive stockpile of pills, Dan will have his sights set on him and the rest of Dwight's crew. Since he only appeared for a few seconds, however, we don't know much about what English Dan has planned for Tyson or what he's capable of. Tyson's frankly stupid decision to rob Santiago could also put him in hot water with Dwight. Dwight very notably wants to go legit and stop all of his gang's illegal activity. Tyson is going directly against Dwight's wishes and, even though he had Goodie's help, Dwight likely won't appreciate the insubordination. However, Dwight has always had a soft spot for Tyson, so it remains to be seen how he handles this situation. Bill Bevilaqua’s Meeting With Quiet Ray Explained Image via MovieStillsDB One of the more confusing but possibly important moments in Tulsa King season 4, episode 1 concerned Bill Bevilaqua, the Kansas City mobster. During their trip to New York to meet with the other heads of the mafia families, Bill took a private meeting with Quiet Ray. During that meeting, Bill told the New York gangster not to trust Dwight, saying, "I wouldn't trust that prick to water my cactus." Earlier in the episode, Bill also warned Dwight not to trust Quiet Ray by using the same turn of phrase. For some reason, it seems that Bill is trying to play both sides of Dwight and Quiet Ray's feud, and that he's also trying to stoke the fires of this disagreement. Tulsa King has already shown that there's no love lost between Bill and Dwight, especially after Agent Musso arrested Bill last season, but it's not clear what he's playing at with Quiet Ray. Why Mitch Burned Down The Car Dealership In Tulsa King Season 4 The last big development of Tulsa King season 4, episode 1 came from Mitch, who put a torch to the once-important car dealership. Mitch's car dealership was one of the main focuses of Tulsa King season 2, and the show spent a great deal of time detailing how Dwight got control of it. Despite that former importance, however, Mitch decided to swap all the cars inside for junkers, burn them down, and run an insurance fraud scam to collect a massive payday. Tulsa King Season 4 Release Schedule Episode # Release Date (Fridays @ 3 a.m. ET on Paramount+) 1 October 16 2 October 23 3 October 30 4 November 6 5 November 13 6 November 20 7 November 27 8 December 4 9 December 11 10 December 18 Dwight and Mitch had a few good reasons to put an end to the car dealership. First and foremost, Dwight is trying to legitimize his business interests. The car dealership ran on selling stolen cars and other shady business practices, and making it completely legitimate probably wasn't worth the hassle. It's expensive to run a dealership; it needs multiple salesmen, advertising, property taxes, maintenance on the cars, and more. Burning it all down and running an insurance scam likely worked out to be much more profitable, even if it does deprive Dwight of a revenue stream in the long run. On top of the effort to go legit is the fact that Mitch was just terrible at running the dealership. He had no charisma at all when it came to making sales, and he actively hated doing it. He was incredibly relieved to burn it all down, and given his reaction to it, Dwight probably wasn't going to convince anyone else on his crew to run the dealership instead. The dealership cost a ton to run, wasn't making much legitimate money, and didn't have anyone to manage it, so Dwight decided to get rid of it. Now, he can focus on other sources of money in Tulsa King season 4. Release Date November 13, 2022 Network Paramount+ Showrunner Dave Erickson, Terence Winter Cast Dwight 'The General' Manfredi Martin Starr Lawrence 'Bodhi' Geigerman Directors Allen Coulter, Benjamin Semanoff, David Semel, Guy Ferland, Joshua Marston, Kevin Dowling, Lodge Kerrigan, Jim McKay Writers Joseph Riccobene, David Flebotte, William Schmidt, Taylor Elmore, Tom Sierchio, Regina Corrado, Stephen Scaia, Terence Winter Creator(s) Taylor Sheridan