What is a H2S gas leak? And does HS2 stand for?

Since Landman began, we’ve grown accustomed to an oil and gas worker’s typical fit: hard hat, boots, and some combo of crude-covered coverall and Carhartts. But out at the wells stretched across the vast Permian Basin, there is also an essential piece of flair that a guy like Dale (James Jordan), Tommy Norris’s heatin’-up-canned-beans-in-the-microwave M-Tex House roommate, never goes without. It’s a hydrogen sulfide detector, or H₂S for short (not HS2). Little, clipped to a lapel, and usually bright yellow, it sorta resembles a Tamagotchi. Difference is, this device is all about keeping its wearer alive. 

Hydrogen sulfide is pure poison in invisible form. A totally toxic gas, it can gather around oil field equipment that is under-maintained. And though it stinks like rotten eggs, you’ll never see H₂S coming. This is the exact situation that opens Episode 3 of Landman Season 2, when a random crew of hunters, chasing their quarry into a well patch, have their respiratory systems destroyed by the corrosive gas within seconds. Later, when Dale and Boss (Mustafa Speaks) arrive in the area with a crew, tasked with working over M-Tex’s acquisition of these rusted-out rigs, their wearable hydrogen sulfide monitors instantly start to chirp. H2S danger close! Only some quick thinking from Dale saves the lives of the entire crew.

So what is the gas leak in Landman? Why is H₂S so terrible?

Series writer Taylor Sheridan sets up a deadly dynamic in the most recent episode of Landman. While the people at the top of the oil and gas industry compete for profits in a perpetual cycle of booms and busts, workers on the ground cheat death with every punch of a time card. As M-Tex landman Tommy Norris squares off with cartel kingpin Gallino (Andy Garcia), their argument feels existential. (Tommy: “I’m not gonna discuss the nuances of oil exploration with a fucking drug dealer, OK?”) But for guys like Dale, who could perish at any moment while just trying to make a living, there is nothing existential about the hydrogen sulfide toxic gas threat. 

M-Tex wanted to convert those badly-maintained, literally lethal oil rigs it acquired into wells that earn. That’s the whole reason the work crew was out there. Why Dale just barely survived his latest workday. Back at the Midland crash pad, Nathan (Colm Feore), the M-Tex attorney, tells Dale that with proper maintenance, the oil company might still derive profit from those killer rigs. The crude-covered petroleum engineer takes a long pull off his bottle of Michelob Ultra. OK, Dale says, with his lifesaving H2S monitor still clipped to his coverall. “But the wrongful death policy would need to be extended.”

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.