The Lowdown Episode 7 recap: The season’s darkest hour exposes Lee’s fatal flaws

Episode 7 of The Lowdown premiered on FX on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, at 9/8c. If you missed it, you can catch it on Hulu starting October 29.

This is the second-to-last episode, titled Tulsa Turnaround, and it jumps right in after the wild ending of Episode 6. Citizen journalist Lee Raybon is in deeper trouble than ever as he is up against fresh threats, and his moral compass is spinning. As Lee digs further into the Washberg family’s tangled past, the opposition gets uglier, and things start to spiral for everyone in Tulsa.

The Lowdown is a one-season show with 8 episodes total. It centers on Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke), a stubborn bookstore owner who calls himself a “truthstorian” and moonlights as an investigative reporter in Tulsa, Oklahoma. All season, Lee has been uncovering all kinds of dirt, crimes, political schemes, old family secrets, and everything seems to lead back to the Washbergs, the city’s elite.

Episode 6 blew things open: Dale Washberg’s secret will came to light, and tensions among Tulsa’s power players hit a breaking point. Now, in The Lowdown Episode 7, the stakes shoot even higher. Mark sends an enforcer after Chutto and his grandfather, Arthur, while Betty Jo’s moves remain a mystery.

The Lowdown Episode 7 recap

Tulsa Turnaround lives up to its name as it is a gut-punch of an episode that throws The Lowdown’s story into chaos. Tensions finally boil over, and you feel how the scars of the past refuse to stay buried.

Earlier on, Frank tries to get Dale Washberg’s handwritten will back from Arthur (played by Graham Greene), but it all goes wrong. What starts as a tense standoff explodes in a split second: Arthur, scared and suspicious, reaches for his gun. The shot is sudden. Arthur is gone, just like that. Any hope that these old secrets would stay hidden gets blown apart.

The Lowdown Episode 7 kicks off with a car chase that fizzles out almost as soon as it starts. Lee and Marty go after Frank, but Lee’s van craps out. He is left stranded, panicking. Desperate, he calls Betty Jo, the same woman who had already tipped off Frank about Arthur’s whereabouts, and tries to dump the blame on her.

But he is just running from his own mistakes. Marty’s attempt to call 911 backfires, too, possibly alerting the wrong people, and now Lee is not just doubting his own instincts as a cop but as a dad.

Meanwhile, Frank takes Trip’s advice and bolts for the One Well church, gripping Donald’s final will. He tears it up on the way, burning any chance for straightforward justice for the folks the Washbergs hurt. It’s a desperate move as Frank is running out of options, and it shows.

Marty figures out where Frank is headed and drags Lee along for the ride. What follows is the episode’s big showdown in the church hall. Mark (Paul Sparks) is front and center now, fully unmasked as the show’s most terrifying villain. He launches into a rant about white resentment and violence, diving straight into far-right extremism. It’s not just fiction; the show is drawing a clear line between Tulsa’s haunted history and the ugly realities of now.

The last moments of The Lowdown Episode 7 are raw nerves. Lee charges into the church, throwing around murder accusations at Frank, but he is completely outnumbered. He has women and kids watching, plus a bunch of skinheads with guns who would do anything for Mark. When Mark tells his followers to “fire on this bedraggled white savior,” [Vulture], you can feel the whole room holding its breath.

It’s a cliffhanger that hits hard, both for the plot and the bigger themes. Reviewers are calling it a perfect ten for suspense. At the same time, they are looking at Lee’s reckless choices and wondering what drives this hero mentality, especially up against so much violence and chaos.

The Lowdown Episode 7, Tulsa Turnaround, digs deeper into Lee’s mind than ever before. He has always played the truth-teller, but now we see where his courage ends and his fear really starts to show. Critics point out that Lee isn’t exactly self-aware. He keeps blaming people like Betty Jo and Marty for the danger, when it’s really his own obsession that drags everyone into the mess.

This time, though, it’s not all about Lee. The story of The Lowdown shifts focus back to Mark, Preston, and their followers, turning them into a real threat, not just to Lee and the Washbergs, but to the uneasy calm in Tulsa itself. The church scene lays it all out: this is what happens when someone like Mark uses words to twist history and stir up violence. That has been a thread running through the whole series, tying back to the Tulsa Race Massacre.

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The cliffhanger is packed with tension, but not everyone buys Lee’s sudden shift. Amanda Whiting at Vulture, for one, wonders if it really makes sense for Lee, who has always been jumpy and careful, to suddenly throw himself into vigilante mode. It feels jarring, and yet, you get why he does it. That uncertainty elevates the hype for the finale. Will The Lowdown tie up these loose ends, or lean into the messiness?

Now, with just one episode left and no word on a renewal, fans and critics are hanging on every moment. What will happen to Lee? Where does the Washberg legacy go from here? And what is next for Tulsa in Harjo’s world?

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