"The Lowdown" brings a new case and fresh troubles for Ethan Hawke in Season 2.

The FX series introduces the characters played by Tommy Lee Jones and Betty Gilpin.

[This story contains spoilers for the first two episodes of the second season of The Lowdown on FX and Hulu.]

Lee Ribbon doesn't need much help to complicate her life, but two characters arriving in the first season of The Lowdown promise to make things considerably more chaotic for the Tulsa "truther."

A case of Lee not alone enough: Accepting a journalism award for the big show at the center of the story, a nervous Lee (Ethan Hawke) grabs a piece of mushroom gum and goes off the rails with a speech that basically calls everyone in the room a sellout and a loser. This earns him a punch in the face (some things don't change) from another reporter, but also the attention of public defender Ginger (Betty Gilpin), who puts Lee on the scent of what's going to become the central mystery of the season.

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At the same time, unbeknownst to Lee, her estranged father, Lee Sr. (Tommy Lee Jones) is on her way. A police officer spots Senior on a country road, where he's wandering and seemingly confused, dressed in an ill-fitting suit and a red baseball cap—not the red kind, though. On the front is "Psalm 107:29". This verse in the New King James Version of the Bible says: "He calms the storm, so that its waves are still".

"Seemingly confused" is a key premise here, as during Wednesday's two-parter The Lowdown on FX and Hulu, Senior slowly reveals himself to be more aware than he initially lets on. Hawke and Jones told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview that even when the police catch him, he's not necessarily as depressed as he seems.

"He's having a blast," Huck said with a laugh.

"Yeah, he's trying to get a free ride around town," Jones added. "And what better way than to pretend you don't know the history? He's right at his destination, which is his son's doorstep."

Lee is determined to get his father away from him as soon as possible, but Arshad—thanks to reading about Lee's prize—knows he has a grandson, and extracts more information from Waylon (Cody Lightning), Henry (Jude Barnett) and record store owner Abel (Josh Fadem). The last we see of Senior in Wednesday's episode is when he introduces himself to Frances (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). It's safe to say that this action leads to a lot of friction between father and daughter, who are in a great place after Francis witnesses part of Lee's award speech and leaves the house.

Lee willingly involves himself further with Ginger, who informs him at an awards ceremony that she thinks two men are following her. Lee approves, and as a trick to trick the stalkers into thinking they're together, Ginger kisses Lee before riding home. Of course, Lee grossly misreads the gesture and shows her to the office the next day, where Ginger is (understandably) a bit nervous and unsure of what to do. He eventually tells her that one of his former clients, McCo Dean, who he still talks to, has apparently disappeared from prison.

Gilpin's performance of Ginger's nerves and her uncertainty about Lee — he reads correctly that she might be troubled, but Lee is also utterly charismatic — is something to behold.

"If you ask Ginger, 'What will the show be about your life?'" I think it's all the contrasting moments you'll see, Gilpin told THR. I think he's trying to say, “Oh, film me in court with my clients. "Don't show me my house, my fridge, or my love life." "I think it's kind of a controlled mess for him, and The Lowdown is interested in lifting the rug and seeing what's underneath everyone's mess."

Her nervousness is justified: one of the men chasing her comes to her house at the end of the first episode, and she shoots him through the window (off camera). At the end of the second episode, Lee storms into the case: he discovers that one of Ginger's followers is a prison guard named McMann (Shane McRae), and he befriends a recently fired guard named Chili (Paul Schneider, a very different man than he was in Parks and Recreation) to get information.

After a long series of scenes between Lee and Chili that alternate between pathetic and downright tense, Chili claims he's going to steal some beers from a friend. HOUSE - He then takes Lee to McMann's. Lee manages to escape, but not before witnessing the murder of Chili by McMann.

Despite the very exciting events described above, The Lowdown is also quite funny in the first two episodes of season two. Series creator Sterling Harjo directed both episodes and wrote the first episode (Sneha Koorse wrote the second), telling THR that he and his fellow writers are always looking for comedy in the show.

"I think if it sounds funnier, it's because I had more space," Harjo told THR . "I was building a world in the first season, and in this season, people already know the world, so I could really hit the ground running, and that gave me the confidence to really go for it. I didn't have to explain who Lee was or what he was doing. ... When we get into this moment, I could really lean into his life. And I'm always looking for humor. I couldn't do anything that wasn't a joke, I think it wasn't."

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