Regarding HOW dennis buys the farm, I'm picturing (but could be wrong) Phil deciding to fight fire with fire and use Dennis to get at Johnny Allen by exploiting young rickmans dislike towards Johnny. I think Phil (still angry at dennis, secretly seething from being set up and for being with Sharon) will discover that Johnny sent Andy Hunter to his doom and will happily share this information with Dennis, leading to Dennis seeing red and confronting johnny. however, johnny won't be alone, with his hired lackey Sean (who attacked Peggy) hiding in the shadows, dennis will find himself outnumbered and in severe danger. Who knows if Phil expects it to go that far, or if he had hoped that dennis would see off johnny , and take the rap, once and for all. I've read somewhere that a shotgun is involved but not from any official sources.