By JASON MARTIN (@JMartZone – Sept 1, 2018)
When last we left Marty and Wendy Byrde (Jason Bateman and Laura Linney), their children Charlotte and Jonah (Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaertner), Jacob and Darlene Snell (Peter Mullan and Lisa Emery), and the Langmores (Julia Garner, Charlie Tahan, Carson Holmes) that weren’t blown up in the penultimate episode of Season 1, we were in a space where we knew transition was afoot. Things wouldn’t look quite the same going forward, with Camino Del Rio now Camino Del Dead (I considered Dead Rio, but elected to be even more blatant) and Wendy seemingly more in love – or at least in support – with her husband than she has been in quite some time. She and her children elected to come back, rather than taking the new identities Marty had set up for them, risking their safety to be with husband and father.
The season opens in an odd location, but we knew before the end of “Reparations” why we saw it. It was a posh little gala run by a political and business power broker named Charles Wilkes (Darren Goldstein). The Byrde family’s long-term survival may be completely tied to successfully opening the ultimate money laundering spot, a Missouri casino. Wilkes, an agricultural mogul and a true believer when it comes to altruistic causes, isn’t just going to jump on board without a solid pitch. Because Missouri is a state without political contribution limits, Wilkes could spend and spend and spend, and has in the past.
Wendy has to play the central role as she bumps into Wilkes at the event, spills her beverage on him, and then entices him with her St. Jerome necklace. Because we know this is not a religious family, we can surmise that this jewelry choice was not by accident. He knows her name, because he sees a $50,000 donation as reason enough to know his guests and not just see them as blank faces or dollar signs. He’s savvy and smart, and the immediate thought is how long it will be before these two end up between the sheets. It’s not like Wendy hasn’t done that kind of thing before.
Perhaps more intriguing than Wilkes, who strikes me as a character that will make this show better, is the arrival of Helen Pierce (Janet McTeer), a positively frightening cartel attorney from Chicago. She’s got the Gus Fring in her, that one. She’s doing her job, but it seems like she almost enjoys threatening people, or in the case of the clerk that said “no” to her, ordering people’s deaths. They needed that footage of the person that swiped Del’s credit card badly enough to kill someone for simply doing his job. But, legality and morality are not hallmarks of a Mexican drug cartel, its attorneys or fixers, or for Ozark as a whole.
It also appears like Cade Langmore (Trevor Long) is going to be a much bigger player in Season 2 following Ruth (Julia Garner) speaking at his parole hearing. Garner’s performance in the first season was arguably, alongside Bateman’s, the series’ best, and as a character, she was the most compelling. We already see signs of Cade creating a rift between his daughter and her boss, “Just remember, he ain’t your daddy.” She wants to learn the business, wants Marty to trust her, doesn’t want to think of the occasion where she almost murdered him, and is seeking a realization of the hope you occasionally see in her eyes. Cade is the LAST person she needs around her, so of course he’s front and center.
As for her importance to the plot, I would expect that not to change, but hopefully we’ll get a little more from Jacob and Darlene Snell as they play the Limehouse clan of this show, for Justified fans. Cade is probably going to be terrible and annoying, but we know the Byrdes are tied deeply to the Snells at this point, especially because Darlene couldn’t control herself when she heard the word “redneck” after dropping several racial slurs of her own.
The two families reach an agreement as Jacob listens to reason concerning the cartel. His wife continues to go the racist route, and be far too emotional, but that’s actually good for the series. She’s going to cause trouble for herself and her own interests, and at times her ability to serve as a loose cannon is going to make events a little more unpredictable than they might be otherwise. But, what a brutal way to go if you’re Ash. That was nasty, and what’s sad about it is that Jacob’s logic, in the Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams created universe of Ozark, actually makes some sense. I continue to love how in every show Peter Mullan pops up in, he speaks in quotable lines and sounds like he’s reciting local proverbs and teachings.
What he said about Del was one of many examples we’ve already experienced throughout the show’s run, as he goes with, “Man violated a code. That has a price, and it’s not ours to pay.” It’s going to be fascinating to watch Byrde and Snell have to work together, despite not fully trusting each other, or if they’re smart they won’t. Both are criminals, both look out for their own skin first, and both families are extremely stubborn when they believe they’re right.
Marty says something telling once he and Wendy get back to the homestead and aren’t killed by the Ice Queen or her henchmen in the SUV. He tells his wife, “We just keep trying to figure a way out of this.” That’s basically the story of the entire series in 11 words. You could add a second sentence, which might read, “Yet, every time we try, we dig a deeper, colder grave.” If you want to compare Ozark to Breaking Bad, start with the idea that Walter White’s initial motivations appeared to be good, and he wanted to leave something for his family. By the end of the series, he came to grips with the fact he was actually the villain and wasn’t doing it for anybody but himself anymore. Is that where we’re headed with Marty?
He and his wife made the decision to take the cartel laundering job. Never did they choose for the right reasons. And Wendy is just as much to blame, because she could have put the kibosh on it and didn’t do so. Marty and Jacob have both said some variation of “Choices have consequences” multiple times on this show, including Marty in this very conversation, and it’s ultimately what put them in the situation they’re in. Life is nothing but a series of decisions. How they’re handled and for what purposes and goals determines the course of our lives.
As Marty and Wendy head for home, we get a little Chairman of the Board. “Summer Wind” plays us out, and though it’s his version of a 1965 German song, the tune is about time that has passed and seasons (literally and figuratively) that have shifted or changed. We have no more Del, but we have (gulp) Helen. We’ve got a partnership between Byrde and Snell. We have a new player in Charles Wilkes. We have Cade Langmore out of prison. And, somehow, we have even higher stakes than we did last year.
All in all, a good start to Season 2. The episode was a little long and as usual, it was overstuffed with content. This is an exhausting show, but I like it now more so than I have at any point prior. I’ll be writing on each episode, with two more on the way before the weekend is out. What’d you think? Find me @JMartZone and let me know how you felt about the opener.
I’m @JMartZone. What part of I can’t do that is so confusing?
