Ozark places its characters on a wire as their problems multiply
Season 4, Episode 2: "Let the Great World Spin"
About a week before this season of Ozark premiered, my dad and I were discussing which TV shows could be interpreted as having more than one main character. We couldn't agree on one, (although he did argue that Al could be seen as the main character of Atlanta, which only proves that he’s going senile before his own father—is that even possible?) but I made a point that I feel was quiet valid—you could make a fair argument that either Marty or Wendy could be the main character of Ozark. At the beginning, Marty was definitely the character the audience was supposed to focus on, but as the series has progressed, his wife has become as important as him, if not more.
But man, Wendy (I hate making this comparison so much) is really becoming her own Walter White, isn’t she? Worse in some ways. Walter never used his deceased family for sympathy. The most shocking moment in “Let the Great World Spin” isn’t a center point of the episode—you could even consider it unimportant in the grand scheme of things—but it says everything about the parts of Wendy we haven’t seen yet this season. The idea that she would use Ben’s memory to get ahead in business is absolutely sickening, and Laura Linney plays it off with an almost Darlene-esque sense of falseness.
What is the major idea of Ozark? Considering this thing is almost done, I think this is an important question to ask and have answered. From the very beginning, Ozark has always been driven by greed. Think of the opening scene of the series, where Marty is just…talking to the audience…about money and its value. (There’s a reason why no one thinks season one is the best.) Everyone who mattered (except Ben, I guess) that died in this series died because of greed and their own desires—Del, (man, remember that guy?) Helen, Ruth’s dad, that FBI agent who I’m glad is dead. And now, Wendy succumbs to her temptations, meeting with her political connection Jim and infiltrating a massive pharmaceutical company, where she uses not just her brother for sympathy, but his personal struggles and “disappearance.”
That’s some dark shit. That’s even darker than the fact that she had Ben killed in the first place. “He didn't love you,” she spits at Ruth when she is refused Ben’s ashes. “He was sick.” This episode is, if nothing else, about Wendy’s complete transformation from the determined but perpetually irritated wife of “crime drama husband protagonist with questionable morals” to an intimidating figure in her own right, as loathsome as she is mesmerizing to watch.
The title of this episode comes from a 2009 book that connects the stories of several characters, but, more importantly, features Philippe Petit’s famous 1974 tightrope walk between the two buildings of the World Trade Center as a prominent facet. Perhaps this is me reading too much into this (or worse, surface level analysis) but it feels like this is meant to create the image of the current situation of our characters, as if the Byrdes, the Langmore cousins, Darlene, Agent Miller, even Navarro, are all toeing a thin line a thousand miles in the air, and only Navarro is allowed to have a net.
Because man, some of the characters in this episode are making really stupid decisions, huh? I still can’t tell if Jonah just blatantly telling his parents that he’s working with Ruth was a genius move or very, very stupid. I guess only time will tell. Ruth herself goes out of her way to make things easier for Darlene, only to get shut down for…Darlene reasons. I really thought, at the end of season three, Ruth’s new partnership would earn her more respect than when she worked for Marty, but clearly not—Darlene has always been a fearsome but hateable facet of the show, but man, she becomes absolutely insufferable here, which I wouldn't call unintentional.
This is also an episode that I feels better establishes Javier as a threat, even if he doesn't do any sheriff shooting this time. The best kind of villains are the ones that make you actively not want them to be in the room, not because they're not entertaining but because you don't want to see someone die graphically. (Or, if you're watching this show, I guess you do.) Forcing Marty to clean up a mess that wasn't by any means his is irksome enough, but then Javier's instinctive reaction to make another mess is worse. The scene where he very nearly sends the new sheriff (who is already making huge problems for Darlene) the same way as the old one is laden with the kind of tension that Ozark thrives off of, and it's good to see that after four seasons, they've still got the unique feeling of rising action and tension that characterized it so well.
And lastly, there's the major conflict of this episode: convincing the deeply moral Agent Miller to sit down with the leader of Mexico’s most dangerous cartel and getting him off scot-free. At first, this actually kind of works, but then she starts having second thoughts. So Wendy does what she's starting to do best—she talks. Wendy does a lot of talking in this episode—planning with her advisor, bargaining with the CEO, and now, convincing Miller to go with Navarro’s men and trust that she's not being set up. “If you won't protect my family, I won't protect yours” she flatly tells Miller when she starts to get cold feet.
So far, Ozark's final season has been setting up all its characters to fail, for their deals to collapse and for their best laid plans to go to waste. There are more and more loose elements getting added with each scene, more things to make everything go awry, and this is where Ozark has always thrived. It's doing this as well as it ever has—and because this is the final season, I'm already wondering which characters can stay on the wire, and for how much longer.
Rating: 10/10
Nelson!
She lost it last time she was nominated, but Laura Linney is getting the Emmy this year. I can feel it.
inb4 she loses the Emmy
inb4 Julia Garner wins her third Emmy
The reveal of Ben’s ashes being inside the goat is a reference to the fact that he was a goated character.
Pretty sure the private eye guy is annoying on purpose. Glad Miller shut him down. I really, really hope she survives the next episode.
Good to see Frank Jr. on a cane. Hope his dick is even more mangled.
“And what exactly are you gonna do about it, Marty? Get your dick shot off too?”
“Do not be proud of him right now!”
“He's betraying our family.” You're one to talk.