Ozark season 2 premiere review: What kind of trouble is Marty Byrde in now?
The bad news is that Del is dead and the cartel has yet to find out. Marty is in business with the Snell’s who have offered protection for their screw up, but going up against the cartel isn’t an easy task. Also, let’s not forget that Rachel (from the Blue Cat) has taken a portion of the $50 million Marty stored in the walls of the resort and is gone (Marty’s own daughter also took a smaller portion of the money)… that’s another mess he will have to clean up. Let’s see what season 2 has in store for us!
The Del solution
So what’s the plan with Del? After taking care of the body, Marty and Jacob hatch a plan to have Ash drive Del’s car to Chicago and while there swipe his credit card around town and use his cell phone to make it look like he went up there and fell of the face of the earth. Is this going to be enough to convince the cartel? It’s not and they head up to Chicago to get the video surveillance of where “Del” used his credit card to see who actually used it.
Less money, more problems
With the Del situation seemingly under control, Marty heads to the Blue Cat only to learn that Maggie has taken some of his money and left town. While that problem looms Marty is still trying to lock down a deal with the cartel and the Snells where The cartel provides financial investment, Marty builds the casino and the Snells provide the drugs – win, win, win, but the cartel isn’t exactly offering fair profit sharing to the Snells who are providing the product and taking a huge risk. They come to a deal everyone is somewhat comfortable with, but the biggest issue is going to be Marty and Wendy pulling off a casino in six months.
Marty and Wendy’s first order of business is to talk to a senator to try to get him to change some legislation to get this casino built, but he tells them that they need to talk to someone named Charles Wilks if they want to get this started. They are having a hard time getting a one on one with him and were even warned by one of his men to forget their casino idea and walk away, but Wendy worked some magic and bought a table at a charity event he’s throwing. The meeting with Charles could not have gone any better as she studied his beliefs, political leanings and background before working her magic on him. Can we just say that Wendy is really coming into her own this season? She is smarty, crafty and is running things behind the scenes like she’s been doing this her whole life.
The Del situation comes back to roost
With the cartel now acutely aware of the fact that Del is dead and that it was the Snell’s that killed him, Marty and Wendy are in the middle of a mess once again. The cartel knows that Marty is a business man and that they need him so they are using this murder as a negotiating chip. Marty and Wendy suggest all kinds of ways to make this right through financial gains for the cartel, but Jacob instead kills Ash offering the cartel blood for blood since Ash was responsible for killing Del…it works.
Ruth Langmore
Things were left very much up in the air for her at the end of last season and this season things are still going down a destructive path for her. We all know that her dad is really bad news, but with him being up for parole she’s speaking on behalf of his character saying how his guidance from behind bars has made her into a better person. Furthermore she’s using her cousins losing their dad (and her becoming their guardian) as further proof of how important it is to have her father out of jail now more than ever. Her plea works and he gets out of jail and after a conversation about why she killed her uncles it seems that they have a better understanding of where they stand in this family. Unfortunately, now he has something over her that her cousins still don’t know she was responsible for.
Related – Check out our season 2 episode 2 review!
CarterMatt’s overall thoughts
This premiere didn’t hold anything back and it’s just the way we like it with this show. The premiere set up the season beautifully and we know exactly where all the players stand and watching the Byrde’s balancing act has been so much fun to watch even though a lot of what they do leaves us with a pit in our stomach since they always seem to be on the edge of getting killed off. If the rest of the season holds the bar as high as this premiere then we are in for the best season of Ozark yet.
What did you think of the Ozark season 2 premiere? Leave us a comment in the box below with your thoughts. If you want to keep up with all of our Ozark coverage a great way to do that is to join our CarterMatt Facebook page. (Photo: Netflix)