Ozark season 2 episode 3 review: Can we just give Julia Garner the Emmy now?
Senator Blake
Let’s kick things off with Senator Blake – this is the man that Charles got to skip the vote and whatever he had on Blake was enough for him to commit suicide. Things are made even messier since there were reporters there asking about his absence at the bill vote when it happened and now they are pressuring Charles for a statement. So what did Charles have on Blake? He knew that the senator had a history of clinical depression and was going to expose it.
Mrs. Blake of course knew about her husbands depression, but blames Charles for his death and plans to sue him, so Wendy goes to her to try to reason with her since this is a case she will never win. Wendy offers to start a foundation in her husband’s honor for others suffering with clinical depression and offers a million dollars – to which Mrs. Blake calls it out as a bribe to silence her. While this would be something that would help the Blake family, this is also a calculated move by Wendy to try and get Charles’ attention since he’s disappeared and won’t take her calls. It works – Mrs Blake takes the money for the foundation and Charles stops ducking Wendy.
Who’s out to get Marty?
When Marty confronts Ruth on telling her father way too much, she explains that he already knew so she felt she had to come clean. She also tells Marty about the bug that she found in her uncle’s trailer, something that has Marty on edge. Add to this that Marty’s been served with a notice of closure on his strip club, the Blue Cat and the funeral home and this has been a bang up day for him.
So who’s putting the pressure on Marty? They’ve ruled out the Snell’s and the KC mob, but Wendy thinks it might be Charles. She wasn’t receptive to his idea that he wants to build a hotel and shopping center next to the casino since the Snell’s would never go for it. Charles threatened to shut it all down if she didn’t make it happen, so she’s thinking that it’s Charles shutting all their businesses down. When the Snell’s find out what’s going on, they give Marty an ultimatum – 24 hours to change Charles’ mind about the hotel and shopping center or they will take care of it their way. Marty tries to remind them that they need Charles for the gaming commission, but they don’t care and blow up Charles’ boat as a message.
Rachel returns
With Marty being as desperate as he is to get the Blue Cat running again he gets word out to Rachel since he needs her to get the Blue cat running again. With her return we are also assuming that means that she’s taken Petty’s offer and she’s going to spy on Marty for him.
As it turns out Charles isn’t the one responsible for shutting down all of Marty’s businesses and it’s instead Petty’s doing. He knew that by making Marty need Rachel that he would come calling and would bring her back into the fold and it all worked just like Petty planned.
When Rachel tries to dull the pain with drugs, her mission to get information out of Marty goes south and she instead tries to warn him that he’s going to get locked up or killed. Because he can see that she’s intoxicated, he doesn’t take the warning seriously.
Ruth to the rescue
Even though her father is trying to shut down her dreams of a stable future, Ruth still wants a better life for herself and her cousins. After hearing that Marty’s businesses were all shut down, she goes to the marina in hopes to get the owner to let Marty invest in his business, and even thought the owner is having money issues, he rejects her idea. After destroying a bunch of the boats, Ruth reminds the owner that his insurance won’t cover this damage and the only choices he now has is bankruptcy or to take her offer.
Ruth thinks that Marty is going to be really happy with the new business she’s bringing to him, but he instead tells her that he has to remove her from all of his businesses since he can’t have a convicted felon on the payroll while the gaming commission is investigating their request for a license. He’s assured her that she will still be paid and can still work, but he needs to have someone with a clean record as management. We get that Ruth can be a bit of a wild card and it’s not that easy for Marty to trust her since she’s made some pretty bad choices, but she really is trying to show her loyalty to him. He either can’t see it, or doesn’t want to see it, but either way it’s better to have Ruth in your corner then to have her working against you and if Marty isn’t careful then this is the situation he’s going to create.
She decides to accept her fate as a cursed Langmore and that no matter what she does she will never be taken seriously or be able to change her life around. She tells her dad about the marina and offers him the opportunity to chop some of the boats docked there for money settling back into what’s expected of her from her family.
CarterMatt Verdict
Ruth Langmore has always been our favorite character on this show. She is someone who wants to rise above the hand she’s been dealt and even though she doesn’t always go about things the right way deep down she really does have her family’s best interest at heart and wants more for them as well as herself. Watching her struggle and get pulled back into the dysfunctional family dynamics over and over has been heartbreaking to watch and if actress Julia Garner is not up for an Emmy for her performance this season then that’s a travesty.
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