Ozark season 2 episode 2 review: How dirty will Wendy have to get?

Wendy Ozark season 2

With the Del situation out of the way business can move forward for Marty, the cartel and the Snell family, but now the pressure is really on Marty and Wendy to get that Casino up and running and they only have 6 months to do it.

Is Charles looking at Wendy as more than a co-worker?

Marty is pushing forward with the casino plans even though the bill hasn’t passed legislation yet  even though Wendy wants to take more of a wait and see approach before dumping anymore money into this. The vote is in 48 hours and the opposition is pushing hard to get this bill squashed. There are only four undecided senator votes that Wendy has to work her magic with for this bill to pass and with Charles’ help she has the ammo to make it happen. She manages to turn two, but it’s not enough and time is running out.

She learns that one of the senators  husband’s likes to dabble in some outside of his marriage activities, so Wendy sets up a stripper from their club to bait him and it works. Wendy is able to video tape him in the act and blackmail his wife into voting for the bill. It’s a much darker side to Wendy then we’ve seen before, but as we said in our premiere review, Wendy is really coming into her own this season.

Things with Charles and Wendy seem to be moving in a very close direction between them  (she’s even calling him “Charlie” now). We’ve seen him smiling and flirting with her, complimenting her all the time and showing off with his fancy boats. He later reveals that after the casino deal he wants her to work for him, but we can’t help but feel that there’s something more romantic on his mind.

There’s still the matter of the one last vote and Charles suggests that there’s no way to sway this senators vote, but as long as that senator doesn’t show up to vote then the bill will pass. He reveals that he’s known all along what Wendy did to land him in her corner and it’s something he really respects and make him want to bring their relationship to another level.

She feels like he loosely suggests that he will find a way to make sure that senator doesn’t show up to vote if she spends the night with him to which Wendy says no and leaves. When Wendy gets home and tells Marty his questioning is a bit strange, almost like he would be fine with this if it was going to make this all work out. When he wakes up in the early hours of the morning, Wendy is gone and he hears the car pull out of the driveway.

We weren’t sure what Wendy was going to do when she arrived at Charles’ house but we were happy to hear that Charles made the move on the last senator with out her giving into him and her bill was passed! Charles makes it clear that he actually wasn’t implying that her sleeping with him was going to be the motivation for him to take care of that last senator. There’s more to this then just sexual chemistry for him.

Marty and the mob

On Marty’s side of things he’s dealing with the Snell’s and their nonsense once again. When the cartel shows up with the money and asks to test their product to see how pure it is the Snell’s refuse saying that they need to trust them. Marty points out that the Snell’s counted the money they were given instead of trusting them and that it’s a two way street. Eventually they allow it and the product turns out to be just fine.

What’s even more pressing for Marty is that the Kansas City mob (run by the unions) wants to stop this casino from happening and they are making it crystal clear to everyone involved that it needs to stop.

Marty goes to Buddy for help with this problem since he knows that he used to be a teamster and Buddy agrees. They go to meet with Frank (one of the mobsters), and while the meeting started off a little rough at first, Frank ends up listening to what Marty has to offer which includes using all union people to get the casino rolling while giving Frank a kick back as well.

CarterMatt Verdict

We can’t say enough how much we love the Wendy character and Laura Linney’s performance this season. The writers have given her some really meaty material and it’s been a joy to watch her dabble into her own darkness. She’s really good at being bad and although it’s made her a bit uncomfortable at times, she seems to be embracing it more and more and with Charles fanning the flames we can’t wait to see just how dark she is going to go.

What did you think of Ozark episode 2? 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)

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