Ozark Recap: Libation Heads

Ozark

In Case of Emergency

Season 3 Episode vii

Editor'due south Rating 4 stars

Ozark

In Case of Emergency

Season 3 Episode 7

Editor's Rating 4 stars

Photo: Steve Dietl/Netflix

In the flavour premiere, Marty Byrde argued that he needed to play information technology safe because the newly opened Missouri Belle had recently hired 200 new employees. That's a lot of room for error. Ane of them could exist unstable. One of them could be a mole. I of them could simply be an idiot. If you think about it, the residuum of the season has played out in a style that has proven Marty correct. Wendy may desire to build an empire, merely there are new, unpredictable faces effectually every corner — Ben Davis, Frank Cosgrove Jr., Maya Miller, Erin Pierce. Even people like Sam, who is substantially laundering coin by losing it at the Missouri Belle, are variables. All of them have fabricated life more complicated and challenging for the Byrde family unit in ways they couldn't predict. And when Marty Byrde tin't predict something, he's not safe.

"In Case of Emergency" sets itself up as an episode about the aftermath of the dare set on, simply it'south really all a stage for what's arguably the chief event of the season: the nigh fatal chirapsia of Ruth Langmore by Frank Cosgrove, Jr. The head of the Kansas Urban center mob told his dumb son that Ruth was "untouchable," and his defiance of that mandate can just pb to bug. Either vengeance is sought for Ruth'south beating, starting an all-out state of war with the KC mob, or it's not, and Ruth Langmore will take to question where she stands in the hierarchy of the Byrde empire.

Everyone is brought in for questioning afterward the chaos that ended the previous episode. No 1 is really giving anything up, but it's Ben who seems to be getting the most agitated. As the feds try to plough Ruth — practiced luck with that —  Ben paces and gets more than restless. When she's out, he wants to run. She knows they can't. And this sends Ben into total panic mode.

All of the adrenaline after the assault has pumped up Wendy, too, who is brazen enough to ignore Omar Navarro's call. When her boss calls Helen instead and she hands the phone to Wendy, the Byrde matriarch is aggravated. She's still furious most the horse farm incident and reminds Navarro, "Marty and I are the make." The Byrdes are the shield for the illegal operation. She plays to his intelligence and business sense, reminding him to allow her practise what she does well. She needs to be the face up to protect the illegal activity going on backside the scenes.

Marty and Helen acquire in a meeting with the Feds that they have a crazy theory about what happened. Tommy was a mole. They know Tommy committed the arson in episode two, and he was giving them all the intel on the Byrde operation. The theory is that Marty constitute out and staged the dare hit just to get rid of Tommy. As Helen points out, that would exist nigh impossible to prove.

The bigger problem is that Frank Jr. might believe it. He thinks Marty and Ruth got 1 of his friends killed. Afterward all, Ruth changed the drop location. (Which does raise a question as to how the attack took place that volition hopefully become answered in a futurity episode.) Frank confronts her in the casino, correct in front of Maya. As if that's not enough tension on the casino floor, Maya confronts Sam at the table, telling him he'll exist hearing from the IRS. He later calls Marty in a panic. Marty gets well-nigh 1 panicked telephone call a day. Maybe two.

The large scene comes when Ruth is leaving the Belle one nighttime and Frank jumps her, beating her nearly to decease, followed by a somber scene in a hospital waiting room covering how they had to operate. While Ruth recovers, Wendy and Marty plan their next move. They know they tin't get to Maya Miller now. Wendy has a new idea.

3 Langmore comes to Darlene's business firm to talk to his blood brother about their cousin Ruth. Is this fierce incident the thing that can repair the bridge betwixt Wyatt and Ruth? While that appears to exist moving closer, Marty cuts all ties with Kansas City, threatening to kill Frank Junior if he comes anywhere well-nigh any of them. Will it come up to that? And volition simply cutting ties be enough for Ruth?

Meanwhile, Wendy tries to woo some political uppercase for her new foundation by passing a senator some information well-nigh corruption and offer a fundraiser at the Belle. She's basically going around Miller to embarrass her. If the FBI learns that she ignored a tip about a crime considering she was so eager to bring in Marty, she could get in serious trouble.

The deeply unsettling relationship between Darlene and Wyatt gains another level in what is basically a confession scene, equally Wyatt tells her about how Ruth revealed that she killed Wyatt'southward dad. And Darlene tells her new love about how she killed her last married man, Jacob, but she does so in a way that casts Marty as the existent villain. Marty is the one who turned Darlene and Ruth into murderers. She claims that he'due south the bad influence, never really sensing the irony of how she's influencing Wyatt. Poor Wyatt, always surrounded by murderers.

Too, poor Sue! The therapist who was getting bribed by the Byrdes and so demanded even more than money to stay quiet really never comprehended the extent of her situation. She fifty-fifty has the nervus to tell Helen Pierce that she wants more money. "I'll brand sure you're taken care of," says Helen, in a style that couldn't sound more ominous. It'southward not long before Helen'southward lackey has killed Sue and wiped the Byrde data from her reckoner.

As that'south happening, Ruth is waking up. Ben is by her side, but Ruth lies to him, telling him she'southward non sure if it was Frank. She probably knows that Ben would kill him. And she wants that to be Marty's job. She basically says every bit much to Marty and Wendy, who try to talk her out of it. She claims she'll practice information technology herself. Ruth isn't that incorrect here. If Frank Jr. had crush up Charlotte Byrde, he'd already be dead.

As Ben is literally carrying Ruth home, Wyatt comes to her trailer. "Who did this Ruth?," he asks. She pauses, much like she did in the hospital room with Ben, as if she knows she could turn him into an assassin. "Who we are ain't so bad. It's the Byrdes that cursed everything," he tells her. Has this whole episode been nearly planting the seed of potential dissent in Ruth Langmore? And did it work?

• Frank Jackson'south therapy scene was great. Why non get a piddling bit of help before you commit a murder?

• Speaking of Sue, you lot have to love the sports automobile scene. "Please get dorsum in the toy and leave" is 1 of the best lines of the year.

• With merely three episodes left, in that location'southward been a surprising lack of carnage. No, Tommy doesn't count. But it still feels like everyone could be on the chopping block.

Ozark Recap: Cooler Heads