Ozark “I Came From Michoacan”

You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d say working for a drug cartel run by a volatile man might not be the best thing to do.

Does this make me smarter than the Byrdes?

That was my big takeaway from this episode, one that showed Ruth getting tough with Frank Jr. over loansharking in the casino while the feds are there, and then Ben’s idea of courtship by placing a lot of birdseed atop Frank Jr.’s car when he didn’t listen.

Asshole was parking in the handicap spot anyway.

And the less said about Darlene and Wyatt, the better.  Ozark is a tightly-plotted show, nothing done here is really wasted airtime, it is almost certainly set-up for something, but all the same…I’d rather not discuss those two characters right now.

Instead, let’s look at how monumentally dumb Wendy Byrde has been of late.

Wendy has been getting rather chummy with Omar Navarro.  He was calling her for advice, they were working on legit business deals, and sure, he seems affable, but…he’s still the volatile head of a Mexican drug cartel.  Helen has said so many times.

You’d think she might have gotten the message when Marty came back…different.  Sure, Navarro says he did what he did (multiple days of psychological torture) to get to know Marty, and Marty is just like Navarro:  they both just want to win.

Funny, he told Marty that Wendy was the one just like the cartel leader in that she wanted the world.  Nothing ominous there.

Anyway, while Marty works on a plan to subvert the idealistic crusader that is Agent Miller, Wendy goes into a plan to buy a horse farm.  Sure, Marty is there, but Wendy is really into it.  And it all goes well.  Why does Omar want a horse farm?  I don’t know.  He just picked one out.

Oh wait, he wanted to castrate one of the horses there because it was owned by the rival cartel he’s at war with.  That (probably) ruined the farm for the poor owner, and Wendy decides to call up Omar and give him a “what the hell, man?” speech.

So, he shouts at her that he owns her, they are not partners, and she can’t keep her hands clean, so she better not call him up like that again.

C’mon now, that’s just dumb.  Did Wendy honestly think she was friends with this guy?  He kidnapped and tortured Marty for days, and before that, it was well-established by both Helen and common sense that he was, well, not a nice man.

Cripes, what a fool.

But the episode ended with a shot of two horse testicles in a cooler, so that’s not overly subtle.