Ozark “Sangre Sobre Todo”

Well, I learned something about the backhalf of this final season recently that made me mildly frustrated, but I’ll explain that with the write up for the midseason finale that will come out next week.

In the meantime…are there any good parental figures on this show?

So, here’s the thing:  I have been saying quite a bit about how much Wendy has been really going overboard as she keeps poking various bears with sticks.  Darlene is far too dangerous to openly mock, and she does so anyway.  Granted, someone else pays for it because Wendy doesn’t play games when she can just use the law or her financial resources to her advantage, but this episode seemed to have a lot of parents or parental figures really making the lives of their kids far more difficult than they have to be.

I may include Wyatt there since he’s mistaken for Darlene’s son at the local hospital.  Man, I remember when Ruth kept saying he was the smart one…

OK, so, what’s the problem?  I’ve covered this before when I did a write up a couple episodes ago making these silly points about parenting advice that the different characters on this show may be suggesting, but by now, it does seem as if all of those parental figures are doing the worst thing possible to their kids, causing increased resentment and, since this is Ozark, violence while also tossing some new parents and children into the mix.

The obvious case here is Wendy and Jonah.  Marty doesn’t approve of Jonah’s working for Darlene and Ruth, but he does show a subtext of parental pride.  Wendy, on the other hand, seems intent to force the issue as much as possible.  Her own father comes back for a couple scenes, mostly to say a corpse found elsewhere is not Ben–if there is a single character that has more of an effect on this show after dying than Ben, I would be hard pressed to name that character–and he lets it be known for religious reasons that he doesn’t approve of what he knows she’s been doing.  Wendy then gets the bright idea to set up Jonah so her own son can be arrested for his illegal activities.  That involves doing something on Jonah’s computer, something Marty can easily fix when Jonah panics and calls his father.  Marty recognized what happened and may or may not have realized it was his wife who did it.  Jonah does find out later, but Marty is not happy Wendy almost sent their son to prison.

Wendy’s best counter was to point out their marriage wasn’t that good before the series started.  Good point there, and the series isn’t exactly sweeping that stuff under the rug.  Time in the Ozarks has been good for Wendy and Marty’s marriage even if it wasn’t good for much else.

But really, this was Wendy’s bright idea to get Jonah to come home?  Let him get caught?

Of course, she also went to the hospital to taunt Darlene some more, and then called social services on Darlene to get Zeke get taken away because Wendy cannot stop poking that bear!

What is the point of all that by now?  Darlene is not the sort of person I would want to taunt, but I’m just an English teacher who writes half-assed TV reviews on the side for fun.  I probably wouldn’t be the primary target of such a move because I tend to stay out of those sorts of circles.

Then again, that sort of thing only gets Darlene mad at the next convenient target or two.  Ruth is banished for daring to do business with the Byrdes even if it was more profitable, and Frank Sr. gets blown to bits with a shotgun when he shows up to tell Darlene off for roping Frank Jr. into that mess, and that came after he told off Frank Jr.  So, really, let’s add the Cosgroves to the list of distraught parent/child pairings.  Plus, the Zeke thing ends up sending Wyatt into Darlene’s arms again when Ruth finally convinced him to leave that psycho.

See above when I commented how Wyatt was supposed to be the smart one in the Langmore family.

Oh, and the main plot had Marty trying to trick Javi into confessing he was responsible for a bombing that badly injured some FBI agents.  That was Omar’s wish so the blame for the bombing wouldn’t go to Omar.

Really, for a show where so many characters speak about the importance of family, none of them really seem to know how to treat their loved ones with much respect.