The Southern Gothic shades of ‘Ozark’
The second season of this family crime drama is defined by the rise to power by women, and how empty goals create opportunity for characters.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
“Always better to be the person holding the gun than the one running from the gunman.” An oddly sinister expression accompanied with an auspicious tone that Wendy Byrde, played by Laura Linney, delivers in the closing moments of Season 2. It completes the transition of power as the undisputed monarch among the Byrde family as Marty Byrde, played by Jason Bateman, stares at Wendy in shock as he mentally scrambles to analyze what just happened. Ozark is a wonderfully chaotic show, that has its foot on the gas pedal from the pilot episode and doesn’t give time for any sort of self-reflection or situational analysis. The dark, gritty texture of the camera lens and the ominous nature of the Ozark region give the series a feel of endless foreboding. You never once feel that the Byrde family is safe from anything. Perilous shadows lurk in the foliage that surround the Byrde residence, and every Escalade ride that Marty takes seems certain that it will end with Byrde family in a shallow, unmarked grave. With so much chaos and despair happening around the Lake of the Ozarks, it’s worth looking at how the landscape changes while Marty stays relatively static as a character, and it is Wendy who adapts and becomes the co-protagonist of Ozark. Conventional storytelling leads us to believe the main protagonist will change over the course of a story, using key actions and decisions to define the transformation of that character. Ozark sets up Marty as the main protagonist, with Wendy and the children being traditional family dynamic that is forced to endure the consequences of Marty’s criminal activities, having no control over anything except for the occasional judgmental tone and sarcasm. In Season 1, it was Marty’s money laundering that forced the family to move to the Ozarks, and Marty put it on himself to invest in local business and solve their cartel problem. However, there was an emptiness to his efforts that I couldn’t help feeling. Every solution he had was never a long-term solution, it just delayed the consequences until they could theoretically escape.There wasn’t a promise that I felt he was going to fulfill, he was always just telling people what they wanted to hear to buy time. Marty is always stuffing piles of cash into walls or moving funds through shell companies. It’s surreal to see a character possess so much money in a show, and yet have such a hollow feeling that comes with it. What Marty was doing in Season 1 was not going anywhere. Even when the audience thinks Marty has found a long-term solution and we think the Byrde family is finally going to get ahead, it all comes crashing down with a shotgun shell to Del’s face. All of Marty’s hard work undone by, let’s say, a slight overreaction.
Season 2 of Ozark starts as a continuation of Season 1, with Marty stuck between two cartel corpses and the charming, but wildly erratic Snell Family. Marty is no stranger to this situation, as the Byrdes spent all of Season 1 fighting to stay just above water. But now, the Byrdes must dip their toes in politics and get a casino bill passed. In the second season, Wendy takes on a much bigger role in the Byrde family crime network as opposed to being relegated to a role player behind Marty in the first season. Her seamless transition into a ruthless, amoral lobbyist and momentary flashes about her past working on political campaigns suggests that Wendy has always been like this, and in fact relishes in it. If there’s any question on why Laura Linney was casted for this role, her elevated role in Season 2 is the answer. The exposition makes the audience aware that Wendy has experience as a lobbyist,working on political campaigns in Chicago. The series even mentions that Wendy worked on Barack Obama’s campaign, which indicates that Wendy was successful.It shows in Season 2, as Wendy seamlessly moves among the Missouri political elite and effortlessly navigates back channel negotiations, forms alliances,and creates leverage against political advisories to push through the casino cap bill in the state legislation. She has no moral qualms about playing outside the rules either, as she records a sex tape between a stripper and another senator’s husband to blackmail her for a vote. Wendy plays outside of the rules, going uncharted lengths is, in her mind, the best course of action to achieve financial security and safety for the Byrde family, something Marty is clearly not comfortable doing.
In many shows, ambition and survival often overlap as the character’s motives. Ozark is often compared to Breaking Bad for this reason.There are similarities in how each character is set up to follow a specific trajectory; both Marty and Walter White are unexpectedly thrusted into probable life-ending situations where they must adapt to ensure the well-being for their family. We see the transformation of Walter White over five seasons. White finds out he has cancer, and he starts cooking meth to make enough money to support his family after he dies. However, we see White evolve into a megalomaniac who uses his family as a pretext for his brutal rise to power, only to concede at the end and admit his reasoning was selfish. Marty convinces himself he is laundering the cartel’s money for survival. However, Marty doesn’t seem to be interest in ambition. Unlike Walter White, he doesn’t make any attempts to consolidate his power. What starts out as an instinct for survival hasn’t evolved into a thirst for power. Marty’s goals are continually swallowed by the power structures of the Ozarks, and he is left attempting to find compromises that please everyone.We spend all of two seasons waiting for Marty to break his own perceived moral code and grow into a more ruthless character.
Season 2 is not defined by the growth of Marty Byrde. Instead, Season 2 becomes about the rise of woman in this decrepit underworld located in the chasm between the heartland and the South. By the end of Season 2, three women establish themselves as the power elite of the Ozarks: Helen Pierce, the cartel lawyer, Darlene Snell, and Wendy Byrde. Helen Pierce is introduced as a superior to Del, stepping into his role after his death as the point of contact between the Byrdes and the cartel. We saw what Darlene is capable of, as Season 1 ended with her shooting Del over an insult in her own home. She is resistant against the idea of working with the Byrdes and the cartel, a resistance manifested through pride, heritage, and an understanding of the leverage the Snells have by possessing that piece of land. Jacob opts for money and concedes part of his land to work with the cartel for the casino.By the end of season 2, Darlene kills Jacob and becomes the sole authoritarian over the Snell operation. While Darlene’s rise is more obvious on the surface due to the graphic violence, and Helen’s path is more simplistic, Wendy’s rise is the most complex. Wendy spends all of Season 2 working the political elite, trading favors and kind words for votes while Marty moves money from one account to the next. Because so much is happening so fast, decisions are demanded instantly which leads to Wendy and Marty are making decisions without the other. This creates an unspoken conflict beneath the surface and leads to an internal power struggle. The foundation of the Byrde family is splintered under the pressure of impending death, with Charlotte asking to be emancipated and Jonah starting his own money laundering scheme. The evidence of conflicts that are eroding their family are largely ignored by Marty and Wendy, who continually tell themselves and each other that they just need enough time before they can escape and return to normalcy. So much has happened for so long though, that it’s unclear that the Byrde family even knows what normal is. In episode 10, Helen tells Wendy that the cartel has been monitoring their internet history and movements for signs of potential plans to make a run for it, an ominous implication that Wendy picks up on (maybe?) since Marty used the internet to book everything to escape to the Gold Coast. Helen then praises Wendy for her ability to get the casino bill passed and states that there are bigger opportunities on the horizon. The motives for survival and ambition are co-existed in the dialogue between Helen and Wendy, and it’s ambiguous to which of the two motives explain Wendy’s actions in the final scene. In the last scene of Season 2, Wendy fully takes control and informs Marty that they are staying in the Ozarks. Wendy seizing power from Marty, coupled with what we’ve seen Wendy is willing to do, is a great cliffhanger for the end of Season 2. Marty finds himself on defensive,looking over his shoulder after Wendy has taken control from him. It’s a sentiment that is best summed up when Marty and Helen meet Jacob in the diner. Jacob asked Marty before he leaves; “What do you do Marty, when the bride that took your breath away becomes the wife that makes you hold your breath in terror?”
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