This isn’t the way I wanted to get here, but here I am.
After finishing Inventing Anna – which I had very mixed feelings about – I found myself wanting more of Julia Garner. While the show was all over the place and made some odd choices, Julia shone bright. Her performance as Anna was maddening, sympathetic, sharp, and committed. Regardless of my feelings about the show, I found myself falling in love with Julia and I wanted more.
I knew she was critically lauded for her role in Ozark, so I pressed play and dove into episode one.
Again, this isn’t the way I wanted to find myself watching what is considered one the better shows currently on air. But sometimes you have to accept that the journey, no matter what it was, brought you to where you are now. And right now, I am watching the first season of Ozark and loving every moment of it.
Below are my thoughts, feelings, and opinions on season one of this show broken down by episode. Warning…
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
Episode One – Sugarwood
Well damn.
Truth be told, I tried to watch this show once before and found myself woefully unengaged. Attempting to watch it again this time I understood why I felt this way. I stopped watching after the dinner scene between the Byrde’s at the beginning of the episode. Up until that point the most interesting thing that happened was Marty watching amateur porn on his computer.
Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling inspired by the show thus far.
This time, I made it past that point and quickly realized what all the hype is about.
The escalation is so sudden and so shocking that you need to remind yourself that you are watching the same show that just moments ago featured an awkward family dinner. Suddenly, we are neck deep in money laundering, thoughtless killing, and Breaking Bad-esque dead bodies decomposing in barrels. It all happened so fast that I felt like I was getting whip-lash.
My head was spinning and my mind was racing to keep up until Marty, on his knees with a crumbled brochure in his pocket, saved his life and his family with a lie that would undoubtedly change their lives.
This scene and this monologue would have been kick-ass no matter who was delivering it, but there was something about the charismatic and sarcastic Jason Bateman doing it that made it more impactful. I was skeptical about this tonal shift from him until this moment and from then on I was all in.
Marty isn’t Michael Bluth, he is a monster of his own creation and I am at the edge of my seat waiting to see how his character grows – or descends – throughout this show.
I mentioned that show Breaking Bad earlier, you may have heard of it. I found myself comparing these shows a lot during this first episode. It’s hard not to. Truthfully, any show involving low-life crime from a seemingly normal and upstanding family man is going to recall some comparisons to that masterwork. And while I believe there will be some clear similarities throughout, this show managed to distance itself pretty solidly.
For one, we start off with Marty already shoulder’s deep in his criminal lifestyle. We don’t watch him spiral down into a life of crime, learning the nuances along the way, instead he is already seasoned. Additionally, this is something he is being forced into doing by an outside force and not in a way for funding some critical life crisis. We get a villain from the get in this show pointing a gun to his head. There is also the obvious difference between cooking meth and laundering money – minute, but important to recognize the difference there.
Overall, after an episode full of cheating wives, bodies falling from penthouse balconies, more talk than I understood about withdrawing money from the bank, a private eye, and a send off to the tune of Radiohead – I am ALL IN on Ozark.
And that’s without Julia Garner making her first appearance.
Episode Two – Blue Cat
I want the chaotic version of Ozark where Wendy sends the email to Del before Marty turns back up at the hotel fully alive.
But alas, she didn’t send it and our pal Marty is alive and well.
It is a touch refreshing to see him spiral a bit. Up until this point he has been so eerily level headed about it all, as if he was running on pure adrenaline and it finally wore off. Bateman manages to finally crack the shell and be vulnerable in the way I have been waiting for him to be, and he killed it.
If the first episode wasn’t enough of a reason to start contemplating suicide, the introduction of the Langmore family in this episode really fueled the fire.
First we get the two scrawny little boys of the family luring Charlotte away from the hotel to go water-skiing with them. To be completely and utterly honest, I had no response to this besides “oh Charlotte, you silly little girl.” It was nothing more than a child disobeying her parents in a way that she didn’t realize would be so dreadful to their livelihood. Suffice to say, I wasn’t at all suspicious of these boys. In fact, I blindly bought into their whole schtick.
So when Wendy and Marty arrived at the police station and got the low down on the Langmore crew and we got that mugshot introduction to my beloved Julia Garner, I was surprised and intrigued. After that though, I wasn’t so naive. I knew she took the money and the boys distracted them. I just didn’t know if and when Marty would be able to get it back from them.
Turns out Marty is exactly the blindly confident white man that we need him to be.
All hail Jason Bateman. His confrontation with the Langmores was so well done. You can see the adrenaline that pushed him to run in the first place starting to wear off. Despite this, he still manages to be the most level-headed, well-spoken man to ever confront life threatening situations. I never should have doubted the power of white male entitlement.
It is in this scene that I realized Marty has the power to actually pull of this off if his family and the Langmore clan stay out of his way, which we all know they won’t. He has the ability to make this work, but he also has the ability to make it all crumble into a mess. Mix a little entitlement with a lot of fragility and you have got yourself a Marty Byrde cocktail.
The other star of this scene was Ruth. This was the exact introduction that I was craving when I decided to watch this show. Her energy as this tiny, curly haired woman in a room full of men is commanding and irritating. I am literally at the edge of my seat waiting to see how she weaves her way into this already messy story.
At the end of this interaction, Ruth and Marty have a moment alone where she speaks his fears into existence. Her comment that they both think he would be better off dead hangs in the air throughout the rest of the episode.
In addition to the Langmores, there are a lot of plot lines and characters introduced in this episode. It feels a bit like the pilot “part two” where we are, like the characters, introduced to life in the Ozarks. While Marty is busy trying to find a company to launder his money through, Wendy is house hunting. After looking at a bunch of shit holes she lands on an odd situation that feels so appropriate for the shitstorm that this show is.
The house she decides to buy is owned by an on-his-way-out man – Buddy – who will allow the Byrde’s to stay there on the condition that he can stay in the basement until he dies. Yikes. Wendy is obviously okay with it seeing as she puts down a deposit. It seems her logic is that, he won’t be around for much longer so they won’t have to deal with him for much longer. I can’t help but wonder why she isn’t considering the fact that even if he dies tomorrow she will still have to deal with a dead body in her house. Not to mention the fact that she likely won’t uncover it until the smell notifies her of his presence. That would be my first thought, but I’m not in her shoes.
We also get another look at the detective who I assume will be chasing after the Byrde’s. I already hate him and that’s all I have to say about that.
Episode Three – My Dripping Sleep
In my fantasy version of this TV show, Ruth and Marty definitely team up to launder this money together. Until the final moments of this episode, I let myself still believe it might be a possibility. But then Ruth revealed to her dumber than a rock family that she is planning to learn how to launder and eventually kill Marty. It was a real let down if I am being honest, but I understand that it makes for good TV.
This episode could also be called “Marty can’t sleep” or “dead animals keep appearing in our yard” or “the one where Wendy stands with Marty.” The latter summarizes what I think was the most important moment in the episode.
When an FBI agent approaches the house and questions Marty about the disappearance of Bruce, Marty plays it dumb. He was worried that Bruce had been doing some shady stuff, but didn’t realize he had full on disappeared. At some point during this conversation Wendy comes out and locks arms with Marty. There was a moment, before she spoke when I was worried Wendy would mess all this up. I knew she wouldn’t, because otherwise we wouldn’t have a TV show to watch, but it was still a sweat-on-the-back-of-your-neck kind of moment.
In the end, Wendy lined her story up with Marty and corroborated. They stood together in this episode for the first time in the show, as a united front.
The only other thing I have to say about this episode is that I am sick of this FBI agent already. His face makes me angry.
Episode Four – Tonight We Improvise
Let’s jump right into the meat of this episode, shall we? In episode four, we are introduced to what might just be the true foil to the Byrde’s plans in the Ozarks.
Up to this point it has felt like those mangy Langmores are the biggest hurdle in Marty’s way. While they are definitely going to be a nuisance, we may have overestimated their threat to the ultimate plan.
Needing another business to clean money through, Marty asks Ruth to steal the contents of the safe from the owner of the local strip joint – Bobby Dean. After a messy, but successful mission, he immediately puts his plan into action and buys the strip club. It goes without saying at this point that the confrontation between the two men was a showcase of Bateman’s calm, cool, and collected energy. In the moment, it feels like all is said and done with this matter.
But it’s not over quite yet.
In the closing minutes of the episode, we follow Bobby to a gated house to meet up with a man named Jacob. A lot is left unexplained as we watch Bobby fill Jacob in on his loss of the club – Lickety Splitz. We don’t know who this guy is, how they know each other, or what purpose they serve to one another. A bit is revealed, however, when the lemonade-serving Darlene stabs Bobby in the neck with a syringe.
I don’t know who these old southern folks are, but I sure as shit know they aren’t good news for our old pal Marty Byrde who is now officially on their radar.
On a lighter note, the events of this episode also delivered what might be my favorite line from the series thus far. During an exchange with Wendy and Marty, the former accusingly asks the ladder: “What did you do for your family today?” Marty – who is stoically slumped in a chair – sits in silence for a moment before he utters, “I bought a strip club.” Simple, yet extremely effective.
This episode also shed light on how all those animal carcasses ended up in their yard and – spoiler alert – it’s not the Langmore boys, it’s Jonah. Turns out the little guy’s fear of his family’s situation is leading him to focus on the unavoidable enemy we all face in life: death. It’s reminds me a bit of Debby Gallagher in Shameless who becomes obsessed with death after her stand-in grandmother dies. Her obsession manifests itself in a much less gruesome way through listening to emo music and frequently describing the decaying process of a body.
Jonah, on the other hand, is seeking out and moving around animal carcasses like they are toys. Kids are so crazy.
A few additional thoughts…
- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I really want Ruth and Marty to team up and be partners going forward in this show. It will never happen, but I am trying to will it into existence by writing it down here.
- Charlotte becoming unhinged and hostile like she did in this episode is refreshingly relatable. There is nothing crueler or more spiteful than a wronged teenage girl.
- I am so sick of this FBI agent and I will not be made to feel bad for him for being a victim of homophobia. All that does is make me dislike the Langmore men even more. I still hate the agent and his punchable face.
Episode Five – Ruling Days
The opening and closing moments of this episode tied together in a way that made my heart sing. I love nothing more than a cohesive and thoughtful storyline and this episode really showed off the skills that this show has in the writer’s room.
Just when you thought the episode completely forgot about the priest, they manage to tie him back in.
What’s even more brilliant is that Marty and Wendy are trying so desperately to avoid the local businesses out of fear that the Snell’s could potentially be involved with them. In order to keep themselves on their good side, they come up with the idea to involve themselves with the church. What they don’t realize is that this effort to bring the boats off the water and the people into a physical church will do irreparable damage to the Snell’s distribution of heroin.
So in an effort to distance themselves from the Snell’s, they unintentionally weave themselves in closer with them. It’s brilliant. Well, brilliant for me. It’s kinda the pits for Marty and Wendy.
This fear of the Snell’s came from a scene that was ultimately effective in being chilling, but initially had me giggling a little bit. The scene had shades of one of the funnier Jack Donaghy moments in 30 Rock where Jack admits to dramatically turning around to talk to several people thinking they were Liz before Liz actually entered the room. When Jacob stepped into the road in front of Marty, I couldn’t resist chuckling at the idea of how many people he stepped out in front of before Marty drove by.
Obviously the giggling went away the second Jacob opened his mouth. Maybe it is a deeply seeded prejudice in me, but I can’t help but be even more frightened by this man’s flat southern accent. He is completely devoid of emotion and it gives me the heebie-jeebies.
In an unfortunate turn of events, my opinion of the FBI agent has turned a corner. I know, I am disappointed in myself too. But I literally did a fist pump when Russ came by his motel and they started kissing. You absolutely love to see it, but you also absolutely know it’s going to end badly.
Who knew that two men I hated so much could make me love them just by kissing each other?
Another thing that turned a corner this episode was my worry for Jonah which has now escalated into borderline fear. I was already worried about him and then they gave him a gun. A GUN?! I am officially an anxious mess whenever he is on the screen. Though truth be told I am anxious during pretty much the entire viewing of an episode of Ozark.
My parting thoughts are that I am getting worried about how much Marty trusts Ruth. As the omniscient viewer, I know that she plans on dumping him the moment she learns enough about laundering or feels like she knows how to get the most money. And while the part of me that fantasizes about them teaming up loves to see Marty giving her responsibility and trusting her, the other part of me wants to tell him to run. He either trusts her way too much or he is up to something.
Best case scenario is that Ruth is flattered by this trust and escalating responsibility that she scraps her plan to kill him and teams up with him instead. Unfortunately for me and my dreams, I think that scenario is completely implausible for a show like this.
Episode Six – Book of Ruth
As we enter the second half of the season we get an episode full of spousal sensuality gone wrong, a likely case of statutory rape, a kidnapping, and attempted murder. How fun?!
Let’s first discuss the namesake of this episode, our dear lovely Ruth. This episode basically confirms my hunch that any hopes for Ruth teaming up with Marty and running off into the sunset are mere fantasies.
So much of the frustration with her character is rooted in the fact that you want her to respond to the kindness she receives from Wendy and the trust that Marty has in her, but it is so against her nature to do so. This is also what makes her such a compelling character. During a visit to prison to see her dad we get a glimpse, but not a full picture, of where this chaotic tendency comes from. Why she isn’t completely willing to get herself out of the life she is in and pursue something better.
All of this crescendos when Ruth tries – but ultimately fails – to kill Marty by electrocution after giving him a ride home. The plan is ultimately foiled by my former enemy, the FBI agent, but was intended to work in Ruth’s eyes. The part of you that hopes you decided not to go through with it is dashed when she angrily confronts her uncle. It seems she might be a bit too deep to get up and out of her situation.
But as we found out in the last few episodes, Ruth is not the only one trying to take Marty’s life.
Just like the previous episode, this one was beautifully bookended by the Snell’s and the threat they pose. As the episode opens, they kidnap Marty and take him to their compound where they offer him and us a bit of the backstory on the Snell family. During this scene, it is revealed to Marty just how much his church building project is going to hurt their heroin business. For the first time in the series we see fear get the best of Marty as he agrees to stop construction. The Snells threaten that they will take action if they so much as put up a cross.
Cut to the end of the episode and Marty sees a cross at the construction site as he drives by. They make the amazing decision to cut to a black screen and keep the audio of Marty leaving a panicked voicemail for Wendy. It’s a brilliant tactic a la The Usual Suspects that leaves your heart pumping.
Between these two bookends, Charlotte hooks up with an older – and extremely handsome – out of tower who ultimately leaves without saying goodbye to her. The whole sequence makes your skin crawl when you consider the fact that Charlotte is underaged and the boy she was canoodling with definitely was not.
Rachel also discovers that Marty is using the Blue Cat Lodge as a way to launder money after finding the financial papers. She is furious and kicks him out prompting him to hop in the car and drive past the church. Thankfully, my hopes of them hooking up are still alive because, as we know, nothing revs people’s engines quite like hatred.
Speaking of hooking up – and hatred – Marty and Wendy have an incredibly messed up interaction. Initially I was happy for those two crazy kids and glad they could enjoy each other’s company in some form. Quickly though, I began to remember just how crazy these people are. Well, how crazy Marty is anyway.
As we near the end of the season and things are starting to build up to some more craziness and messiness, here are some things that I predict will happen:
- Someone is going to find out that Russ and the detective are sleeping together.
- Jonah is going to get himself into some trouble with that gun he keeps toting around.
- Marty and Rachel’s sexual tension will come to a head and they will bone – I mean they have to, right?!
- The Snells will retaliate for the cross.
Episode 7 – Nest Box
It’s safe to say that shit is really starting to hit the fan. This whole episode felt like one tension filled event after another only to end with a bizarrely satisfying but worrying moment.
Most of this chaos occurred in the triangle between Marty, the Snells, and the hopeful pastor – Mason. Two parties had their spots blown up and Mason is left trying to piece everything together.
Though I have felt medium about his character thus far, I thought Mason did an impeccable job of portraying someone whose reality is crumbling down around them. First his church gets taken away, then he finds out the Snells are using his sermons to distribute heroin, then his wife tells him she doesn’t think God saved him from dying (an event that birthed his devote faith) and finally he learned that his old pal Marty is laundering money.
It’s enough to make anyone want to set a fire.
While this fuse was burning and eventually lighting into a flame, Charlotte was making some drama of her own. Her absence from the first day of school is revealed to be due to a runaway attempt. The unlikely duo of Wendy and Ruth head up to St. Louis to find her. When Wendy finally tracked Charlotte down in her attempt to flee to Chicago, there was a beautiful and sad moment. As the mother and daughter embrace and Charlotte expresses her desire to have her old life back, Wendy speaks out a harsh truth: that life doesn’t exist anymore.
While all four of the Byrde’s are struggling in their own way, Charlotte’s pain is taking the form of something I can relate to. And yes, maybe that’s because I was once a teenage girl. She has fooled herself into believing that little voice in her head that is telling her there is a way to leave all this behind. She is bowing to her denial as she grieves the loss of her old life. It’s a sensation we as humans experience during periods of change in our lives and it is just as overwhelming and consuming as they are portraying it to be.
As the first season hurdles towards it’s finale, we are presented with many conflicts both internal and external, in addition to the ones I have just detailed. My hot and cold friend the FBI Agent is struggling between his job and his affection toward Russ. Ruth is battling against the expectations of her father and her clear unwelcome warmth that is growing towards the Byrde’s. I have no doubt that one of aforementioned Langmore’s will be exacting pain while the other experiences it, I am just not excited to watch either of those things happen.
It’s also worth noting that the clear symbolism of Jonah’s obsession with the invasive bird species is just another stroke of genius from this show.
I am looking on at the next three episodes with a mix of anxiety and excitement – the combination of feelings similar to that you get while waiting in line for a rollercoaster.
It’s a combo only the best shows can produce.
Episode 8 – Kaleidoscope
I love a good backstory.
For the eighth entry in this first season of Ozark, we got a series of flashbacks weaved together in a Christopher Nolan like manner.
Eventually you find out that after discovering Wendy was pregnant, she and Marty got in a car accident. This accident clearly left Wendy injured and presumably caused her to lose the baby. Right around this time, Del shows up at Marty’s advisory firm asking for someone to look over his portfolio. After spending some time with it Marty finds a lot of red flags, which he openly shares with Del.
With some – in my opinion – unnecessary backstory on our favorite FBI agent woven in, we find out just how Marty and Bruce became involved with Del. And we found out whose preserved eyes were delivered to our leading couple in a recent episode. If we weren’t sure then, we are sure now that sending Marty the eyes of his former launderer is a full blown threat from Del.
I tell you what, this show is just getting juicier and juicier.
I have two big take aways from this throwback episode. The first is Wendy’s involvement in this decision. She seemed so in on it and yet I was under the impression that during the pilot, she had no idea this was all happening. It makes me want to go back to the first episode to see if I missed something or if I just assumed that she didn’t know.
The second is the impact that The Godfather has had on film and television in the decades since it took the world by storm. The idea of a mafia movie laced with crime ultimately being a tale about a family has permeated through the generations. The concept of no act seemingly being off the table when it comes to support and providing for your family is something that has been getting our favorite leading men and women into deep shit for decades.
So in case someone you know shit talked The Godfather recently – though, who the heck would do such a thing? – make sure to remind them that so many of our beloved television shows and films have been inspired by the morality of that trilogy.
Alright, on to the next one…
Episode 9 – Coffee, Black
Wow. This is one of the best episodes of television that I have seen in a while.
This banger kicks off with a disturbing scene involving Tuck buying a rifle for Jonah. This obviously is not disturbing in a visual sense, but is morally reviling. The fact that it is so easy for him to buy this gun and then hand it off to a traumatized minor is terrifying. Seeing Jonah shoot the gun in the woods later in the episode is equally upsetting, his body is literally tossed around by the force of the gun he is now in possession of. Thankfully, Buddy witnessed the whole thing and takes it upon himself to remove the bullets from the fun after Jonah walks off. It may have been the single most relieving moment of the season.
There was also a moment of unbridled relief when Wendy returns home to find out that Marty had deposited the last of the eight million dollars they were tasked with cleaning. For a single moment the frantic energy of the show being driven by the need to save their lives is put on pause. They did it, it’s over.
For now.
Before we dive into the real drama of this episode, I want to take a minute to reflect on the lovely Wendy Byrde.
The woman we met at the beginning of the show has changed and evolved into something different. In her most magnetic moment of the episode, she discusses the $50,000 funeral that her and Marty offered to pay for with the funeral director. Her directness, confidence, and coolness are familiar. Throughout the last eight episodes, Wendy has turned into a smooth-talker not so different from her husband.
In a callback to the iconic “I bought a strip club” line, Wendy returns home and informs Marty that they now own a funeral home. Instead of aggressive silence, they toss their heads back and chuckle.
I love it when crime brings a couple together.
All this is background to the driving tension in this episode. Petty reveals his true identity and the real motivator behind their relationship to Russ. It’s heartbreaking to watch this closeted man grapple with the reality that not only was this all motivated by something entirely off his radar, but he is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Go to jail for 15 years or side with the feds to turn in your niece for attempted murder.
Of course he chooses the latter and of course Ruth outsmarts him and figures out his scheme. It didn’t help that Russ went about it all the wrong way. He didn’t wade into it, but dove head first into questioning. A piece of toast could have figured out that it was being interrogated with the tactics he used.
This lack of cooperation on Ruth’s part sends Russ into a downward spiral. In a panic, he fills Boyd in and devises a plan to kidnap and kill Marty, take his money, and flee to Canada. While his kids aren’t thrilled with it, they begin to pack. But not without informing cousin Ruth of the reasoning behind their odd behavior and the sudden inability to talk in their obviously wired trailer.
Wyatt telling Ruth set into motion the chaotic and tension filled final moments of this season’s penultimate episode.
With increasingly tense music filling our ears, we watch as the Byrde’s wrap and hide the $50 million in cash that was delivered to them earlier in that day in the wall’s of a cabin at the Blue Cat Lodge. Simultaneously, Russ and Boyd are boating across the lake with guns, tape, rope, and other supplies necessary to kidnap and kill a man in their possession. During this sequence, Marty goes over to the kitchen to get his family some dinner only to see Ruth drive by. They exchange a glance, but the scene continues on.
I thought nothing of it.
Until Russ and Boyd rolled up to the dock. What hadn’t even entered my mind up until this point was suddenly so obvious. My hand flew over my mouth at the realization that Ruth had rigged the ladder to electrocute and kill Russ. The tension was incredible, even though it was so clear what was about to unfold.
Being prepared for something doesn’t make it any less shocking to watch. So yes, I gasped so loudly that my dog woke up from a deep slumber and came to check on me when Russ grabbed the ladder. And I gasped again, grabbing at my dog for emotional support, when Boyd grabbed Russ’s hand and was electrocuted as well.
In the final moments of the episode, Ruth tells Marty that she did it because she couldn’t let her uncles kill him and they embrace. Unfortunately for Marty, this was not done out of loyalty to him, but out of self-preservation. What she failed to add to the end of that sentiment was that she couldn’t let her uncles kill Marty before she did.
All in all, it was an absolutely electric episode. Sorry, I had to do it!
Episode 10 – The Toll
I don’t know when TV shows started to think they could have episodes that were the length of short movies, but it’s not my favorite thing ever. If I wanted to sit down and watch something for over an hour, I usually choose to watch a movie. But lately it seems that more often than not, TV shows are making the decision to push their episodes out to whatever length they want. Be it Euphoria, Inventing Anna, or in this case Ozark.
This episode was too jam packed for my liking. Even though eleven episodes might not have looked as clean as ten, I think it would have been a wiser choice. Simply consuming this episode took an effort on my part, I felt worn out after it. But, perhaps that’s what they were going for.
Additionally, it felt as if this episode was trying too hard to be overly dramatic whenever it got the chance. Sometimes, when everything is dramatic, nothing is dramatic. That being said, there were a few times in this one-hour and twenty minute finale that were extremely effective in their drama.
For starters, the meeting that Marty set up between the Snells and Del. Talk about a stressful situation. My whole body was tense as I watched this scene, just waiting for someone to set the other off and have all hell break loose. Waiting for them to shut Marty down. Waiting for something. But that son of a gun did it again. The thing that is keeping him alive through all these life and death situations – his business-like way of handling these situations – got him through.
I actually sighed in relief when Del got up to leave.
But then he called them rednecks and my new least favorite character on the show – Darlene Snell – took his head off with a shotgun.
Just when things seemed wrapped up with a bow, the rug is pulled out from under old Marty’s feet. He must be used to the feeling of his feet being pulled out from under him at this point. Let’s just hope he didn’t hurt his toenails too much.
Is it bad that I think I am going to miss Del? He is a great villain and now we are stuck with the Snells who genuinely scare me. I’m not happy about this turn of events, but I am impressed with the show for taking it there.
Another moment that got an audible gasp out of me was the scene where our friend Mason, now with a baby and without a wife, took his newborn out to the water. Following a conversation he had with Marty earlier where he shared that he was questioning why you would bring a baby into the world, you assume the worst when he shoves his baby under the water. Thankfully, I didn’t have to watch a baby die! Hooray! Instead we witnessed a baptism and a man who, despite all the recent events in his life, is still standing with his faith.
Also, if you wanted an update on my opinion about agent Petty, I still hate that guy.
The ending was lovely. Charlotte telling Wendy that her and Jonah “stopped being children the moment you told us what dad was doing,” was incredibly impactful and, quite frankly, needed to be said. Just like I hoped, family persevered over fear.
The fact that they are willing to put themselves at danger rather than run is an extremely satisfying ending to this very stressful season.
Looking Forward…
Truthfully, in the moments before Darlene killed Del, I was thinking about how this show could have been a one season mini-series. Yet, just like I discovered during my second viewing of shows first episode, you have to keep watching this show before you make any assumptions.
After blogging my way through this first season, I am excited to see what we have in store for us in season two. What new villains appear, what Ruth’s plan is with the Marty going forward, if Jonah can shake this whole obsession with death, how they will work with the Snells going forward, and so much more.
Stay tuned for more Missouri fun, coming soon!
Just One Girl's Opinion 
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