Netflix's Ozark season 2, episode 8 recap: ‘The Big Sleep’

Ozark gets creative with an episode told in a reverse chronological manner starting with Rachel’s overdose.

Ozark took us for quite the ride in episode 8 of this season as all the events played in reverse order to better explain exactly what led to Rachel’s state at the start of the episode. When the episode begins with the words “Now” flashing across the screen, Rachel’s brother Tuck is frantically calling out to the paramedics to come and help Rachel who is passed out and sprawled across the floor.

Scenes then take us back 30 minutes prior to Rachel’s overdose where she is seen snorting heroin followed by a flashback to 3 hours prior where she is buying the heroin from a dealer in place of the oxycontin that is running low. The day before shows the dealer picking up the packages of heroin and three days before that we see Jacob Snell overseeing the packaging of the heroin to prepare for distribution.

Are you starting to see the connection here? It’s the flashback to four nights before that really brings the entire story full circle, and boy is it a doozy. The scene flashes to Darlene crushing up Fentanyl and mixing it up with the heroin while she mutters verses from the Bible about death. Her vengeance against the cartel is operating at full steam ahead, and her essentially poisoning the heroin is a means to fulfill revenge–and perhaps cause a few deaths along the way.

And as frightened as we are of Darlene Snell now, it seems Jacob is too. He senses her completely losing it and is afraid of what else she will do, but she can’t seem to forgive him for murdering Ash in cold blood, even though it was to protect her.

Credit: Netflix

The cartel is pissed off, to put it lightly, and wrecks havoc on the Snells with full force by gunning down their car. See, Darlene, see! And amidst all this, the EMTs discovered and took away the wire that Rachel was wearing which gave Marty the freedom to confront Agent Petty about it. And when his threats didn’t work, Marty dug into Petty’s past and learned about his junkie mother, giving him ammo to take down Petty.

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Wendy, with the help of Jonah, withdraws cartel money and has it deposited into offshore accounts and then eventually donates it to Wilkes’ charity. This is her way of entrapping Wilkes because he has now accepted drug money, and has no choice but to do something about the casino project–or else.

In the episode’s background, Ruth is making nice with the Byrdes’ funeral director so she can scope out the place for herself and Cade to rob later. She is convinced this is where Marty has been hiding his money and plans to get the lay of the land before attacking.

However, the money isn’t there, which a very angry Cade and frightened Ruth come to learn. Marty and Wendy have moved the money to Buddy’s mausoleum, hence why Ruth assumed the hearse was transporting the money to the funeral home.

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Can we just say Julia Garner is the MVP of Ozark season 2? She was a force to be reckoned with in this episode with her raw, heartbreaking portrayal of Ruth’s fear as Cade belittles and hits her. Ugh, she’s simply amazing–can someone get her an award STAT, please?

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