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Ozark season 3, episode 9 recap: Fire Pink

By Ariba Bhuvad

OZARK - Credit: Netflix
OZARK - Credit: Netflix /
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Ozark’s season 3 penultimate episode is–wild. WILD!

Ozark has given us (in my opinion) its best season yet. That’s a strong statement to make but this episode pretty much did it for me. It was brutal, harsh, and unexpected in so many ways. Well, maybe not completely unexpected but you know what I mean.

We pick up right where the last episode left off–with Ben in the taxi. One thing is clear from Ben’s ranting and raving, he’s become a huge liability for the Byrde family, and this is not going to end well. Marty and Wendy have all but made a decision on how to tackle this Ben situation, but they know it can’t go off without Ruth’s involvement.

Of course, Ruth won’t know the extent of their plans because she cares deeply for Ben, and doesn’t want him wrapped up in whatever these guys have planned. What everyone didn’t expect was that Ben had ratted out Helen in front of her daughter.

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He placed his entire body in the bee’s nest and now, he’s likely to suffer the consequences. Wendy knows that Helen will be out looking for blood, and so she has no choice but to try and get Ben out of there. Ozark does these intense, stressful scenes really well. You can palpate the tension in the scene and it’s one of the reasons why this show does so well. They know how to create a moment of doom and gloom.

During this debacle, Wendy is in conversation with Helen, who is pretending that nothing with Ben has even happened. And it’s not until Marty calls Wendy and fills her in that she realizes her brother is as good as dead.

Meanwhile, Ruth takes Ben to Darlene’s house to keep him hidden from Helen’s men. They’re out looking for him, and the only option is to hide Ben out at Darlene’s until they figure out their next steps. You know, like getting out of the country.

Things come to a head at the Byrde family home when everyone comes together and Helen confesses she knows exactly what is going on. But before she can get much time to talk, an emotional Erin comes running in cursing at Helen. The whole secret life has come crashing down around Helen, and she only blames one person for this–Ben.

Wendy assures Helen she will get Ben out of the country, and away from all of this. But something tells me this Ozark villain isn’t going to be listening to anyone from the Byrde family anymore.

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With their backs to a wall, Wendy realizes that one way out of this is to prove their worth to Navarro. If he thinks they’re important enough, she’ll be able to protect Ben from Helen. But come on, this is Navarro we’re talking about. He knows how to play the game.

This episode of Ozark is when my patience was tested with Ben. People are running around trying to protect him from his mistakes, but he keeps doing the opposite of what he needs to do. He shows up at the casino, knowing that Helen’s men are hot on his trail.

And so of course, when Helen’s man does show up, Marty has to whisk Ben away to safety to a discrete location where Wendy picks him up from. I knew the moment Ben got into Wendy’s car that something didn’t feel right. It felt we were saying bye to Ben. Did anyone else feel the same?

Anyway, thus begins a sibling road trip that ends in a heartbreaking disaster. Throughout this road trip, Ben has some moments where he just lands himself in a deeper mess. Like purchasing a phone from the gas station and calling Helen from it. **Facepalm**

Back in the Ozarks, Helen has made it clear that Ben will need to go. She doesn’t care that Ben has issues of his own–the situation must be handled. And Ben isn’t making it any easier with alerting Helen so now Marty and Wendy have no choice but to do a horrible, horrible thing.

Ben is a hot mess too and can’t stop crying so Wendy asks him where they can go, where he’ll feel safe and can lay low. He suggests Knoxville so that’s where they seemed to be headed to, but before they continue driving, dinner is a must–right?

Well, it’s this dinner that broke my heart into a million pieces because in the middle of the dinner, Wendy gets up and excuses herself. Mind you, Ben has just spilled his plans for the future, and how he wants to settle down.

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It makes the next few scenes a bit difficult to watch because Wendy didn’t just get up to go to the bathroom, she left the cafe altogether. You see, a ruse has been set up so Helen’s men can come and snatch Ben and “take care of him”.

And yes, Wendy knew this was going to happen, in fact, she allowed it to happen. But seeing her emotional reaction in the moments after display how guilty and distraught she was over all of this. But still, talk about brutal AF.

That was a tough moment to get through, Ozark fans. A tough one indeed.

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