Diksha Sundriyal
Marty’s torture at the hands of the cartel wasn’t as much physical as it was psychological, and that’s even worse. Wounds on the body heal easier when they are tended to, but the bruises of the mind are trickier to deal with. On Marty’s return to the Ozarks, FBI Agent Maya Miller expresses her concern, commenting that they don’t know who came back from Mexico. They don’t know what was done to Marty and what impact this had on his psyche. For all she knows, the one meeting with Navarro could have undone everything that she worked for. The question remains: who is Marty Bryde and what does he want?
Ozark Season 3 Episode 5 Recap
Marty returns home alive but Wendy can see that there is something gravely wrong with him. He refuses to acknowledge his pain and throws himself back into the work which requires him to undertake another impossible task, one which he had carved out for himself. He wants to turn Agent Miller and as expected, Wendy does not take the idea well. But she understands that there is nothing she can do about it, except help her husband accomplish the impossible, as they had done before. Meanwhile, tension escalates between Ruth and Frank Cosgrove Jr, and Charlotte finds Erin becoming friendlier with the boys that she should stay away from at all costs.
Ozark Season 3 Episode 5 Review
The return of Marty infuses another tension in the story where he has come up with another ingenious and seemingly impossible plan. Was it something he said just to get out of the situation with Navarro or was it a plan that he came up with while contemplating his death in the prison he spent most of his days in? The last time he did something like that, he had to uproot his life in Chicago and create a completely different world in the Ozarks. The one good thing that came out of it was that it ensured the lives of the Byrde family. It was a plan that he came up with on the spot and completely out of the blue. If the same holds true for this one, then the chances of his success are still as good as his failure.
Mid-way through its season ‘Ozark‘ has tried to reignite the spark that seemed to have wavered, if not getting lost, in the previous one. The task is impossible, and it is much bigger than the one Marty has tried his hands at. If the audience had no idea about what lay in the Ozarks and how millions of dollars could be laundered out of scratch, then, at least, they know that turning an FBI agent, especially the one as clean as Maya Miller would be an impossible task.
The episode does succeed in inducing the thrill of the chase back into the story. There is a new challenge to be tackled, but that’s not it. The stakes have also been re-emphasised, just in case, they seemed to have lowered. Wendy quickly gained rapport with Navarro, which even made Marty jealous. She might have read into it as something that would help her be more reasonable with him, especially if she could get an emotional angle. But with one stroke, it becomes clear to both Wendy and the audience that there is no partnership here. Navarro may have been impressed with Wendy, but that doesn’t mean he will treat her or her family any different.
Marty might look calm but he is definitely not all good. His sudden obsession with the video game he used to play when he was a kid is him hiding in the memory that saved him from going insane while in captivity. How far it will go to keep him sane for the rest of it is yet to be seen.
Half-way through the season, ‘Ozark’ has taken a sharp turn from the path that was seemingly paved for its characters. It does come as a bit of a surprise. However, whether or not it is a smart move is what we look forward to finding out. Hopefully, it adds new dimensions to the story rather than throwing it back into a routine that we have witnessed before.
Read More: Ozark Season 3 Ending, Explained
