S04.E04: Ace Deuce

[TexasGal]

Quote

Wendy's claims about Ben anger Ruth.  Mel the P.I. tracks down Wendy's father.  Ruth's trip to the Missouri Belle with Kerry doesn't go as planned. 

Airdate: 01.21.2022

[Artsda]

Wendy's really mother of the year wanting Jonah to go the jail and thinking she's so high and mighty their connections will get him out.

[Anela]

It would have been more respectable, if he'd overdosed in a penthouse in Chicago?

Wendy seems to be unravelling. 

I hate that Wyatt went back to Darlene, but of course he did. It also bugs me that this relationship is so obviously unhealthy, but more people seem to see it, because she's old enough to be his grandmother (I think). When younger women are paired with much older men, all the time. 

Oh, FFS, I just googled something to see if I was remembering correctly, and saw a huge spoiler.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Anela

[roughing it]

If she only suspected previously, Ruth just saw with her own eyes the BSC that is within Darlene.  Oh Wyatt, there is no escape for you now.  Or for Ruth.  

[aghst]

Wendy basically hinted to Navarro to kill Javi, who's pissed about the seized shipments.

Navarro is scared of Javi, if he finds that he's going to make a deal with the FBI.

So what does Marty do?  Cut a deal with Ruth to replace the heroin that Javi is blocking.

Wendy goes around lying about her brother so they're both rolling the dice.

After all they've been surviving all these seasons, maybe they've become inured to the threat of death.  Or they crave the adrenaline rush from taking risks.

You know shit is going to hit the fan either Javi dies or the Byrds die.

Javi went to school in Chicago, so fluent at English, knows all the American ways, fits in easily.  But the guy has to be at least 40?  So those university days would have been a long time ago.  But all that schooling and "boring" conventional life hasn't smoothed the volatile murderer, ready to shoot first, never ask questions.

 

I get that they wanted to introduce a wildcard character, to impose an ever-present and immediate threat to the Byrds.  He comes out of left field though and gets to do pretty much what he wants.  He's a loose canon who could have hurt the cartel murdering the sheriff.

Just hard to believe that Omar would be in fear of him, that he would threaten Omar in any way.  The Shaw deal represents hundreds of millions to the cartel and Omar gets to fuck with it?  

[Chicago Redshirt]

16 hours ago, aghst said:

Javi went to school in Chicago, so fluent at English, knows all the American ways, fits in easily.  But the guy has to be at least 40?  So those university days would have been a long time ago.  But all that schooling and "boring" conventional life hasn't smoothed the volatile murderer, ready to shoot first, never ask questions.

I get that they wanted to introduce a wildcard character, to impose an ever-present and immediate threat to the Byrds.  He comes out of left field though and gets to do pretty much what he wants.  He's a loose canon who could have hurt the cartel murdering the sheriff.

Just hard to believe that Omar would be in fear of him, that he would threaten Omar in any way.  The Shaw deal represents hundreds of millions to the cartel and Omar gets to fuck with it?  

The Javi actor is 38 according to IMDB. Javi could be younger. Also, I could be misremembering, but I am under the impression that Javi may have gone to biz school in Chicago, so his time could have been more recent than if he'd gone for undergrad.

The two ways murdering the cartel is if Javi himself gets caught or if Marty or Wendy get linked to it somehow. Obviously, Javi doesn't think that he is likely to get caught. If he had just left the Ozarks after the shooting, there'd be nothing likely to link him to the shooting other than Marty and Wendy, and they're obviously not going to finger him. Javi doesn't care about Marty/Wendy going away. He wants them gone and thinks they are replaceable.

Omar wants out, and if anyone knew that, the cartel would turn on him. So it isn't necessarily an inherent trait of Javi that scares Omar, although it could be that too. 

A rat giving the feds intel on the cartel's doings represents a threat to the billions of dollars the cartel is presumably bringing in, and the lives of the cartel's members. It's understandable that Javi might say we're going to put things on hold till we figure out where the leak is. Omar can't really intervene because he doesn't want to put it in Javi's mind that he's the leak.

[DoctorAtomic]

Very impressed with take-charge Ruth pulling a Pulp Fiction! (I don't think anyone didn't think Darlene weren't going to take charge though!)

That might have been the first time I actually agreed with Darlene. I'm not really feeling bad for Wyatt though. 

I know it's despicable that Wendy is using Ben, but I'm eating it up. Mr. PI better tread lightly. No one hired him to look for Ben. I'm not knocking Marty for pointing out it's very risky to talk about him. 

I know we've been discussing Javier being a hot head, but it was smart to ask for the body camera footage. 

You've got to have some spine to tell Omar kill his own nephew, but if you already killed your own brother. I mean. 

I really liked the scene with just Marty and Ruth. I think he's the only person in her life that genuinely likes her. I don't know if Wyatt even does or is just scared of her. 

3 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Also, I could be misremembering, but I am under the impression that Javi may have gone to biz school in Chicago, so his time could have been more recent than if he'd gone for undergrad.

It sounded to me like grad school - MBA or something like that. He could have gone in this 30s or late 20s. 

3 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

It's understandable that Javi might say we're going to put things on hold till we figure out where the leak is.

It's kind of Omar's fault for tipping off so many of the shipments. I mean, what does he think Javier is going to do? One here and there is 'the cost of doing business'; not this many. If Omar is smart, he's got to frame someone and take him out. If Marty told Javier, 'oh, I found out it's so and so,' Javier is going to think it's Marty or someone Marty knows, which is only Wendy and Ruth. He might not believe Omar, but he can't do anything about it either.  

[Paloma]

10 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I really liked the scene with just Marty and Ruth. I think he's the only person in her life that genuinely likes her. I don't know if Wyatt even does or is just scared of her. 

I tend to agree about Marty and Ruth. I think he admires her intelligence and toughness but also kind of sees her as a daughter (or sees himself as her father figure) and wants to save her from the environment she's grown up in. Of course, that is ironic since his involving her in their crimes has put her in even more danger. 

I do think Wyatt loves Ruth because of their family ties and because she has always tried to protect him and encourage him to better himself. But he may also be a bit scared of her.

[DoctorAtomic]

I don't think he's trying to save her. When she was working at the casino, Marty treated her as an apprentice. Her family situation I think he probably was trying to get her away from by helping her become independent. I don't think he would hand cared of she just took her money and just left the Ozarks. 

[Dminches]

On 1/28/2022 at 7:53 AM, Paloma said:

I tend to agree about Marty and Ruth. I think he admires her intelligence and toughness but also kind of sees her as a daughter (or sees himself as her father figure) and wants to save her from the environment she's grown up in. Of course, that is ironic since his involving her in their crimes has put her in even more danger. 

I do think Wyatt loves Ruth because of their family ties and because she has always tried to protect him and encourage him to better himself. But he may also be a bit scared of her.

I agree.  That is definitely a father/daughter relationship from both sides. Marty is definitely not happy that Ruth is exposed to Darlene who could end her life at any time. When Wendy was talking to the new sheriff and implying Ruth is linked to Darlene, Marty was not only trying to protect his own interest but also trying to protect Ruth.

 

[Shermie]

And all I’m thinking about this episode is, how is John Boy old enough to be Laura Linney’s father? Aren’t they the same age? 

I still think the PI is more than a PI.

[EllaWycliffe]

11 minutes ago, Shermie said:

And all I’m thinking about this episode is, how is John Boy old enough to be Laura Linney’s father? Aren’t they the same age? 

He was born in 1951, she was born in 1964. So yes he's theoretically old enough to be her father. 

[Shermie]

3 minutes ago, EllaWycliffe said:

He was born in 1951, she was born in 1964. So yes he's theoretically old enough to be her father. 

Theoretically but not realistically. It was an interesting casting choice, is all. Especially because Richard Thomas is always thought of as boyish. Casting someone 13 years older than Laura Linney might work if the actor looks older. But it’s nice to see John Boy is still getting work.

[Paloma]

20 minutes ago, Shermie said:

Richard Thomas is always thought of as boyish. Casting someone 13 years older than Laura Linney might work if the actor looks older. But it’s nice to see John Boy is still getting work.

It's true that most people still see him as boyish, and I agree it would have been more realistic to cast an older-looking actor. But RT has actually had a fair amount of work in recent years, most notably to me as an FBI agent on The Americans. Once you got past the "Oh, look, it's John Boy" initial reaction, he really played against type.

[tennisgurl]

I wonder if some of Wendy's "my brother the tragic addict who's missing" story is partially PR and partially trying to make herself feel better in some way? Like she wants there to be something to blame for Ben's death besides herself, her associates, and his illness? 

I guess it took seeing Darlene in action for it to really hit Ruth and Wyatt what kind of person they have gotten into bed with, we all know what a monster she is but I sometimes have to see it to really get it sometimes. I wish Wyatt had left her, but at least Ruth seems to be pulling back, although I cant imagine Darlene is the kind of person who handles rejection very well. 

I do think that Marty genuinely likes and respects Ruth. He sees how smart she is and wants to help her, and they have a sort of surrogate father/daughter relationship, even with the criminals activities and manipulations. 

That PI has to have some other agenda, this is way too much work for finding Helen to get her to sign some papers.

Edited February 1, 2022 by tennisgurl

[mstar1125]

Anyone else get a bit of a predatory vibe when Marty was on the phone with Charlotte, and Javi said something to the effect of "you should have said hello to her from me"? He must be, what, 15-20 years older than her? I got the same vibe back in the previous episode when Javi and Charlotte were seated next to each other out to dinner in Chicago. It made sense to pair them at the table, so that Marty and Wendy as a married couple could sit next to each other (and also set it up so they could both see Javi's reaction when he got the phone call about the FBI bust), but if I was the parent of teenage Charlotte I'd be keeping her as far from Javi as possible. I haven't seen the next 3 episodes yet, so I'm hoping they are not setting up a future storyline of unwanted (or wanted!) advances on Charlotte by Javi. 

[aghst]

Yeah I can see them totally going there.  He poured more wine into her glass.  She's still under age right?

 

[Raja]

On 1/30/2022 at 1:46 PM, Shermie said:

Theoretically but not realistically. It was an interesting casting choice, is all. Especially because Richard Thomas is always thought of as boyish. Casting someone 13 years older than Laura Linney might work if the actor looks older. But it’s nice to see John Boy is still getting work.

I guess Wendy's mom could be a younger version of Darlene Snell.

[Avabelle]

My hatred of Wendy continues to increase with each episode. Hi  

[aghst]

I guess the Byrds could never have lasted this long unless they bought into it.

Not just buy in but double down over and over again.

Sure at first it was trying to survive, literally trying to get the cartel soldiers pointing guns at their heads to put them down, at least temporarily.

But they had to impress Navarro and while it's always the case that he holds the power of life or death over them, they established a relationship, particularly Wendy.

She tells herself that she can use the money and the money-laundering infrastructure to buy influence and do good, in her mind.  And her idea of doing good are some progressive goals.

It's a way to deny the reality of what she's done and continues to do.  So for instance that whole charade about her brother missing, which can only get her into more trouble the bigger the lies she tells.

 

She was done with the marriage too in season 1 right?  She was having an affair, ready to leave him?  She didn't know about what Marty and his partner had been doing but the cartel didn't know, just gathered the whole family together so that Marty knew all of them had guns to their heads, literally or figuratively.

She could have shrunk and let Marty bear all the burden of keeping Navarro happy but then she leaned into it at some point (forget which episode or which event made her go all in).

Wendy must be thinking "Damn you, Cheryl Sandberg!"

 

 

[Dobian]

John Boy needs to take Wendy to the wood shed.

Ruth continues to be a badass.  Now she can add paramedic to her resume.

I worry about Maya making it out of this season alive having been exposed to both Navarro and Javi.

Marty always comes up with the backup plan.  Now he will get the heroin from Ruth for the Big Pharma chick.  Of course, that makes him Javi's enemy now.  What could possibly go wrong?

Wendy Byrde continues to cement her reputation as the most loathsome female character I have seen since Claire Underwood in House of Cards.

[SlovakPrincess]

The utter shamelessness of Wendy's fake sob stories about Ben being an addict.  She is the worst.  

I hate Darlene so much, but I LOL'd when she said "I'm going back to bed" after killing the limo driver ... and told Ruth and Wyatt to bury the body.  The Langmore kids have been in deep denial about what Darlene really is, and it was weirdly gratifying to see them have to face brutal reality.  

Look, I'll watch Richard Thomas in anything (I once saw him in a touring stage production of Twelve Angry Men - he was great!) ... but he is not old enough to be Laura Linney's dad.  C'mon now, show.   I did snicker when he said to Mel the PI "Wendy lost the path a long time ago" -- buddy, you don't know the half of it! 

I liked the Ruth and Marty scene.  

Edited May 19, 2022 by SlovakPrincess