‘Ozark’ Season 1 Episode 9 Recap: “Coffee, Black”

By
Alison Helms
-
Ozark Season 1 Episode 9
Jason Bateman and Laura Linney in ‘Ozark’ season 1 episode 9 (Photo Credit: Netflix)

Season one episode eight of Netflix’s Ozark was moderately entertaining blast-to-the-past, with a timeline that was all over the place and hard to follow at times. Episode nine returns the action to present day.

The episode opens with Tuck (Evan George Vourazeris), an employee at the Blue Cat who has Down Syndrome, at what seems to be a hunting and fishing superstore. He walks up to the gun counter and hands the employee a note describing what kind of gun he’s looking for. The employee doesn’t seem to bat an eye and gets him the gun.

After purchasing the gun, Tuck meets Jonah (Skylar Gaertner) around the corner and hands it over.

Over morning coffee, things seem awkward between Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) after the big fight they had the night before. Wendy asks Marty if he needs her to go to the church with him. Marty replies no, he will deal with Nix himself.

Wendy slept on the couch and Marty tells her it wasn’t necessary; she thinks it was. After staring at each other wordlessly, Marty walks away.

When Marty and the kids get in the car to go to school, Jonah asks if the man who just sits in a car watching them is dangerous. Marty says he’s not and suggests Jonah wave to the man.

Marty’s at the church with Sheriff Nix (Robert C. Treveiler) discussing the fire that was set to it. He points out there are burn patterns and someone used an accelerant. Nix cuts to the point and asks, “Do you know anyone that would want to burn this place down?” Marty says he doesn’t. Marty wants to clear the site but Nix tells him he can’t because this is an active crime scene and he’s going to have to wait.

Marty shows up at the farmers market to confront the Snells on what he thinks they did to the church. Jacob (Peter Mullan) surprises Marty by revealing Mason was the one who burned it down. Jacob goes on to tell Marty it wasn’t Marty who convinced Mason to go back on the water. “Fact, all you did was tell him about our operation. A fact which, quite frankly, makes me question your intelligence,” says Jacob.

Jacob informs Marty that he stole their anonymity so, in turn, they stole his by telling Mason what Marty does. Darlene (Lisa Emery) adds, “Be grateful only a church went up in flames.”

Wendy shows up to work and while walking to the door, Agent Trevor Evans (McKinley Belcher III) drives up and asks, “Why is there a Mexican sitting at your house?”

Evans offers Wendy one last chance to enter the witness protection program. He reveals they’re moving in on her husband and she could go down with him. Wendy begins to walk away when Evans suggests maybe he should go introduce himself to the Mexican guy. Wendy stalks back to Evans’ window and matter of factly states she doesn’t think that’s in his best interest.

“If we are who you say we are, and that man is who you suspect he is, then you alerting him to your identity as an FBI agent only serves to have my family killed.” Crouching down to his level, Wendy goes on to say he would lose his alleged witnesses he so desperately needs. She bids him good day and walks away.

Agent Roy Petty (Jason Butler Harner) is back at the motel with Russ Langmore (Marc Menchaca) and while Russ is relaxing on the bed he starts to talk about other places in the country with cleaner and more beautiful lakes and rivers. Roy cuts him off, telling him to stop because he needs him to hear something. Roy plays him an audio recording of Russ confessing he won’t try to kill Marty Byrde again. Russ asks Roy why he has that and Roy reveals he’s an FBI agent. He shows Russ his badge for further proof.

Russ is clearly shaken by this news, but Roy’s not finished. He explains he has Russ on a Class B felony and he could serve 15 years. He doesn’t want Russ to serve that and says, “I’ve got a way you don’t have to. I need Martin Byrde.”

Russ claims he doesn’t know anything about Byrde – Ruth does. Everything is starting to sink in for Russ and he becomes enraged and tries to fight Roy. He accuses Roy of turning him gay. After Roy pins Russ to the ground, Roy informs him he picked him on purpose because Russ was arrested in 2007 for picking up a male prostitute.

While Russ is still on the ground, Roy tosses papers and a pen near him, urging him to sign. The papers give them permission to bug his trailer.

Sam explains to Wendy how his mother died. He blames himself; he says they had a fight and he fired her. Wendy tells him not to blame himself and suggests he go home. She volunteers to cover things for him. She also offers to drop off food. He declines the offer but tells her he needs some of his mom’s money back for her funeral. Wendy says she’ll talk to Marty tonight.

Meanwhile, Marty’s at the Blue Cat asking Rachel (Jordana Spiro) to let him back in just until the end of the week. He assures her he’ll make sure it never implicates her in anything he does. He even offers to leave a message on her phone threatening her. He confesses that if he misses this deadline his family dies. Rachel reluctantly agrees he can stay until the end of the week.

On the Langmore property, Russ asks Ruth (Julia Garner) if they can bury the hatchet by offering her a beer in his trailer. She accepts. He starts off with thanking her for not telling her dad he hit her. He then asks if she still wants to kill Byrde. Ruth, being the smartest one of all the Langmores, doesn’t give him an answer. Instead, she asks, “Can you talk about anything else?”

Trying to reword the question, Russ says, “I’m just saying, you tried once. It didn’t work. You gonna try again?” She gets up stating she has laundry to fold and leaves.

Russ returns to the motel, spots Agent Evans, and asks who he is. After Evans introduces himself, he lets Russ know he’s his handler. Russ, who’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, doesn’t know what that means and tells them he’s done. He seems to think he got a confession from Ruth but Evans corrects him and says they don’t have anything. He did all the talking, not Ruth. Evans demands he go back and question Ruth again.

Evans realizes something happened between Russ and Roy. He tells Roy he’s an idiot.

Marty and Wendy are redoing one of the cabins at the lodge when Wendy tells Marty she doesn’t trust Rachel. Marty informs her she’s going to have to. Wendy believes if Evans gets to Rachel she’ll fold. Marty reminds her if he doesn’t transfer the last of the $8 million today, they’ll all be hanging from a bridge. (That is including all the money he cleaned out of Eugenia’s account.)

Marty says when they are done, they’ll be out of Rachel’s hair. Wendy reminds him that’s only true until Del sends more money. “It never ends,” she adds.

Wendy changes the subject, asking if he wants to talk about their fight. Marty declines and asks if she wants to. Wendy says no and that she said all she needed to say. She asks if he heard everything she had to say. Marty counters by asking if she heard everything he had to say. She then asks, “If we weren’t stuck, would we still be together?” Marty responds with a simple, “I don’t know.”

Sam shows up at the lodge asking about his mom’s money again. Marty informs him there will be penalties if he takes the money out early. Sam doesn’t care and demands his money. Marty thinks quickly and offers that he and Wendy will pay for the funeral, explaining they don’t want him to lose money for penalties. Sam accepts.

Wendy accompanies Sam to the funeral home and she soon realizes the owner of the funeral home is trying to swindle them out of money by adding more and more things to the bill. Wendy asks Sam to excuse them so she can talk to Harry about pricing. She tells Harry the pricing for some of the items doesn’t seem accurate. He swears it is.

Wendy asks for the total and pre-tax it’s $49,950. Wendy wonders if Harry he has a business partner and discovers he doesn’t. Wendy’s proving to be just as much of a smooth talker as Marty and begins to tell him why she believes he’s up-charging her friend.

Wendy comes home to find their friend is no longer out front, and Marty reveals he transferred the rest of the $8 million. As they sit on the porch enjoying a drink, Marty asks how it went with Sam. After taking a sip of her drink, she nonchalantly says, “We own a funeral home now.” After they both laugh, Marty doesn’t seem the least bit surprised.

Ozark Season 1 Episode 9
Marc Menchaca, Charlie Tahan, and Carson Holmes inn ‘Ozark’ season 1 episode 9 (Photo by Jackson Davis/Netflix)

Russ asks the rest of the family to go get food and while Ruth’s putting on her jacket he tries again, asking what the plan is with Byrde. Ruth asks what his deal is. He plays it off that they can use the money for Wyatt to go to college without debt. She tells Russ, “If you want that cash so bad, why don’t you do it?”

Russ doesn’t give up and nearly demands she say she’s going to kill Marty Byrde and get his money. Ruth’s more than suspicious now. Being the smarter of the two she says, “I never wanted to kill Marty Byrde. That was your idea. And, frankly, I don’t know why you want to kill him so badly. He’s a good guy and a great businessman.”

After Ruth leaves, Petty calls Russ to warn him Ruth’s on to him. However, Evans gives him another chance to talk to her.

Russ rushes out of the trailer to tell Boyd (Christopher James Baker) he’s going to kill Marty himself to take his money and then leave town. Boyd asks what’s going on and Russ confesses the Feds are in town and they’ll cut him loose if he gives them Ruth. Boyd thinks they should get Ruth to tell them what the FBI wants but Russ informs him she figured out what he was up to when he tried to get her to confess.

Russ explains his plan to kidnap Marty, get his money, and then kill him. Boyd decides he’s coming with him.

One of Del’s men, Garcia (Joseph Melendez), shows up at the Blue Cat to deliver money to Marty. While Rachel walks away to call Marty, Garcia shows Jonah his gun. After turning back around, Jonah asks Tuck for a favor.

Russ talks to Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) and Three (Carson Holmes), letting them know he and their uncle came into a new business opportunity but it requires them to move. He then instructs them to go into the trailer, turn the TV volume up really loud, and pack a bag. He instructs them not to talk while they’re in there.

Wyatt asks if Ruth’s going with them. Russ becomes agitated. He tells them no and to do what they say.

While Russ is at the hunting and fishing superstore clearly buying an “I am going to kidnap and possibly kill someone kit,” we can see Tuck in the background buying Jonah his gun.

Jonah takes his new gun, which is an automatic, and practices shooting in the woods. It seems to be too powerful for him, but he’s unfazed. After finishing shooting, he buries the gun. Buddy witnesses everything, retrieves the gun, and unloads the magazine of its bullets. He then places it back in Jonah’s hiding spot.

Ruth returns home and hears the TV blaring from Russ’ place. She checks out what’s going on and asks Wyatt what’s up. He takes her outside to explain they’re leaving town because his dad and Boyd have a business deal. When Ruth asks what it is, he confesses he assumes it’s not an actual thing since they took the guns.

Ruth and Wyatt hug and he walks away.

Marty and Wendy open boxes that were delivered and discover they’re full of money. $50 million, to be exact. Marty explains they’ll need to wrap it before placing it in the walls of a room at the Blue Cat. Wendy points out it’ll take days and Marty agrees they’re going to need help. Wendy understands who he’s thinking of to help them and quickly says no.

While Marty’s walking to the Blue Cat kitchen to see if Rachel has any food up there, he spots Ruth driving by. They make eye contact but Ruth keeps on driving.

Russ and Boyd drive over to the Blue Cat by boat. When Russ steps off the boat he’s electrocuted. When Boyd grabs him to try to help, the electrical currents travel through Russ to him and they both die from electrocution. The lights flicker out and when all the adults (minus Wendy) check to see what happened, Marty and Garcia (Joseph Melendez) find Russ and Boyd dead. Rachel accuses Marty of doing it. She demands Marty and Garcia leave and threatens to call the police. Garcia doesn’t like that idea. Marty knows they need to make sure it looks like an accident.

Marty, Wendy, and the kids return home and Wendy’s shaken about what could have happened to Marty if he’d stepped off a boat.

Marty visits Ruth and she asks, “Did it work?” He informs her it did. Instead of thanking Ruth, Marty points out those were her uncles. Ruth replies, “I couldn’t have them kill you.”

Ruth begins to cry while Marty holds her.

Agent Petty’s at a bar when he hears the news. A local man says he can’t hear the game because Petty’s on the phone and gives Petty attitude. When Petty hangs up, he hits the local with a beer bottle and shoots the TV above the bar before leaving.




RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR